They do a decent job, but nowhere near the worth of the prices and you'll avoid the BS vibe. Hey, super "see you coming from a mile away" vibe, but that's not what I'm into, when I want a food experience worth the food itself, as the focus. When it's $45 for three little pieces of prime rib, maybe eight total ounces, you know they deceived you through descriptive menu practices.
The food itself was very nice, on many levels. Our salads were beautiful, yet these too, could have been simpler, lighter..but for the sake of heft, dripping in oily dressings, the contents were masked, if not proportionally off. Tasty, subtle, and fresh, it was just unfortunate the peach in the arugula salad was indiscernible in the bite. Mushy fruit, at best, once the dressing took over...criminal, in NJ not to embrace this summer element better. The beet salad was better, but it too was nothing light as fare prior to the heavy mains. Ironic, waaaay too much salad and dressing, while the mains were expensive and smaller, accordingly.
Also curious, salads and apps all came flying out at us, at once...no pacing whatsoever. Slam, here's the food...oh, we brought it all out at once, and put it down at once. Yep, that move...works best when we want all of that food at once...bad when you do it, and we can't say NO since you've 'jumped' us with such an amateur move.
Cheese board and octopus apps shined best, for this meal. Top local farm offerings, and a seafood delicacy nicely controlled and modestly presented with fresh veg elements to offset the nicely savory protein. Shaved fennel and a herb/oil mix complimented without spiking the flavors in any direction but to bolster the octopus.
Here's where they lost most respect from us...they are a typical BS service crew, seeming to operate together, until you measure their accomplishments through your table's experience. They sure can hump the food out, but they seem hamstrung to bus a table properly. Saying things like "how are we doing?" Is a poor substitute for clearing plates, in a timely manner. Quickly clearing plates, right before entrees come? Proof of my point...only whence more food had to come did they clear anything. We sat for FIFTEEN MINUTES with plates emptied, silverware properly angled to show we had finished. Nada...then nada...they walked by, whoosh, seven times some of them, as we counted, side bets going to alleviate the snobby vibes as other tables were fawned over. "Is there anything we can do for you, while you wait?" even got asked, but lemme give you a 411, y'all...if you have to be told by the customers to bus a table, you should be paying US for managing our micro-sized part of the place. I'm joking, of course, to make a point about how much they missed the boat on service...we just didn't look rich enough, maybe, as the place is full of 1% and up types.
We eat in the city, in Sonoma, L.A., N'Awlins, etc...we've both been chefs in top restaurants. So we aren't complainers, not just out here to over exaggerate some marginal elements. We couldn't believe the entrees, for $40+ that were EH, if not even worth the cost. PRIME RIB here is a eight ounce portion cut into three...a small piece of short rib, maybe two ounces, accompanied. Wtf is that? Decent flavor, nice technique to both meat types...but the mushroom/onion/beet mix was over oiled, heavily garlicky, and lacking any complimentary dimensions to elevate the meats, necessarily. I don't care what you do to it, if you can't make a $45 prime rib plate work, you really bent over backwards to screw up a seemingly basic expectation. Who gets the prime rib, or the steak, to eat some tiny amount? Wouldn't you tell people it's NOT prime rib, like most places, but about a third or half that amount?
$45 and $350 (total bill) later, you see how they saw you coming, a mile away. We couldn't get our check, once we asked for it...servers too busy doing filler work for the next day's service. Fifteen minutes, just to leave...as server after server walked by, too busy to even look.
My theory? This is a part of NJ that is near Bedminster, you know who and the rich people who love him all probably think this place is the tops. But any discerning person, or party, driving 30 minutes to get here, would easily drive 30 minutes instead into the city, or to any decent NNJ restaurant, to bypass the pedestrian experience here.
Just not worth the trip, for the food experience offered. read more