Saturday, April 10, 2010

The Shannon Rose

St. George's Crossing : Route 35 & US 1/9
Woodbridge, NJ

Phone 732.636.6100
http://www.theshannonrose.com/woodbridge/home.html

We met up with a friend for dinner tonight at The Shannon Rose in Woodbridge. I have to admit, my hopes weren't particularly high--I'd looked at the menu, and there wasn't really a whole lot that jumped out at me.

I walked in, though, and it really had a great vibe and the decor was definitely one in which I could imagine myself spending some happy hours and just hanging out. If only it had been around in my early-mid twenties! (A quick note on decor--it's like a library, so I ended up on a sofa rather than in a chair!)

We were running late, so our friend had ordered a drink before we got there. She had an "Irish margarita," and she said it was outstanding. BAJ ordered a beer, The Shannon Rose Amber Ale, and it was really good. We decided on an appetizer of Golden Ale Cheddar Dip, which was topped with a bruschetta like thing and came with toast. Yummy! We were concerned when it arrived that there was way more dip than bread, but just as we were going to ask for more bread, our server offered it to us. Hooray!

I ordered the Shepherd's Pie, and it was outstanding. It came with Irish soda bread, which was also quite good. BAJ ordered the pulled pork sandwich, and was quite pleased with it as well. Our friend ordered fish and chips, and she said it was great too. Finally, The Boy went to town on his mac and cheese. I wasn't really all that hungry, but just couldn't stop eating because it was really THAT good.

We then ordered a dessert (rare for us to get both dessert AND appetizer, but it happened); Apple Bread pudding. Yet another really tasty dish!

Our server was really attentive, and asked if we wanted The Boy's dinner with our appetizer or with our dinners... surprisingly few servers do this! They seem to have a lot of food runners, and we were very pleased with how quickly each course came out after ordering.

We were really pleased with our meals; everything was delicious! It's really kid friendly but seems like a great place to drink the night away too.


Shannon Rose on Urbanspoon

Monday, April 5, 2010

Joe's Crab Shack

4901 Stelton Road - Hadley Center
South Plainfield, NJ 07080

I don't think I have ever before complained to a manager about the service at a restaurant.

My expectations for the new Joe's Crab Shack were high--we LOVED the Joe's in Lawrenceville, and I've been trying to persuade my husband to make the 45 minute drive... pretty much since we moved from 25 minutes away to 45.

This location has been jamming fairly constantly since it opened a few weeks ago. As a result, I called before we left the house to see if there was a wait, and if there was, to put our name on the list. I was told there was no wait.... sweet! Away we went. Ten minutes later, we arrived to a fairly full parking lot and people standing outside. Any number of variables for those two, so in we went. We were told there was a 20-30 minute wait. Um, ok... not sure how, in ten minutes, they went from no wait to 20-30, but ok.

I sat and waited for our table (this location has more waiting area seating than the Lawrenceville one, which is a big plus) while the boys went to check out the playground area in the back. My husband texted me that there were tons of empty tables...weird, but ok.

Thirty five minutes later and we were seated. Hooray! (We ended up being seated at one of the empty tables my husband had seen 10 minutes before)

We waited a good give minutes before anyone said, "I'll be right with you," and then another good five minutes before she came again to take our drink order (we also placed our food order at that time). It probably took 10 minutes from there to get our drinks, none of which came from the bar. She came back to tell us they did not have milk as she said they did, and that the kid's meal comes with a side... about 10 minutes after taking our order. To her credit, somewhere in there, she had to do a dance.

Luckily for us, our two year old was in great spirits, was enthralled by the dancing, and was entertained by a shark that came with one of our fellow diners' drink.

When our food arrived, it looked really good. We had no silverware, and waited for it for several minutes. Ahh, the food was outstanding! The Boy DEVOURED his mac and cheese--clearly, someone was hungry.

As my husband finished his bucket of crabs, I asked for the check. Again, a really long wait.

Every step of the service took an extraordinarily long time. We finally left the restaurant 2 hours after arriving. I'm not saying I expect the food to be McDonald's fast, but am hour and a half of sitting at a table, for two fast eaters and a hungry little boy, is pretty long. There's no doubt about it--the food at Joe's Crab Shack is very good. It's not, however, so good to be worth the poor service as they're working out the new restaurant kinks.

So, our trip to Joe's was disappointing, although perhaps it was just a one off...maybe they were understaffed (although it appeared that they had bus people as well as runners, so the servers' responsibilities seemed to be drinks, orders, bills, and performing the dances) or it was just a bad night. But, we probably won't be going back to Joe's until it's clear the lines have died down a LOT.



Joe's Crab Shack on Urbanspoon