Mama Rosina's

350 E Main St
Bound Brook, NJ 08805
(732) 805-3377 
http://mamarosinas.info/

You know how it is during the holiday season, so when we had a Living Social deal and a hectic evening, we moseyed over to Mama Rosina's.  I was highly anticipating the meal, largely because I had read that it was in the former Bound Brook train station and knew this would be a real treat for my family.

As far as atmosphere, this was in fact a real treat.  The trains flew by and my sons bounced off their chairs to run to the window.  It's such a cool space, with the bar situated in the former ticket booth and it appears they have maintained some of the original windows for that space.

The service was really great too; I now judge service mostly on how accommodating they are of my children and at Mama Rosina's, they were incredible toward my kids (aside from the built in train entertainment).

The problem, of course, was that the food just wasn't that good.  I had the Pollo Rosina, described on their website as "Breast of Chicken Sautéed with Mushrooms, Artichokes, Sun Dried Tomatoes in a Pink Cream Sauce, Topped with Mozzarella."

Sorry for the horrible dark photo

The chicken was terribly overcooked, which made the rest of the meal really unpalatable.  The sauce was ok, though I definitely picked up the flavor of canned tomatoes, but after picking out the chicken, I was really disappointed and ended up not even taking my leftovers home.

My husband's dinner got a rating of "fine," which is a sure sign of good enough to eat and enjoy but not good enough to come back.  I actually would probably give it even lower marks, which is terribly disappointing to me.  I had super high hopes of LOVING this place, which is close to home and could have been a real regular place for us.

Friendly's

1060 Stelton Rd
Piscataway, NJ 08854

When thinking of family friendly restaurants, Friendly's is a great choice.  The kid's meals (along with the grown up ones) are very reasonably priced, especially when considering they come with ice cream at the end.  This was on our mind yesterday when we wanted to have a quick meal before running a few errands.

Alas, there was no quick meal to be had at this Friendly's location.  Out of three visits here, we've had at least two bad experiences.  Yesterday, we went a little after noon, and the restaurant was about 3/4 full.  We were sat right outside the kitchen.  A woman, who appeared to be a manager later, took our drink order, and then another woman, who appeared to be our waitress, returned with them later.  She quickly took our food order, and we didn't see her again until our food came out.  Due to our seats with a view of the kitchen, it became pretty apparent to me that they were "in the weeds."

Generally, it would be no big deal that our waitress didn't stop by until the food came, but when you wait for 20-30 minutes for sandwiches at the chain equivalent of a diner, it's a problem.  Fortunately, my infant son had just woken from his nap and was in a good mood and my 3 year old was also in a good mood, though he started asking where his mac and cheese was after waiting about 10 minutes (at which point we assured him we hadn't been waiting that long and that his food would be out any minute.  Oops).  Thankfully, they brought our kids' food out first, followed by my husband's sandwich.  He started snacking on fries, not wanting to eat his sandwich before mine came.  Another 5-10 minutes later, mine finally arrived.

I generally wouldn't hold such an experience against a restaurant, but since it's happened twice, we won't be going back to this location.  As far as the food and the prices; it's Friendly's.  You know what you're getting.  Our food was good and mine was fresh, but that doesn't outweigh waiting for so long to me.