The Picnic Brunch — Restaurant in New Providence

LONG BUT WORTH THE READ!!! My date nor I had ever been to this restaurant before and he warned me of the bad reviews he's heard and read, but I like to give businesses a try and decided to patronize anyway... safe to say I definitely regretted not listening to him. Worst experience ever! (NOTE:My date and I both work in hospitality)

The Restaurant: The restaurant is dated, has cheap decor and smells kinda funny both inside and out. The walls and seats are mucky and dirty. I had to keep looking over the balcony because the actual restaurant is so unappealing. There's 0 upkeep and it's not even a place worthy of taking a cute photo. It just looks run down. I asked the server how long they had been open and he told me 2 years. All I could say was... hmmm.

The drinks: I started with a Pixie Dust (vodka based this is important to remember) and it was awful. It tasted rotten. Like an ingredient was spoiled. I left it alone and didn't drink it because I don't need an upset stomach. So I waited about 10 mins for the server to come back out. To which he proceeded to ask me about the drink and me not wanting to be difficult said it was "fine", but he said he saw when I took a sip and noticed my face (ok so why didn't you come back out sooner?). I told him the drink tasted spoiled and opted for a Hendricks and tonic witn cucumber. He proceeded to tell me they only carry 1 Gin (I had no idea what it was and my date had to let me know it was a cheap gin and had a terrible and strong after taste). I then asked what vodka they had, and he proceeded to tell me they didn't have any. I was confused and asked so what alcohol was in the Pixie Dust, and he told me gin... sir, that's not what's stated on your menu! Anyway, I said ok I can't go wrong with a margarita (wrong). It didn't have a taste and plus I noticed black specs in my drink 🙄 omg can I just enjoy a nice drink?! When I told the server there's black stuff in my drink, he proceeded to tell me they're from the Lemons (I was confused, Lemons don't go in margaritas. It's lime). He made 0 effort to correct nor even seemed like he cared. I was over this place but my date only had a limited time before work.

The Food: I ordered and Salmon/Eggs Benedict and conch fritters. A sandwich and an appetizer took 35 mins to come out The sandwich was salty as hell! I could only manage 2 bites before i gave up. The crossaint had a nice flavor though. The conch fritters weren't hot, and they were hard and dryyyy. I spit it out immediately! My date tore 1 open and it was sooo dry. I just gave up at this point. I sent EVERYTHING BACK (I see why my date decided not to eat)

The service: The server was not knowledgeable about his menu and did not seem to really care or take my complaints seriously. When he brought the check out EVERYTHING was still on the check (my date didn't make a fuss but I was livid). What are we paying for, terrible food and terrible service?! I asked the server about it and he asked if I wanted to speak to the manager. The manager was AWFUL. Does she even have experience! She gave excuse after excuse and asked me what in the sandwich was salty (how tf would I know?) You wanted me to take it apart and taste the components 1 by 1? She then said she couldn't take it off so I asked (sarcastically) "so you're going to go back in the kitchen and pack up all the food that we refused to eat and it would be fair to have to pay for it and she proceeded to tell me "yea sure I can do that for you". So my date had to step on and mediate because he could see I was getting extremely irate. I checked out at that point to avoid being rude to her through my frustration. Safe to say there was 0 resolve and I just wanted to get outta there. So my date paid. She then had the nerve to come back and try to speak to us saying she didn't want us to leave displeased, to which I told her she can speak to my date. She then asked if we'd like completely French toast to make up for the inconvenience (ma'am get outta my face before I say something to you) but I politely...

What a disappointing experience. This is what happens when you mismanage what could be a goldmine. You have a perfect location but that’s it. The service is slow if you have time to squander come here. We waited around 20 minutes for lemonade and they forgot the third lemonade. The garnishes inside the peach strawberry lemonade was not fresh. The cappuccinos were not filling the cups and had a very bland taste. The food took longer than 30 minutes. We had two orders of Belgium waffles that were okay. However the two orders of salmon eggs Benedict on croissants were really bad. The eggs were hard and rubbery (eggs Benedict should be cooked runny). The Salmon was tiny (maybe half a slither), the sauce tasted more like cheese sauce than a proper hollandaise sauce and the croissants were old and mushy. The extra sides were just as unappetizing we had potatoes that were not crispy, bacon that looked like lardons and two burnt sausages. The food was a disaster. The table was unstable and kept lifting. There was some fine granular substance landing on the table from the ceiling. I kept wiping it off for a few more to appear a minute later. It very much resembled termite droppings landing on the white marble surfaced table. This establishment is in dire need of a more energetic staff, fresh ingredients and not the stale food currently gets served to patrons add to that a good clean. It also takes nothing to take a warm soapy cloth to wipe the dirty menus. Won’t recommend we were very...

I celebrated my birthday at this restaurant with some of my closest friends a few days ago, and we received sub-par service from management. I did not feel special or welcome from the moment we arrived. The food was disappointing; something as simple as the soup which the menu said should have been served with focaccia bread - I received a half-slice of regular toast with no explanation or apology. The ambiance was not welcoming. Timing/turnaround for food service needs improvement! A few of my guests had issues with their orders, and the way they were handled by the manager truly left me saddened and disgusted. Thank you to our server EJ who did his very best (despite the circumstances) to serve us, and he's the only reason this restaurant is receiving one star from me. Needless to say, that was my second visit, and I will...