Grain House — Restaurant in Bernards Township

The food deserves 4 stars, unfortunately the service rates (a very generous) 1 star. We were seated promptly when we arrived. The server appeared about 10 minutes later to ask for our drink order. We had not decided on drinks and said we would do that when we ordered our food. He reappeared about 10-12 minutes later to take our order. We were given the fixed prix menu when we were seated, so curious to see what was on the regular menu, we asked if we could review that menu if appropriate. He said he would check and reappeared 15 minutes later with two regular menus.

Meanwhile the hostess began to seat more arriving patrons in our area. Many were "regulars" who our server, whether he was assigned to serve them or not, greeted boisterously, usually taking 4 or 5 minutes apiece, to catchup. Eventually he came over to take our order. We ordered our appetizers, entre and desserts at once. He never asked for our beverage choices. My wife had the shrimp cocktail. The shrimps were enormous and the cocktail sauce was just a touch spicy, elevating a very ordinary dish into something interesting and noteworthy. I had the lobster bisque. The broth was extremely tasty, another typically standard offering elevated. I did have to flag down another server to replace my spoon after I inadvertently dropped the original on the floor.

Our entre was Chateaubriand. The side dishes, prepared potatoes and broiled asparagus, were excellent. The beef was tender and flavorful. A butter knife was all one needed to cut. The hollandaise sauce was served separately, so the diner could apply to taste. Unfortunately our server was not present to supervise the delivery, leaving the food runner, plates balanced on both arms, with the task of clearing an area on the table for the component elements. The food runner spilled a fair amount of the au juice on the right sleeve of my dress shirt.

Another long wait, perhaps as much as 25 minutes, came between our finishing the entre and the dessert rounds. Our server took the beverage order and took about 15 minutes to deliver our coffee. When we pointed out that our desserts had yet to be delivered to our table, he offered to "check it out". Another 20 minutes before he brought out our choices.

The desserts were disappointing. My red velvet cake was neither red nor velvety. It was very dry and tasted, to me like a ginger cake. My wife's mini apple pie was tasteless, the crust a bit pasty. After another long wait we were able to ask for the check. A limited selection three course meal should take about 90 minutes -- two hours tops -- to serve and consume. Indeed a number of the "regulars" were in and out within those time parameters. Our meal took well over three hours, most (if not all) of the extra time due to the neglect of our server. NOT ONCE did the server stop by to ask about our food or to check to see if we needed anything. His indifference cost the The Grain House at least two glasses of wine.

The time gap between the entre service and the check in to determine coffee and dessert is a depressing trope associated with most of the chain restaurants and many of the poorly run independent restaurants. In over 30 years of dining out I can remember only one other time that the service provided was so depressingly wanting. Both my wife and I felt our business was not simply unappreciated, but even unwelcomed by The Grain House. If the single short coming was in the dessert offerings, we might be tempted to return and try other desserts. Given the abysmal service, rest assured we will...

My wife and I recently had our wedding at the Grain House. Our wedding was on the smaller side (less than 75 guests) and we didn't feel as cared for as a larger wedding would be.

It ended up raining on the day of our wedding (good luck I'm told!) but we were ok with it since there are so many places inside to take pictures anyway. However, they were extremely overbooked and the Grain house was completely filled with events so there was no where to take pictures there. When we tried to take pictures in the hotel, we were repeatedly told "no" because apparently the larger wedding in the ballroom took precedence over our wedding. Our photographer had to take most of the pictures in our hotel room and just wait until the other events cleared at the Grain House.

The real issue I had was with the maître d' who seemed a little annoyed the whole night and just wanted to get us in and out. When we sat down to pick food options with him, prices had gone up since we signed the contract the previous year. He said he was "doing us a favor" by honoring the older price. From that point on, he made sure to tell us just about every time he saw us how much his "suggested" tip was. Surely I would have considered at least getting close to it (it's a comically large number) if we thought the maître d' performed above and beyond, but that was certainly not the case. He did the usual duties that a maître d' does, but pretended as if he was moving heaven and earth for us. The waitstaff had to even picked up some of his slack and was fluffing my wife's dress before she processed for the ceremony. Various parts of the day no one could even find him, it's almost like he was managing the other events as well...

Since it was raining and we couldn't have the ceremony at the gazebo, we opted to have it under the tent. The maître d' kept asking my wife and I separately if it could be moved inside, like a kid trying to get a different response out of a parent. Unfortunately for him we're both very much on the same page and persisted that we wanted it under the tent. Annoyed, and well aware that it was a cooler night, he made absolutely no effort to bring out any type of heaters for the guests.

Don't think it's just us complaining, the biggest complaint of the night from our guests was the lack of direction from the maître d' outside of the standard wedding flow. For the usual wedding service - champagne after the ceremony, lining the bridal party up for entrances, putting our seating chart signs out, etc; our maître d' was good. For being overly accommodating and thinking on his feet, not so much.

The waitstaff on the other hand was absolutely 10/10 and was super attentive! We received SO many compliments on the quality and amount of food so compliments to them and the chef! The only ding on the food was one of the stations for cocktail hour that we added and paid extra for said that it came with sangria which ended up not being served.

The front desk at the hotel was a mess, they were telling guests that rooms weren't booked when in fact they were. Most of the wedding party was booked in the same section of the hotel, except for the man of honor who was booked on the complete opposite side of the hotel. The maître d' from another wedding LET HIMSELF IN to our suite the night before our wedding while we were in there and getting ready to turn in for the night.

Overall, we were not disappointed that we had our wedding here, it was a wonderful day; but I would be very skeptical to recommend this venue to others to have a...

I’m not one to write reviews, but I have to share this to possibly spare someone else a similar experience.

I made a reservation for two for dinner (outside seating due to COVID-19) for 5:30 PM on10/6/20. I made the reservation about a week in advance. My wife and I intended to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary AT THE SAME RESTAURANT WHERE WE HAD OUR WEDDING RECEPTION on 10/6/1990. We were really looking forward to coming back there for such a significant milestone anniversary.

We traveled 45 minutes to The Grain House and arrived early, so we called from the parking lot to see if they could seat us. The man on the phone said “Absolutely - come on in.”. That was the last good thing that happened.

For readers that may not be familiar with the place, when you walk in there is a long, dark hall in front of you - the pub is on the right and one of the restaurant’s dining rooms is on the left. There is a hostess station just inside the door from outside.

There was no one at the hostess station when we walked in, and there is a sign that says something to the effect of “Please wait here to be seated”, but we could see a young lady at the far end of the hall - presumably a waitress - entering some info on a touch screen. We walked forward toward her and as we approached she asked us “are you lost?”. Strike one - that’s rude and inappropriate. We explained that we were here for dinner and she directed us back down the hall to the hostess station.

So we retreated, and once back at the hostess station we turned to see another young woman (the hostess) join the waitress, who told the hostess “There are two people that can’t read waiting down there for you.”. Strike two. I’ve got to believe that she didn’t intend for us to hear that, but we did, and shame on us - we should have left right then and there, but stayed to celebrate our anniversary.

So we were seated on the patio at 5:05 PM, and, except for a bus boy that brought us each a glass of water, we didn’t see another member of the staff. We sat there until 5:30 - trying desperately to CELEBRATE OUR 30TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY - at which time we had had enough and walked out.

Back to the hall, where we ran into the hostess. We told her we were leaving due to extremely poor service, and, quite frankly, she was disinterested in what we said.

For any readers that have stuck with me and read the entire review and are thinking that this guy is just a keyboard assassin with an axe to grind, I also called The Grain House the next day, 10/7 and spoke with the manager. He got the entire story, just as it’s written here, and he assured me that he would speak to the manager that had been on duty the evening of 10/6 and one of them would call me to discuss further. He took my phone number.

Today is October 20 - no contact...