Stonewood Tavern — Restaurant in Byram Township

Most of the time when I have a huge appetite going into a restaurant, I end up grading on a curve. Not this time, unfortunately. I came here with one of my top-tier chums and Honorary Young pup on Saturday around 3PM. I'd just wrapped up a very long walk/hike and was famished, and this happened to be the closest sit-down establishment to where I finished. There aren't a ton of options on this stretch of 206, especially since Salt closed, so Stonewood has close to a monopoly - it's mostly strip mall pizza around here.

I loved the interior of this place, especially in the bar area by the entrance. It's a lot of high, wooden rafters with an upscale barn vibe and very spacious. By far it's their biggest selling point based on what I experienced. If I ever came back, it would be to hang out at the bar, soaking up that atmosphere. Super comfortable in that regard.

Both my top tier chum and I decided to get a drink; I went with the white sangria, and she got a Mediterranean mule. My drink was perfectly decent. I had a white sangria a week or two ago that was pretty good, and this one was better. Her mule was honestly one of the worst I've had - super heavy on the ginger beer and barely drinkable. It's rare for either of us to send anything back, but it crossed my mind (and in hindsight, I think we should have, if only for the constructive feedback that could have benefited future patrons).

I felt the Stifado was in order based on the description, which cited short ribs and pappardelle (one of my favorite dishes). When it got to the table though, it turned out to have marsala sauce on it, which I'm not a fan of and frankly ruined the dish for me. They absolutely should be providing more details in the menu item description for this entree; if I'd know it was coming out with that type of sauce, and not a tomato-based accompaniment, I flat out would not have gotten it. Huge miss in my book. To add insult to injury, the short ribs were not very tender and some of the pieces were a bit gamey. I didn't come close to finishing it, and threw away the leftovers when I got home.

The service was VERY mediocre. I've been trying to figure out a way to describe our waiter, and the best I can do is that he was a blink and miss him server - he'd stop by to "check" on us, and before we'd barely finished a sentence, he'd already be gone to check on another customer or back to the kitchen. He was not invested in our experience at all, which was very disappointing. Literally three different times we intended to get more bread (I'm not claiming the bread is insanely good, but it definitely hit the spot for me when we were there), and each time as we remembered to ask, he was gone. Someone needs to remind the servers that they're not just checking a box when they go to a table - they need to have an actual exchange with the patrons. It also wasn't busy at all, so that's not even a potential excuse in this situation. If we'd been seriously thinking about desserts or more drinks, he would have likely missed out on the extra money there because he simply wasn't at our table long enough to receive additional instructions.

I was very hungry, but if I'm in this same situation again? I'm sucking it up and having my top tier chum drive further away to a place with better hospitality...

For quite some time I've been meaning to go to Stonewood Tavern, it's only a few minutes away from my home and I've seen good reviews and it just sounded really good. I took the initiative 😉& offered a date night with my husband; we ended up going to the Stonewood tavern. We were immediately sat, we were asked if we had reservations, and we didn't but no issue because there was no wait. This was a Thursday at dinner time, so you can picture it 😁. I don't know why I thought there was a patio with a waterfront seating but there wasn't. They did have a patio but it wasn't opened, nor offered. We were sat in a booth by the window & greeted promptly by our waitress, very nice waitress we had! She brought us some water to start & complimentary bread. I asked her a question about the menu and she did not even hesitate to help me out, (brownie points!!) I appreciated that a lot. She even welcomed us since it was our first time dining there. For appetizers we ordered the Spanikopita. I love spinach, I love Greek food so there's a high standard when it comes to Spanikopita. To drink I ended up drinking a seltzer with lemon & lime and my husband went along with a beer flight you can choose 4 beers on draft for $10. For our dinner selections I picked the Stifado & my husband picked the skirt steak dinner. Now mind you the prices at the Stonewood tavern are a bit pricey. I was looking at their dessert menu. It was the generic dessert list: cheesecake chocolate cake, carrot cake, apple crisp, nothing spectacular. We received our appetizer the Spanikopita... when we looked at it it was 5 pieces of very small Spanikopita.😶😦 They looked like little bite, basically for $11 I thought that was a little pricey for just spinach, feta and filo. At this point now we were looking at each other thinking 🤔what's dinner gonna look like. Finally our dinners came out and let me tell you they are pricey because they are BIG. My Stifado was this great big bowl of pappardelle pasta with braised short ribs with a brown gravy, my husband's skirt steak entree was a skirt steak with brown gravy, grilled vegetables and mashed potatoes.....the plate was big. The food was steaming hot and it looked amazing.... plated very nicely. And the steam coming off of it was WOW🤩 Now one thing my husband never does is add salt to his food and this time for his mashed potatoes he needed to add salt he sprinkled a little bit over the steak BUT the mashed potatoes were in need of it. My entree was tasty I did add a little salt but that was just my preference but my dinner was good as it was. My husband ended up finishing up his whole dinner 🍽.....I couldn't 🥴🥴🥴 I couldn't finish it was too much so I took it home. Which by the way reheated nicely the pasta didn't absorb the gravy it was still as good.

My husband looked at the dessert menu he saw that it was the generic desserts he decided to pass on it. The restaurant is very clean & Very beautiful inside..... I love the lighting and made it a cozy ambiance to have dinner in. I recommend you go and have dinner at the Stonewood Tavern! Enjoy everyone! #tastebudadventures #americancuisine #stifado #skirtsteak #czigeasypeasy...

Rarely do I find a restaurant in my 30+ years of hospitality that excels in food, service, and atmosphere! It was a late Monday evening in Byram Township after a Monday night junior league football game. I was scouring the town looking for anything that was open, around 8:58pm I drove by Stonewood Tavern made a U-turn and pulled in the parking lot. I noticed that they close at 9p. With a discouraged look on my face and two hungry kids I took a shot and walked through the door with that feeling you get when you don’t want to be “that guy”. A couple and an attentive bartender were the only ones left in the restaurant. I made a brief comment that stated “if there were any restaurants in this town open on a Monday they would make a boatload of money” I then proceeded to make a B- line towards the exit when a gentleman stood up and said “we’ll feed you” in utter dismay I turned around and said “excuse me “ The gentleman said “we will be happy to feed you” with a big welcoming smile. I said “no it’s OK, It’s already 9 PM you’re closed” and he said “no, it’s my pleasure.” I was the last person to argue considering we were all very hungry; I called the kids in and the nice gentleman sat us at a beautiful booth with a window view. I am a pretty good judge of character and have a good idea of the energy I get from people. You can usually tell if it’s genuine. I have to admit for walking in one minute before closing everyone was extremely helpful, caring and kind. We didn’t feel rushed and we received some of the best food I’ve had in this town in a long time. The food was delicious, innovative and exciting, my chicken Caesar salad had a unique Parmesan crusted wafer and chicken grilled to perfection. I have to say I felt very lucky to be receiving a meal after 9 PM in Byram and it was first class all the way. My two kids were also extremely grateful as their food was also exceptional to say the least. We didn’t speak much because everybody had a mouthful, the bartender serviced us personally and even though the restaurant was already closed, the store manager made us feel like family. I have to say if more restaurants treated their customers like this, this world would be a better place! Thank you so much to the amazing staff, generosity and compassion for their patrons. It was greatly...