The Barrow House — Restaurant in Clifton

Terrible service. Mediocre food. Close friend actually choked on the corn bread. Went here with over 15 people all of which will never come back again. Nor would they recommend it to their family, friends, work associates, etc... Bartenders make it very difficult to want to buy drinks here, act as if preparing a drink is out of their job description. Bouncers biasly segregate who they allow outside when the patio is “closed”. Asked our entire party to go inside while permitting two other groups to stay outside for another hour... when confronted about this got very confrontational and aggressive.. very classy place. His excuse was that they were getting their checks and leaving. But mind you he wouldn’t let us wait for our recent drink order, told us the waitress will find us inside, which she didn’t , she went outside to search for us amongst the two large remaining parties... we had to track her down. Lastly targeted again for smoking then placed in a smoking area in which actually affects the non smokers even more because its moronically located next to the patio. And I say targeted again because while we were only asked to move their was countless people smoking in the area in which we were asked to move from. And you can’t take your drinks to the smoking area.... Very unorganized, mediocre food, and confrontational bouncers who try to start fights. I will no longer go here , nor will my group. We are all from the local area, Northern NJ and South Jersey. I’d recommend this business to hire professionals, not prejudice people who think they’re bouncing for a local, wild college bar that treat their guests like animals. I would’ve loved to speak to a manager that night but didn’t have an hour to waste waiting for them. But I guess this way I’ll be able to help countless people who were planning to celebrate an occasion here. We left and decided to celebrate the occasion at a different establishment. That also goes for future occasions. Sadly this is the first time I’ve ever written a bad review for a place, I usually don’t care good or bad, but I just feel like people should know before they go and waste a...

I do not often write reviews, but given these tough times for the hospitality industry, The Barrow House absolutely deserves great feedback. My (now) wife and I were unsure of what we wanted as a wedding, if anything at all, so we decided on a small, intimate dinner in "The Barn" with a headcount of 18 people on December 23; more-so to appease our families than for ourselves. With the uncertainty of planning a formal wedding post-covid, a stripped down micro-wedding dinner with The Barrow House was a lovely alternative for a couple like us who weren't interested in spending a fortune or dealing with the stress of a traditional wedding with dozens of vendors. The whole thing was arranged just weeks before the event. Despite pandemic restrictions, they were able to provide us with a clean, safe, private, and gorgeous venue for our special day that felt like we were in a rustic farmhouse far from the busy suburb of Clifton. The food was delicious and their rates were very reasonable. The event staff was receptive to our questions, concerns, and were flexible with some dietary requests we had for the prix-fixe menu (if specific guests could order gluten free and vegan options from the restaurant's regular menu). Regarding the service, our waiter must have been exhausted after the event because he was there for every one of our requests and managed a group of 18 nearly by himself much of the evening. I am so pleased with how things turned out. With the way Barrow manages their private events, it is practically stress-free. I made a call, shared the details and headcount, selected one their beautifully decorated rooms, selected the menu I wanted, then finally on the day of I arrived to a beautiful location and was able to enjoy the special occasion with the Missus. The Barrow House is a great plug-and-play option during these tumultuous times, or even once things are back to "normal". Thank you very much to the staff for the memories we will have to look back on as a bright spot in 2020. We look forward to...

I visited this place during the pandemic and it had outside seating under a tent and it was really nice. At the time we waited for more than an hour to be seated because of a thunderstorm in the area they wanted to be cautious and I was totally fine with it. In the end when we did sit down we had an amazing meal with plates and ingredients that tasted fresh and truly farm to table. — Fast forward to this last visit 3 years later.. I had this restaurant on my top 10 (I’m a foodie and I keep a restaurant bucket list.. yes .. I love good food sue me) anywho, during this visit we get to the restaurant and I see the outside seating area is gone. I say ok no problem we can sit on the porch area they have which is semi outdoor. Turns out they didn’t have staff for that area..again the story of how it was suppose to rain and they didn’t plan ahead. No biggie, we decide to sit inside anyway because I still want to have the delicious food I remembered. Welp, we go inside and realize the menu has been scaled back completely and the menu items were nothing compared to the old menu. I still decide to order some appetizers. I kid you not , 5 min later the appetizers were at our table. This was concerning because how Can you make these items so quickly? I say ok no problem, maybe they prep because it’s a busy day. Afterwards we order our entrees and it was underwhelming but I say whatever it is what it is. What got me at the end was the check , when we received the check their was a mystery charge of 3% and it was not marked gratuity. I asked the waiter what the charge was for and he said it’s an INFLATION!!! Charge! … what??? Are you kidding me? so we pay almost $200 for a meal for 2 people and you also want to charge an inflation charge that according to the waiter doesn’t even go to the staff. After this I can safely say I will never be going back there. And of course I’m sure they’re fine with that but I feel like I wasted almost $200 on...