River and Rail Cantina — Restaurant in Cranford

I'd like to start out by saying that I - along with multiple other people in our party - have worked in the restaurant business, in every type of place, from Friendly's to an upscale country club. We FULLY understand that restaurants have off days and that people leave negative reviews when places are actually quite good. We decided to give R&R the benefit of the doubt.

We had a small party (7 girls in their early 30's, not drunk 21 year olds) and were celebrating a bachelorette party - a special occasion - and knew they didn't take reservations, but was hoping to speak to someone about our options. We never once heard back, and someone at R&R even went so far as to like one of our FB posts without responding. Ok, fine - we chalked it up to them being overwhelmed and busy.

Second of all, our entire experience, from the moment we entered the restaurant until the second we walked out on the check (yes, things got that terrible), not one. single thing. was acceptable.

We did have to wait the quoted hour for the table, which was completely expected and fine, but we had to wait another hour to get cold food with chicken that was rubbery and tasted like it was previously frozen, shrimp that had clearly not been cleaned, and a taco salad that was wilted. Mind you, this was after spending $80 in mostly diet Coke's and guac ("guac" - it was mostly lettuce) at the bar since we were so hungry.

The worst part of the whole experience was how we were treated. I honestly cannot remember the last time that I confronted a restaurant employee, and in my entire career as a waitress and hostess, I only saw a manager get snippy with a customer ONCE because he was being a drunk buffoon.

Let me also mention the fact that most of the wait staff and employees? All look like 15 year old children, likely of the owners. They have no idea what they're doing, there are way too many of them, and obviously have zero experience.

After the cold-food incident, I went up to the front desk manager and tried to be completely empathetic to their busy-ness, opening kinks, etc. but nicely explained that we were celebrating a special occasion and it was now 2 hours after we had gotten there (and we got there at 530p) and our food was cold and if there was anything he could do about it.

He immediately interrupted me, saying that he "didn't know what I wanted him to do, apologize? Because he couldn't apologize to everyone. Everyone's been waiting.". And then snapped back at me that they "didn't have phones when I called" (I was clear that I emailed), and that his "associate checked the temperature of the food 7 times and it was fine and when he came over before WE SAID IT WAS FINE." Well, that was because they literally just put the plates down in front of us and we hadn't taken a bite yet.

I honestly cannot even tell you the last time someone spoke to me with such disregard and disrespect. I was not about to make a scene, so I walked away with my blood boiling because it was just so completely inappropriate.

Someone else in our party then decided to go talk to the same manager and he immediately ushered her outside, as if he knew we were going to freak out because he was treating us like garbage.

In the end, we wound up slipping our waiter - who was running around frantically - a few dollars, and left, after we were told we didn't have to pay for our food (that we didn't take more than a few bites of).

It's really a shame since we were with some Garwood public school teachers, and we all have friends in the surrounding areas, that we've already started to spread our experience to.

I hate to be so harsh since this place had such potential and really is gorgeous inside, but we went to Chipotle after, and when you're trying to celebrate a special occasion, that is unacceptable after spending 3 hours at a restaurant.

R&R might be fine on a Monday night if you like relatively steeply priced watery drinks and bland food, but I will never again entertain the idea of going to an establishment that treats their customers with such...

Disgusted by the owner and will never return here. We were a pleasant party of 6 women. Spent $650 on apps, dinner and drinks. With Covid, indoor dining must shut down at 10 pm. We paid our bill at exactly 9:52 pm. No problem at all - yet. Everything was great until it was time to leave. We overheard who we thought was the manager (came to find out he’s the OWNER) saying something about our table giving our server a hard time and how we better not give him a hard time come 10pm. When I say we are the friendliest group... I mean ... theeee furthest thing from any type of “hard time” was ever given to anyone, but ok. We thought maybe he was talking about the table just beyond ours. We put our coats on and headed to the outdoor patio to wait for our Uber. Upon entering the establishment, we asked about patio and we were told we could go out there after eating since we had a table inside and inside closes at 10. The patio would be open until 11 and we could still order drinks out there until then That’s exactly what we were looking to do. Wait for our Uber next to the heat lamps and fireplace. We were in our area for about 3 minutes before the disheveled “OWNER” (his attire said he was anything BUT a manager, let alone an owner) came storming out telling us we had to leave because he had a line of angry, hungry people at the door waiting for this area. Not being a rowdy crew, we happily got up and waited in the cold breeze on the street for our Uber who was 24 minutes away. After about 10 minutes, the 6 of us noticed there was no line, no groups of any people trying to get in and no one in the area we were just kicked out of. Freezing and having just spent $650 inside, we march back to the area prepared to tell him exactly that if he should come back. Well, he came back... and this time he was MEAN and LOUD and DEGRADING to our group of 6 women. Flailing his arms, he asks us “what don’t you understand?” He says AGAIN that there was a line of people angry they couldn’t get to this area cause of us - I stop him and tell him we’ve SEEN there was no line. There’s not a single soul waiting to get INSIDE or OUTSIDE of this place. He then proceeds to tell us there’s a pandemic going on (Yanno - cause I guess we’re not bright enough to know this and us being out on his patio had somehow contributed to this pandemic ...???) I stop him and ask him what excuse he’s gonna give us next? What was the problem with us being out on the patio like everyone else and LIKE WE WERE TOLD WE COULD earlier - - - he doesn’t answer the question but starts yelling and creating a scene telling us to take our “trash” outside on the street. It was all he could repeatedly say to us. When I tell you we were BAFFLED as to why this man was hell-bent on kicking us out - I mean BAFFLED. $650 we spent. Our PLEASANT, RESPECTFUL group ... $650. And thissss is how you treat us??? Something tells me if we had a man with us and if we weren’t a group of mostly LATINA women this would have NEVER happened. Save yourself time and aggravation and go eat somewhere where they’re pleasant and grateful for your patronage. This place has an owner who spills negativity all over the place and will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. Oh! And my chicken was gritty and...

I am not one to write a review after only visiting somewhere once, but my experience was extremely impressionable.

I went to River and Rail Cantina for the first time this week. I was impressed by the food and the speed at which it came. A decent option for Mexican/American food. And I loved the election of margarita and tequila. My friend and I swore this would be our regular spot at first, yet by the end of our experience the service inevitably made us vow to never go back (or at least for a while).

Our server Ryan came to the table and asked what we wanted. The food came quickly and was ran by someone else. Once the food hit the table Ryan asked if it looked “okay” and for the next 40 mins proceeded to check on all the tables surrounding us multiple times while only giving us a side-eye. I got impatient waiting for the opportunity to order a margarita, so I approached the host and told her honestly that I felt like our server didn’t like us. Her excuse was that they were all trying to cope with the rain. Shortly after our server comes to the table - he was not apologetic at all. He simply said “you guys wanted something?”. I ordered my drink which again came quickly and with someone else. And AGAIN for another 20-30 mins Ryan checks on the tables surrounding us, chit chats with them, and refuses to approach my table until he’s offering a box for our food and the check.

As a disclaimer, Ryan was not rude to us at all. If anything he seemed to have a friendly demeanor. He was just extremely dismissive to my friend and I in particular.

My friend and I would’ve spent a lot more money if we would’ve had the opportunity to order. I have also been a server, so I am understanding and patient. However, my experience felt personal as he was able to approach the tables surrounding us, but not us. And I am not necessarily pulling this “card” - but you can imagine how it feels when you look around and see no one that looks like you after already feeling like you’re being treated differently. A thought that made both my friend and I uncomfortable.

Regardless of my experience I left Ryan a kind note and a 40% tip. Because the other people who’s pay depends on my tip don’t deserve to be shortchanged. And also because I hope it provided a lesson - that whatever reservations my server had about my table in particular were not valid...