Orchard Park by David Burke — Restaurant in East Brunswick Township

We had a reservation for my 70th birthday. My girlfriend had been here several times before with her friends and thought highly of this restaurant and David Burke. What proceeded was a comedy of errors. First our waitress took us to our outdoor table as we had an outdoor reservation. The table was a small table crowded between other diners. It was cramped, and I immediately said no this won’t work. We then followed her inside, and she got us a table that was just fine. My girlfriend asked her to let us know when a table opened up that was decent on the outside. Nobody notified us if a table opened up on the outside. My girlfriend scouted it out and found an available table and asked them to move us which they did. The table a four top was adjacent to an open area where the wait staff walked from the kitchen. I commented to my girlfriend that there should be some sort of barrier there so that diners don’t have to look at all of the table stacked up in that middle area, which is like a store room. Our reservation was made so that I could have the prime rib special. We were told after several minutes looking at the regular menu that they had ran out. My girlfriend was upset because she had taken me here specifically for the prime rib and it was only 730. We asked for the manager and the front house manager came out and told us that they opened at four and they never know how many patrons they will have. We thought that was unacceptable since it was only 730 and we were here for the prime rib special. The general manager came out. He told us he would see what he could do. He came back from the kitchen and told us that they had found three additional portions. I said great and ordered the prime rib medium rare. My girlfriend ordered the Branzino. The Cesar kale salad was excellent. The pop-up that came with the prime rib was pretty good. The baked potato was hard and not baked long enough. But the prime rib supposedly a 16 ounce, was over cooked and tasted bad. The meat did not taste fresh. It had an odor. We returned it, and I ordered a ribeye steak, medium rare. The waitress came back with the ribeye, and nothing else on the plate. I asked her where the baked potato and pop pop were. She said that the steak did not come with baked potato and pop over like the prime rib special. I asked her to get me a baked potato. She came back with fingerling potatoes and stated that the chef Mr. Dally didn’t like the baked potatoes. Never mind that other diners in adjoining tables received baked potatoes with their meals. The ribeye was just fine. The fingerling potatoes were good. After I finished, the waitress came over and asked if we had room for dessert. We stated yes. She told us that they had comped the prime rib which I had returned, and also the ribeye. We asked what dessert she recommended and she recommended the black-and-white cookie Sunday. This dessert was the strangers desert we had ever had. It came in a parfait Sundae glass. There was a black and white cookie on top like a lid and on top of the black-and-white was some chocolate mousse the black and white cookie lid needed to be removed in order to get to what we thought was ice cream underneath. When we started eating the ice cream, we were surprised to notice that we were crunching on some thing that didn’t taste like chocolate chips or nuts. It was kind of cardboard as in taste, and there was more of that than the ice cream. I became concerned and asked the waitress what the crunchy stuff was. She stated it was popcorn. We said OK. We finished about half of it. It was kind of unusual. I suppose that subjective. It just seemed to me that the chef Mr. Daley had improvise something last minute, based on whatever he could put in there that was available. Perhaps they had run out of ice cream. We expected more from this David Burke restaurant. Granted, the staff were acquiescently accommodating, but there was an apparent lack of planning by management, and a seemingly thoughtless lack of attention to customer satisfaction. I hope they...

I was missed all the restaurants that I would visit in NY. So when I discovered that Orchard by David Burke was right here in East Brunswick NJ I was really excited.I was excited to eat at his restaurant again and started watching his videos.

My husband and I hosted my 40th birthday in the wine room at the restaurant last week. We worked with Hope who was a catering sales manager.

She guaranteed that we would love the 7 course tasting menu. We mentioned how I loved chocolate and creme Brulee so I thought that would be incorporated somehow.

We were looking forward to possibly meet the famous David Burke but unfortunately he was not there. But I am happy he was supporting the local college football game in the area that day.

Since we reserved the wine room and had 16 adults and six kids . We had high expectations.

We loved the popovers, candied bacon, butternut squash soup. We were not a fan of the dumplings or the fish. But my favorite had to be the burata salad, bacon,soup and steak. There were so many courses

Although I loved the surprise sparkling candle and pumpkin lava dessert. I was a bit underwhelmed by the presentation. Happy birthday wasn’t written in icing or personalized with my name . It didn’t make me feel special that there was no personalization on the dessert. That made me feel disappointed. It felt it lacked the DB luster I was used to.

The servers seemed a bit overwhelmed by the large party. There were six kids and only four kid orders were taken so as a result we reminded them to add the other two kids. As a result the kids food didn’t all come in at the same time.

The only big thing we had an issue with was that although the servers asks the guests if they would like more wine, the guest thought that they were to finish an already opened wine bottle. We told the servers the my husband and I were paying for this event. So we were surprised that bottles were being opened without a request from the host. We would have like the servers to tell us when a bottle was finished so we could have an opportunity to select a different bottle rather than automatically assuming we wanted the same one open. It’s almost like they were told to keep asking guests for refills . Instead of the guest asking to open a bottle. in hindsight perhaps we should have put a limit on how many bottles were to be opened. But the celebrant felt forgotten I was never asked for a refill. I always had to request this myself.

Other than that they catered to the adults fine especially to the older adults . We really liked Server named B she was professional and friendly and very sweet to us.

We also reached out to Hope about our feedback and sadly she did not respond back. It’s almost one week. We were hoping to come back and try the restaurant with just us two. But it saddens me that no response was made by the establishment.

I still recommend this beautiful and delicious restaurant but maybe for smaller parties or not the wine room. We paid a similar price per head $250 per person at our wedding so we were expecting to feel our...

We were there for a special occasion dinner. The restaurant is in the lobby of a hotel and is decorated nicely with a view to the cooking area. Drinks were ordered while we read the menu and they delivered very quickly. While the menu covers the basic food groups (meat, poultry, fish), there are not many choices. There were no specials that night. There was a date night prix fixe menu which had the some of the same items as on the regular menu but at a special three course price. We had the cheese popovers which were dry with very little flavor. We ordered duck dumplings, lobster dumplings and clothespin bacon for appetizers. The dumplings were okay, but, nothing special. The lobster dumplings seemed mushy and overdone. The bacon was the best part of the whole meal. The appetizers came out very quickly, as if they were previously cooked and reheated. And, were removed very quickly giving us a rushed feeling.

All plates and silverware were removed after we finished the appetizers. The entrees were brought to the table and the silverware had not been replaced. We had to ask for and wait for the silverware. A restaurant charging the prices that we were charged should be more on top of things than this. My entree was a pork chop with clams "casino". The clams casino were just steamed clams, and should not have been called casino. The pork chop was thin and had no redeeming flavor. The sauce was okay, but did not stand out. My wife had a chicken dish which was not fully cooked and had to be sent back. She took home leftovers and found that the replacement chicken was pink inside also. My Mom had a short rib cavetelli which had little flavor. The rest of the table seemed okay with their meals. Those who had dessert seemed pleased with their choices.

A pet peeve of mine at high class five star wannabes is the serving order of the entrees. My experience at the five and four star restaurants I have dined at is you serve oldest to youngest females, then oldest to youngest males. Our meals were served based on the table layout memory of the runner with my Mom receiving her meal last. She should have been served first. If you desire to be a high star restaurant then make sure silverware is on the table before the entree is served and serve the entree based on etiquette.

Finally, for the prices being charged, I find it offensive to be charged a credit card fee. As a former retail store owner, I understand how expensive credit card fees can be, but, when you are charging the prices being charged for the name David Burke, you should not be charging this fee. As far as I am concerned, David Burke is not worth the higher prices. While his food is good, I have never found it to be four star quality and definitely not five star quality. His dishes seem tired and...