Capital Craft — Restaurant in East Hanover

After having such high hopes for this new spot on Rt. 10, I sadly and regretfully feel it necessary to share about my very poor and unacceptable experience at Capital Craft. As a prelude to this review, I have been in the restaurant and service industry for 10 years, and I always go into a new restaurant with an open mind and understanding that there will always be a time period for a restaurant to get in the swing of things, but this terrible experience was unprecedented.

At first glance, the interior is inviting and well put together with an open kitchen and nice sized bar. As we asked for a table for three, the hostess began to lead us all the way to the back corner of the restaurant (not a smart move when trying to give a first impression of the space). I asked to not be seated in the corner, but rather towards the middle of the dining room (there were plenty of tables available). The hostess replied "let me check if we have room" (it was Monday afternoon with no wait at the door and plenty of open tables). She then proceeds to sit us directly next to the bathroom (rookie hosting mistake when the restaurant is not at capacity).

After accepting the table and sitting down, we are greeted by the server who was very nice but started off the conversation not by welcoming us or giving us a brief background of the restaurant, but instead by telling us that the "coal fired oven" (a staple for this place and plastered on the front of the restaurant) has not been working since opening the doors (4 days ago). She proceeded to tell us about the menu items that they did NOT have and what they could NOT provide to us due to this situation. A pretty grim and unappetizing start to our meal.

We ordered two craft beers on draft and waited 15 minutes before asking the server to please bring our drinks (they were sitting at the service bar for 10 minutes in clear sight), which were eventually brought by a sloppy looking manager (even worse first impression). This place is supposed to be known for their beers on tap, and the beer could not have been more FLAT. I called the manager over and told him we did not want the beers and asked if we could have the cocktail menu back to try something else. After dropping the drink menu at the table, we were not acknowledged by our server or the manager for another 45 minutes. The manager did not come back to take a second drink order, nor did the server have any idea about what was going on with our drink situation or care to check on our table. It is worth noting that within this 45 minute timeframe, our appetizer of wings came after 20 minutes and were severely undercooked.

For lunch, and maybe 5 minutes after initially sitting down, we ordered the appetizer of wings, a crispy chicken sandwich, the Impossible Burger, and the CC Burger, all of which should be 15 minute items at most in any well run kitchen, on a very busy night. After 1 Hour and 20 Minutes of waiting with no food, no drinks, and having watched 3 other tables walk out of the restaurant without having received any food after waiting, our patience had run out. I called another manager over and told them we were leaving and to forget the food. This young and inexperienced manager said it was cooking and would be out soon and apologized. 15 minutes later, still nothing. The server came over and apologized and said the meal would be free, but after a total of 1 hour and 40 minutes of waiting, it was time to leave.

On our way out, I asked to speak to the General Manager, who was standing at the open kitchen, and the host went to notify him. He was clearly out of his element and extremely inexperienced, and waved the host off and pointed to the young manager to speak to me. WHAT KIND OF GM DOES NOT TAKE THE TIME TO SPEAK WITH A DISGRUNTLED GUEST??? This was by far the worst experience I have ever had at any restaurant, new, old, and...

We have been coming to this restaurant practically every week for several years now. It's not for the food, which became seriously overpriced with a menu change in about May 2025, and had long been slightly overpriced and kind of meh, except for a few items like pizza with your choice of toppings, prezel bites (once free to members of their frequent-diner's club), and pork belly with plaintain chips, all of which are no longer on the menu. We don't come for the atmosphere, which is dominated by a loud sports bar, all neon and large TV screens, that is increasingly more dimly lit, as if to conceal how shabby the surroundings are becoming. We most decidedly do not come for the service. There is one really good server, Chris, who is attentive and proactive--he is cheerfully efficient, and periodically comes by our table to see how we're doing. But unless you are in his section, you'll be lucky to be able to place an order within 15 minutes of being seated, or get a refill of soda within 10 minutes of running dry (soda is now $5--the same price as the featured alcohol of the day), or obtain take-home containers when you're done eating. We've learned to be obnoxiously aggressive in hailing servers...though this doesn't always work, since most seem to be quite adept at 1) hiding behind the scenes when they're not actively carrying food to tables and 2) studiously ignoring any patrons other than the ones to whom they are delivering food. A few are even pretty good at ignoring those patrons as well (requests for soda or water may not register, or may be filled when the server gets around to it 20 minutes later), though this may be because the kitchen staff is being sent out to deliver food, while the people who take orders and deliver the check remain safely out of sight. While it's clear that bad servers don't last for long--I rarely spot one of the really awful ones a second time--this seems to mean that the restaurant is always mostly staffed with undertrained individuals who don't know (or don't care) how to get their job done. I know the job of restaurant server is a tough one, and often a last resort, but: there's something to be said for trying to do the job you have well, even as you look for something better.

So why do we put ourselves through this trial week after week? --Because Capital Craft in East Hanover has a trivia game on Wednesdays at 8 PM that has an exceptionally good host. Like all the best trivia hosts, Stephen is himself a trivia buff, and not just a mere DJ or reader. He makes an extra effort to ensure he provides his audience with a good game. He takes the quiz himself ahead of time, fact-checks, and might even do a little editing to make sure that there is only one correct answer and that it's clear what the question is asking. He carefully chooses songs to match the theme of each question in a clever way or to clue the answer. He has a fun, boisterous style, and clearly loves what he is doing and that he can share what he loves with an audience.

I wish Stephen was hosting trivia at other restaurants so we could lobby the other members of our team to play somewhere other than Capital Craft. As it is, my husband and I have discovered that we cope with the service at Capital Craft much better now that we're no longer eating there and instead getting dinner before the...

We were very excited to visit Capital Craft after first seeing construction transitioning the location from the previous Macaroni Grill.

Arrival and parking was sufficient as we visited on Labor Day and Costco was already closed.

The decor of the restaurant was bright and open. The bar which we did not visit looked great. Our party of 6 was sat right away in a nice location near the kitchen.

Immediately after being seated we were greeted by our waitress. She mentioned the difficulties from when the restaurant initially opened on the pizza oven which we were ok with.

The waitress asked us about drinks prior to leaving. As we just sat we didn’t see the extensive beer menu enough to decide, but kindly asked for water which was supplied.

The view of the menu was well received. I saw that had “Sip of Sunshine” on tap which is VERY rare as liquor stores have yet to start carrying it yet in NJ (you can get in the northern states).

Other adults at the table ordered the sangria. It had a bitter, grapefruit taste.

A few of us ordered appetizers (pork roll, poutine) for sharing as mentioned I believe from the menu. We should have been told the serving size of it would have been fine for sharing as we had a larger party.

The poutine was horrible. I’ve been to the eastern and western sides of Canada. I’ve seen and tasted some amazing poutine before. The one they served here was not that. It was not hot nor did it even appear like the dish itself.

Our main entries were delivered by bringing the adults their meals first and then the two kids. It was a humorous observation by myself and the other dad at the table. It should not have been done that way.

My daughter LOVES salmon, but the Thai sauce was asked to be removed due to the heat level. It was mentioned multiple times; however, upon arrival to the table it was fully prepared per the menu description. My wife tasted the Thai sauce and quickly had it sent back as they were happy to quickly resolve (this should have been a red flag). The salmon was cleaned it appeared under a sink and sent back to the table not even hot. My daughter even after adding salt (which all of our dishes at the table needed) didn’t help. Other adults at the table even tasted the salmon to see if the younger child was being picky, but everyone tasted the same issue.

All of our food was NOT hot except the plates they were delivered on which was odd. I’m not sure on their cooking strategy and delivery, but it was weird.

We don’t plan on returning here anytime soon, but wish them the best in their future endeavors. The flaws they have CAN be fixed which is why I am writing them here as a review for...