Marcus Live! Bar & Grille — Restaurant in East Rutherford

When we first read about the this restaurant opening we were excited to have a Marcus Samuelsson curated place to eat in our area. Turns out this is nothing but an over priced, average food, mall eatery. We arrived for dinner and the place was maybe about 25% full. The decor was ok, lots of record albums on the wall and album covers, but none really seemed to be "live" recordings so it's hard to understand how the decor matched the name. Maybe the reference was to the open kitchen where you can see the cooks working, but that's really only possible from the mall and not while seated. As for the food, it was hit or miss, mostly miss. We started with some cornbread, meatballs and mac and cheese. Those were by far the best dishes of the meal. The cornbread was sweet and well prepared with a nice crust, the meatballs were average (sauce too thin) with not much to complain about but also not much to rave about, and the mac and cheese was fine but again nothing special. One really annoying part of the meal was the fact that we were still in the middle of our appetizers when they brought our entrees. A very rookie mistake that they had no excuse for given how empty the place was. Poor kitchen management. We had the Fried Chicken & Cornbread Waffle that was so dry we had to ask for extra syrup to be able to eat it. Eventually we just gave up and took most of it home. Next was the Fresh Pappardelle & Taylor Ham, Calabrian chili & parmesan. The papperdelle was cooked ok, but just a bit past al dente, the taylor ham very tiny pieces that didn't adhere well, saw no calabrian chilis but there were some things which tasted like pickled brussel sprouts and had no idea why they were added and they didn't help the dish at all. We also ordered the B & G Prime Burger that was just fine although the fries didn't taste fresh but at least they weren't too greasy. Lastly we had the Hot Honey Salmon which was the best dish of the night. The salmon was flaky and the hot honey glaze had a nice balance. For dessert we had Coconut Lime Layer Cake with Coconut creme anglaise & matcha. The sponge was way too dense which might have been needed because the filling was thick and heavy and overall the cake had very little lime or coconut flavor. The anglaise was served on the plate with a large clump in the middle runny all around. The better dessert was a sticky toffee pudding we had that had a better sponge with nice crisping on the edges, fresh whipped cream, good ice cream side. Overall a very disappointing experience and I suggest you pass on this...

As with Natasha‘s review, we also went on December 16. After a 45 minute wait, which was understandable, but there were a lot of empty tables, we were sat and ordered drinks and appetizers. Both the drinks and appetizers came out fairly quickly but unfortunately, that was the best part of this experience. We placed our food order within about 30 minutes of sitting down. Someone’s meal, a pizza, came out about 30 minutes later. That was the only meal that we saw for the next 30 or so minutes. One person out of seven had their meal. Our waitress came by and informed us that it was a “hot mess” in there. And she was sorry about the wait. At that time, I ordered a soda water. The rest of the food came out about 30 minutes after the one person‘s pizza, and the majority of it was cold, and seemed as though it had been sitting under a heat lamp. I personally ordered the ribeye, which came sliced (unexpected), which would have been fine except it was cold and dried out like it had been sitting for a while. The broccolini it came with was ice cold. The menu also stated that the steak was 12 ounces. It absolutely was not. One of our party members is a chef, and stated that it was no more than 8 ounces , I typically wouldn’t have a problem with that except this steak was $50. All fries in everybody’s order was cold . The kids spaghetti had a sour taste to it, and was inedible. When my soda water came out, it was probably about 45 minutes after I had originally ordered it. The waitress said better late than never jokingly. She was very nice and I felt bad for her, but the dining room was not even full, so I am confused as to why the service was so slow and the food was so cold. The drinks were good, the chicken sandwiches were good and the appetizers were great. But overall we spent over $400 on a meal that took way too long to get and was truly not good. Six out of seven people had cold food on their plate when we received it. And the one person that received hot food got their food a half hour before everyone else. I typically don’t write negative reviews, but I truly was dissatisfied with this experience. Perhaps it was an...

Stopped by for a light lunch on Thur around 12:30 pm. American Dream website is showing free validated parking when dining during weekdays 12-2 pm at listed restaurants, but when we asked, the server had to get a manager to validate it. David, the manager was being very nice about it. The restaurant’s website shows they have option for an Express Lunch menu, which has limited selection of items but of a better value than the all day menu. The maitre’d didn’t include the lunch menu until we requested it. Food came quick and everything was delicious. The corn bread came with sprinkles of wht looked like sea salt, and the honeyed butter & berries jam that accompanied the corn bread were soooo delish! Brussel sprouts were roasted to a crispy perfection, and drizzle of hot honey and pickled onions on it were just awesome. Truffle fries was fried perfectly crisp and hot, always a comfort munch. We chose brown sugar sauce for the wings, again the wings were fried to a perfect crisp. Some people might prefer their wings juicier like how they do in many other wing places, but i prefer my wings crispy, so this was very much to my liking. We ended up dipping the fries in the wing sauce coz it’s that good! Sweet with a mild tang and kick.. just yummy! The house made blue cheese dip was so thick and decadent, i could eat it with a spoon. Overall for the lunch menu, i’d say it’s a very good value. Might come back to try their entrees next time. Ambiance is fine, brightly lit and server is attentive. He asked if we’d like some water in addition to our drink order and left an entire bottle of ice cold water for our table, which I really appreciate. Wobbly table is a thing though, i read about it on the other reviews and our table was wobbly too, although the server said the previous table we were seated at had an even wobblier table, and ours wasnt as bad. I find it hillarious that they knew abt the wobbly tables and it’s still not fixed? Can’t even squeeze something underneath the table feet to stop the wobble? 😅 It’s certainly not a deal breaker issue. All Nighter mocktail was refreshing. Good...