Scotch Plains Tavern — Restaurant in Essex

First visit review ///Scotch Plains opened up in the old Olivers space.

PROS: all the staff that worked with us were friendly and knowledgeable about their menu - we go there early and the service was attentive; new owners did an OUTSTANDING job of refitting and designing the space (love it); tables are well spaced and comfortable; both our meals were tasty, including their freshly prepared potato chips (must try) ; salads are entree size, so be aware; i had a flatbread, also a nice dinner size. Big crowd upstairs - but you would never know - soundproofing is working!

CONS: PARKING is a problem - although the dining rm was not busy, there was clearly a large bar crowd upstairs - so the owners need to figure this out - I am not going to start off what I want to be a relaxing dinner with aggravation about parking again - will just go elsewhere; staff service started to deteriorate as the dining room got busier (it was packed by 6:30/7 on a Friday and people were waiting to be seated), so while our apps/entrees came out in a timely way - by the time it got to coffee and dessert we were clearly waiting over 15 min and trying to flag down server to find out what was going on - another thing, for a new spot, never saw a manager or owner walking the floor asking how things were - kind of unusual for this kind of local place, so that was a little off-putting feel; after enjoying the apps/entree - was sorry I got dessert (that I had waited for ) tasted kind of stale and was a sorry note to end the meal.

I will go back to try again and see if I can get a better overall experience - as I said, the parking is a nuisance, so getting there earlier is probably impt - maybe due to the fact they have a happy hour .... and maybe the staff is still not used to adjusting to increasing dining room occupancy - the manager clearly needs to be in that dining room more when it gets full...

Good Ole Oliver's was my regular hangout bar in my early 20s and when I heard it was changing I was so heart broken. Little did I know how much better it would be! Scotch Plains is the fresh breath of life this location needed! I was home for the holidays and we ordered from S.P. I couldn't figure out how to use a gift card on the website so I went in and am glad I did! We ordered about 12 items (so a big order) and it came out in about 10-15 minutes. Kudos to the kitchen on that! I know Togo orders are super annoying esp when its busy and i appreciate it. The food was amazing and we had enough for our family of 4 for 2 days. I don't know what brand of blue cheese they use but man was that stuff good! Please don't change it!

While the food and ambiance was great a special shout out is highly necessary for Deb! She got me to a table and got me a beer asap and took my order. I think ive been in LA too long and forgotten the small town charm and service of being here, but Debs service was so good ive only seen it duplicated in hallmark christmas movies. Score. She was so sweet, double checking the food to make sure it was all there and was concerned we only got one blue cheese dressing and asked if we needed more which was such an advanced move. She was fast, friendly, and great at her job. She said she loved working there and it was a great place to work. I NEVER hear servers saying that so that made me really happy to hear. She even helped me bring my order out to my car (and we were upstairs), which was appreciated as my knees are shot and I was going to try to independent lady she-hulk it down the stairs. Deb was amazing , the food was fantastic and good huge orders and the place is so much more lively now. Thank you for this...

Could Be Better.

We stopped here after a fun time on the Essex Stream Train. We did a quick Google search for restaurants nearby and thought the pictures of this place looked nice. There were great shots of food and plenty of shots inside and out of the restaurant itself. When we walked in we were asked if we wanted to go upstairs to the bar or stay down on ground level. They told us the bar was a bit loud and there were lots of TVs with sports channels playing. We chose to stay downstairs. The server came right away and poured us a glass of water. He was good. No problem there. While we waited for our dinners to arrive we noticed the hanging light above our table was covered in dust. The bulbs were pretty bad. Looking around the restaurant we noticed all of the lights were covered in thick dust. There was a large window with a rope covering. The rope was covered with cobwebs and the upper frame of the window had a very thick collection of cobwebs. The food looked really good when it came out but my bacon burger had no taste except for the burnt bacon. The fried fish we ordered looked like a good portion but the batter was extra thick. There was very little fish in there. The fish was a bit under cooked as well. My hopes are that other visitors will actually read some reviews on this place and not just look at the pictures. When you go into a place and see filth everywhere it makes you think about the places you can't see. I hope the owner does some heavy cleaning soon because this place...