The Skillet — Restaurant in Freehold Township

UPDATE: Since my review below, I have received the threatening, and degrading email response from the owner, Sal which is goes contrary to his response below. He is unprofessional and tasteless at best. More reason to go elsewhere.

Was excited to go to this new spot. Sadly to say, I will NEVER return!

Management: Went there to celebrate my birthday and Mother’s Day with my niece, two sisters and my mother. While my niece went to check us in on the inside, the rest of the party waited outside. We were told our preference for outdoor seating would take about 20 minutes to be available, so my sister and I decided to walk to Starbucks and get coffee. On our way back we were texted by the rest of the party that they were seated and to join them. After being seated at the table no more than about 10 minutes and placing our order, a woman (who did not identify herself, but later to find out that she is the owners wife, Nancy) abruptly approached the table and said we were not allowed to have our coffee at the table. And she gave us two options: 1) She would take our half drank cups coffee away from us, take it inside with her, and she’d give it back at the end of our visit or 2) We could go put our coffee in our car. Neither option felt viable and because we had already ordered our food, my sister and I decided to walk away from the table to finish the remainder of our coffee without making a scene as Nancy did (I learned her name later). We returned to the table and attempted to eat the food that was not good AT ALL. While we were sitting at the table, we noticed a group of people leaving from the INSIDE of the restaurant with a big bottle of wine in their hands which they apparently drank INSIDE the establishment when WE were told that there was NO OUTSIDE DRINK ALLOWED. We left majority of the food on our plates. We paid the bill, tipped the waitress well, and upon leaving, I went inside to ask the woman who rudely came to our table about the coffee her name which she told me was Nancy. As I exited the restaurant, she and another woman (who was like the restaurant tattletale because she kept running back and forth to Nancy reporting on everything going on) came running outside after us asking “Is this your first time eating with us”, “Did something happen”, “Is this about the coffee”? To all of which I replied, “I will NEVER come back here again. You can read about it later”. I feel that if she was at all concerned about how my party felt, she could have been a professional and addressed it earlier and not AFTER I asked for her name.

Food: Ordered Chicken and Waffles (came with French fries) x 4, French Toast x 1, Turkey Bacon x 1, Truffle Fries x 1, and Hot coffee x 1, and Iced coffee x 3. Chicken was not breaded as we were told and it was dry and flavorless. The waffles were made with a weird tasting batter accompanied with syrup which was very thin and tasted weird. The French Toast was absolutely disgusting and tasted like it was made with a sweet potato flavored batter, though it was supposed to be standard French Toast. The syrup couldn’t even mask the awful taste. The other people at the table said the coffee was not good either which they did not drink. The only thing I did eat were the truffle fries and turkey bacon which were actually decent.

Service: Our waitress Nicole was polite and provided great service, despite Sergeant Nancy creating an awkward atmosphere for her to work. Her energy was different after Nancy coming over to make a scene, but she still treated us well.

Overall: I will be sure to post this review everywhere I can. I frequent many establishments and I will never waste my time ever again even if the meal was free. On top of the food being a total waste of money, Nancy's disrespect was off-putting and I did not appreciate her acting out and treating us like children when we are paying customers. We should have dismissed ourselves after the incident though we placed our order. However, we considered a small business should not have to lose $150 in revenue over two $6...

My husband and I were so excited to try this place and love to support local businesses, unfortunately we were disappointed with our food & service. The hostess was so sweet and sat us before the suggested wait time. We ordered two large OJs which were absolutely delicious (best part of the meal). When we were ordering our meals, we asked the waiter which toast he recommended and he proceeded to explain that he didn't technically work there and was just filling in to help out a friend and basically didn't have any suggestions (no big deal honestly). My husband ordered the "Classic Skillet" which comes with eggs, bacon, cheese, onions potato & toast. He received the skillet with no cheese and when we asked our waiter "this comes with cheese, correct?" His response was, "your guess is as good as mine" so I had to recheck the menu on my phone which clearly states that it comes with cheese...he then offered to bring it back and put cheese on which my husband denied bc he just wanted to eat at that point but it's their signature skillet dish how would it be made without cheese? The toast isn't even buttered which I find to be very odd. Anyway, I ordered the bananas foster french toast which was good but dry. The menu states that it's stuffed with marscapone cheese and topped it with banana fosters sauce so I thought the french toast was actually stuffed with marscapone not topped with it (if that makes sense) I also had barely any banana fosters sauce and like 4 bananas so it was incredibly dry even though the overall flavor was good. We weren't offered syrup or ketchup or anything. I will add that we got a side of the sausage which was pretty good! When we got the bill, under the classic skillet meal it said "scrambled, scrambled, American, white toast) so I'm assuming the cheese was on the ticket, it just never made it onto the actual meal? I brought this up to our waiter and he said said he had no idea and maybe they mixed the cheese in with the eggs? My husband said no and all the pictures of the classic skillet we saw , have cheese melted on top of the eggs. In fact, the woman sitting next to us ordered the same thing and hers were topped with cheese so I have no idea what happened but the inconsistency just rubbed me the wrong way. Overall, we probably won't return which is disappointing bc we were so excited to try this place and had read all the awesome reviews beforehand but our experience seemed to be totally different than everyone else's!

Update** My husband and I went back for breakfast after reading the owners response and we are so glad we did! Service was amazing and our food was outstanding! I ordered a skillet machiato which was amazing & for meals we had two omelettes (veggie & meat lovers) & they were both absolutely delicious. We also ordered one of the specialty pancakes (lemon ricotta) and it was literally the best pancake I've ever had. We got to meet with Sal and talk a bit, it was just overall an amazing experience and I'm so glad we went back! We now can't wait to go back for lunch. Thanks for having...

Yes, this place has some fantastic breakfast choices, a clean and modern look, and delicious iced lattes. But I especially want to highlight just how kind and professional their staff truly is.

We were a party of six that came for a late breakfast the weekend after Thanksgiving. We put our names on the wait list and was told it should be about a 30-35 minute wait. Now five of the members in our party didn't have any issues with this. It was a nice day outside, there was plenty of room to wait, and we had nowhere else to be.

Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for the sixth member. At this point I'm beginning to think that she just likes embarrassing us. If she waits for more than 3 minutes, she begins huffing and puffing. After 20 minutes, she said, and I quote, "nothing in this life is worth waiting this long for".

After 30 minutes, she began to bug your hostess, which again, the rest of the party feels absolutely awful and embarrassed about. She was convinced other parties were getting sat before us (again failing to realize there were 6 of us).

Another 10 minutes or so later, our names were called. This 6th member was practically hovering over the bus boy wiping the table down (again, sorry).

Once seated, we had a fantastic male server whose name I unfortunately cannot remember. He was incredibly attentive, quick and friendly. We placed our order and then the nicest thing happened.

A woman who I believe was the manager (or owner) came by our table and personally apologized for the long wait. Honestly, we hadn't even been waiting long, less than 10 minutes over the hostess' estimate. But she genuinely was concerned about our experience, and even brought us a couple of fresh bakery goods to sample while we waited for our meal. One of them had a chocolate hazelnut filling and it was fantastic. This gesture was completely unnecessary but extremely appreciated!

Our food arrived quickly and very hot. I had the ultimate skillet (pictured). The homemade breads are delicious. The waffles are so light and fluffy and have a hint of vanilla(?) that really makes the flavor pop. The sausage links are some of the best I've tasted. Eggs were cooked perfectly. The portions left plenty to take home. Everyone, even the impossible to please 6th party member, enjoyed every bite of their meal.

Thank you again for a fantastic 5-star dining experience! We will definitely be back, and will do our best to leave the 6th...