Chickie's — Restaurant in Jersey City

A hard NO on this one. Such a bizarre experience.

HEADS UP - They delete negative comments on their Instagram page; they don't want "negative comments that were added to people's positive experiences".

Made a reservation over a week out, went to the restaurant early to have a drink at the bar with my daughter and future son-in-law, as I'd come up from Miami and we were celebrating (she said Yes to a Dress;)).

At 7:30, went and told hostess we were here, and was reminded our reserve was at 7:45 - not a "Great, we'll get you when we have your table", it was a, "Come back at 7:45". No problem, we are comfy at the bar. 7:45 - returned to hostess. She was super snippy with a "We're cleaning your table, give us a minute!" Turns out, Miss Snippy, Ariana, is also the Manager.

It was so weird and unpleasant that, as soon as we sat down, my daughter wanted to leave. I was the idiot that said we should stay. :/

Waitress came, took our order, came back a little while later with our drinks, and then....never saw her again.

We'd ordered the Chicken Parm, Shrimp Scampi, the cheese bread, and the Frito Misto. Food was meh (the Parm was a mess on the plate), nothing special. The Frito Misto- FAIL. It's listed as "crispy-calamari, shrimp, long hots, gravy". We got calamari. Asked one of the runners (cuz, no waitress) if we got the right order. So out comes a little bowl with, what looks to be shrimp (or fish?) that's been chopped up and fried. Really?

We're sitting at the table well after we're done and finally ask a runner to get the Manager. Tell her how disappointed we are, and I ask her to look at our table and tell me if it looks like a server has been here recently - it was littered with empty plates and glasses. No answer. Then Ariana, proceeds to tell us that "we were early, and asked for our table 4 times!" We are now in the Twilight Zone. I tell her we came early to have a cocktail before dinner, and we NEVER asked to be seated early, and fyi, that that was more money in your till (typically restaurants LIKE when you spend $ at the bar). We ask for the check, and THEN our waitress appears, stands at our table and says, loudly, "You are the worst couple I've ever served! (There was THREE of us), and turns and leaves. Which we do as well. Tipping accordingly.

My daughter and I have both reached out to Chickies and their rep has told us numerous times now how, Everybody else Loves Miss Snippy and the Server, that 99.9% of people love them, never had a single complaint, or ever notices any attitude from them. Oh, and everyone's "perception" is different. Ah, we're the problem. Got it.

The one question that the rep refuses to answer, that we've asked numerous times is - What did we do, or say, that was so egregious as to warrant that kind of behavior towards us?? I don't care if we asked 101 times about our table, if that rifles you then honey, put on your helmet or get out of the hospitality business.

The only thing we got was, "the server and manager both felt that your group (3 of us) was being very rude to them". HOW? Exactly, HOW?

I have enough integrity and humility to admit when I'm wrong, and offer an apology, and I would LOVE to know exactly what it was that was said or done on our part. But they can't answer that.

Chickies has 99 problems. But I...

Was going to give a 3, but it's their first week and we live in COVID times, but Chickie's has a potential to go beyond 5 stars. I've settled on 4, for now, and am happy to delete and reappraise soon.

Our meal was on a Saturday, 4 days after they'd opened. We want to support a new local restaurant and they already run the peerless Hamilton Inn, cute Camp Hamilton and the best BBQ in the Tri-State, Hamilton Pork. We left a teeny bit disappointed but cannot wait to return to try more.

We'd decided our menu before going in after seeing fleeting glances of the dishes on social media. 2 Chickie's Pizza Beers ordered; lovely for me, a mild IPA, but it's generic name meant my wife was expecting a lager. Frito Misto starter was great, not too heavy and the marinara brilliant. We then ordered Hot Pepperoni, Buffalo Chicken Sandwich with crinkle cut fries and a Paulie Walnuts salad. More in a bit.

Any initial failings at Chickie's are on the service side and I respect it's their 1st week open however, so much was lost in translation. There was an apprehensive welcome in to the joint from the servers, a lack of warmth with no recommendations given, no explanations given of the menu, no "Hello"! I want embellishments, I want enthusiasm. Our first server's first language wasn't English, I'm a Brit in Jersey City so I can understand the possibility for errors, but we then ordered more drinks. Another beer was brought even though we had ordered a House Red (a very reasonable Montepulciano) and a Dirty Chick with gin (a drink I look forward to having again), so I can see how the server was mistaken. A bar person eventually came out to clarify and prepare our booze.

So the entrées? Love hot honey on a pizza and the fresh basil was great but if you want a pepperoni, Sage Eats are sweeter and the deep dish style is done bigger and better by Low Fidelity's Detroit-style pies on Palisade in the Heights. Buffalo Chicken Sandwich had no heat and no stand out taste, the bread was too hard. Crinkle cut fries were just adequate. Paulie Walnuts was a fresh, delicious salad but not even worth half the $14 price. Finally, after getting the attention of another server, we managed to order Papou's Rice Pudding, one but with two spoons. Two separate tiny portions came out, creamy and cold with lashings of nutmeg. Our check showed a charge of $22 for 2. Not what we ordered and very poor value for money. We had no opportunity to talk with a senior server as their green staff were run off their feet.

A massive plus of Chickie's is the hubbub, the atmosphere. We went at 5pm, at opening, and it was rammed with a full seated bar and floor at 6pm. People want to support it and enjoy but at the moment, it's not quite there. The service is all a bit impersonal and lacking in precision and passion. That can be worked on and improved immensely with minimal training and a bit of pride in what is one of the simplest and nicest new openings either side of the Hudson. Looking forward to having the burrata after seeing it on many plates, we want to try any and every pasta and a Parmo is a must in the winter months. And I'll be having another magnificent Martini, the right side of dirty!

Should you go to Chickie's? Definitely. Go now, go early! Can't wait for our...

This was an.. interesting experience to say the least. We had made a reservation for 8:30 for 3 of us and ended up having to wait over 20 minutes before our table was ready. The overall atmosphere of the place is fine - the design is pretty nice but the acoustics make it a bit loud, would not bring a first date here since there would probably be a lot of "huh?," and "what did you say?" Additionally the menu style makes it feel like a pub since it's a 2-sided laminated menu while the restaurant seems/feels/charges/serves more upscale than pub food.

First big thing to note, after our 20 minute wait from our reservation time, we were seated at a table clearly meant for 2. There wasn't much space for the 3 of us and our third person had their seat pretty much blocking the walkway for people going from the front half of the establishment to the back half.

Second, based on the prices charged for food, you'd expect the table setting to be at least uniform. Throughout our night, we noticed there were at least 3 distinctly different types of dishes which clashed with the style of the place. Utensils were also wrapped in a thick napkin; I would've expected cloth but this wasn't a deal-breaker for me.

Third, the drinks were standard but seemed a bit overpriced. They like to put some interesting names on drinks but what we received were standard cocktails. The olives on my friend's martini were off, and she's someone who loves olives.

Finally, the food was at-best subpar. The pizza was standard and definitely not worth the price. One person on our table had a piece of hair on their plate; the waitress was nice enough to give a clean plate and comp a drink for him. I ordered the Franchese with shrimp and it was the first time I've ever left a restaurant starving as it was inedible. The dish had a pool of liquid at the bottom and tasted as if the only ingredient thrown into it was a cup of lemon juice from the bottles you can purchase at your local supermarket. It was appalling. My friend's spicy rigatoni tasted as if it was pasta mixed with spicy Rao's sauce, which again can be found in most supermarkets. My other friend's fish dish was standard - he said nothing bad but not worth coming back for. Attention to detail was severely lacking as I had a piece of rigatoni in my linguini dish and vice versa for my friend.

I left the comments related to the food on an evaluation card after telling the waitress but I highly doubt that made a difference. I would not come back again nor recommend anyone to go there. We were excited to potentially have a good Italian food restaurant close by but were left severely...