Greene Hook Bar & Kitchen — Restaurant in Jersey City

AWFUL experience! RUDE Bar Tender...NEVER AGAIN!

On Dec 17th, 2016 at around 8:30pm, my Dad (65 years old) and I had an AWFUL experience at the bar. My Dad was in town visiting for a few days. He drinks alcohol (beer) and I don't. Figured we would go get a drink for Dad and I could sit with him and give him company at a bar. We chose Greene Hook (bad choice in retrospect) and after sitting down, I asked the bar tender if they would sell single bottles that we could take home later on and he gave me a very condescending answer and a rude response, like I should have never asked such a "blasphemous" question. However, I'm not a drinker and I was thinking about my Dad. I asked what I felt was an innocent question. I was thinking that rather than go to a liquor store and waste time, maybe we could just buy a few beers from Greene Hook Bar after my Dad finished his beer and take them home for him to drink later. Well, this bar tender was so rude that we chose to leave in less than 7 minutes as my Dad just downed the beer he ordered and we left feeling really bad and down after getting unfair treatment from the obnoxious mentality and ZERO charisma of the bar tender. The bar tender also showed his total LACK of class and tact when he rudely said, "Hey listen! Take your jacket off this bar and hang it on the hooks like everybody else does. This is a bar top!" WHOA!! Firstly, I was not trying to be difficult, I just accidentally laid my jacket behind where my Dad and I were sitting, on the bar top (there was NOBODY at the bar with all open seats). I most likely would have hung it up by our legs later having realized it was in the wrong spot, OR heaven forbid if the bar tender asked me politely to hang it up on the provided hooks underneath the bar....I would have done it right away. WE HAD A REALLY AWFUL EXPERIENCE. It has taken me close to 4 months to write this review for 2 important reasons. (1) I wanted to have a "cool off" period where I could think about who was really the rude person, me or the bar tender and to really think about and feel into whether we were mistreated. The verdict after 4 months of thinking about it....YEP, TOTALLY RUDE AND OBNOXIOUS Bar Tender and bad service at Greene Hook (2) I live in Jersey City and decided to run an experiment. I went to a total of 10 other bars in the area with friends who drink, we sat down, ordered drinks and I asked the SAME question to see how I would be treated at these other establishments. In ALL cases I had a pleasant experience, was treated with respect and dignity. The 10 OTHER bars I went to in Jersey City and had a BETTER experience were: Satis Bistro, Iron Monkey, Porta, Light Horse Tavern, Zeppelin Hall, LITM, Talde, The Archer, Raval and South House. You have options everyone...don't make Greene Hook your ONLY one, it's not the only one. The AWFUL bar tender's name working on Dec 17th, 2016, around 8:30pm was James L (#21) based on the receipt I got. He could have put in a fake name, but this could be the real one. To Green Hooke Management: you now have the time, day and possible name of the bar tender. I hope you talk to your employee about his ATROCIOUS service.He should really be fired. Your 10 other competitors within walking distance that I have mentioned above in this review are doing a MUCH better job than Greene Hook. Get a...

A group of 30 of us had celebrated my wife's birthday at Greene Hook and we did not have the most pleasant experience even after spending over $3,000 at this restaurant.

First off, I had worked with the owner Rich to plan out all of the details for the evening. We had reserved a couple of hours and were promised a semi-private space that would be large enough for our party. We had even checked out the space earlier in the day and one of the staff members ensured their would be ample space for our group. Upon arrival, they had reserved two small bar tables for our group in a small space with random people all over the place. I had escalated the issue right away to the manager Joe, who had been quite rude throughout the night and brushed the issue away stating that the space would be big enough. As the night went on, he clearly saw we were lacking space so he gave us 3 additional tables. This was still much smaller than the space we had expected.

The reason I am giving 2 stars instead of 1 is because of the drinks. We had unlimited drinks and the quality of the drinks was good but the service, not so much. We were also promised 2-3 servers during the event. When we got there, 2 servers were present and taking orders but as the night went on, there was only 1 server taking care of us. Because of this, service was slow and it took quite a while for some of our guests to get a drink.

We had selected around 10 food items to be served during the party. The food was mediocre and was just typical bar food, nothing special. Not sure if it was the food, or if it was because one of the servers who claimed he was sick to his stomach but a couple of guests got the stomach bug after the event.

I want to also call out the manager Joe. Since we walked in, he was running around and acted as he was too busy to handle our group. He did ensure he will take care of us and make sure we were happy but it didn't feel that way. He made many rude comments to several guests which made people feel uncomfortable. A lot of the staff just seemed as they were rude and did not know how to accommodate such a large group.

Overall, I would stay away from this establishment if you are thinking of spending a good amount of money for your next event. Seems as we were promised a bunch but actually delivered minimal. There are a bunch of other restaurants who will ensure their guests have a...

I really want to like this place. The environment, the decor, it's so like an NYC restaurant in every way that's good EXCEPT the food. What a disappointment! We went on a Sunday early evening. The place was only about 1/4 full, hardly busy. The hostess was great and seated us inside where the wall was open to the outside so we got the best of both worlds. Then the trouble begins. They state the have a happy hour every day with discounts for drinks. Though they offer multiple white wines, they only offer one white, a pinot grigio, as part of this happy hour. The glass came and it was barely 1/4 full. The poutine we ordered was tasty. And ample. It was only 5:15 pm and I ordered a pork rueben sandwich. Well, they were already out of it. Seriously? So I chose the fish tacos. These happened to be part of the happy hour. When they arrived they were sad to say the least. Little Bits of grilled fish, stuck in a tasteless taco with overly large pieces of raw cabbage, minimal dressing, a hot sauce (the only good thing) and sad little slices of avocado. I've eaten a lot of fish tacos and these were unfortunate. After I finished my pinot I ordered the chardonnay, not part of the happy hour. The volume of wine was a typical fill, not so little. Basically their happy hour wasn't a discount but a way to cheap out on their offerings. The final moment was the realization that, when we needed our check, our waiter had seated himself with friends and was no longer interested in his tables. Thank goodness for the other waiter who jumped in to help. Attitude and environment can only get a restaurant so far. If you go, go for a drink and enjoy the ambiance but keep your expectations in check when it comes...