White Star Warren St — Restaurant in Jersey City

The quality of this place has really gone down quickly over the last few months. If you’re looking to have a meal in the area, I recommend giving your business and tips to other restaurants nearby that value customer experience as you won’t find that here at White Star Warren.

I’ve lived in JC for decades and I like to take my guests to a restaurant nearby when they visit as I like to support neighborhood businesses whenever I can. So, I returned to this place a couple weeks ago, despite having a negative experience previously with their service.

We were a party of five but the outside seating can only accommodate up to four — as the host sourly told me -- so we were led inside to one of the booths. The entire restaurant was empty except for the bartender, the host, and 2 other staff but we were seated at the smallest, cramped booth. When I asked if we can sit elsewhere the Host told me he was reserving those for later because sometimes people from Goldman Sachs would come in after work. When I asked again since it was early enough (it was 4:30PM on a weeknight) he began giving me a list of the types of groups who might come in: from the nearby offices — aka Goldman Sachs — and tourists from the ferry etc etc.(he talked to me as if he had already sized me up and decided I couldn’t tip as well as those crowds) but we were starving and so I relented. The server then came and she was quite rude and impatient taking our orders. So much so that one of us had to tell her to stop rushing us. Listen: I’d understand if the restaurant was busy but the place was EMPTY. The photo here is one I took as we were leaving — we came and went and, Except for a guy who sat at the bar, the place was still deserted.

As for the food: the buffalo wings and the truffle fries are still reliably good. The cheesesteak and hummus were bland and the rest of the meal was forgettable- I can’t remember what else we had.

It’s a shame, really, because the location is great and the staff used...

To be clear, this review is ONLY about the Warren St. location, not the Hamilton Park site. Long story short: do NOT have an event here, the manager should not be in the service industry.

We had made a reservation for a 14 person birthday lunch in the upstairs room at 3 pm a week in advance. When we arrived around 2:55 pm to set up before the birthday guest’s arrival, the manager seemed annoyed and stated that we couldn't hang the strung "Happy Birthday" sign because "we didn't rent the room". Okay… but it's 3 pm. This place isn't packed, so taping up a $5 sign shouldn't be an issue, but fine. Can we go upstairs to put her cards on the table? Nope. They're only now setting up because there were a bunch of "French onion soup bowls set up there". Mind you, this is 3 min before our reservation time- it's not like this is a 20 person walk-in.

Finally at 3:05, we're allowed to go upstairs. Our server was a total sweetheart and let us hang the sign and apologized for the delay. Then Mr. Manager comes up and says we “clearly disregarded what [he] said about the sign, but [he'll] let it slide". Again, THERE IS NO ONE ELSE UPSTAIRS. How this sign is the big issue, I still don't understand.

The rest of the meal was uneventful- the food wasn't anything to write home about (unlike the Hamilton Park location), and it just seemed like an injustice to have an $850 bill when the manager so clearly woke up choosing to be a curmudgeon and ruin birthdays. I hope he finds some...

Very uncomfortable experience today for my wife and I. First off we both ordered veggie burgers and we waited an hour/30 mins and decided to leave because it never came to us. People came in after us and got there food before us, and all we wanted was "Veggie Burgers". It Doesn't take that damn long to make these kind of entrees... regardless if your busy or not...And yes I know today is 4th of July, but it still didn't make sense to me. Plus the bartender repeatedly told us that our stuff was coming off the grill (SO HE SAYS). I also didn't like the look on everyone's face when they realize a "black" couple came in to get some food. It must be rare to see color folks in your area I guess. But hey, I'm just calling it how i see it. This is the first time I ever left a review about someones' business and it might be the last, because I really don't care as much to right this about you guys or any other business. But Today just kind of ticked me off a bit and I wanted to bring this to your attention. We don't live on Warren St, but we know the area quite well. Next time, I guess we''ll just walk by - we...