Chambers Walk Café & Catering — Restaurant in Lawrence Township

I have passed this place so many times, and I am happy to have finally stopped in. Beyond the quaint outdoor patio dining which beckoned to me, I stepped inside to an interior which just flowed. Seating at the bar was as inviting as one of the many, nicely spaced out tables. I ended up sitting nestled by the front window, where I imagined enjoying the view and motion of passing cars during any season. There are actually times you can leave the world outside.

Knowing a bit of the history and culinary skills which crafted this establishment, their menu was exactly what I would have expected. A bit upscale, with that flourish of gourmet that signaled this would be a dining experience worth repeating.

While I was very tempted by everything on their menu, I decided to try a pasta dish since they offered vodka sauce. Not all vodka sauces are the same, and I definitely have preferences, so I was eager to taste their interpretation.

A finely prepared dish speaks to the mouth much like a ventriloquist in which an, “Mmmmmm,” escapes as you swallow your words. There is nothing like perfectly cooked pasta and coarsely chopped fresh Parmesan to remind you of where you are. And the vodka sauce set itself apart from all others—thick and flavorful. It was more like a purée, traveling with the rigatoni to my mouth. Somewhere along the way, I remember learning that thick sauce helps prevent mishaps that can ruin a dining experience. I can fully appreciate this. My blouse thanks you.

Beyond my vodka bliss, I thoroughly enjoyed the freshly made salad dressing and perfectly baked dinner rolls which further set this meal apart from the ordinary.

Thought, planning and training often elevate experiences to the next level. Since I do not consider myself an expert here, I can only imagine what I missed that made this so enjoyable. But the welcoming staff, paired with precisely prepared...

I went for dinner the other night with my girlfriends. We wanted to support local so we picked Chamber’s Walk. When we sat down we asked our waitress Jenn what time they closed and she told us 9. We had dinner that was over priced . Tiny piece of chicken for 33 dollars and most apps were 20 which we ordered 2 followed by 3 meals and two desserts . We had not seen each other in awhile so we wanted to stay till 9 and catch up, finish our wine and we definitely didn’t want to leave early to go home to our kids. At 8:15 Jenn the waitress throws the bill on the table and the hostess Martha shuts off the lights. We rushed to get the bill in order and the waitress Jenn was annoyed that we asked to break a 50. She yells across the room “it’s going to be difficult to break this” Martha and Jenn you should not be in this line of business. Restaurants have late hours and you probably should have change in a Restaurant. There is nothing worse then working all day, going out for what you think is going to be a nice dinner and feeling rushed to get out. Anyway they pushed us out by 8:30, ruined our night and we had to finish our visit in the parking lot while the two women walked by us at 8:40 and scurried to their cars. Good luck to you...

What we liked? The atmosphere. Beautiful, comfortable with evening lighting. Very nice if you are in a quiet mood.

The reason for my mediocre rating? 1) While the food was presented beautifully, it did not taste good (sadly, neither my colleague nor I enjoyed our meals or what we tasted of each others’). 2) Service after we were seated was non-existent. Our server took our order and we never saw him again. Ever. Not even to present the bill. He didn’t offer to provide more water or ask how our meal was. In fact, we had to find another server to ask for our bill. And ‘that’ server processed our payment. While we saw our original server in the restaurant, he never returned to our table after taking our order (someone else delivered our food to the table).

Would I recommend? No. I’d like to say yes but I cannot based on our experience. I hope our experience with the food and service is not typical.

What should you know before you go? I would suggest reading the Google reviews carefully. We chose the restaurant based on the average star rating but did not read any reviews. Perhaps if we had, we would have paused before selecting the restaurant for...