Butter & Jam — Restaurant in Madison

The food was good (especially the chocolate chip cookies) and our waitress was great, but there is gross miscommunication with management which ultimately led to me posting this review. Butter and Jam came recommended to me and after looking on their Instagram they had just posted on 10/19 saying "Our private party room is open!". I booked a reservation for the event room on 10/20 to propose to my bridal party and told them we would be 10-15 people. I reserved 12/2 and had forgone another date specifically so I could reserve that room. I was told events received a pre-fixed menu and was asked to pick items off their regular brunch menu and upon doing so I had to put a 50% deposit down "for the food". At this time, I was told the room was semi-private which I was okay with as I had looked online and assumed it was because there was no door and the mimosa bar would be set up in the hallway near the hostess stand. On 11/22 I informed the event coordinator, Daniela, that we would be 10 people.

Less than 24 hours before the start of my event, I received an email saying that they made another reservation for a larger party and my party was going to be bumped to the main dining room. There was no apology. I emailed back stating that I had specifically made my reservation for the party room and if there was any way that I could get back into the room I had reserved. They declined and told me I would have "my own section with the bar" and "there is plenty of space to decorate". It was too late to reschedule as I, as well as several bridesmaids, were coming from out of town to attend.

Upon arriving on 12/2, I was brought to a table in the middle of the main dining room, right in front of the kitchen entrance. The owner, Bill, came over to talk to me as I was extremely upset. It was exactly what I had not wanted as my special event was now going to be in front of a packed dining room on a Saturday morning. Bill told me that I needed to be flexible and understanding with him about my situation and that I should have never been promised that room to begin with. I told him that had I known this was a possibility, I would have booked elsewhere. He then told me that parties of 10 don't normally get a pre-fixed menu, as if he had done me a favor. I never asked for a pre-fixed menu (again items off their normal menu), but regardless that only makes it easier for the kitchen staff. Due to the small space between the bar and our table, I was unable to use several decorations I had bought and made, including a backdrop. He moved chairs away from the bar to make room for my mimosas but kept two seats at the end in which he sat people at throughout my event. We were also unable to get up and talk/mingle as we were in the middle of the dining room flow. Just before I paid my remaining check, Bill brought a $50 gift card over. Luckily, he allowed me to use it that day, but this was not even a 10% discount off of almost a $700 brunch.

Upon leaving, Bill told my mom that 99.9% of people would have been happy with what he provided and added that with a party my size he would have seated people in the room with us anyways. How can you advertise this as a private/semi-private room then? We were also told "I am running a business here".

From our interaction, Bill is in it for the money and really did not care that he ruined a day I had worked so hard to plan and looked forward to. I hope the team learns from this and puts forth better communication with their customers...

So disappointed with this place! Moved here from Montclair and looking for a new go to breakfast spot and sad to say this isn’t it. Made an 11:30a reservation and when we got there we were told their system malfunctioned and were putting people out on their patio which obviously is not available due to the cold. No big deal— we waited and were seated at the bar (which I requested because it was less crowded). We got the brisket eggs Benedict, avocado and cherry toast with poached eggs, and an order of vanilla pancakes.

Well let me say when the food arrived we were completely underwhelmed. The brisket eggs Benedict was SO SMALL. At $22 I expected a normal size but the English muffin was smaller than my hands and I am only 4’11 so I am not that big to begin with and there was BARELY any brisket on there. It was a sad little tiny sliver of brisket so much so that you had to lift the egg to even see that any was there to begin with. To have brisket in the name it needed a lot more, it was genuinely deceiving. My avocado toast was just sad. Literally just two pieces of regular white sandwich bread, an avocado whip with cherry tomatoes. Truly I have made better avocado toast at home. If I am dining out I expect an elevated version. Maybe a white rustic bread? Not wonder bread. In the end I was glad we ordered the pancakes because my husband was so unsatisfied with his portion of food.

The only things we really like was the fresh squeezed OJ and my husband enjoyed his pistachio cappuccino. With that said it is not enough for us to go back. After tip we spent about $100 on a breakfast that just missed the mark completely and we will not be going back. Restaurant needs a lot of improvement so that customers are getting value for their money. Right now it’s just not there

I wish I would have taken pictures of the food I received but sadly it was an afterthought. I did however put a picture of a brisket breakfast dish from another favorite restaurant of ours that is priced at $4 less and the portions are so different. My husband and I are able to actually share the one pictured (from the Corner in Montclair). You can visibly see the amount of...

A modern, pleasant brunch spot. We came here by happenstance due to our #1 pick being closed for vacation.

It was a bit confusing which door to enter. FYI, the left side is for the coffee shop, the right door is for the restaurant. But either door you enter, you can get to either side.

The dining room is light and airy, and a perfect location for a Sunday brunch. Service was good but it felt rather 'new' like they were trying to figure out the best approach for things like table placement vs customer and employee ingress / egress, etc

The food was good, but the selection of coffee is from 'Illy' and I'm not used to that brand, so it tasted kind of burnt and the 'milk' that was provided seemed like skim instead of whole, so the effect wasn't very appetizing.

We'll certainly stop by again, in hopes of some improvements

Update November 2023: We've been here a few other times and they seem to have their game plan down, but each time they seem to take party reservations, the problem is that this place is very open and not conducive to hosting both large party's well as regular sit down brunch. You really need to have a separate room if you're going to do large brunch parties that take up all but 4 tables, it just not nice for the regular crowd when you do that.

We ordered the vanilla buttermilk pancakes, which seemed rather dry unfortunately. I also ordered the peasant sandwich and wanted to have some meat on it so I ordered a side of chicken sausage patties, what i received was chicken sausage links, but tried to cut them lengthwise, which shouldn't be a problem, but these things were almost completely dry, like they had been sitting under an IR heat lamp for a day or two, unappetizing.

Table service was great, no complaints there, but it seems like the kitchen service has fallen off considerably, plus they really need to drop 'Illy' as their coffee supplier, it's only good for milk based drinks, unless you like the taste of over...