Blend on Main — Restaurant in Manasquan

PLUSES Location is charming and has a pulse. Outdoor seating everywhere. Well-prepared meals, talent in the kitchen.

MINUSES Weird $10 per person charge on your CC if you cancel your reservation too late. It's the wrong tone to strike given such an incidental fee will surely have an unremarkable impact on the night's take. Oddly cannot order in pieces. your server is instructed to enter everything at once. So, the notion of putting in a starter and continuing your conversation with your companion, or perhaps browsing the menu more is off the proverbial table entirely. Like the 20 bucks, this isn't a deal breaker of any kind. But, it's just another weird way I'm being asked to accommodate the restaurant when the restaurant exists to accommodate its guests. This strange stuff reminds me of the IT guy telling users that they have to adjust, more than the tech and IT guy need to support users' workflows.

ATMOSPHERE Charming, quirky and rather deliberate opulence peppered around the space. Nice front and rear patio dining. I like it. The guitar player is a one-man-band and he is sensational. He is so polished and his catalog of music is enormous.

FOOD Quite good. The kitchen has talent. In small Jersey Shore towns, one gets used to average cuisine that enjoys the benefits of a perfect location. So, too often, Jersey Shore restaurants are disappointing because they rely wholly on the gravity beach towns create. So, the food can be mediocre, because the atmosphere is such a destination that they can get away with okay food, and incredible vibes.

Blend doesn't rest on the laurels. They provide an excellent, freshly prepared meal that counts on the quality of the dish, more than it's charming veneer. I had their NY strip, MR, with their mushrooms and asparagus. the latter were as thick as my quads, chard nicely and seasoned lightly with oil/butter, S&P. What was nice, is that the asparagus was the hero, not goopy drizzles covering a lack of talent. The beef was excellent. Again, terrific sear on the outside, and bloody inside. Perfect temperature achieved. Seasoned beautifully too.

Also had their goat cheese, almond and beet salad, however I do not believe they call it that. Anyhow, the arugula was incredible. Also dressed and seasoned perfectly. Nothing swimming in liquids, in other words. Thank God!

OVERALL I enjoy this spot a lot. The hospitality is dependably great, the food is prepared with love and attention to nuances, all of which matter of course, and the vibes are Jersey Shore thru 'n thru.

I would eliminate the silly fee for cancelling too late. No one's getting rich of the $10 pp thing anyway, so let's avoid souring a prospective new regular with petty charges that don't benefit the till.

Also, I'd propose allowing diners to order at their pace and sensibilities too. There's nothing about the dining experience that's NOT about diners.

Manage the workload in a way that allows you to stay ahead of the tickets, but doesn't ask the customer to shoulder any share of that responsibility. No one wants to pay a babysitter, squeeze in a little alone time with their partner only to instantly hear that the kitchen will fall behind if we order items at our style and tempo. It's just a silly way to begin what should be a lovely night out, away from the chaos of a busy life.

This is a terrific, hospitable and quality place to dine. Make a couple of easy tweaks and I think Blend is a rare find amid an ocean of dross that rely on native foot traffic to populate their dining rooms.

Blend cares about food. That's...

Update: To the owner who responded: While I appreciate your response, I’m not sure why I would have called. I was speaking with someone from your restaurant. I explained our situation. I asked very nicely. My husband asked very nicely. When my father in law arrived, he also asked very nicely. We were brushed off. We weren’t told a single thing about any construction or issues. We were simply told with absolutely no concern that the waiters didn’t want to go back there and then stared at blankly until we accepted and sat down. There was no apology or politeness or anything. My entire party was taken aback by the complete lack of any response other than “no”. Also, there was absolutely nothing going on in the back. We parked back there. We walked back there to show our parents where we had intended on taking them. So we saw the space as we were coming in and we saw it as we were leaving. There was absolutely nothing going on. I’m not sure why you have a tone about my leaving a review… isn’t that what one does to explain their experience to others? I think you should be more upset with the hostess or manager or whoever was so rude to us that one of the waitresses even came out and apologized to us and said she would sit us back there but it was out of her control and she wasn’t sure why they wouldn’t accommodate us. I’m not a disgruntled reviewer. I am a mismanaged customer. That’s an issue you should take up with your front of house.

I don’t normally leave reviews, but I felt compelled to write one. My family and I had a very frustrating experience here yesterday. We took our children and our parents out to dinner. We made a reservation well in advance for outdoor seating and requested that we please be accommodated in the shade as my parents are senior citizens and even if they weren’t, it’s almost July and its hot. We arrived and instead of being seated in the beautiful, flower surrounded and shaded back patio where there is a large gazebo to accommodate our large group, we are seated at a table too small for our group on the front sidewalk, on a slant, and in the sun. We asked to please sit in the back as we had a toddler and our children’s grandparents with us but the very disinterested host/manager/not sure said that the servers wouldn’t want to go back there so we had to sit in the front. We asked if we could please at least put up the umbrella to provide some shade but were told that it was too windy. The woman very clearly didn’t care whether we were happy or not judging by her facial expression, lack of effort to do anything at all to assist, and the fact that we never saw her again.

My husband and I discovered this restaurant a month ago when we were looking for somewhere to celebrate our anniversary. We had a wonderful experience. We sat on the back patio, surrounded by blooming hydrangeas, on a level patio. We liked it so much that we thought this would be the perfect place to bring our entire family. Instead of a beautiful experience in their lovely outdoor space which we had requested, we sat squished to a table too small for us, in the sidewalk, with things rolling off our crowded table constantly because the sidewalk is not level and meant to be a dining area. The complete lack of care as to whether we were happy or were going to stay was pretty surprising. We thought this was going to be a regular place for us and the food is quite good, but after our experience yesterday basically begging to please sit in the back and being brushed off, I’m...

Absolutely awesome. It's not too often that I give five stars, but Blend on Main really earned it. I came here for Christmas Eve dinner, and now looking back think it was definitely the best option. First of all, I should say that this was a special Christmas Eve menu, so I'm not sure if they always have these entree options.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is very nice, with a warming fireplace in the middle of the dining area and a large quote written on one wall - "People who love to eat are always the best people," (Is this why everyone on Yelp is so cool?). Large front windows look out to Main Street Manasquan.

I don't normally even include this in my reviews, but the bread they brought out was great. It was something like a pretzel bread with a great sauce on the side. We started with the Californian flat bread, which had on it a fig puree, goat cheese, arugula, balsamic glace, caramelized onion, and smoked sea salt. This was the best flatbread I've tasted in a long time, if not ever. Very unique taste, and the arugula and caramelized onion went together well. For my entree, I ordered the Magret Duck, which came over bubble & squeak with a blood orange glace. Absolutely the best duck I've ever had. I'm admittedly a very fast eater, and this was so good that it made me slow down.

I knew after my first bite that I had to try the other entrees at the table. I first tried the Capon Rollatini, which was stuffed with mascarpone and spinach with a pecan panko crust. Next, I tried the "Big Chop", which lived up to it's name and was, in fact, a big porkchop. The porkchop was apple wood smoked with a honey crisp apple ring tempura, sweet potato puree, and chianti glace. Both of these dishes were just as good as the duck. I'd have to say, in order, I may even have ranked the Big Chop above the magret duck, and the capon was not far behind. Also, on a completely unrelated note, this place is BYOB.

To hold myself back from rambling any further, I'll just keep it simple and say this was definitely one of the best dinners I've had from anywhere in the area. We've been back many times since and have never been...