Squan Tavern — Restaurant in Manasquan

Super friendly staff, tasty food!

We arrived around 5-5:30pm, busy outside seating, but the inside dining area was pretty empty. It quickly filled up after we arrived though.

I had the chicken Tyler, which was very rich, with a unique flavor and just a little heat. The chicken was perfectly tender. Lots of onion, but it blended very well with the dish. I'd have preferred more than the sprinkling of peas that I got. I think there were about a dozen in the whole dish. Otherwise, delicious.

The zucchini marinara I had with it was tasty on its own, but a poor choice to pair with the Cajun cream sauce of my main dish in my opinion, a little too sweet. That's an error on my part as I was given other options.

The tiramisu was one of the best I've had recently. Nice and creamy, excellent flavor. The texture of the mascarpone was very smooth in comparison to others I've had.

Unfortunately, the espresso was literally the worst I've ever tasted! I rather enjoy the bitterness of espresso. I know some places will add salt to cut the bitter notes out of an espresso or to mask the flavor of stale tank water, but this was salty like someone ran ocean water through the machine. It tasted like a cup of pretzel water and actually made me gag... Awful way to end an otherwise pleasant meal.

My only other complaint was that they were out of a lot of items, but that's understandable for a busy Sunday evening at the end of summer. They were quick to offer substitutions. My wife had plain gnocchi in a mushroom cream sauce, as they were out of the spinach ones. She felt it definitely would have been better with the spinach. My minestrone soup became chicken noodle, but it was still very tasty.

Our waitress was very nice, and the bussing staff were like ghosts when clearing our finished plates. No sooner than you finished and set your plate aside, it was gone without a trace!

One last thing to note, we've had their pizza before as takeout, which is very good, even reheated. Thin crust, like a bar pie, which isn't my preference, but the rest of my family loves it. The flavor, however, is exactly like what I remember pizza tasting like in the 80s and early 90s. Took me straight back to the days of being in an arcade and grabbing a slice or two with my friends before going back to play more.

Overall, we'll definitely be back...

My girlfriend and I were looking for a new dining place to discover and we decided to try out the Squan Tavern on an early Sunday evening.

When you walk in, you immediately come to the bar. Quietly seated were small groups of patrons watching the game, drinking their beer, and staying socially distant from one another.

We made it to the rear end of the bar and the entrance to the dining area. We were immediately seated in a booth. It was quiet around 4pm. Not many people, which was great considering the Covid climate and the need not to dine in crowded areas.

As we sat waiting for our server, we were enjoying the oldies radio station that was belting out one memory after another. Nice touch.

We loved our waitress. She was one of the senior waitresses, with a wicked sense of humor and a playful personality. We enjoyed our time talking to her, and she checked back on us once we got our food. For her alone, this should be a 5-star restaurant.

Alas, some of the less-than-stellar reviews I have read here are true. The food here is kind of lackluster. The both of us ordered pasta with sausage. Now, one would expect nice thick round pieces of sausage to highlight the pasta dish. What we got instead was some kind of pressed sausage just laying on top of the pasta. My girlfriend nailed it when she said that it was the same kind of sausage used as a pizza topping in that it was very thin. She didn't even finish her dish she was so unimpressed with it.

Everything was going in the right direction for this Tavern. It's really cozy inside, a place where everyone seems to know each other and the staff is very personable. The food prices aren't terribly exorbitant either. Our bill for two that included one pint of beer ($8) came to $50. We even got salad, warm bread and breadsticks included with our meal. The problem is, the food just didn't hit the mark as far as being really good. And that's a shame cause we really thought up until the point we took our first bite that this would be our new...

Main problem?: An EXTREMELY RUDE waitress!!! I do a lot of food delivery in the area, and have picked up and delivered food from this restaurant for awhile. It always looked delicious and seemed like a very nice place so finally, my family and I made our way there on a random Tuesday night. From the very beginning our waitress who introduced herself as “Ange” was extremely rude and unfriendly. She was very annoyed when we asked questions about certain dishes on the menu, and not accommodating at all when we asked if we could make minor changes to entres. And when I say minor I mean MINOR! (Extra sauce, replace broccoli with spinach). Each time she brought out the food, she literally slammed it on the table, once so hard knocking down the salt shakers, and almost spilling my drink. To top it all off, while we were still in the process of eating our food, she asked about how we would be paying the bill, and if we wanted Dessert. Basically trying to rush us out, just extremely rude. Overall I don’t think Squan Tavern is a bad place. Cozy, neighborhood bar/restaurant feel with good atmosphere. Overall food I think is good. I did get an Italian wedding soup which was quite awful. No flavor, and the meatballs tasted very strange. But my entreé of chicken franchise was absolutely delicious. Would have most definitely given a better rating and review if not for such s rude, and unprofessional waitress. I think it is something management really needs to...