Cinder Bar — Restaurant in Monroe Township

Stopped into the new Cinder Bar in Williamstown yesterday for my youngest daughters birthday. Beautiful building. The enclosed patio area is very nice. A bit loud when crowded, it has a sofa pit in front of the fireplace that is very nice. We got there at 3:45 pm and it was already pretty crowded, which was surprising. The six of us took a table by the front window that was very comfortable. Our waitress, Rebecca, was quick to take our drink orders while we looked over the food menu. The drink selection is impressive. Prices are a bit inflated. Not sure why that is. It's a bar/restaurant and not a fine dining spot. The prices reflect the later. Now for the menu. It is absolutely awful. A hodge podge of dishes most people really never asked to be invented. And several of the items are invented. We had never seen them anywhere and three of our party work in the business. Chicken Pot Pie and French Onion Soup bites. WHAT? Who would come up with these? They just don't belong on a menu. Some of the other Small Plates were bar staples. But we ordered a cup of Lobster Bisque, Cheese Steak Egg Rolls, Empanadas and I just had to try these Chicken Pot Pie bites. The lobster bisque was canned soup. If Campbell's made a lobster bisque I would swear that was what it was. Watery, Abundant salt and almost no lobster. Horrible. We couldn't eat it. The Cheese Steak Egg Rolls were bland and unassuming. The Empanadas were a strange mix of ground beef and I don't know what else. They smelled very weird. Now the Chicken Pot Pie bites. Wow! As I said. These should not exist. Flaky crust, but then a bit of dumpling, a sliver of chicken and one pea with a tasteless sauce of some kind. My kids and their friend got the Short Rib Cheese steak, Short Rib Poutine and the Short Rib Bolognese. No one was happy with the quality of their dishes. We stayed and had a few cocktails and beers and decided to stay away from the food menu. Then the bill came. $267. The drinks were very overpriced. This place is kitchy. It's like it's trying to be a Disney World restaurant and failing miserably. But by the time we left there was a large group of people waiting for seats. The bar was two people deep. But I'm sorry. We'll never go back and I will tell everyone I know that to stay away. The place had horrible food, a stupid, senseless menu (no burgers, no wings no other typical sandwiches I would order. The only bright spot in the visit was our waitress was Rebecca. She was pleasant, attentive and always available when something was needed. A+ server. That is the only reason this place received one star. Otherwise I would have given them zero. One of the worst food experiences we have had in...

Wow what a fantastic experience! This was my first time going to a new restaurant on their opening day. The service here is top notch, fast, friendly, and they have an excellent knowledge of their menu items. I went with two other friends and we were able to experience a total of eight dishes. The kitchen serves food in almost a "family style" manner, which in this case just means that they bring out your food as soon as it is finished cooking instead of holding everything until the total order is complete. I personally prefer this method for a bar-like atmosphere. Their pizzas are small but are the perfect size for sharing between two or three people max. Their appetizer portions are a bit on the small side in regards to sharing with a table of people but if it's just you and one or two other people you should be fine. They have a wide selection of drink menus and specials as well. I can not wait to return and try more menu items, specifically the Short Rib Truffle Oil Pizza. I highly recommend the Cinder Calzone, it just has that perfect blend of ingredients for the filling. The broccoli rabe and sharp provolone are not too overpowering but are definitely present. Their pizza dough is incredible with that true wood fired pizza feel and finish. We ordered a Margarita and the Vola pizzas and both were fantastic. They each had their own unique flavor points. The margarita is as you would expect with a simple crushed tomato blend, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil. The Vola has freshly shaved prosciutto, and yes I mean shaved right there for each pizza, with just a drizzle of olive oil, fresh arugula, house made mozzarella, and grated parmigiano. To wrap this review up, one word comes to mind - Atmosphere. You definitely won't feel like you are in Williamstown, NJ when you are dining here. The design and engineer team did an outstanding job with this place and I am happy to spend my money here.

One tip I have for the owner or management: I think the loop you have on the large television in the main dining area is a bit overkill. If I have to see another ball of mozzarella cut...most people are spending and hour or two here and I swear I saw the same loop about 25 times or more, easily. Really my only real complaint, but other than that you're doing a great job and I wish you the best of luck on this...

So we went to dinner Thursday night about 6:00 pm . There were some bigger parties and then they had a singles mingles event going on which took over the outside patio.

We each got an adult beverage a glass of wine and a beer.

We started with an appetizer which was the pierogies. Although they were very good it was not an appetizer that you could really split because of the portion size, it being so small.

Next we both ordered an entree I got the roast pork pizza and My wife got the salmon entree. So when the salmon entree came out it was just salmon over top of rice and no vegetable. I had to order a side vegetable and they didn't really have much of a selection It was asparagus or one other option. So we got the asparagus and it ended up costing $7 for it.

As for the pizza the dough was good it was a charred pizza which is fine but do know the black char was all over my fingers and the table while eating so it was a little bit of a mess. It was supposed to have roast pork on it which it had some thin sliced pieces but it was more than 70% cherry pepper pizza. I probably wouldn't order that particular pizza again with that quantity of cherry peppers being the standard.

My wife ended up getting a dessert the cookie something which came out on a skillet warmed but it was literally your standard size cookie with some ice cream on top. I've been to some other locations where they would give you like an 8-in cookie or so with ice cream enough for two people to split.

No this is just a little bit about the service It could have been particularly how busy they were etc but I personally ate the full pizza by myself before the server came back around and asked me if I would like another beer. It was about that same time that she refilled our water glasses. No I understand about being in the weeds but we were ready for dessert at that point.

I think I would give them a second chance on a maybe less busier night to see if the complete meal is better But if I had to grade it on a 1 to 10 scale I'd give it an overall 7/10.

As others mentioned I think it is a little pricey for what you get. Our bill came to $96 and we...