Halcyon — Restaurant in Montclair

My husband and I have been here many times over the years and just love the food and ambiance but last week we did something different and I just wanted to share. It was a special birthday for my husband and I wanted to take our closest friends out to dinner. It was an evening that exceeded all expectations! I stopped in to reserve the U-shaped booth towards the back, about a month before; with the panels at the top of the seating area, everyone said it felt like a private room. I had mentioned not wanting our group to have to see prices when deciding what to order and, no problem, Iliana said she'd do whatever parts of the menu I wanted to share without prices and then asked if I'd like Happy Birthday, Chris at the top. Perfect! And while I would have been happy to have those menus on regular paper, they were on cardstock- personal and elegant. I also met with Marshall a few days before to pre-select wines to start, with oysters and crab, and then for dinner. He also touched base the day before to just go over everything. I did recognize that however "private party" this felt in the arranging, the staff person assigned to our table would obviously also be taking care of others. I know that was the case, but Peter took care of us in a way that made us feel that he was there just for us. Glasses were kept filled, I was asked numerous times was there anything else he could get for us, etc. Simply could not have asked for better! Our group has been privileged to have had more than our fair share of delicious meals in wonderful restaurants over the decades, and people were actually saying they thought this was the best meal they remember eating in a really long time (two said forever!). Words like "perfect" were heard frequently. I cannot thank everyone at Halcyon enough (including the person who greeted us and another person who smilingly took and delivered coats to us) for making a milestone birthday celebration with life friends a night we, but most importantly, my husband, will...

Halcyon has a lovely atmosphere and menu selection and I had not visited in many years so decided to try it again when I was back in the area. Unfortunately our waiter was truly horrible and as a result the dining experience was not good. My husband ordered the fried rice and specifically asked if it had onions, the waiter did not know the menu well because he said “ I guess small ones, maybe a few”. He should have said I’m not sure let me find out! So my husband proceeded to order the dish thinking they are tiny minced onions and he specifically said please do not add scallions. The dish came out both with scallions and I would say 80% of the dish was filled with large onions. What’s worse is when the waiter did come over to check on us he asked “ is everything to your liking ?” While never looking down at the table or my husband busy picking out all of the scallions. My husband never ever likes to complain so he just replied yes everything is fine and saying to me lets get out of here asap. Even when I fished my dinner and he pushed his aside and asked the waiter for the check he asked us “ do you want to take this home?” We said no and again he is not smart enough to look at the plate and see massive onions and scallions left on the plate and picked to the side. We ordered edamame for an appetizer and it was served in a very small ( too small) bowl with no discard bowl, which is common for whenever you order edamame! We were not offered any bread and none was on the menu and I assumed they don’t offer any but then we saw the table next to us being given bread. Not sure if our waiter just did not offer any or you specifically have to ask for this. I ordered the tacos veggie style and that was good so it wasn’t a complete loss. The bottom line is the help can make or break the experience and unfortunately for us, we won’t ever go back...

Visited: Sunday 8/24 at 2:43 PM

I was really excited to visit this place because I had seen it all over TikTok, but my experience was very disappointing starting with the service. We arrived earlier than our 3:15 reservation and were told by the hostess that we could still have brunch, but she seemed flustered and seated us very quickly and walked away without much warmth.

I didn’t like the seat she gave us, so I asked for another. She went to the back looking visibly annoyed while we stood there waiting, which left a bad first impression.

Our waiter seemed cool at first, but when our food came, I needed salt and pepper for my toast and he was nowhere to be found for a long time. He wasn’t very warm but he was ok.

We waited a long time and eventually I had to get up, find him myself, and ask for the seasonings. Even though it was the end of brunch and the restaurant wasn’t full, our entrées took about 30 minutes to arrive.

We ordered chicken and waffles and avocado toast, and while they were transitioning to the dinner menu, the long delay was disappointing.

For appetizers we ordered a Caesar salad and calamari. The Caesar salad portion was very small for the price and the calamari was just okay but it arrived cold with no heat at all. We ate it anyway, but it wasn’t worth it.

My avocado toast was fine. I asked for balsamic reduction and pickled onions, which they added, but the avocado itself still needed salt and pepper.

The chicken and waffles were the biggest disappointment. The waffle batter was bland and 1 was left uneaten, while the chicken was covered in sweet chili sauce (which it didn’t say on the menu) that made the whole dish overly sweet and hard for him to eat.

The atmosphere was nice with good music and a chill vibe. Overall, we left underwhelmed. I’m...