Rod's Steak & Seafood Grille — Restaurant in Morris Township

Never again!

Read the reviews and this established steak house seems to be very hit or miss. This is a real shame because before we came here for dinner this past weekend, we were shocked by the prices they were charging for steak with their entire selection starting at $50. I never thought I would see the day I would be paying that much for steak.

Our group of six arrived around 6 pm with reservations and were almost seated immediately. The restaurant has that old-time charm to it. Very beautiful on the inside. Being that it was a Saturday night, the place was very busy.

Our evening here was just a bad experience from start to finish.

To begin with, service was abysmally slow. We were seated at 6:15 pm and didn't get served until close to 8:00. It seemed like the waiting staff was completely overwhelmed. It didn't help that there was a wedding reception being held there that evening, either.

Our appetizer of calamari was horrible. It wasn't crisp and it had a very fishy taste to it. We ended up sending that back. My friends had escargot which they said was not the best that they have had.

Our main courses were just "okay." None us had steak due to the exorbitant prices being charged. I had a full rack of baby-back ribs that were decent. My girlfriend had the roasted chicken which she thought was okay. In fact, the overall consensus of the food was that it just wasn't anything spectacular for the type of restaurant we were eating at.

What's worse is that around 9 pm there was a live band playing in the adjoining bar that completely drowned out the dining area. It was the most absurd thing I have ever witnessed in a fine dining establishment.

Picture this: You are sitting in a beautiful, expensive restaurant hoping for an evening of good food and conversation. The next thing you know there is live rock band music filling the air, so completely loud that you can't even talk to the person next to you. I couldn't believe this was the kind of thing that would be allowed in a fine steakhouse.

In retrospect, it was just an awful experience dining here. Our waiter, Ceasar, was really nice. However after we complained about the bad calamari and had it sent back and then complained about the 90 minutes we waited for our food the staff was pretty shaken up afterward as if they were completely tired, overwhelmed, and understaffed.

I have to agree with the bad reviews that Rod's Steak & Seafood Grille doesn't have its act together. If you are going to establish yourself as a high-end steakhouse then make certain the service and the quality of what you are serving meet those standards. Most of all, don't have a rock band playing during dinner when people want to sit, relax and engage in quiet conversation. You guys need to decide if you are going to be an A-list steakhouse or a local pub that has live bands. You can't do both and please those who are paying good money for a relaxing...

My wife and I came here for dinner on a midweek evening in early August 2023. Lots of people in the area are away on vacation, so predictably the restaurant was relatively empty. Unfortunately that meant we could not eat in the parlor cars that other reviewers have mentioned. We were told those open for diners only on Friday and Saturday nights due to staffing shortages.

The hostess who greeted us seemed utterly bored and barely said hello. She took us to the dining area on the second floor above the bar area, which had lots of empty tables and only a few diners. She got annoyed when we declined to be seated next to a large party, and instead requested one of the many empty tables away from them. She never welcomed us to the restaurant, never said to have a nice dinner, and didn't even give us menus, which we got from our server. Probably one of the worst hostesses we have encountered.

Our server was terrific. He diligently took notes about food allergies and how we wanted our food prepared. The chef followed through, so everything was to our liking. Very accommodating and very professional. However dinner took a long time to come even though the restaurant was nearly empty--probably due to staffing shortages--and our server thanked us for our patience.

The main dining area on the second floor is tastefully decorated, with a giant chandelier in the middle. That chandelier overlooks the bar below. In other words the second floor has a large cutout in the center from which you can easily see the bar below and the TVs there. You can also hear all the bar noise. Fortunately the bar wasn't that crowded, but there was one loud and noisy table that we heard loud and clear when our dessert arrived. I can only imagine how noisy it is when both the dining area and bar are full.

The food was fresh, expertly prepared, and delicious. The large house salad was split for us in the kitchen with the cheese, dressing and other items on the side (as per our request) and was very nice. The grilled swordfish with broccoli was perfectly prepared, the Chilean Sea Bass was amazing, and the side of charred Brussel sprouts with bacon was tasty (though the bacon pieces were minuscule). The raspberry sorbet for dessert was creamy and the blueberries and strawberries were nice and fresh. The espresso was kind of weak, but we let that slide.

There is an extensive cocktail and wine list. We chose a nice bottle of wine for dinner. It was pricey, but no more so than any other fine dining restaurant.

While the food was very good, I'm not sure we would return. For fine dining we prefer a more intimate setting that is not literally on top of the bar area. The parlor cars might remedy that, but I suspect they are pretty crowded and noisy on...

Been to Rod's for the Sunday brunch a few times over the last couple of years usually on holidays. Went for Father's day this time which was the standard buffet. On other holidays like Mother's day it is the same buffet but the price jumps from about $29 pp to $59 pp. We had a 10:15am seating and were seated upstairs which was very pretty but really inconvenient when food service is a buffet. The food is generally good and there is a large selection of lunch dishes, salads, cheeses, meats, desserts...etc but very limited on breakfast items which at 10:15 in the morning is what we are there for. Only egg item available for self service was eggs benedict which was empty when we arrived. Once the tray was refilled we found that the english muffins were not toasted. The kitchen must have rushed to get the refill out to the dining room. Any other egg dish like scrambled eggs you had to wait in line at the omelette station. Most buffets will have scrambled eggs as a self serve item along with some kind of quiche or egg souffle. They had the standard bacon and sausage tray and some breakfast potatoes. No pancakes or waffles but I did find some mini waffles in a dish between the 2 man omelette station. Not the best location. The downstairs was mostly empty when we arrived and never filled up the whole time we were there so not sure why we were placed upstairs. Only a handful of tables were in use up there and there were plenty of servers standing around but none were attentive. We had to constantly waved them over to refill water, coffee, OJ...etc and to remove empty dishes. The coffee was terrible. Took forever to get the check. The last time we ate at Rod's we decided we were done with them but we gave them one more try. Sorry to say we won't...