Fig & Lily Garden — Restaurant in Morristown

We had the most awful service ever that should never be given to any customer. After looking at the reviews and menu I made a reservation to celebrate my husband’s birthday along with family. We were 7 adults 3 kids. I had made the bookings for 7:30 pm on May 1st Monday. And due to working day I called the restaurant at 6:45pm if we could move the reservations to 8:00pm which I was told no problem at all as the restaurant would close by 10pm and kitchen closes by 9:15pm. When we arrived at the restaurant the head server MIKE (strong British accent) welcomed us and in next 10 mins of arriving our appetizers were on our table. He rushed us into finalizing our order sure as the kitchen was to close. While we waited for our entree we ordered another round of calamari (appetizer) and told MIKE to pace the entree (the time 8:30). He got the entree despite us telling him to pace it out which we felt rushed but we gave him the benefit of doubt that the kitchen would be closing. When he hit us the entree we told him to not bring the appetizer calamari as it was suppose to come before dinner. To this he still brought the calamari out and said “OH I hate wasting food but I will throw them in the trash” we were shocked to hear his rude behavior. My husband tried talking but he kept interjecting insisting on sprinkling black pepper as if to tick mark his job. This was a BYOB place and my husband got an expensive $150 scotch which he butchered the cork ensuring the bottle couldn’t be closed. He brought my son 3 Pattie’s with fries while we ordered meat balls on the menu which was suppose to be on a bed of Marinara sauce and cheese. My son didn’t eat his dinner as the Pattie’s which were suppose to be meatballs were dry and insipid. I ordered salad that looked more like ratatouille all muggy and jumbled. The food seemed it was simply reheated and not flavorful at all. Above this when we asked for a manager and surely instead of the manager other servers came to resolve the matter which they couldn’t understand as they didn’t seem to understand English and kept telling us to lower our voices as they were worried about their image rather than apologizing for the atrocious behavior of server MIKE and the horrible FOOD !! All if this was still at 9 pm where we still had 1 hour to our reservation and we were simply pushed to finish !! Later the coowner of the restaurant came and apologized for the situation by this time the entire experience and my husbands birthday celebrations were ruined. The headserver MIKE came to give us the bill and removed $100 off the amount ! While the gesture was fine I’m shocked that the restaurant owners thought of giving a discount would negate and put the entire experience good. Money isn’t the issue and we wouldn’t come to this restaurant if we couldn’t afford but the entire experience was simply horrible ! It’s okay to have a bad day but when guests come to a restaurant they expect good or great service polite people and words that could still meet the timelines staying polite kind !! I hope we didn’t experience this because of...

Sort of a weird experience here. First of all, though they don't say it on the website, they expect each guest to order an entree and will charge a 10 dollar fee if you'd like to share an entree. We came here explicitly because we wanted to share a selection of their mezze plates, which they did let us do (but only because we ordered more than 2 per person, which was definitely more food than we needed). They then proceeded to bring all the food (10+ dishes!!) at once. Perhaps my perceptions are warped by living in a larger metro area, but in my experience, typically at a small plates/tapas/mezze restaurant the meal is coursed so your food doesn't get cold and your table isn't overly crowded. We found the onslaught of dishes very overwhelming and the service thus somewhat disappointing.

The food itself was good (not great, but good). The watermelon and feta was the highlight of our meal, along with the meatballs and halloumi with apricots. Not much to say here--the selection of mezze plates is wide and varied, the food is fresh and of a fair quality for an upscale restaurant. The setting on the outdoor patio was absolutely gorgeous--I would return just for drinks on the patio a million times over. Truly one of the most stunning restaurants I have seen outside of New York City. Well done there!

Finally, the pricing is OUTRAGEOUS. Really, really, really crazy. Especially once you factor in the entree sharing fees and their ordering expectations. We spent $300 for 5 people ($30 on drinks for 3), and while we over ordered because we wanted to get mezzes, even if each member of our party had gotten an entree (as required), the meal would have been at least $250. The prices rival upscale restaurants in New York City and Boston, and the quality of the food certainly doesn't merit that type of price tag. It is better than much of what you'll find outside the city, but you can find a meal of a pretty similar quality for considerably less money in Morristown.

Overall, the atmosphere is fantastic, but the service, food and pricing leave much to be desired. I'd recommend it for drinks and perhaps a light meal (apps, if they change their policy to let you do that...) but not a full meal for a crowd. A good date...

So I don’t like giving this place a bad review as I actually love the food and think it’s a lovely spot. But they seriously need to fix their issues with sudden cancellations/overbooking/not honoring reservations. Personally I had an experience where I booked an igloo during the winter relatively in advance when OpenTable was showing every time as bookable. It was very clearly an outdoor reservation and was confirmed by OpenTable as such. When they call to confirm they try to convince me that I made an indoor reservation and that if I didn’t agree to be seated inside they would have to cancel my reservation as all igloos were booked. I told them to cancel, immediately go back on OpenTable and see that multiple time slots including my own are open for outdoor igloos. I rebooked and we dined that night without any issue, so I was willing to chalk that up to a one time confusion or technology issue.

HOWEVER since then there have been at least 2 additional experiences with our friends experiencing bizarre cancelations. One time a couple literally got to the restaurant for a similar igloo booking only to be told that they couldn’t honor that reservation time and would have to seat them 2-3 hours later. This is while they’re watching a much larger walk in party come in and get seated at an igloo, so it’s pretty obvious happened there. Then, another time friends have a birthday party booked indoors there only to get a call right before the reservation saying that due to inclement weather their table was being given to a different outdoor party and they were told to just re-book the birthday party a different day.

I just cannot recommend this restaurant to anyone anymore, because especially if you have a smaller party it seems to be a total gamble whether ANY reservation will be honored by them. Based on other low reviews we’re not the only ones experiencing this. Given the fact that virtually all other restaurants in the area are able to take an honor reservations I don’t understand what’s going on with the front desk of this restaurant. It’s not cool to be repeatedly canceling on people who book well in advance and the restaurant might not even give you any notice that they gave...