NOM Mexican Table + Tequila Bar — Restaurant in Morristown

At the time of writing this, their rating is 4.6 stars. A 4.6 star rating and my $30 entree is inedible?? I usually never leave bad reviews but this current rating absolutely does not reflect my experience here and I’d hate for a fellow foodie to come all this way to face the same disappointment. We came in on a Monday night looking to find a new reliable spot in town. Unfortunately, this isn’t it. The drinks. For my first round I got the passion fruit + mint marg. Something about it had a very powdery taste. I’m assuming the passion fruit is a dried juice concentrate mix- and a lot of it as I could barely taste the tequila. No mint taste. Why bother having it in the name if what you’re referring to is the one mint leaf garnish. Left a weird aftertaste. My second drink, the Tres Palomas was much better but still tasted watered down. My partner got the Jorje Está Muerto. You could see the egg white was over-shaken and the foam didn’t hold. Bland. Shame. His second drink was the Dark and Smokey and he had the same feedback- weird aftertaste, watered down. Maybe I’d expect watered down drinks at a family restaurant but I thought this place was trying to push its tequila bar?

The food: Our meal wasn’t anything special. We started with the loaded yuca fries. They were fine but nothing could prepare us for what came next: the table side guac. Usually, when you order this performance at a nice establishment you get a beautiful and charismatic display. The molcajete is VITAL. I was excited to see a rolling cart make its way to us but on it was just a big ceramic bowl and a potato masher. Oxo. I have the same one at home. Don’t think I’d pull it out for a party trick. It was SO embarrassing to sit through… I would have preferred if they did this in the kitchen as there was nothing table-side worthy of the experience. No offense to our guacamole server- its absolutely not his fault that this is the restaurants programming. Next we got the arepas. We should have stuck to the Mexican offerings I guess. The things I look for in an arepa were missing: a crispy exterior, a crumbly interior, the corn flavor. Maybe they tried to be creative and use their proprietary Nom mash here? Which led to two dense pancakes stacked on top of each-other rather than stuffed. I’m assuming the plating is to make a lunch/snack item feel more dinner-worthy. Just call it something else then? The shrimp and other toppings were good but the arepa itself was way too sweet. I ended up just having the top one that touched a bit of savory from the shrimp and crema. Finally, we were served the Mole Glazed Pork chop which was unfortunately inedible. Upon ordering, our server let us know “this is cooked medium so there will be a little pink if that’s okay” which was exciting! Sounds like they know what they’re doing. What we were given was a dry, charred, black lump, cooked completely white through and the kicker- sitting on a TEASPOON of mole- just for decoration I guess?? On my first bite, the dry pork was BEGGING for sauce but there wasn’t enough for two bites. Trying to make sense of this… if you order mole anything you should get a bowl of mainly sauce. Maybe the mole was used only as a rub- in which it wasn’t concentrated enough to warrant so little of and of course we couldn’t taste it on the pork at all as it was burned off. We ate our side of rice and beans and mash and just tried not to look at it. The server didn’t question us when we asked not to have it wrapped to go. NOM has all the outfittings of a nice restaurant. Our servers were polite and attentive and on paper the menu looks good but nothing you actually imbibe or ingest hits the mark. I hope this place takes a really long hard look at their menu items and perhaps brings in a consultant. Try looking at Fonda or Dos Caminos. For the prices you’re charging, I SHOULD be having just as good an experience as at a Mexican eatery in NYC.

We left disappointed but not surprised. Just another mediocre...

My review for this place is mixed, but not very positive. The overall feelings after having dinner here were disappointment, frustration, and a small bright spot when it came to the drinks.

My GF and I wanted to try a new spot and saw the positive reviews that were posted.

Typically, when we try a new restaurant, we order an appetizer and an entree to share with some drinks. That way we can assess the style and quality without going overboard.

After reviewing the menu, we decided to order the Shrimp Tostones (Appetizer) and the Garlic Lime Shrimp (Entree). Our disappointment immediately started with the first bite of the tostones. Traditional tostones are made with green plantains not ripened plantains. These plantains were ripe, so they were soft/mushy and sweet tasting. Not crunchy at all. Very disappointing.

Next came the frustrating part of our meal. The Garlic Shrimp Entree was served without any side at all. The photo on the website shows a small plate of sides. And the menu we were given at the restaurant (please see the photo provided), specially says at the bottom, “all items in (big plates/entrees) includes a selection of sides for the table”. When we asked the server for the sides, we were told that you must purchase two entrees to get one side! Not one appetizer and one entree, as we did. But there was no mention of that on the menu, as you can clearly see. I told the server, “that’s not stated here at all”, and the server understood our frustration and offered us a free side. We appreciated the gesture and refused the side, because I didn’t want to give the impression that we were looking for free food. We finished the plate as it was served. A $27 plate of just 4 shrimp. I could not believe it…

I cannot understand how a Mexican Restaurant would ever serve an entree without a traditional rice/beans side. And for a restaurant to require TWO entrees to be purchased before you get an inexpensive side like rice, is utterly ridiculous and disingenuous. PLUS, it shows a lack of understanding if a patron were to dine here ALONE; only to find out that they need a hungry friend in order to qualify for rice!

I will admit that the drinks were good, which is why I gave this review 2 stars instead of just 1, but we will not be returning here again. I’ve never spent so much for such a non-traditional Mexican dish, with an incredibly disingenuous policy on providing sides…for $27, you would expect that 4 shrimp would come with a side. Not here…you need to buy $54 worth of shrimp to get a $1 plate...

My friends and I came here on a Friday with a 7:45p reservation with high expectations as Nom came highly recommended. When we arrived, we had a 15 minute wait for our reservation and were only sat faster because 2 people in our party couldn’t make it. We ordered drinks and apps, the margs were really good and the queso and yucca fries were also pretty good.The table side guac is absolutely not worth the money, literally tasted like avocado with the slightest hint of lime. Everyone got separate entrees, 3/6 were bland or cold or both. I got the vegetarian quesadilla which I know vegetarian food can be hit or miss, but it was 90% warm slaw which was bitter and slimey and overpowered anything else in the quesadilla. One entree was the fried fish tacos which were ice cold and another was a chicken burrito- the chicken was bone dry and unseasoned and the burrito literally only had unseasoned rice and chicken in it with more bland guacamole on top of it. I sent my entree back which they took off the bill, but wasn’t offered to order anything else :( by the time we saw our waitress again, everyone was so over the whole ordeal no one wanted dessert. The sides that came with the entree literally looked like microwave bag unseasoned rice and black beans right out of the can. Save your money and go somewhere else, the only thing worth $ here...