Stirling Tavern — Restaurant in Morristown

WE WERE MADE TO FEEL LIKE CRIMINALS AND REFUSED SERVICE. Please read. (Part 1) Firstly, I would give zero stars if it was an option purely based on the service. I have never felt so uncomfortable and disrespected at a place of business in my entire life. I cannot speak on the food, we didn’t eat…. I can’t even speak on the drinks either since we were refused for absolutely no reason. For background, my mother is from Morristown/New Vernon and my grandparents still live here. She moved to NY when she got married and I was raised there. I still live in NY. My mother has since moved to SC. The context I think is an important factor: My mother flew up from SC and I drove in today to visit my grandfather who is in hospice. We were taking care of my grandfather all day, and since he was sleeping and was being cared for by an aide, we decided to pop out for one drink. We have always loved Morristown and have enjoyed many of their restaurants and bars in the past. We walked into Stirling Tavern, as we had enjoyed drinks there previously. We thought it was a good choice because we remembered the cozy and calm atmosphere and enjoyed our drinks. The hostess was nice and welcoming. We were happy to see two open seats at the bar and took a seat. The bar tender approached us and looked friendly. She answered all of our questions and when my mother asked if she could perhaps have a taste of one of the draft beers, she kindly obliged. However, things quickly got very strange. The bartender came up to me and asked for my ID. I am 24 years old, so I am often asked for my ID and respect that this is a necessary step to discourage underage drinking. I handed her my ID. She took a quick visual scan and handed it back. She stepped away, letting my mom take a sip of her sample and to decide what we wanted. (In retrospect, I did think it was strange how she and the other bartenders were huddled at the end of the bar talking, but at most I thought this was just a bit unprofessional when there were many people waiting for drinks.) After seeming to “conference” with the other staff, she came back about 5 minutes later and asked for my ID again, strange, but I had nothing to hide so I obliged. She said something like “we just have to verify it”. I thought that’s fair enough, I live in NY where they are super strict on IDs and often scan. She came back very quickly after, not even 2 minutes later, and said “yeah, I can’t accept this. I won’t take it, but I can’t”. Stunned and very confused I asked, “why?”. She said something like “it doesn’t match… we have the right to refuse. It’s an out of state ID”. Not getting angry or upset, I attempted to inquire further because I was genuinely curious how they could have possibly found my “Real ID” very recently renewed license to be fraudulent. I got no answer and was again told “we have the right to refuse”. My mother, of course defensive of me and upset by the situation also inquired as to what the problem was with which she was met with “let me see your ID”. She asked my 57 year old mother for her ID. My mom also obliged and gave it to her. She looked at quickly, rolling her eyes and handed it back. Quickly a few other staff huddled around her I guess to “watch the show”. Then she asked my mother in a very snarky and condescending tone, “well why are you in Morristown”. It was so incredibly disrespectful and made us feel as if we were criminals being interrogated. My mother told her exactly why we were here, and they all had nothing to say and just continued to look at us...

First time dining here, we'd stopped by for drinks and snacks a few months back and wanted to try it out for dinner. We ordered drinks at the bar while waiting for our table, by the time our drinks arrived, we were called for our table. The drinks were great. We were sat and our waitress comes by, no intro, notes that we already had drinks from the bar and walked away without saying another word, she came back 15 minutes later to take our order. Overall, our waitress wasn't really attentive or available when we needed to order, request items and the bill, or pay. While waiting for our waitress, I noted to my gf how the decor seemed like the restaurant was confused and trying to find its identity, chic intimate tables for dining, large black and white prints of various musicians, a brightly lit peace sign oddly placed at the back of the room, staff seemed to be very casually dressed. Not necessarily 'tavern' vibes. The menu is on the smaller side, in my experience when this is the case, it means the limited options that are offered are well executed. The apps, we ordered the southwest salad along with the fried pickles, both were good. For our entree, I ordered the tavern burger(I had read another review stating this was the best burger theyd ever had), my gf ordered the pan seared halibut. Presentation was nice. My burger was a little underdone for what I asked but I didn't bother saying anything about it. The flavor of the burger was off, it tasted like it had been mixed with Indian spices (I'm Indian) which would have been fine if that's what was intended however it wasn't mentioned in the menu description and I don't believe it was intentionally there, it clashed with the intentional burger flavors. I stopped after a second bite and left my burger at that, no concern from the waitress as to why my meal was basically left untouched. My girlfriend said her halibut was ok, however the flavor of bacon fat in the puree overpowered the other flavors, she ate a little less than half her meal before throwing in the towel. For dessert, we ordered the mocha cake, presentation again was nice, the cake was on the dryer side and to be honest didn't have much flavor but I was hungry so I scarfed down a good portion of it. The ice cream was a bit sweet for my liking but was otherwise good and to each their own. I love bacon but the bacon brittle that was crumbled on top tasted very heavily of bacon fat and again was just off putting. Waited another 15 mins to flag our waitress down for the check and got out of there. We wanted to like this restaurant, unfortunately the experience as a whole left a poor taste in our mouths literally and figuratively. Needless to say we won't...

I don't really understand the "hype" of this restaurant. My brother has been a few times and I wish he would've told me what he recommended at the end: this restaurant has better appetizers than their entrees.

The bar was first come, first serve and the bartender was just "ok". He wasn't overly friendly or attentive, just "ok". The type to get us our drinks/food and move on. The chairs are quite close together but it's a decent size. In the bar area, there looked like the most uncomfortable small tables - they were the type where you're sitting in a booth with a table you'd have to really lean into to eat - not the most flatter way to enjoy a meal.

3 of us ate at the bar we ordered appetizers and entrees. The entrees were bland and lacked flavor. The appetizers were fabulous though!

APPETIZERS: (Dinner special ordered as an appetizer) Crab Rangoon | Rating: 5/5 - absolutely delicious! I believe they were actually supposed to be an entree, which was surprising because they were 2 Rangoon empanadas and nothing else... the picture will say it all. If ordered as an entree, I think I'd be disappointed but as an appetizer they were really good. Pork Belly Tostada | Rating 4/5: some pieces of the pork were fatty and chewy. It wasn't really something you could split with someone/a table because it only came with 1 tostada. The flavor was great, just wish they took out some of the fatty pieces before frying them.

ENTREES: Tavern Burger | Rating: 2/5 - for the price, it wasn't great. I was told by my brother that the Tavern Sauce was disgusting so I omitted that when I ordered but the burger was super oily and overall it just was "meh". Wild Boar Ragu | Rating: 3/5 - my husband said it was just "ok". (Appetizer ordered as an entree) Burger Bites | Rating: 5/5 - my brother said they were really good but again, why would they be better than their signature entree burger? There was a significant difference in just the looks of them too, they looked more appealing than my burger entree.

Overall, I don't think we'd be back unless it'd be for quick drinks and appetizers. The price was outrageously expensive for the quality and taste of the food. The restaurant is overhyped in my opinion, just because it's in the heart of Morristown. There's better restaurants...