Churrascaria Paladar — Restaurant in Mount Olive

We attended a party at the pump house recently, which may have affected some of our experience.

Food - decent, though a bit bland and what I would describe as old people-y Decor - incredible. very family feel, like you are at mom's house at the kitchen nook Service - abysmal. Rude, uninterested, and unapologetic

As I mentioned, our experience may have been colored by the fact that we were at a party that I believe was already paid for. The decor at the pumphouse is great. It really feel like visiting your parents after being at college for a while or something similar. So homey. The food itself was ok, though pretty bland and had a canned feel. The filet was nice and tender, "like buttah" as it was described, but really had no taste other than the gravy on it. Yes, gravy on fillet. I know, I should have known at that point what to expect. The mashed potatoes were also certainly of the instant variety.

Now I come to the service. I wish there wasn't any. I don't think service has ever stuck out to me as so negative before. Normally bad service means inattentive or missing, but here it was actually unfriendly, rude service that detracted from the experience. W began with no forks. When my wife asked for one, the waitress implored her to "speak up honey, I can't hear yah". When I realized mine also didn't exist, and mentioned to her when she came back with my wife's, she just sighed, rolled her eyes and left. 10 minutes later when my salad was still untouched and the main course arrived, I decided to go to another table and procure one. When we asked if we could order more drinks, she questioned, "why, only one is free, you got to pay for the rest", we explained this would be acceptable. She didn't return. So I went to the bar, hoping to have a second of what I had already had. Well. this was not in the cards. I first noticed they had Anchor Steam, which I was quite excited about as we had just returned from SF. When I asked, I was informed, no, this keg was kicked. When I asked for the Otter Creek, which we had visited while in VT, one was poured before it also expired, shooting foam all over me, at which the bartendress chuckled and offered no apology. Since this was not an option for the second, I ordered the Honker IPA. Nope, this was also gone. I fell like it might have been easier to tell me what was left rather than playing this guessing game, but I guess I'm not the expert. Out of 5 taps, two were remaining. Again, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt as we were there for a rather large party, the decor was nice, and the food was not terrible, but the service may keep us from coming back...

This had to be one of the most disappointing dining experiences of my life. I made a reservation for 6 people for 6:30. It was my adult son's birthday. We were seated quickly and that was the end of that. We had two children with us so we ordered one dinner off the menu for them to split and the rest of the table had the rodizio. At 7:30 we still had no food at the table. The children were now getting really tired and were really hungry. For the entire hour we waited multiple servers passed our table (including our own server) and said nothing about the delay. Finally I got up and found our server and told her that we had been waiting over an hour and we still had no food. On my way back to the table I looked around and noted that we were the ONLY table that had absolutely no food. Our server came over a few minutes later and told us the chef had "misplaced" our ticket. I should add that what we ordered for the kids was a chicken kabob. The same thing they were serving rodizio style. Less than 5 minutes later our table was full of food. Sides came, kids meal came, and 3 servers dishing out the meats. The beef rib was so tough no one at the table even tried to eat it. The baby back rib was so dry it looked like it was on the fire since yesterday. At $43 or so a plate, that alone would make me not go back. Another $27 for 5 pieces of chicken (total) for the children. The same chicken that was being served to everyone else. So I need to ask, what did it matter if the chef misplaced our ticket. We were not eating anything that was special order. We were eating what the rest of the people were eating. Not a single employee apologized for the total screw up of our order or the fact that we did not eat until 90 minutes after we were seated. Live and learn. There are plenty of places with tried and true good food that will be happy to take my $300 in the future. This place will not be...

I stumbled upon this place by accent, after taking a wrong turn on Route 46. I am very glad to have found it, though. I have not had a chance to sit in for dinner, opting instead for their takeaway. Many similar restaurants have very good quality meats, both flavor and texture. What I see lacking are the accompaniments - rice, beans, potatoes, etc. This place has excellent white rice (it is not pasty like you'd expect at a Chinese restaurant); the beans are seasoned, flavorful, and have small pieces of sausage and other meats hidden in there; the fries are more like chips: thinly sliced, crispy potatoes. Though they do have cubed fries, I haven't tried them yet. Their fried yucca (mandioca) is very good. some places over-salt their yucca, but not this place. Like the other reviewer said, this place is practically hidden in plain sight. It's just outside the downtown Hackettstown area, and the sign is not visible unless you're looking dead-on at the restaurant. But being away from downtown makes it so there is ample parking, even on the weekends. And while the street parking is metered, $0.25 will get you an hour at said meter. In all, I recommend this to everyone - first-timers and veteran Brazilian food lovers. I have not had their Rodizio yet, though if their smaller plates are as good as I have experienced, I can imagine the Rodizio is top-notch. keep in mind the place is very small, and can maybe seat 40 people at the most. Call ahead and make a reservation, or do what I do and get takeaway so you can savor the food at your own pace, in...