Mj's Raw Bar and Grille — Restaurant in New Bern

This was a fun little restaurant! It is pretty small, so expect to wait if you come at a typical meal time. It is bustling which is a very good sign.

We went twice in the week that we were in New Bern—it was highly recommended by locals, and we were impressed after the first visit! Atmosphere is rumbling without being overwhelmingly loud. Wait staff is friendly, accommodating, fast, and full of recommendations.

Now for the food reviews! Fried calamari: a great amount of food for the $14 price tag. Crispy, breaded in-house, and very tender. It was not gummy, chewy, or tough. Presentation was great, and sauce (marinara and a side of sweet chili from the waiter being so used to people requesting it) was plentiful and delicious. Highly recommend! We bought it on both visits and enjoyed it both times.

Clam chowder: excellent! Portion is not very good for the price (about a cup for $8), but the recipe is apparently an old artifact of the owners of the cafe. It is certainly NE clam chowder which is quite hard to disappoint. Delicious, creamy goodness. I recommend you get it if you like clam chowder and don’t mind the upcharge for what I can only imagine are fresh clams.

Crab cakes: ah, the famous crab cakes! Apparently the best in New Bern! They were okay; o quite enjoyed the taste and the warmth. The cake pulls a parent into stringy crabby goodness, and it isn’t bland or cooked poorly. Unfortunately… for $16, a thin small puck of crab cake is a little harder to enjoy. Can’t say I recommend this purchase. It’s just very pricy for what you get. Yummy, for sure! But very pricy. Perhaps they locally source their crab meat, and also crab is expensive in general, but it is a bit nuts to charge so much for a thin crab cake and a small sauce container.

Seafood pot pie: excellent taste! Now… it is small for its $20 price tag. The seafood is tender and the crust is yummy. Nice creamy center, pretty spread of typical pie veggies, and a delightful spread of scallop, shrimp, and… squid? Hard to say. This kind of thing is a novelty, and it was fun to try, but it is indeed a pot pie at the end of the day. Personally, I walked out of that experience liking chicken pot pie just as much, especially since it is a fraction of a price haha. Can’t say o recommend this, but I don’t think you’ll regret the taste if you don’t mind the price.

A burger: okay, this was surprisingly wonderful! For being a seafood cafe, we really enjoyed the slightly pink, thick burger patty, the potato fries, and the sauce. Great spread of veggies on the burger, and the bun was delightful. Gotta say I do recommend this one if you want a filling, delicious, straightforward dish at a good price ($9, I think?).

TL;DR Several items on the menu seem to be over-priced for what you get. If you don’t mind that, you’ll be especially pleased because the food does taste yummy! Delicious, and we don’t regret trying it! Would come back if...

Actually if possible I would give M and Js restaurant 2.5 stars, and I should note this is the very first review I've ever written. We are relatively new to the wonderful this little gem of a city moving here about 2 years ago. Its been our goal to visit each of what appear to be the popular restaurants at least once, most at least twice. Recently we finally got around to M and Js for the first time as it's usually quite busy and they don't take reservations. We had to wait only about 20 minutes to be seated at about 6pm in mid-week. We were adequately greeted on arrival at the door. The small restaurant was completely occupied. The Fire Marshalls noticed posted by the kitchen stated it was unlawful to have occupancy greater than 60 people if I remember correctly, thus you'll have a good idea of the size of the restaurant. Our waitress did an adequate job of caring for us, but certainly nothing over the top which didn't included a friendly greeting. We were a party of 2, and ordered 2 beers, 2 appetizers, and 2 main courses. Our bill came to almost $100 which included a 3% surcharge for paying by credited card. In today's world most purchased are paid by credit card, and some people don't even carry cash. I did not see any posting notice of the 3% surcharge upon entering, nor did I see it on the menu which I would say was fairly extensive. I have a mild objection to adding a surcharge to a bill, but I object strongly to not being advised.of a surcharge before the bill arrives. But then I got a laugh when I saw on the bill where it mention the 3% surcharge it stated thankfully, that there would be no surcharge if you paid in cash. Wow, what good news!!!

Now to talk some about the food. I would describe the food as okay for a run of the mill restaurant, but quite a number of items on the menu are priced as if eating in a fine restaurant, not a small cramped eatery.

In my opinion the ownership of the restaurant should be exceedingly greatful for the apparently large number of patrons they have, and it is likey very profitable without having to try to milk every dollar from the business possible by adding a 3% surcharge. That's...

Listen, the food is always excellent. My son chose here for his graduation dinner. We had grandparents drive up from Florida. Other family was here. We had a party of nine. I knew coming in there would be a wait. I was told 45 minutes to an hour. I gave them my phone number. An hour had gone by and I came to check on the table. I told they messaged me. I said I didn't get a message. They looked and the woman had taken my phone number wrong. The teenage looking kid with his hat backwards seemed to not care and all he could say was "sorry about that, but you can wait for another hour if you want". It was just handled very unprofessional. I have eaten here dozens of times, and have never experienced anything like this. We ultimately ended up waiting again and were eventually seated about 45 minutes later. So the total wait time due to their incompetence was 2 hours and fifteen minutes. After being seated I was expecting at the very least a simple apology from a manager or supervisor. Nope nothing just a teenage looking kid stepping out the door and yelling my name for the table to be ready. No discount, no we're extremely sorry this happened here's what we can do, nothing. I've been in the restaurant industry for 30 years and have never been treated as poorly as this when the restaurant actually made the mistake. The one star for service has nothing to do with the actual server who took care of my table. He was excellent and provided professional service was tipped as such. That one star goes to the first impression that you get when you walk in the door. One of the 70+ old grandparents who also had to wait for this entire time said it best, "that's what you get when you have teenagers running the place". I will be back to eat here, because I thoroughly enjoy the food being that you just can't get Maryland style seafood anywhere else around here. Going forward I will make them repeat my phone number back to me like even longhorn does when you are on...