Burke's Tavern — Restaurant in Newark

We had a strange experience here the other night. A coworker and I came in for dinner around 7 and were seated promptly. We didn’t order drinks, but the cocktails looked great. The first half of the meal went well. The server was friendly and attentive at first, but after our food arrived, he disappeared. Someone else cleared our plates, and we waited a long time without being offered dessert or the check. I eventually had to flag down another server, who found him.

When I asked to split the check based on what we each ordered, he did the opposite by mistake, then had to reprint it twice. Each time took about five minutes, even though the restaurant was maybe 20% full. From the time we finished eating to the time we left was nearly an hour, mostly just waiting.

The food was hit or miss. The salad I ordered arrived in the middle of us yet without any plates for us to split it, if that was the case. My lamb burger was over charred and messy, and the sides were confusing: a long whole roasted pepper, 2 halves of a radish, and tempura-fried caper berries. I had to ask what they were. A simple arugula salad with radishes would’ve made more sense. I also ordered fries, which I misread as $4 but were actually $8. Unfortunately, they were plain and unseasoned, not worth the price. I asked for mayo when I ordered them then had to ask again for mayo when the food was dropped and it didn’t have it. I also had to ask for a salt shaker.

On the positive side, my coworker enjoyed her pizza, and the ambiance was nice, with tasteful fall...

I've never been driven to write a dining or product review, but our experience is worth sharing. Based on existing reviews, I was excited to dine here. And I will say, the vibe is exactly my taste -- the place is super cute and a short walk to Prudential Center (we had a 5:30 reservation before a 7:30 concert). However, the service was disappointing.

-It took about 40 MINUTES for three of our drinks to arrive, and ONE HOUR for one person's beer to arrive (a beer!) -We were there for 45 minutes before our food order was taken -By 7pm (another 45 minutes after we ordered), we were asking for an update and told them we need to make a 7:30 concert (by this point, the one app that I ordered came out) -By 7:20, we still hadn't gotten our dinner and asked that it be packed (we had asked for an update a couple times at this point) -Multiple tables around us came, ate and left in the time it took to even get an update on our food -We ate our food with our hands (salad + pasta) on our fast walk to the arena

I understand and empathize with how busy + under staffed restaurants are right now. I can also appreciate that serving is a tough, thankless job. I've been there. But overall, there's no excuse for this kind of service. My husband and I never get out for a night sans kids, and frankly, we're disappointed our rare opportunity to do so worked out the way it did. And it pained me a bit to pay as much as we did for the experience.

Side note: the one appetizer we were given was great...

First I want to speak about the food the food was absolutely one of the best I tasted around the place the service the girl who served us was very cheerful and she was totally polite and everything was on top

after we finish and pay and get out to take some picture we surprised and find out the chef is following us and looking for us and she started to shout on the front of the door because we wouldn’t leave a tip!!! We explained for her that we are not allowed to do tip from our credit cards because it’s a business cards and she keeps saying that you can’t just pay and go without doing the tip and she was shouting and angry and absolutely we both me and my friend we were very afraid because of her aggressive attitude I don’t believe that such a perfect food and great atmosphere and service with this chef is mixed together went out shouting and telling us to pay a tip and when I ask her is that an obligation and she said yes it is an obligation Unfortunately I would recommend for anyone who would like to visit this place to be careful from the team and their attitude...