Oak & Ember Grill — Restaurant in North Hanover Township

TOTAL DISSAPPOINTMENT If you are going here and expecting it to be be anything like Tara's, its NOT! Yes I am publicy shaming this poor excuse for a local restaraunt /bar after numerous times of being there with the new ownership. When Taras fist sold I went in for dinner and drinks, I have been eating and drinking there at least once a week since they have been open when Howie was there bartending. The first time I saw they took Taras menu and just added a Oak and Ember label on it and said they were working on updating the menu. I met the new owner and seemed to be a decent guy, WOW was I wrong! The next time I went in they made a new menu with lettering so small you need a magnifying glass to read it and they changed alot of items on menu, reduced portions and raised prices but still had your favorites there. Everytime I went I noticed less and less people, most of the great staff quit because they did not want to deal with the tyrant owner and overall moral seemed low with existing staff. I went in again recently and on a Friday night noticed no one barely in parking lot at 7pm, used to not even be able to find a spot before, I went in to smell a new paint job and no live music that made the place dark and miserable looking and no feel of being in your hometown eating establishment. This time I got a completely new menu, wait , what, NOT one single item from Taras menu existed and it was the same boring food I can get at any of the 20 pizza places locally for a lot cheaper. What used to be Re-Vamp's, Cajun Angels, Butter Burgers and Real Deal Cheesesteaks are all gone and replaced with Chix Parm, Chix Marsala and Chix Francese, all at 24.95 or more, REALLY , do we need more italian food in replacement of the menu that made Taras locally famous. I can get any one of those dinners for 17 bucks or less with a salad and bread. What used to be awesome apps, now you get a choice of overpriced wings, mozz stix or mediocre shrimp and only 4 sandwich choices , 3 being chix and one $18 cheesesteak. This has to be the worst changes of a menu I ever seen, take away all the good stuff and add italian dinners that are a dime a dozen. Oh burgers are 12.95, $2 for cheese and 75 cents for a pickle, yes really they charge for a pickle. You can get an incredible burger with cheeses and fries and pickle at the Plumsted for 11 bucks and WAY better! The owner walks around the bar looking angry, miserable and uninviting to clients, he saw me make a bad face at menu and instead of talking with me he got angry that I was not liking the menu. I never spoke to anyone in the bar business with that poor of attitude and zero clue of what the local patrons want or what made the bar he bought a success. He was even overheard that they no longer want the local families and military that have been customers for years to there anymore, looking for a new customer base, thats a slap on the face for long time patrons but he does not care. I was with a friend and we were about to order burgers until I saw the pickle upcharge, again the owner heard my make a comment to my friends and he decided to interject himself into my conversation and get angry again that we did not like the new menu or prices, we got up and went to the Plumsted Grill for better burgers and friendly owners/staff. While leaving the owner continued to argue claiming he was from NYC and knows what he is doing, I dont think you have a clue what you are doing in Cookstown! What a shame that such a great place with incredible people has gone so downhill in just 2 months of new owners. Based upon the owners ignorance, lack of human interaction skills and stubborness to know what your partons want will ultimately lead to failure and I hope it comes soon if you are unwilling to make positive changes to restorewhat made Taras the success that it was. Overpriced Food, Poor Selections, Rude Owners, Inconsistant hours, No entertainment, No food specials and destroying what made Taras a success....

My boyfriend and I decided to check out the new business that took over Tara's. It was happy hour on a monday and it was completely empty, but we figured people were still getting out of work. It was an off putting atmosphere but we gave it a shot. The happy hour menu was mostly chicken based and the prices were high for whats supposed to be a discounted rate for the time of day. The bartender was very sweet and made us drinks, despite them being doubles and not tasting even a bit of alcohol. We came in wanting to split a burger so we ordered one medium rare with swiss and bacon. It took around 15-20 minutes to come out and it was the tiniest burger I'd ever seen. We cut it in half and the burger was only cooked on the outside it seemed. Raw meat literally spilled out onto my plate. How it took that long to completely undercook a burger smaller than the size of my palm is beyond me. Us and the bartender were disgusted so she kindly took it and had them make another. The second time was at least edible. After we finished we got the bill and ended up paying 15+ dollars for the burger alone. You'd think they would have taken something off considering the gross inconvenience. Our mood was ruined, we overpaid for a disgusting meal, and we left more hungry than when we came. Normally, splitting a dinner fills us up just right. The bartender was very sweet and did the best she could to make us feel welcome which we greatly appreciated. We ended up getting food somewhere else after.

When we first walked in I saw, what I assume, was the owner sitting at a table with an unfriendly look on his face. Made me incredibly uncomfortable. While we were trying to eat, him and his wife (I guess) were making drinks for themselves. They looked like they had no interest in speaking to patrons. You'd think after being served straight up raw meat in a bun they'd come over and apologize. Honestly they didn't look friendly, so I'm kind of glad they kept to themselves.

Safe to say were...

I definitely will be returning. I went there Sunday evening with a Party of Five. The parking lot was packed with cars, don't let that deceive you, go in anyway. It wasn't packed inside at all apparently everybody that goes there drives individually! LOL! Yes the bar was full of people but the tables were not and we were able to get a very comfortable Booth seat for 5 people with no problem. It did start to get busy after 5:00 and the tables seem to fill up pretty quickly. I think our waitress was the only waitress she had a guy helping her deliver the food to the tables but I do believe she was the only waitress. She was fantastic. All of the tables were getting pretty filled up with people but she kept Coming back to the table on a regular basis asking for our order, if drinks were okay and if the food was okay. The waitress we had was very friendly, attentive, and you could see she had a lot of other customers to take care of but she still made you feel like you were the only ones she was waiting on. Okay so I don't want to make this post too long but I would like to say that the food was also very good I had stuffed flounder and I was amazed that it actually tasted like fresh fish and the stuffing had lump crab meat in it. There were actually lumps of crab meat in it. The other four people that I was with we're also very pleased with all of the food selections they had including burgers and chicken sandwiches and fried shrimp. The burgers were well done just as requested and there were things that we ask for on the side and they were brought that way. I actually had a salad with my dinner and it was nice because it wasn't just your regular salad with iceberg lettuce it was field greens and I had blue cheese dressing and there were huge chunks of blue cheese in the dressing. All in all the evening was really nice. The food is great. The service was great. Everyone in my party will definitely be returning. Thank you Tara's for a...