Gladstone Tavern — Restaurant in Peapack-Gladstone

Not good! We planned a nice evening with my out of town parents and every aspect was disappointing from the moment we walked in. We were seated at an inside table which was completely sticky and we had to request it be wiped down. Our drinks took well over 20 minutes and we received only part of our table's order. Our server indicated they were out of the feature beer and took another 15 minutes to return with the glass of wine that was ordered instead. The featured margarita for the day was supposed to have some spice to it, but was pretty flavorless. We were there on the last night of their special Lobster week, and both my father and I were interested in ordering the lobster pre-fixe meal and asked if the chef would crack and disassemble the lobsters for us. The server promptly told us the chef is not willing to do that and we would have to crack it ourselves. We were willing to pay extra for that service as neither of us wanted to get that messy at a nice meal, so we both ordered something else. Both my dad and husband ordered burgers, my dad with no onions...his came with onions; my husband with cheese...his came without cheese and a burger patty that completely fell apart when he picked it up. My daughter was interested in the BBQ ribs, so we asked if it was a full or half rack. It took our server another 15 minutes to check with the kitchen and responded that the meal was a full rack, then she came back a little while later to say the portion was actually 6 "big ribs", which of course was not a full rack. We ordered them anyhow and requested additional BBQ sauce when they came and waited another 15 minutes before she came back to tell us the kitchen was out of BBQ sauce. My mom ordered the crispy shrimp bowl, which ended up being 50% frisee lettuce which she does not care for and was not mentioned in the menu description. Every drink refill took at least another 20 minutes for wine and beer. The server said the bar was "backed up" but we had a clear view of the bar which was not at all busy most of the evening. We will not...

First --I write MANY, MANY, MANY positive reviews! Second -- I'm sad and disappointed that I am writing this poor review for The Gladstone Tavern. We have been patrons of the Gladstone Tavern for at least 10 years maybe longer.

I say that because, I want to be clear this is not our first or second time. Over the years we have had many amazing meals, celebrated many special occasions, Thanksgiving and attended Mixology classes with Robby (the most amazing bartender)!

So, to our dinner last night at the Gladstone Tavern, April 29, 2022. I made a reservation through Open Table and was sure NOT TO CHOOSE outside dining. We were taking my 85 year old Mom with us and I knew she would not want to eat outside, she would be most comfortable inside. We arrived and the maitre d' started to walk us to our table. He was walking us to the back of the restaurant - which I knew meant we were headed outside. We told him we that we wanted to eat inside, he was not happy with our request and it showed. As I looked around, there were PLENTY of open tables in the main dining area. I repeated to him that I had made a reservation and was certain, that I did not pick outside dining, this basically just made him more frustrated and it showed (very unprofessional). He comes back from the host stand and offers us OUTSIDE on the Front Porch. We repeated that we wanted INSIDE. We got on the phone, made a reservation at another restaurant and walked out! As we left, the same Maitre d' was shouting at us as, in front of all the patrons on the front porch - embarrassing! This is NOT the Gladstone Tavern we have loved over the years, the poor attitude/behavior of the Maitre d' is something we never want when going out for a nice meal but even more disappointing that this happened at GT. We will...

This review is based off of 2 recent visits. We came in for breakfast a couple of weeks ago and had a good experience- Matt, the server was great, breakfast was ok and portions were generous( kind of difficult to mess up on breakfast). Their breakfast wrap would have been DELICIOUS if it were toasted.

However, I unfortunately can't say the same for our most recent visit for Easter Dinner. We decided to stop by as they were having a special Easter Menu. Our server seemed very rushed (despite it being not very busy as we came in later on in the evening), we didn't get his name. We ordered drinks- a manhattan and a specialty cocktail. The Manhattan was a bit bland and the server ended up forgetting the other drink- which didn't end up coming out until after dinner was served. Ciabatta bread and chicken soup were great as well as the lamb chops on the Easter Menu, however, their strip steak lacked flavor and came out a bit cold. We justified these mishaps as it was a holiday but were a little disappointed as this restaurant is much pricier than many others in the area and thus our expectations were set a bit higher for a restaurant with such great hype. Not sure we will be back...