Hootz — Restaurant in Pohatcong Township

Some days are just not good dining days and today was one for me on my first time trying this place.

It was packed, it was understaffed, there weren't enough seats, nowhere to hang a jacket, the stools were not the best idea for anyone wanting to be comfortable dining. I get it, it's a bar but when you offer breakfast dining and full dinner menus, backless wobbling stools aren't the way for tables. There also isn't a railing for the stairs to get in or a ramp to walk up so fair warning if you have bad knees or aren't steady on slightly higher stairs.

I thought maybe they were inexperienced with handling such a large breakfast crowd but apparently they've been at it for nearly a year and I'd honestly believe they just started this last week with all of the bumps we experienced.

We started out sitting at a table that needed to be wiped. The waitress came over with a pad ready to take an order, no menus, no silverware, no napkins...okay...it's busy. She's new. It's all new. That was my thought.

We ordered drinks, diet soda, unsweetened tea and a cup of coffee. I don't know what happened to my wife's coffee but it was cold. There was coffee flowing around the dining room so I don't think it had been old or sitting but it was cold. We did get forks and napkins but no spoons or knives. She asked for the spoon...okay, it's busy.

We placed our order and as we were sitting there waiting, we were 3 people on a high top with a 4th empty stool that was holding purses and jackets because there was no coat rack, no back of a chair, no purse hooks...the waitress came over and asked us if she could have that stool for another table. What?! Are you serious? This was the point where my dining experience went downhill. Where am I going with my jacket now and the purses? Sure, inconvenience us and our things for a seat for someone who you aren't prepared to serve. We were utilizing that chair for the stuff we had no place on the table for...they definitely need more seats when they're borrowing chairs from one table to fill another.

On to the food...I ordered the cheesesteak omelet and my fault I didn't order the sauce on the side. It was not to my liking, maybe it's good to someone else, but it was not good to me and it was covering most of the omelet. I tried to eat around it, still with no knife to cut it and the omelet was watery, the steak meat was bland, it was just disheartening. Got a knife, asked for the toast that came with it, asked for jelly for the toast...okay...salt and pepper on everything to give it another go. I tried. I was just disgusted at everything by this point and all the while thinking...it's new, they're trying, they're understaffed and packed.

No drink refill happened, the waitress didn't come back around for that but the owner did come around and ask how everything was. We all struggled to say anything nice. My friend said lol the toast is good. But my wife's toast looked like someone had beaten it up in the back...it was half ripped, slapped on the plate...whatever. My toast was the best part about the whole thing so I said nothing because I knew I was about to not be friendly and he was trying. My friend's omelet wasn't correct, it was supposed to be the special ham and cooper with mushrooms but it didn't have mushrooms. I knew that was going to be wrong when the waitress asked what kind of cheese she wanted...lol...cooper, it's the special. My wife told him about the coffee, it was the most horrible she's ever had and I don't drink coffee so I don't know. He did apologize and gave us 3 random pastries to make up for the coffee, which was appreciated by her.

I thought today is just busy, they're ironing out the bumps and maybe in a few months they'll be better and we can give it another shot. I found out later they've been doing this since last summer. Maybe we don't need to go back. Maybe just stick to bar food, expectations are much lower with that.

The owner was friendly, the experience just wasn't good for us, but everyone...

Decided to grab dinner here for my birthday with my family, it was a Friday around 6pm.. Waitress was very nice, even suggested a few things off the menu that was mounted on the wall aside the bar. Took about 45 minutes to get the food and what a disappointment!! Wings tasted old and I’m assuming refried because they were hard as wood. The cheesesteaks were horrendous!! Pile of mush on a saturated roll that fell apart when picked up.. First 2 bites of the chicken sandwich was literally fried batter and the burger was so greasy it was uneatable… We ate nothing other than the first bite of what we ordered, waitress asked if everything was okay and I politely told her no.. I went on to explain how all of the food ordered was horrible, she apologized and told us that Friday was not a good day for food there because their chef who supposedly cooks great only works on Thursdays and Saturdays… She took one meal off of the bill and we still wound up paying $80 plus tip for food that was literally thrown in the trash, extremely disappointed!! I did not want to leave any negative reviews but after attempting to contact an owner or manager a half dozen times and not getting a single response, I...

I had high hopes for this place after the remodel. It seems they spent a lot of money on the facade, but ran out of money for the interior. The bar is smaller than I expected, and the seats which are high top circular spinners with no seat back, are very uncomfortable. They do have a menu, which is up on a chalkboard and listed about a dozen or so items.... all basic bar food which is fine, but I'm surprised there isn't more to offer. It is possible they don't have a full certification from the state. There's a pool table inside taking up about 1/4 of the space. When we left, we went out thr side door where there were half a dozen people smoking right outside the door. Not pleasant. Service was quick and friendly. So, overall my experience was average and it's definitely not a family place. This is 100% a bar with locals and a biker stop. I'll probably stick with the Rieglesville Inn when I want to stop for a beer and a...