Houlihan's — Restaurant in Ramsey

This what I wrote 1 year ago -- "Always a great meal as well as different changes to the menu so the customer does not become complacent with the same menu over and over again. All menu selections, drink specials, and bar prices are the lowest in the area with a very friendly staff every time you walk through the door. Want a great meal and experience? Visit Houlihan's on Rt 17 North, Ramsey. You will not be disappointed."

1 year later -- We have been very disappointed with this location in recent months. The menu is so-so, the desserts are poorly executed, and the drinks sub-par. The waiting staff in the main dining rooms are excellent. Of the 3 bartenders usually working, 1 is personable, 1 is so-so, and the last one is greedy, meaning, she will take half your order and then cater to the table of 5. What is frustrating at least is that we are very good tippers. These bartenders have grown accustomed to us as loyal patrons and it has been obvious that our orders are taken then we are forgotten. We don't need constant conversation, but an acknowledgement now and then would be refreshing. Vickie is the greedy one. On our last visit sitting at the bar, she took our drink orders & delivered them. She said she would give us a few minutes to order. A table of 6 sat down at a high top. Not only were we forgotten, but she took their drink order, brought out their appetizers, and took their meal orders, all while we sat and watched, waiting for her acknowledgement, which never came. The feeling we got was that she thinks - "They always leave a good tip, no matter what, so I can take my time with them". So, we left without eating and went to Brady's in town. If, and that is a big IF we go back, we will never sit in the bar where we like to go but go to the dining area where we may be treated like patrons who are...

On a whim, at a little before 9:00pm, I stopped in at the local Houlihan’s in Ramsey, NJ for dinner.

I ordered the house Pinot Grigio, which by the way is delicious. I asked and it is from the Canyon Road vineyards. Smooth, delicious and refreshing.

I tried something new to me from the menu, as I like to do that.

I tried the Korean Chicken (a fried chicken breast like no other that I have ever had)... just take my word for it and try it ... or keep reading!

The Korean Chicken breast came out from the kitchen in about 10-15 minutes, as they were not very busy.

I will say this... Wow, Wow, Wow!

Terrible experience at this location first time I ever been there and will never return. First off the smaller things. Drinks were super weak. Ordered an acai daze barely tasted like it had any alcohol in it, I'm not an alcoholic I barely drink only when out but I couldn't taste a thing 8 dollar juice basically. Second problem, I ordered the sizzling fajitas combo meal. At chilis, and I know this isn't chilis, it comes with shrimp chicken and steak which I mistakenly thought was the same "combo" here. Turns out it's not, combo here is just chicken and steak but when I asked for shrimp he put the order in but I wasn't made aware until the bill came that these four little pieces of shrimp were going to cost an extra 8 dollars. So the "combo" I thought was 16.99 came out to almost 25 dollars. That's fine if that's what you charge but have your servers alert the customers that the extra shrimp isn't part of the combo and will cost them an extra 8 especially when the customer says to the waiter does that come with chicken shrimp and steak and the waiter says you want shrimp okay and that's it. Uninformed customer. Not cool. Lastly and most importantly, my girl got food poisoning from the salad eaten here. We were together all day ate the same breakfast and lunch at home and went out to dinner at Houlihan's. She had the buffalo chicken salad and a soup. I tried some of the soup and I was fine so we think it was the salad since it's the only thing we had different that day. I didn't try it. She was complaining of abdominal pains later on at the movies and the next day had all the classic symptoms of food poisoning and had to leave work early. Bad experience. They need to check on their food and also have better customer service. The waiter was nice personality wise but didn't do the best job...