The Rail — Restaurant in Readington Township

Complete trash!!! Do not waste your time and money at this garbage place! I would normally feel so bad for saying this about a local business because i grew up in the area, love local businesses, enjoy supporting them/ giving bartenders & servers large tips and understand the struggle of a small business first-hand. My friend and I arrived at The Rail on a Monday at around 10:30pm. We called in advance to ensure they are still serving drinks because we don't want to be a burden to a closing business/staff. They said "yes, we're open until at least midnight." My friend and I arrive promptly and order at about 10:35 - 2 Respectable, quiet, non-demanding people who notice the bartender is stressed over the 4 other people at the bar. We ask " what is the easiest possible drink or shot you can make us?" In an attempt to be easy and out of the way. "Jameson shot" the bartender says with an eye roll. Unfortunately, I'm not a Jameson drinker. What else do you have? We are met with another eye roll. I suggest a Lemon drop shot (vodka, lemon juice, sugar)? The bartender made a very obvious point to say "wow, thanks for ordering the EASIEST DRINK YOU COULD EVER POSSIBLY ORDER CLOSE TO 11PM ". As she rimmed the shot glasses with sugar she smacked the glasses against the counter in her rage. My friend and I were really confused and uncomfortable with this reaction but made the best of the moment and conversed with other patrons while the bartender prepared our shot. My friend and I were in a great mood and just looking forward to enjoying a local bar with decent drinks but this staff member had such a horrible attitude. I think she was maybe mad that she didn't know what a lemon drop was?? She commented more than three times how "annoying", "out of the ordinary" and ,"obnoxious" our order was. Anyways, we get the shots and are having a lovely time conversing with another patron when we decide at about 10:50pm that we'd like another drink (the other few customers were very clearly ordering more beers and not ready to leave although the bartender was very unhappy). The attitude we got from this bartender after asking for cocktails that were already on their menu was so rude that my friend went to the bathroom and cried! I'm not a confrontational person. I will eat a burnt rubber boot before returning it or complaining and we had zero intention of complaining. But when my friend felt so harassed that she uncharacteristically cried about the service, I decided to mention something to a man who approached me and falsely pretended that he was the "owner". Other patrons said "that's a manager, but definitely not the owner". He yelled "if you're not happy with us, get out of here." 12/23/2024 - the rail owners - please check your staff as the patrons at the bar also agreed that the attitude of the 65-ish year old blonde lady and similarly aged manager working this evening was extremely out of line and clearly did not want to work the day before Christmas eve. If you have video with audio, I would LOVE for you to review your in-house footage. It will give you an idea of what absolute trash you have working for you currently. My recommendation is to hire staff that want to work for your business. As a local who loves to go out with friends every week and loves making friends with business staff, I'll be sure to tell EVERYONE I know not to go to The Rail. And if you do go and happen to see a disgruntled, 65+ year old blonde lady working behind the bar who looks lost, has no idea what it's like to work hard, and is so upset to be at the job that's paying her for minimal effort, simply walk away! My friend and I went to Green Knoll grill afterwards and had an amazing time with a couple of simple drinks! Please, please, do not waste your time at this...

The best part of the place is the beautiful building- and ownership takes advantage of this with decor that compliments the exposed stone walls and wooden rafters. It feels like a well established bar and eatery even though it's only been open for a few years. Was a really nice place but I think the upstairs was a little loud because it caught all the noise from downstairs. Maybe booths would help or they should just let people know upstairs will be loud before seating them there, we would have waited for a quieter area.

I felt the menu was too big. It's hard to know what a place does well when they try to do it all. I get that you can mix and match ingredients from other recipes to expand your menu but sometimes a little restraint helps clarify what menu items you do best and makes ordering less tedious. The food was tasty but 3 of our 5 entrees came out incorrect.

Beer selection was a little scattered and the one mixed drink we got was weak. I always like to see local beers on tap and there weren't many or any, I wasn't sure because our server was struggling to remember the tap list, and we waited so long for our first round and were never offered a second so I ended up going down to the bar to get our next round myself. Which brings us to the big issue.

This was easily a 4 or 5 star place but service was incredibly slow and inconsistent. We sat down at 7:30/5 and at 8:00 my brother said if he didn't get his drink by 8:05 we were leaving. He got his drink at 8:03, but without the requested lime. The lime never came and my glass of water never came. I don't care how busy or new you are, it should not take a half hour+ between sitting down and getting your first drink. And we hadn't even ordered dinner yet. We watched our drinks sit at the bus station for easily 5/10 minutes and when they were finally brought over, they came two at a time. Maybe the server was new or had a bad spill recently that messed with his confidence but you need to be able to bring drinks over in a tray and hand them out. And I get that we came in during the weekend dinner rush but things shouldn't come to a screeching halt like this. You're either understaffing your dinner shift or serving inefficiently. And even when the dinner rush subsided we hardly saw our server. I mentioned 3 of our entrees came with issues but we wouldn't have sent them back even if we had seen our waiter because we would be worried that it would be another hour before we actually got to eat.

There was a lot to like about the place but I would be very hesitant to return. Dining experiences certainly vary but we left pretty unhappy about ours, so it's hard to give them the benefit...

Tonight we went there for dinner. The Kitchen staff has no concept of food allergies. My fiance has a severe gluten allergy. She asked for no bread and gluten free pasta for her entree , she was very specific and polite. When the entree was brought out it had a large piece of bread laying directly on top of the food on the dish , if your familier with gluten allergies that is a huge mistake. After that I was suspicious that the pasta was gluten free. We were polite about the mistake and they took it back without an issue, however I was left to eat my meal by myself, it took a great deal of time for them to bring out a new dish for her , by the time it arrived I was done with mine , "my fiance requested that I eat before mine was cold" , not quite the point of going out to dinner together , the staff was oblivious to this as well . The pasta on her new dish looked completely different from the pasta on the first dish leaving us to beleive that the first dish was not gluten free pasta. The new pasta was undercooked and the chicken had no flavor other than lemon juice, obviously the cook was confused as to what kind of seasoning can be put on a gluten free dish. We go to commercial chains that have a much greater knowledge of food allergies . I'm not the type of person to complain about a restaurant or it's staff. I work for a living and respect others that do so. Please if you have any kind of food allergy stay very clear of this place. The waitress clearly stated that she specified no bread and gluten free pasta on the ticket , however you would need to be able to read English and have a concept of what that meant in order to fill the simple request .We overpaid for a poorly prepared meal by a poorly trained kitchen staff, what a disappointment, I don't mind spending money for a decent meal, after all that's the least you can expect for the prices they charge. I work hard for my money and tonight I threw it away. We have gone to many other restaurants and have never experienced this lack of basic food knowledge . Please don't offer food allergy alternatives on your menu if your clueless as to what they mean. Better off turning people away then making them sick ....