26 West On The Navesink — Restaurant in Red Bank

This place is true a 3 1/2 star restaurant. The ambiance is super chill and easily a romantic and intimate place to be if you can go upstairs to the rooftop. I cannot say about the downstairs other than it has a very lovely bar in the back with everyone enjoying themselves and having a great time. In the front is their first bar. It's a much smaller scale compared to their back bar. On the side, there are tables for two should you want to order food to go with your drinks. I'm sure in weekends it's a busy place but hubby and I went on a weekday so only the back bar was busy. Beside the back bar is the staircase leading up to the rooftop. During the cold season, they heat the space up very nicely. This creates a warm and intimate feeling. Exceptionally romantic so thank you hubby! During the summer they open up their walls which are several garage doors with railings so you can see the beautiful view of the Navasink River. During sunset, a must see place! Their entire theme in their room is blue and white like the waves. Very relaxing. Now onto the food. Some were hurts and some were misses. We started off with bruschetta which were crispy garlic crostini (excellent) and mini crab cakes (excellent). Both had robust flavors and surprisingly the crab cakes barely had any filler. Sad that we now expect most to be filler. I'd get those again in a heartbeat. We ordered their signature Navasink salads but that was a huge miss. They were suppose to have shallots. Ours had a very biting and sharp tasting so is it really shallots? Hmmmm. Hubby ordered the linguini puttanesca. It cancer in this beautifully huge bowl. The presentation was very nice. The amount for the cost however did not match up. That's fine if the entree wowed hubby. It was okay. Not memorable to say the least. I tasted it several times and agreed with him. 3/5 stars. I ordered the shrimp and grits. You have to understand, I'm a southern girl at heart. I love southern food and I know great grits. This dish boasted robust flavors from the three jumbo shrimps paired beautifully with the creamy and cheesy grits. This dish is 5/5 spectacularly great. We concluded with a cup of coffee for hubby and a cappuccino for me. His coffee was exceptionally strong and my cappuccino needed sugar to take the bitterness out. Mind you, I normally don't add sugar to my cappuccino so that tells you something. I would go elsewhere for coffee. 3/5 stars. The service was outstanding. Not once did they miss a beat. Our glasses were always full and it was my server who recommended the shrimp and grits for me. 5/5 stars. Would we go back? Definitely yes for both the view and definitely the appetizers and...

I made a reservation for 2 people at 8:30, we arrived at 8:25 and were taken to our table immediately…the hostess takes us into the bar and seats us in a corner with deep couch like seats with a small round white table felt like a school desk and facing the back of the bar. I immediately expressed to the hostess not wanting to sit in the bar could we please be seated in one of the two dining rooms…she said no without checking with anyone. I took it upon myself to look at the 2 dining rooms, both had multiple tables open. I went to the front desk and asked again to please be moved there are many open tables. Now there’s 3 hostesses all very unaccommodating continually saying we stop seating at 8:45, we have other reservations and that I made my reservations the same day so I get the (lounge), I said you should state that when making the reservations. After basically begging to be moved they said they would check in on us in 10 minutes to see if the other reservations showed up…we sat there at the table waiting and of course no one came back, and not one other table was seated in that time…I went to the front desk again now it’s 8:45 to ask once more to please be moved, the 3 of them still standing there dumbfounded and refusing…so we just walked out and they couldn’t care less. Absolutely horrible customer service. Your experience starts with your hostesses, we eat in fine upscale restaurants every Saturday night and have never been treated so poorly!!! We walked right up the street to Char (without a reservation) and were seated in one minute in the dining room, wow go figure, I’m sure Char appreciate our business and $250 bill… Don’t waste your time in this want to be...

The initial impression of this restaurant is that of a yuppie bar. Young urban professionals gather around the bar in a very loud atmosphere (music and chatter). Once back on the restaurant, the noise level is a bit lower, however, it is still a bit loud for a dining area. The view over the Navesink is beautiful, but probably clearer in the cooler months when there's less foliage impeding the view.

Service was prompt and friendly. No specials for our visit, so we ordered directly from the menu. The draft beer selection was decent that includes some local brews and wasn't overrun with IPAs.

Our appetizer, crab and pimento cheese dip, was tasty and came with a lot of pita pieces for dipping. The ratio of bread to dip was definitely favorable towards the bread, so we dipped sparingly.

My main course was the seafood ravioli with citrus cream sauce. The cream sauce was amazing and complimented the ravioli quite nicely. However, 5 raviolis and 4 medium shrimp does not a $32 entree make. I was still hungry at the completion of our visit.

The other main course was salmon with a corn and jalapeno relish (street corn). The salmon was done well with a crispy skin and moist flesh. The corn relish was tasty, but not overly flavorful.

I actually rate this restaurant 3.5 stars, but Google doesn't allow for partial stars, so I rounded it up for the quality of the service which was excellent. The food was good, but very overpriced for the...