Kid Rip's Tap & Tavern — Restaurant in Runnemede

"Kid Rips" This location had been THE blue collar working class place for a quick bar lunch/draft beer and Happy Hour watering hole type of place that was home to pool leagues, dart leagues and occasional live music for decades. It always had scaled down full kitchen and had, in past, also hosted a few "kitchen for rent" opportunists, the most successful of which was run by a local Italian chef. Most importantly, this location had a loyal group of "regulars" who found themselves displaced when location was sold. It had been my hope that the new owners of this location would have taken into account the already existing clientele, their loyalty and desire to continue supporting Runnemedes other small business owners as most are local business owners themselves. But alas, I don't believe any consideration was given to that and hence could be partial cause for failure to thrive as "Kid Rips". I have visited "Kid Rips" three times now. First during the first few months after opening, secondly a couple months later and most recently today. During all visits I had no problem finding a seat, any seat, anywhere in this establishment and found bartender(s) distracted by busily multitasking several jobs at once, not of which were providing me with a greeting or taking a drink order. However no time was wasted by management making sure I knew that Kelly Ripa, (local Jersey girl made good) host of morning show "Kelly Live" is a relative of his and hinting of her involvement in Kid Rips. Unfortunately MY time was wasted, yet again, thinking I could enjoy a quick lunch/beer in a friendly, upbeat atmosphere, a lil friendly banter or even a proper attentive greeting for $15-$20 here. My advice: reinstall Budweiser on tap, lower prices and remember, without customers, you won't...

So we came in this evening as a party of 5. The server Samantha was awful. It took almost 20 Mins to come over to us, we ordered an appetizer which came out and we had to eat it with our fingers because she gave us no plates or silverware. When we ordered our drinks, my brother in law orders a Surfside lemonade, she came over and said they were out. So he ordered a Strawberry surfside, she came back again and said thst they were out. She said I brought you a raspberry one and my brother in law said I don't like raspberry and she seemed very irritated. When we ordered the drinks they took awhile to come out also. When we finally got to see her we asked her for silverware and napkins. She brought them over and said I only have 3 sets of silverware, there were 5 of us eating dinner. As a server you should be checking in on your tables, she would disappear and we would have to find her if we wanted something. When the food came out, which took 1 hour to come out, my husband food was cold, my nieces tacos were cold and my brother in laws sandwich was cold, which means the food sat back there for a period of time. This is unacceptable considering the time we were there it didn't appear to be very busy. There were empty tables and the bar was not full so there is absolutely no excuse for this type of service. We are local and have been coming here for a long time. Is this type of service acceptable? If so that is fine but we won't be back and as locals we will be sure to make it known around town....

This is probably a solid 3 stars. My experience was a 1 star but I’m guessing that was a fluke based on other reviews.

Parking is a little tight but can overflow at the bank next door. No biggie.

Very clean and well kept. Bathrooms were exceptional clean and nice for a bar.

Service was horrendous. Almost 25 min for first round of drinks to show up. Asked 4 times for extra glass before getting up to get it myself. Also asked 4 times for water before almost getting up to get it myself. Subsequent drinks were generally slow to arrive (which I attribute to the bar and not the server). The list of beers was very good, however. And the prices were very low for the great selection.

Got fried pickles and cauliflower apps. Both were good but took 40 min to come out.

Got 2 different sandwiches. Both were 3 star and the fries were sprinkled with something sweet and maybe a little Smokey. Didn’t care for it at all. Only edible covered in condiments.

Server brought us the check with 2 beers on it that we didn’t get. Asked her to fix it and came back with just 1 beer on it that we didn’t get.

Another table came in after us who got their apps and first round pretty quickly but the immediately realized they’d have to order directly at the bar to get anything in a reasonable time frame.

I expect that this may have been an isolated experience to this particular evening/staff but nothing was compelling enough to waste another night out here.

Maybe worth a stop for great beer selection that is reasonably priced...