Colony House Restaurant — Restaurant in Salem Lakes

I have been to Colony House about 10 times and I believe that the food is really a hit or miss. My most recent visit was on a Tuesday evening, reservation was at 4:00 pm. Upon arrival, even though my dinner partner was using a cane, we were the first to be seated in the dining room to the furthest table in the back close to a window where it was rather cold. I ordered a 10oz. prime rib, very, very rare. The waitress said I'll bring you the rarest piece we have. GREAT!! My dinner partner ordered the shrimp breaded with herbs and light parmesan cheese. Beef barley soup was good, salad was excellent and then came the main course. My very, very rare prime rib was medium rare at best and a very meager 10oz. I told the waitress, Patty S. that it was not acceptable to me. She told me that when I ordered, she said they didn't have rare. My dinner partner said he didn't hear that and neither did I. We both heard that she would bring the rarest piece they had, which to me meant they had rare. I sent it back. The chef offered to cook me a ribeye steak rare, as it is the same cut as a prime rib. I know what a ribeye steak is and NO! I came here specifically for the prime rib. I ordered nothing else. My dinner partner said the size of the shrimp were excellent however the breading/herb/parmesan topping was tasteless and terrible. Who puts cheese on seafood????? The mini loaf of bread was very slightly warm. The rice pilaf was ice cold and I did not touch my baked potato. The bill came and I was charged for the soup and salad, both of which I ate half of, knowing I wanted to eat my whole main course, which of course was non-existant. I'm guessing because it was Tuesday and the waitress informed us the main chef was not there that day, there was no fresh prime rib. I was served whatever was left over on Sunday since I was the first dinner served out of the kitchen, so they could not possibly have already sold out. I think if the waitress was a little more compassionate for my situation and practiced good customer service and comped me for the soup and salad instead of charging me $8.90, I may have been more understanding. I have been here in the past and ordered the same dinner. It was served perfect and the cut of the prime rib took up the whole plate. Last nights cut took up maybe 2/3 of the plate - a big difference when paying $32!!! I think I will have to find another restaurant that consistently serves great food. It will no longer be the Colony House. I am looking for great prime rib if anyone knows of a place in the area, I'd love to hear about it!!! If you're planning a trip to Colony House, I would suggest not going for sure on a...

Thank you so very much for ruining my 52 and birthday dinner with my husband. We got seated where a floor vent was blowing very cold air on my right side. I put the drink menu over it to stop from getting really cold. We got water and the cracker basket then sat there for 15 mins. Then the waitress came and got our drink order. We waited another 15 minutes and no drinks. She was serving drinks to other tables that got there after us. We noticed the table next to us who where there when we got there, still had there menus and no drinks. This waitress ruined the whole visit!!! She had to many to many tables to serve and was acting very confused. Another table next to us where complaining how long it's taking to just get the bill and leave. We had our minds so worked up to eat good food and when your waitress forgets your there. The place is dusty and the wall hangings between the men and ladies room are so badly arranged and looks so messed up. One stall ladies bathroom. The servers walk past the bathroom area to the kitchen, that's kinds gross. I am so disappointed with the horrible service! I bet the food it awesome but it wasn't worth the major irritation of the NON service. I didn't eat all day in anticipation to having dinner here for the first time. But when your server takes your drink order n completely forgets your there, that just sucks. We got up and left. The hosts weren't at the entrance like they where when we came in, so I didn't have the patience to go find them. Instead I hope they read this review and know that the waitress made it one of the worst restaurant first time visit that I have experienced. We set our reservations for 7:30 so they wouldn't be as busy, it didn't help. I surely never expected to have an experience going to dinner where your waitress truly forgets that two people are sitting at a table that she is in charge of. I wanted to get up and ask her, where's our drinks and why are u serving others that got here after us? This lady....it wouldn't of helped. I wanted to wright a good review, I truly did. But unfortunately our experience sucked and I won't recommend anyone to go to the restaurant to eat inside. Order take out. They really need to revamp the whole place. We went to the FIRE PIT to have dinner instead and had wonderful service!! Thank you FIRE...

I guess I will start off that I got food poisoning from eating there and that the only part of the meal I enjoyed was the warm bread and riblet appetizer. Everything else was definitely subpar at best and to me I wasted $150 for a crappy meal for two people. I was in town visiting my mom and wanted to treat her to a really nice steak dinner, so some of her friends recommended us to go to the Colony House. The Cheddar Broccoli soup was average at best, should have just been called Cheddar soup since there was almost no broccoli in it and it kind of just reminded me of a gravy consistency. The spinich salad had this funky, warm bacon dressing that was not enjoyable and there was way too much dressing where i was trying to scrape it off the spinach. Then we got to the main meal. The 12 oz filet was cooked very well, but I got the Oscar style with asparagus, king crab meat, and bernaise sauce and the bernaise sauce almost just tasted like it was drenched in a weird flavored butter, so did not enjoy the taste. The twice baked potato was super bland and plain. And the worst part of the meal was the lobster and it tasted like rubber. I asked the waitress if I could get another one because it was super dry and overcooked and the waitress told me that they get their lobster from Brazil and they are warm water lobster and will always taste very tough so it wouldn't matter if they cooked me a new one because it would taste the same. Who the hell wants to eat tough lobster. And now besides it being a horrible meal, I really paid the price later. I don't need to get graphic, but my stomach has not felt normal since I ate there two nights ago and like I said in the beginning, I definitely got food poisoning from something. Would definitely not recommend going there and I will definitely never go...