The Monaghan House — Restaurant in South Amboy

A decent bar with pool table. Patrons are mostly locals. It is like everyone knows everyone. Place surely has good potentials and room for improvement.

I was an outsider attending the Karaoke contest that was being hosted last Friday night. Environment was pretty friendly - bartenders polite. Pool table were busy and local patrons seem to be enjoying their stay.

There was a Karaoke contest going on. There were 3-4 lists to choose from (performance, explicit, lip-sync and open karaoke) with about ~10 singers. I had put my name in performance list and was told my turn would come in 25-30 mins.

I just kept waiting for my song in the "performance" contest list. In between, anyone who could sing "explicit" songs were allowed to cut through even if they arrived at the last minute. Or maybe it was a local privilege - I do not know. And there were multiple breaks - unexplained, unannounced - each running between 15-45 minutes. It is like you are not sure what is going on.

At least that is NOT how i have seen Karaoke events get hosted.

I left at 1 am. The Karaoke host had been outside for 45 minutes - chatting with people. Maybe the Karoke itself had already been over - maybe not. But no announcement. No communication. Nothing,

It was exasperating and unprofessional. Not sure how did 25-30 minute assurance come to a 3.5 hrs of useless wait, while many just came, sang and left! As someone who visits various Karaoke nights in and around Middlesex county, this was the most disappointing Karaoke...

Good place, reasonable prices, get ready to wait for your food +45 minutes, if they don't forget to place an order! (12.20.2019)

Update: 11.29.2021

When I walked in today, there was only 1 customer. So I ordered my meal.... waited 40 minutes, and asked if I am getting my order.. The bartender assured to get my food in 5 minutes, which actually took another 35 minutes... So totally i waited for 1 hour and 15 minutes... when I asked why it took them so long to make 1 cheeseburger, the bartender blaimed only the cook... No apology where offered... And on top of it I begged her to give me a fork (ironically, I ask a fork only only on Mondays). .Really disappointed and left the place with negative mood...

Update: 07.13.2022

Since my last review, went back there at least 26 times... and average wait for just a burger about 40 minutes. So today, by mistake I invited my coworker to monaghans, was so exited to introduce a nice cheeseburger. Waited 50 minutes, no sign of burger, asked to wrapped it for to go... Why to make a simple cheeseburger takes almost an hour???? When there are only 3 customers in place???? And they were only drinking a beer...

I will never, ever recommend to anyone this place, and will never go there again. Sorry, monaghans house ran out of their...

Great place for ice cold beer and decent bar food. Overall a pleasant experience. It looks and feels like a normal bar, but the people are very welcoming. The bartender was very nice and took the time to learn our names and was overall very friendly. The place is filled by local people, and they were all playing pool and having a great time. There was a birthday going on and they even shared cake with us!

The French onion soup was ok, not great. The chicken quesadilla and the shrimps were both delicious. The Jersey burger had potential to be great but it was only good (I asked for a medium patty but they over cooked it).

Overall a decent spot for a quick bite and a drink if you are a local or are...