The Munckee Bar and Grill — Restaurant in South Amboy

This may have been an out of the ordinary experience, so we’ll have to try again at some point—

We walked in and the entire place just about turned to look at us, which I guess is normal, but felt like everyone in their knew each other. We waited a few minutes before just seating ourselves at one of the dining tops near the bar.

Another few minutes later and it became clear that we needed to order drinks from the bar and walk them back to our table. No problem. I asked the bartender how we should best go about ordering some dinner, and she said she could take the order here or come over to our table. I asked her if she could come over and take our order so we could have a minute to look over the menu.

I take two beers back to our table and we finish them before the bartender/waitress gets to us—which again I can understand for a busy place. So no harm so far—

We order the munckee basket and a quesadilla for starters, and I ask for the burger as an entree…and with two other adults sitting with me at the table…the bartender just walks away…without addressing anyone else at the table.

We didn’t know if she thought we were done ordering, or if she just wanted appetizer orders…so we just wait a few minutes…like ten minutes…

And then we see the cook put a burger on the grill, and we realize that it’s probably our order.

So I go back to the bar, ask if we could add to our order, two more burgers. Cooked same as the first. Another bartender takes that portion of the order and adds it.

Now the wait began. 20…30…40…50 minutes before food comes out. And it’s the first burger we ordered. Before the appetizers.

So now I’m sat there with an entree. No one else has food. I have to wait politely as SOMETHING gets to us that we can all eat.

Ten minutes later the quesadilla comes out. We eat that, and I start on my burger.

Ten minutes after that, the munckee basket comes out—-and we eat that.

Ten minutes after that, the remaining two burgers come out, and everyone can finally finish their meal.

All in all- we arrived at 7:15pm. The first bit of food didn’t make it out until 8:30pm. Which was 1 burger.

The first appetizer came out at 8:40PM. (We were taking pictures and posting to our group chat- so we’ve got time stamps.)

All in all— the burgers were pretty meh. A giant bun with a basically flavorless burger patty.

Everything else was alright. The beers were cold and the music was blaring. Conversations are hard to come by.

Maybe the place just isn’t our speed, but it was very busy, and only had two folks serving bar and waiting tables. Combined. And a single person cooking. I’m struggling to give this a 3/5, but truly sympathize with servers, as I was raised single-handedly by one. We tipped well...

I mean... if you are looking to never see the food that you ordered, wipe off your own high-top table and watch the "servers" stare as the tickets are printed, not entirely sure what to do with them, then this is definitely the spot for you. Personally having worked in restaurant/bar establishments for 7+ years I can tell you that heading into a Friday night rush with no sous, no actual plan of how to serve the food ordered and no support staff or busers, it's no wonder we walked out. We had already waited an hour, for the food we ordered, before we left. We were told by one server ""...it'll be another 20 minutes..." to which the lone cook said "no, it'll be five more minute & 80% of your food will be ready." Then the one server handed us a bill for EVERYTHING we ordered, as if we were going to pay for the non-existent food, that hadn't even been started. We paid for our drinks and left. It's really a shame because the other people's food smelled amazing but alas we wouldn't know and will not be returning. Atmosphere is nice. Local spot....

After a trying day of weather beatdown, we finally found a hotel. The gallery, something did not seem right. But this is about the munckee. Got to our room at 11:30. Need a beer, drive around found this place. It's the kind of place where only local would go. My co worker and eye sucked it up and went in. We were plesanlty surprised, not only was it. Clean. The other patrons where normal looking. We ignored the stares walked right up and sat down. It did not take long for everyone to acknowledge us, the bartender, greeted us, took our order, came back few moments with our cold beers. After the second round everyone was very friendly. We gave our story. They all had a good friendly laugh, and informed us. Our hotel is the local 4 hour nap joint. We continued to enjoy our beers and feel entertained. Over all Great little local bar. Debbie the barkeep was just a peace of heaven after a long day. Shout out to karokke guy and his wife. Next time we will try the food. Debbie. Thanks for the...