Papillon 25 — Restaurant in South Orange

Papillon 25, hmmmm well this review is making me feel mixed emotions and after reading some of these other online reviews of this place I see why. Food is not great and service….well read on! So, we came to this place by accident or mishap. We had reservations to go to Torro Loco for a birthday celebration and it was Cinco De Mayo. On my way to the area my group advised me of the change in location to Papillon 25. I was saddening already because my 1st experience at this spot wasn’t that great and the food was not that good either. I never returned. So, I can’t not go based on my feelings from before and then I thought well, maybe things have changed because time had passed… at least two to 3 years. Well, I go and I park my car and I enter this place. My group is seated in the dining area and the night begins. When I arrived, I engaged with my party and I recall a waitress coming to the table. She asked me if I had wanted a drink I asked her what she could recommend and she recommended the Sangria. I said Nope I need a Margarita! She vouched for the Mango Margarita and that was that. She returned about 15 mins later with the small drink and I tasted it. It was good and had the right amount of liquor for my liking. Next, I find out that my group had placed their orders for their food. I already knew that I would not be ordering an entrée as I would not even know what to get there; no one in my foodie circle talks about this place. I know that I am going to be drinking and I know that I need food so, I decided that I wanted fried shrimp. I don’t see regular fried shrimp; at this point I can tell the waitress is a bit M.I.A. mind you my drink had landed already and she left. Long story short I had do a “Where’s Waldo” on our waitress and it was like that ALL NIGHT with her. I finally get her and let her know I want shrimp… I asked if they had regular shrimp, she had to check…. She came back stated yes, I ordered them…

FOUR shrimps come out on the plate. Immediately my stomach is hot mad as this will be a TEASE & it was! I just ate them and let the night roll on. Now here comes the bill…..now before I say what I am going to say next let me state that I am a FOODIE who loves to eat. I travel to eat. I have flown to St. Louis/ Holland/ Belgium/Madrid/Jamaica and various other countries and eating is the highlight of most of my travels and I don’t mind paying for what I want, nor do I mind paying for GOOD SERVICE and tipping well when that service is provided!!!! When this bill came it was a shocker due to the overall cost of the ok food and my 4 shrimps ran me $13.00??? 13.00 for 4 rinky dink shrimp??? Aww man we must do better. The service was nonexistent until the very end of our meal when a nice young lad came out to assist….. His name was Miles and had only been working there 3 weeks. He was so nice and polite and attentive. He brought us out some bread to go and thanked us; our waitress needs more training and needs to check on her tables in her section more often if this place is going to be auto adding a tip to a bill. This young lady in my heart of hearts did not earn the 30.00 tip that was added to the bill and it’s not fair. If I could give the tip to Miles and only Miles we would have. Again, food not that great and I can see that the bar is what keeps this place looking good. Kudos to the bartender that was the best part of the night!! Well Miles and my drink! She didn’t work for the coin & we have to be more conscious of these businesses and where and who we spend our hard-earned coin with! Papillon...

I’m done not giving BOB the review they earn. Spent over 200.00 and left dissatisfied. My husband and I traveled from NY to celebrate at the spot we had out first meet-up…and a go to spot of mine when I lived in NJ…we were truly looking forward to enjoying it all. Unfortunately, the trip was a bust. Waiter was nice. However, he offered still or sparkling water so I got caught slipping and said “still” when I really meant TAP. 7.00 error. I fell for an old trick of the industry…selling you water that may be tap unless you witness them twist the cap from your bottle of still…which we did not. We loved the bread pudding…delicious. Key lime tart was good. Sangria was good except it seemed shaken based on foamy top…turnoff aesthetically. Their drinks are always good to me. Coconut shrimp was good and the shrimp and chicken on ménage a trois skewers…tasty but paltry…scallops rubbery and likely imitation. The entrees. Sigh. Both were both gross. I had cabernet sauvignon short ribs with whipped potatoes and greens…ribs were fatty and just tasteless…they smelled like dishwater. Sides were meh. I also had mac n cheese which was meh too. And all was not hot!! My husband had roasted chicken which came out laden with gravy…also fatty. He was shocked at all the gravy which drowned the chicken. He didn’t enjoy at all. He summed it up perfectly. Tasted and was presented like cafeteria food. The entrees were far removed from a dining experience. Very disappointing. I have no problem paying higher prices as is the norm at many restaurants post pandemic. Just give me something delicious. Fatty ribs are a criminal offense for any restaurant IMO. Lastly, the main reason for my abandoning not reviewing all businesses that don’t deliver well is because of Papillon’s audacity to apply the 20% gratuity (late afternoon)for our party of 2. We always tip well but are really sick of audacious establishments…especially when they skirt their own rules AND plate nasty, lukewarm food. The restaurant was not busy yet nothing was hot. Ugh. Its so crazy to me that businesses don’t do better in terms of quality control. If you’re doing well imagine how much better you could do by simply doing better. You took 20% but you would get so much more in the long run from this customer by NOT doing that.

The bar here is delightful and a great way to spend time with people. I have always recommended it and will continue to do so. The owners only acknowledge those who sing praises but perhaps they will actually find the business acumen to heed all paying customers who actually chose their restaurant with the highest hopes and we extend feedback as insight. A little humility goes a long way. And maybe bring puttanesca back...

Took my family for Father’s Day dinner made reservations for six there was no one to greet us at the door we basically ended up seating ourselves then we were told they couldn’t find our reservation after about 10 minutes of sitting finally we waited about 20 minutes before someone took our order for drinks we ordered piña colada which is pretty standard for any bar the piña colada was the most disgusting thing ever there was no resemblance to piña colada or alcohol in the drink There was only one waitress to serve all of these tables she was exhausted she couldn’t get the orders right we had to repeat ourselves several times my husband ordered a coffee we didn’t know what the brown sludge was that she brought us she apologize for that as well we waited another 20 to 30 minutes before she took our food order and then another hour went by waiting for the food to come and we finally decided that we had to leave so we are going to pack up her food and take it with us. overall the experience was horrible .The food portions were so small we ordered the braised oxtail which is about $31 and change . we got three oxtails a piece for $31 . I ordered the stuffed shrimp and I think I may have two shrimp and that’s $28 for that. I don’t know what it taste like but it sure don’t taste like $30 and $28 . to say how disappointed and embarrassed i was, is an understatement .we will never go back to this establishment again and oh by the way, the glasses on the tables were filthy and smudged, disgusting , we asked for plastic cups because we refused to use those glasses. They didn’t have plastic cups so we couldn’t drink water because we weren’t gonna have them pour water into those glasses for us to drink . I read this was such a great restaurant somewhere in the New Jersey news but they must’ve paid someone to write that because nothing about this restaurant lived up to the hype .DON’T GO THERE UNLESS YOU’RE A GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT and...