Tuckahoe Inn — Restaurant in Upper Township

After reading the Owners defensive and insensitive reply to my Review, I have lowered my initial Rating from 4 out of 5, to now 3 out of 5. What a bunch of nonsense and excuses. So much to debunk/unpack. 1. "Our menu states that Prime Rib is available while it lasts." -Well, I was there in the BEGINNING of Dinner service on a Friday night at 5 pm, so this poor attempt of an EXCUSE is NOT valid. You should NOT be anywhere close to running out of Prime Rib at that time and if you are, then you have a serious problem. Try again. 2. "It seems the temperature we served you, you did not believe was correct." -That's exactly right. It was NOT correct and that was a FACT, not just an opinion/"belief". I happen to be a formally trained, professional Chef myself. I actually went to one of the Top cooking Universities in the country. So I know the difference between Medium RARE (the temperature I ordered) and Medium WELL (which is indeed what you tried to pass off to me). If your Line Cook, Chef, and Expeditor all thought that was Medium RARE (which is extremely hard to believe!), then they ALL need their eyes examined or they need to go back to Culinary school to get additional education/re-training. 3. Of course bringing out the EXACT same beef at the WRONG temperature is wasteful! That's why YOU should have made it CORRECTLY the 2nd time! But since YOUR staff FAILED to do that, that responsibility falls on YOU as the restaurant, NOT the fault of the Guest. Any time taken away from other Guests because of this type of situation happening is also YOUR responsibility. 4. I definitely do not need you to tell me a basic cooking lesson on the ends of a cut of beef being smaller and therefore cooking more than the middle. Even if I wasn't an educated Chef myself, talking to a guest like they must be too stupid to understand basic cooking principles is quite patronizing AND presumptuous. Maybe your staff need to realize that if a Guest orders Medium RARE, then it should be a cut from the MIDDLE and not the end. 5. If you want to continue to be ignorant and do things improperly, then that's entirely your prerogative, but it will be to your own peril/detriment/downfall. Now I know to never waste my time trying to order Prime Rib here again. Thanks for putting me on notice by making it clear that you don't really care what temperature a guest orders and you're just going to continue trying to serve whatever temperature YOU want. 🙄 This haphazard way of doing things represents a lack of holding yourselves accountable to a higher level of standards regarding Quality Control.

Original Review: My family and I have been coming to this restaurant for a long time (generations). I've noticed since COVID, the quality is no longer at the excellent level (at least a 9 out of 10) that it used to be. Now it's more like 7 out of 10. Unfortunately this restaurant is either unable to accommodate ordering the Prime Rib to specific temperatures, or they just don't want to bother because they don't care. I tried ordering it Medium RARE. It came out Medium WELL. I sent it back to have them make another. 2nd time around, and I get presented with yet another Medium WELL Prime Rib. I tell the server again that this 2nd one (it was clearly NOT the same as the 1st) is STILL not correct. She goes back into the kitchen again, but then comes out to tell me that the kitchen said they cannot make a Prime Rib any more Rare than what they've tried to serve me (which was Medium WELL) and that I'll have to order something else off the menu instead. Unbelievable! How can this restaurant have Prime Rib on the menu, but the kitchen only be cooking Prime Rib at a Medium WELL temperature as the very minimum?! That is unheard of and the backwards way of the industry standard. The kitchen should be cooking Prime Rib to a RARE temperature and THEN cooking it more to the temperature that each customer orders, so that Medium Rare and Medium can be achieved successfully. Extremely disappointing! Most people who enjoy Prime Rib DO NOT want it to be served Medium WELL...

I used to come here every year, and hadn’t for almost 10 years. Tried again during a recent vacation and will hesitate to return.

Starting with the positives:

Reservations and large groups: This is something they’re clearly built for and they excel at. We struggle as a large party to find places that will take reservations for larger parties.

Parking and atmosphere: parking is limited in front but there is plenty not very far away and the location is great. Views of the water and evening sunset are great.

Now for the negatives:

They seem to not understand how to properly fit larger tables near larger tables. We were a party of 10+, and we were virtually locked in place by 3 other tables of 10+ parties that were gridlocked… almost zero space to get between chairs or for the server to walk around the table without people constantly shifting. The party beside us apologized multiple times for banging into us.

The kids meals: I understand this is a pseudo-upscale restaurant, but $15 for a kids pasta demands more than what arrived (a saucer-sized dish with nothing but angel hair and a little butter). Charging $15 for kids meal is what it is… but at minimum provide more than 30¢ value.

The adult meals: half of the meals were excellent, the other half were terrible. Steaks that were cooked improperly, sauce/butter forgotten (and then provided begrudgingly by the server as a cold piece in a cup… cold butter on a now cold steak?? Doesn’t work so well). Sides were cold. Again… some things they did well but others were simply not up to the quality you’d expect from this restaurant.

The drinks: house margarita comes in a low ball glass filled with ice. There is maybe 4 ounces of liquid total, barely any tequila, and arguably one of the worst quality tequilas at that. Martinis were by contrast unenjoyable and overly bitter. Soft drinks (more of a server issue) couldn’t seem to be refilled more than 1 time in a 90 minute meal.

Speed of service: we arrived and ordered within 20 minutes of our reservation time. Our food finally arrive over an hour after we arrived… so 45 minutes roughly for ANY food to arrive. Again, possibly our server forgot the food was ready, but the kitchen certainly didn’t execute the dishes...

Went here with my family on a beautiful Saturday night, and this place is definitely 10/10 for the atmosphere & views. We all ate outside, and even with it being as busy as it was the wait was a reasonable 45 minutes for 6 people. I wouldn’t recommend this place for handicapped people, considering you have to walk through a lot of stone and the front parking lot is only so big. Especially on the weekends, you have to park in one of the back lots (unless your family member gets dropped off out front). There is tons of parking though. I’d say the best time to come is around 7:00-7:30pm. There was great live music (a little too loud), and everyone was very friendly, the outdoor area was very clean, and it was a very relaxing laidback vibe. While waiting for our table I noticed there are plenty of activities for kids to stay busy, and a bar off to the side to get drinks. I also noticed and appreciated little makeshift homes for stray cats made in the smokers area. Speaking of animals, this place is dog friendly which is really cool. Oddly enough though while waiting I kept getting whiffs of sewer which was a bummer. Not sure if it was a dumpster, or the bathrooms… but it was pretty hard to ignore & pretty gross.

I know how busy it can get for servers in the summer, but the service wasn’t great. We had a very nice waitress, but it felt like every-time you asked for something there was a huge wait. We waited for about 20 minutes after getting seated to be waited on. The water they serve you tastes really gross. No one at the table drank it, because it tasted like iron and toilet water. Even the sodas tasted funny. The food was good, not a huge menu but thats not a deal breaker for me. The food was decent, not anything to write home about but it was good. They have a bigger mixed drink menu than food menu, plenty of good options for picky kids too. I recommend their burrata appetizer if you’re looking for something good on the menu.

Overall good atmosphere, but I won’t be rushing...