Brick House Tavern + Tap — Restaurant in West Windsor

Oh well. This place was fun, if somewhat loud, a few years ago. But it will be a long time before I go back. Getting seated was a haphazard experience. I watched and overheard as the family group in front of me was almost seated at a table, but these apparently didn't pan out (maybe the tables the host was checking hadn't been cleared yet?) and the host only offered them a hightop, which they took.

Interestingly, he was able to sit me and my wife right away as soon as that prior family was seated, at an oversized table with upholstered bench seats right near their fireplace. It took a while, but when our server finally appeared she was bubbly and enthusiastic.

When she asked if we wanted to start with a drink, we had to ask if they had a drink menu. Bewildered, she flipped through the items on our table and realized there was no drink menu there. So.. she scouted around a bit, found a drink menu on another table nearby and brought it over. As we opened it she noticed that it only had a couple of pages in it...and asked to look at it. Turns out that this one was missing several pages, so she had to head back out to locate a full drink menu for us. We finally ordered drinks, then discussed the menu with our server -- and placed our order. So...three tries to be able to order a couple of drinks.

Several minutes later our server comes back with "bad news"... they were out of the entree my wife had picked. So -- back to the menu. My wife chose something else and we waited a a bit longer. At that point our server came out again with news that one of the items I had ordered was out...so back to the menu a third time.

Meanwhile, the acoustics in the place accentuate the noise...and the volume level is ridiculous. Same formula, I guess, as a lot of bar-forward restaurants. Seems that customers must enjoy shouting over the noise to their dates...

In the end - the food was ok (nothing special), and the $10 drinks were just ok. A cup of soup, one salad, two small drinks, and one hamburger totalled about $90 with the tip included, at which point I couldn't help but think of the missing menu items, 3 attempts to order, and the noise.

Somehow this didn't feel like a great use of close to $100 and the time spent that night. Not high on my list for a repeat visit...

Brick house gets some average and sub average ratings. The restaurant was not busy. It was a Tuesday evening and there was a half full bar, half full seating dining room. These aren't my estimations. The whole establishment is visible from the front door. I've been here many many times over the last 8 years give or take. My rating is definitely the result of years of attendance. The food has not gotten any better over the entire time. You pay brick house prices but get basically Denny's quality. Wouldn't be a problem for me if that's how they sold it or how much it cost. I ordered nachos. They came out cold. Not sure how that's possible but nevertheless. Also there were so many chips left with nothing on them that I had to ask for more to eat them. They up charged me for the side of cheese to continue eating the meal they under produced. No one else at the table was impressed with their meals and everyone basically quit eating (chicken club and mushroom flatbread for those wondering). I ordered a side of green beans. They took 20 minutes and were also just above edible. The food gets an average rating at best. The atmosphere is probably the best thing it has going for it. It is exactly the same as it has always been so if you're a creature of habit, this is the spot. It is basically one step above college party spot. More like 20 something after work drinking spot. Which brings me to the drinks. Totally subpar. Each one had a detail missing, every time. Like salt on the rims. Or a mixer ingredient. The drinks took far far too long. I mean 25 minutes to get drinks each round and they under performed each time as well. The service was ultimately what I considered the reason for most of these issues. I saw backend of the house staff sitting around in the dining area. I saw servers joking and interacting with them, including ours, while we waited. I think that management is probably stuck with a group that are going to have to cycled out to get a better result. Anyways, I would only go here if you want to overpay for drinks while having a wide variety of options for food that will more than likely sustain you but...

Terrible experience. I have been to this restaurant chain before at a different location. Was meeting with family so we went to this location, due to familiarity with the restaurant name. Long story short, the food was terrible. So bad not only did we send the apps back but we watched several other tables do the same. Apparently they "accidentally added too much salt". And then the server I had was garbage. She was new and has blondish-brown hair, on 7-16. She never gave her name or I would share it. She ghosted our table and some other guy came over apologizing saying she was new and he wanted to help her. We saw more of him than this girl. She finally comes over at the end of our meal asking how things were. I was honest and said it was terrible. She didn't even get my order right so the food I had received was totally wrong and since she never checked on us the food just wasn't eaten. I had asked to have it fixed by the other waiter but it never happened. And she had the audacity to get angry at ME because I told her I was disappointed! I can't believe it. Our table had 2 small children or I would have escalated it. She didn't even try to comp the bill of the meal I hadn't eaten. Heck, any credit against a meal I hadn't actually ordered? Nothing. I left her a tip because it's the right thing to do and I am hopeful she would split it with the guy who actually checked on us, but she was not just a bad server but also a garbage person. If you mess up, own it. I was honest, the food was terrible, the service was terrible. I'm not going to lie because you're entitled. Do not get nasty with the customer when you messed up. If I were the manager I would fire her for not only being incompetent but rude and disrespectful. I will never go to this location again. Fire her. Waste of $100. Bad food, bad service,...