For you Vegas fans, Bellagio has an all you can drink special for 14 bucks during breakfast. I’m going to bow out on any stories but if you’re thirsty, this place will get it done. Yes you can get free drinks at the tables but they don’t let you eat bacon, omlettes, Chinese food and other scrumptious stuff while gambling 
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They do at the poker tables
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Never a guy to let one bad impression steer me away from a place forever, we decided to give RH one more try. It was Tuesday, so burger night. For $25 you can get a burger, fries, and a glass of beer or house wine. Before I left my house I checked the RH website and was glad I did as it says they have a dress code. The page said that it was business casual - no shorts or flip flops.
I arrived early, as is my custom, and sat at one of the nice tables in the separate bar area. I saw they had some happy hour specials and that included domestic beers for $4 and imported beers for $5 so I ordered a Sam Adams. When the waitress returned with my beer she told me that all the food on the bar menu is half price during happy hour. Great!
I looked it over as I drank my beer. When I put it down, the waitress came over and asked what I wanted. I asked her about burger night and she repeated what was on the website, saying a burger and a beer was a bargain for only $25.
I asked her to indulge a math teacher on summer break and she smiled, but her eyes glazed over like one of my 11-year-old students. I asked her if the burger on the bar menu was now $10 since the normal price was $20 and she said it was only $10 now. She made it to the next step on her own and said, “So your burger and beer now would be only $15.” I stared blankly at her, wondering how somebody could get the logic correct, but not be able to add 10 + 4. She clarified, “$10 for the burger and $5 for your beer.” I told her that the menu said domestic beers are $4. “Isn’t Sam Adams an import?” she asked. “Boston,” I laughed.
She left and a nice young man asked me if I wanted any bread. Usually a restaurant will only serve bread after you’ve ordered your meal and many won’t serve it at the bar at all, so this was a nice surprise. There were five different warm, freshly-baked rolls to choose from. I took a multigrain. It was served with two balls of perfectly room temperature butter - one plain and one mint/orange. It was all good and I was happy.
My wife arrived and I showed her the bar menu. We chose to share a $10 bar burger and after we were told both duck dishes were not available, decided to share a wedge salad and an order of lemon pepper wings. The burger arrived first leaving us puzzled as to why the salad didn’t come out first, but it looked good.
They even cut it in half for us and gave us each our own little fry basket. The burger was cooked medium rare as requested. The fries were very good and there was a small ramekin of what looked like mustard but turned out to be a mayo/ketchup based sauce that went well with the crispy fries. The burger was not bad but it didn’t taste as beefy as other Pat LaFrieda special blend burgers I’ve had.
By this time a few other parties were also seated nearby in the bar area. One couple had the woman wearing jean shorts and the other party had a man in shorts and flip flops. I figured that perhaps the bar area was exempt from the dress code, but then another couple joined them with the man also wearing shorts and flip flops and the hostess led them to the dining room to eat! C’mon people, either have a dress code or not. I know one man’s watch cost more than my car, but selective enforcement is elitist and unfair.
As they left, our other food arrived. It looked good.
A few quibbles with the salad. First, serving a wedge of romaine lettuce is unweildy at best and ended up a little messy. Second, if you’re going to use all that blue cheese, at least make it a good cheese. This one was watery and lacking flavor. Still, the salad was light years ahead of those lemon pepper wings. It was as if they poured teaspoons full of lemon pepper seasoning on those poor wings. I tried rubbing off the extra seasoning with a napkin and still thought the wing tasted so sour and salty it was inedible.
We paid our tab, which was only $40 including tip, and hit up Nicholas Creamery on our way home. Was our dinner good? Well, it had some plusses and minuses. It certainly was worth the $40 we paid, but I am loathe to go for an expensive dinner at RH.
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Wow…there are so many things that surprise me and yet so many that don’t.
Surprising Category:
1.) You actually went back?
2.) You had a beer?
3.) Boston is domestic?
Not Surprising Category:
1.) Non-compliance of their own dress code policy
2.) Their web-site being mostly useless
3.) Romaine wedge salad aka the Russel and Bette’s Wedge, must be a “Rumson Thing”
4.) Millennial not knowing simple math nor geography
Listen with all due respect to RGR who seemed to have a wonderful meal here let’s just face the facts, this is a wealthy families hobby, this is NOT a passion driven venture. The brunch experience we had was as sobering an experience as the blue and red flashing lights in the rear view mirror when you are 5 martini’s into your pm drive home. You just know nothing good is about to come of the following experience, It was bad, so bad I really can’t believe you went back.
The web site has proven from our brunch that it is useless, the fact that they under cut their own burger night with happy hour specials is so ridiculously stoopid it proves there is -0- restaurant management experience let alone any business acumen.
This romaine wedge thing puzzles me, not that it’s a culinary faux pas but dammit just say it on the menu. I LOVE a wedge of crisp iceberg lettuce if I’m ordering a wedge it’s because that’s what I’m expecting a huge chunk of iceberg which is all of about 10 calories covered in 2,000 calories of blue cheese and bacon. Nothing against a romaine but it doesn’t have the same heartiness as a chunk of iceberg, please have the courtesy of saying on your menu you are using romaine.
If you are over seasoning wings with lawry’s lemon pepper blend then shame on you. This should again speak volumes about the culinary skills in the kitchen. Wings come out of fryer, pan, oven go into bowl sprinkle with spice, toss and serve. Nowhere in the process does it say drown with seasoning.
This can now go on the list of places that just piss me off.
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I really must tell my history teacher Massachusetts brother about that one.
(or should that be 
)
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@NotJrvedivici covered most of the territory, but @seal, don’t you know this expression??
Fool me once, shame on you
Fool me twice, shame on ME (ALSO YOU in this case)
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@NotJrvedivici, I could care less if this is a vanity project for the Sansones. Our Rumson House dinner was our third time in the dining room under their ownership (twice before when it was Fromagerie), and our experience all three times was the same: very good food, excellent service, and pleasant atmospherics, i.e., low noise level.
We’ve never gone our for brunch in NJ. If we did, I abhor buffets and so avoid them like the proverbial plague. That said, there is no excuse for the brunch food at Rumson House being as wretched as you described it. So, I can understand your reluctance to try the dining room. As for @seal’s experience with the burger and bar food, I have no interest in either but, again, can see why he’s not keen on trying the dining room.
We haven’t managed to get back to Rumson House for another dinner yet, but at some point we will.
P.S. I don’t see why you find the website “useless.” What information are you looking for that is absent?
On my visit several items listed on the web site for brunch were in fact not available. (like actual eggs) The web site clearly stated bottomless bloody mary’s, not only was I charged for 2 the waitress tried to argue with me before removing the additional charge.
Per the web site: “Our dress code is business casual. Please no shorts, flip flops” yet per @seal they didn’t adhere to their posted policy, even allowing people into the dining room. (I would be upset by flip flops in the dining room in an establishment of this caliber)
Nearly half the items on the bar menu seal posted are not on the web site bar menu. They label their menu “seasonal” which would give you even more reason to believe they change and monitor it throughout the year, there shouldn’t be such variances. Especially not approximately half the menu.
Notice I didn’t actually tag you in my response to seal because I didn’t want to discount or “challenge” your experiences here, but the dining room at least seems to be under completely different management than the rest of the establishment. Something that irks me, you should be confident in equal food and service be it: Lunch - Brunch - Dinner - Bar - Take out. There shouldn’t be a tale of two restaurants, in my opinion of course.
While my only experience at the Rumson House was my brunch, I did dine at “Formagerie” while the Sanson’s were partnered with the owner of Brando’s /Osteria and while the food was good on my two visits, I still felt the place was poorly managed. I don’t think a manager / owner should work the dining room in jeans - tee-shirt and suit jacket, I thought it was quite unbecoming of this restaurant and it’s history.
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I totally agree with you that the experience at a restaurant should be of the same high quality no matter where (dining room, bar) and when you dine there (dinner, lunch, brunch). In that regard, Rumson House is lacking.
Re: the website issues you cite. Since brunch doesn’t interest me, I never looked at that menu. Agree with your criticisms. I also agree that if a dress code is stated, it should be upheld, and anyone not dressed appropriately should be asked to leave. As you probably know, there are a few NYC restaurants still requiring that men wear jackets (but not ties). From what I’ve heard, they have jackets on hand in different sizes in case a man happens to show up not wearing one.
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Thursday night at RH is happy hour prices at the bar all night. They can’t be making money off it, but it works for us. And I hope Seal liked my legs…dreadful breach of decorum I suppose, but at this point it’s cargo shorts and flip flops until Columbus Day.
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Oh my, does that bring back memories; now humorous, at the time embarrassing. When I was in high school I took a young woman on a date to a show and dinner in NYC. If I recall the restaurant was a Polynesian/Tahitian restaurant in midtown that, unbeknownst to me at the time (this was pre-internet), required jackets for men. When we arrived the guy at the door mentioned that jackets were required and upon seeing I wasn’t wearing one, proceeded to give me the most hideously looking jacket they had. I was embarrassed and mortified the entire dinner. Needless to say I never returned.
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Question… so the 20$ truffle burger that you had for 10 for happy hour - is that the standard burger in the burger night deal?
Where would you rank it in terms of best burgers in the area? Worth 20$? 10?
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At $10.00 it is a steal. We are there at least once a week, and I think it is absolutely one of the best, unless you order it medium. It must be ordered medium rare. Like all good beef.
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Wait, what?
Yes, wait, what??
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WHAT???
Holy shitoly!!!
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We were waiting for you… (and I was betting you had intel–oh, well!)
No, none I’m shocked. My spidey senses must be declining in my growing age.
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Wow didn’t hear that.!
