Exactly!
While we’re on the subject of restaurant website omissions that really annoy me, too many don’t include desserts on their menu lists. (Again, looking at you, Trama’s at One Willow!)
P.S. I just checked the Trama’s Trattoria website. Hours of operation are listed, and the dessert menu is included. So, kudos for that!
Phew!! I have been so insanely busy and I asked my branding company to get info up on a landing page until they finish our website. Our hours have been funky. We are closed the Tuesday after Memorial Day and then we will be dinner Tuesday-Sunday and third week in June we will open lunch and dinner 7 days a week. I have not put it on our website bc our hours have been funky these two weeks.
Thanks for responding! Those details are very helpful. I presume once the hours are settled, you’ll post them on the website where we can easily find them. I hope you’ll also post the dessert menu as you do on your sister restaurant’s website.
Exactly once things settle and hours are more consistent everything will be posted.
Great! Looking forward to visiting One Willow mid-week, hopefully, in the not too distant future.
We went in last night and had a very enjoyable meal. Looking forward to a return.
Place is gorgeous, not sure if any work was done since the last place as we never tried it…but it is a beautiful spot. Some familiar faces on the staff, and we were thrilled to be served by Jess who we had met at B2 Red Bank a few years ago.
A couple dishes were standouts. The raw bar is very nice and all things considered priced very fairly. The NE clam chowder was amazing. Especially if you like a classic, relatively thin broth. (no spoon sticking up in a bowl here) Easily one of the best ever. Roasted Halibut Pistou was very nice, fish cooked perfectly and the sauce was very tasty. I only had one bite of my wife’s crabcake and it was all crab and thanfully , for me, no Old Bay.
I had the lobster roll which was a very healthy portion, served on a hot dog roll. There was zero chance of picking this thing up, so knife and fork it was. The first bite was very tarragon-y, which was a bit of a surprise but once your taste buds adjusted I enjoyed it very much. I would order again.
We ate and drank like champs and ended up at about $100/head after tip. Sorry no pics.
Table next to us had a burger, and wow it looked amazing. I was hoping my son would have gone for it, but he did not 
. I look forward to sitting at the bar and having one of those with a beer or 3.
We had reservations for last Friday night at 6pm. I liked this locations because I heard that seals like water, so I brought my own. (@seal) We arrived early, around 5pm to take advantage of some happy hour specials at the bar. We arrived right at 5pm and there was already quite a few people there and the place just continued to fill up during our stay, both the bar(s) and dining room were full by the time we left. (The ladies met us at 6pm for our reservation time)
My bottom line is a mixed bag honestly, several things were good, several were “ok” a few that just missed the mark for me. To start the place is beautiful really nothing has changed that I can tell from Bay Pointe Inn. The only noticeable changes were the addition of a raw bar where the stage was, and new artwork, but everything else seems unchanged.
At the bar I had a non-happy hour cocktail and we ordered some wings from the happy hour menu, they were $ 8.00 for 6 wings. ($ 14 non-happy hour price) The wings were good, described as “jerk” flavored, that’s the only flavor offered, they were meaty and tasty. As I notice myself saying more and more these days @ $ 8./$14 for six wings they should be good! The only thing about the wings I didn’t care about was the side sauce described simply as a “cream sauce” I just didn’t think it complimented the flavor of the wings, totally subjective opinion the wings were great on their own so no loss there.
We also ordered a half dozen oysters - we were told they were $ 1.00 ea. for happy hour - East or West Coast so we ordered West Coast. After about 10 mins they told us it was only east coast for that price so we switched to east coast. After about another 10 minute delay our table was ready so we arranged to have the oysters delivered to the table. When they arrived I’m pretty sure we did receive west coast because these were too good to be blue points. lol Oysters were excellent.
We decided to split several apps/entrees to sample a lot of that they had to offer, so the mish-mosh of items included:
Bibb Salad - Lobster Bisque- Little Neck Clams - 18oz Ribeye - Shrimp & Gritts - 10oz Willow Burger
Bibb Salad - I had a bite or two it was fine, the general opinion was good but could have used some more dressing
Lobster Bisque - I’m a big bisque guy, this was my request and when it was served (poured at the table) I was a bit skeptical by it’s more brown/tan-ish color but the flavor spot on. It was a very good lobster bisque with a nice amount of lobster meat. (I would have liked to been offered a touch of cream, fresh black pepper or sherry)
Little Neck Clams - menu says: “steamed, white wine garlic shallots” - that is not what we received. We received something in a white sauce/gravy. Similar to the wings, the clams were good - the sauce was ok - but the two combined just didn’t work. This was just a bad combination and I’m not really sure we got the right dish. (as the pic will show) Clams were also a bit gritty.
18oz Ribeye - was cooked to the correct temperature and it was good. Nothing bad about it, nothing exceptional either.
Shrimp and Grits - (I cant find it on their online menu, I guess it was a special) This was another one that kind of left us scratching our heads. Yes, grits are a corn based product, but these seemed as if it was corn bread mixed into the grits. They were very yellow/orange in color and the corn flavor was very prominent. The shrimp themselves were fairly flavorless as if they were simply steamed and placed on the grits. Nobody was a fan of this dish.
10 Oz Burger - we cut this into 1/4’s so we could all try and the burger was good! Again though at $ 16 for a burger it better be good and this one was. The fries well seasoned as well, this might have been my favorite item.
Few closing observations. There was a live band playing and the tiki bar was open and hoping! Really nice vibe about the place. I did see Laura on the floor, however by the time our entree’s were served the place was packed, she never checked on our table but honestly I didn’t see her check on many so I didn’t feel slighted or that she was playing favorites at all. There were no less then 3 hostesses, 1 host & Laura…in addition there was a lot of wait staff on the floor. The service by our two servers was very good.
Another one that left us scratching our heads was the bread. They literally served a (I would be shocked if they were house baked) store bought potato roll. We had to request bread and when they came out with this we all looked at each other in disbelief, mine also seemed as if it was a day old.
All in all a mixed bag on my experience. I would certainly go back, if not for a sit down diner for the happy hour specials at a minimum. The environment is beautiful, the service was good but the food was truly a mixed bag of good to not so good.
Lots of details and good pics! …I really need to work on my game
Nice report. I’m also baffled by the clams. Clearly they were not prepared as described on the menu.
I would give it more chances to meet your high expectations (we don’t lower the bar!). Seems the kind of place I would return to from time to time.
Very difficult, but I am withholding comment on @NotJrvedivici and @seal ordering the “Jerk” wings.
Shared a lovely evening with the @NotJrvedivici s. As usual, the company was better than the food.
Not that anything besides the poor excuse for bread was bad, but nothing is calling me back.
For me the real story was that, besides each of us eating our 1/4 of a burger, nothing was finished. Nobody wanted the last few clams, or the final two shrimp in “grits?”, or even the last bite of steak. And none of it was cheap either, so not what I was expecting. I even made a point of asking if Pat was in the kitchen and was assured that he was.
Fwiw, I agree with your assessment of the shrimp and grits. I have heard that they may be coming off the menu.
That white sauce on the clams seems like a mixup.??
new phone pics too?
Is that the shrimp and grits in the last pic?
No that’s the app.
Metsfan, yes those were with the new phone…first food pics with it I believe.
@NotJrvedivici, Re: the lobster bisque. The on-line menu lists sherry as an ingredient. Why did you wish they’d offered you some at the table?
@corvette_johnny, Excellent photos!
I don’t see shrimp on the on-line menu’s appetizers list. Were the ones you had a special? I hope you’ll give us the details about your experience.
Personally I prefer my lobster bisque with a touch of cream, fresh black pepper and a little extra sherry for a kick. That’s my “ideal” bisque, which I openly admit was how The Tavern on the Green would serve it. I have yet to find one that matches theirs.
I’m also a Bisque lover. Did you have Doris and Ed’s? For me that is the New Jersey Benchmark. I had it at Tavern and while the rest of the meal was a letdown the Bisque was excellent.
