Brookdale Tavern And Kitchen

Decent atmosphere. OK food

Drove by after a concert in Montclair, stopped in with my family and all i have to say is wow. Price + Drinks + Food = A-+ in my book will be returning.

Went for dinner Sat around 5PM, was greeted by friendly host, our waitress was friendly and knew her IPA s. Food was very good, my husband and I both went for specials his a T Bone, and mine Salmon...both very tasty...Flobaby went for the Cuban sandwich, tasty but not a true Cban ....definitely going back

One of the worst dining experiences I've had in a very long time.

Wife, daughter, son, and I arrived at 6:30pm on a Friday evening looking forward to a nice meal to stay the weekend. As Bloomfield residents we figured we would try out the new kid on the block.

We were seated promptly and after about 5 minutes, the waitress came to take our drink order. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to give our appetizer order with the drinks because she abruptly left after the last drink was spoken.

~10 minutes later, the waitress came and asked us if we were ready to order. I had to ask if they had any specials. She said "oh yeah" and flipped back to the front of her notepad to read off the specials. My son ordered a hot dog, daughter had penne with marinara, I had the osso buco, and wife had the snapper special. We also ordered a calamari appetizer.

After about 15 minutes the calamari came and the waitress also bought our children's meals. We asked the waitress why she would do that as opposed to bringing all of the food out together. She had no explanation. I mentioned that it might be a good idea to all people their preference.

Fast forward to 50 minutes after we placed our order and our food has still not arrived. The kids are done and we're doing the best we can to keep them occupied. My wife went to talk to the manager and explained the situation. He offered to buy my wife a drink but she declined stating that it wouldn't help the situation. He went and checked on the food and came backs few minutes later.

He explained that the food was almost done and that he's not sure why the kid's food came out so early. He said they couldn't just leave the kid's food to sit while the rest of the food was cooking. I mentioned that it might have been a good idea not to boil a hot dog for 5 minutes at the same time you start a dish of osso buco. We told him that when our food was done we would like it wrapped to go which he did.

Hey, maybe the food was good though, right? I wish there was a silver lining to this experience but there wasn't.

The risotto that the osso buco was on was very overcooked, dry, and clumped together in hard balls. The osso buco itself, despite looking nice, had almost no flavor except that of salt. It was listed on the menu as braised and then roasted with celery, carrots, and onions. I was actually impressed that no flavor flavor was able to be extracted out of so many ingredients.

My wife was disappointed in her snapper dish which was placed on a stew. She said the pairing didn't work at all.

When ask was said and done, our experience cost $75.97. If you go, I certainly hope your experience is better than ours was but I wouldn't count on it.

Great addition to Bloomfield! I enjoyed the steak sandwich, and my wife had a burger. Both were delicious. The beer selection is fantastic as well. We will definitely be returning.