Ironbound

This restaurant is FANTASTIC!!! Service is always great and chill lounge atmosphere. The menu has plenty of variety and features favorites that will please everyone. The Pulled Pork Quesadilla, Burger, Salads are some of our faves. Enjoy!

The only thing that is preventing this review from being a 4 – 5 star review is the service. The food is really good, the horrible service trumps all of that. I am here for a meeting for a few days and have dined here every night since Monday. The skirt steak was amazing, mussels amazing, truffle scented kettle chips DELISH and AMAZING. The waitress (Jasmine) who was bringing them however, was not. Tonight, she took our order and disappeared for 20 minutes. No water, no drinks, nothing. She finally emerged after 35 minutes and THREW napkins on the table and dropped the waters off. Then after 40 minutes, the drinks came. Oh what happened to our appetizers? They came 15 minutes after that.
I might add that she has been my waitress on every occasion that I have dined here. She was consistently absent and inattentive every single night. My friend wanted to order another drink on night two, but she left us hanging for 45 minutes so we just waited and went to the bar afterwards instead. I will note that she seemed to be by herself and very busy each night and because of that fact — all she had to do was communicate. She could have apologized and let us know. Her management’s poor decision to leave her in the weeds with no assistance is inexcusable. So this negative review is for them as much as it is for her.

We had a late dinner here last night during the 2016 blizzard. It was the only place opened in the area. It was really busy, and it looked like they were short in staff. We had to wait for a while for our drinks. We ordered a pesto and margarita pizza, and a kids Mac and cheese. Surprisingly, the pizzas were pretty good with plenty of fresh toppings. The Mac and cheese was just Kraft Mac and cheese. For dessert, we ordered apples slices with caramel sauce, ice cream sundae, and a velvet cookie sandwich. We were served a chocolate lava cake instead. The lava cake was good. The ambiance was nice along with the funky music playing in the background.

Really good! Here during the blizzard of January 2016, yet still the service is great. I got the New York Strip and it was absolutely delicious. Cooked just right and very robust in flavor. The strip was paired with Chinese string beans and jasmine rice.

Décor was excellent. Service by our waiter by Nick was great and he was very friendly and personable. Food was outstanding for a hotel restaurant. I tried the pizzas, roast beef melt, burger, and lava cake and all were fantastic! A++++

Sub par even for an airport hotel restaurant.
This is not a good place for watching sports. The TVs here are the size of desktop computer monitors only theyre not as crisp. Theyre absolutely unsuitable for watching any sport involving more than one player or moving objects.
This is not a good place for food. I ordered a $ 14 ceviche and was brought a tomato soup 30 minutes later… Really? Another 15 minutes and I was presented with a pint glass of ceviche the star of which was 5 over cooked mealy shrimp. Thats almost $ 3 per shrimp. Am i paying extra for the ridiculous air conditioning bill they must have keeping this place at 55 degrees fahrenheit in june?
After the 45 minutes that it took to get my appetizer (and at that point I was definitely appetized) I was graciously informed that ceviche does not include chips, those are $ 5 extra.
Theres other better places within walking distance.

My colleague and I were there for 2 dinners in a row which is unusual when I travel. The first night I had their pulled pork quesadillas which were very good. Accompanied by a Bombay Sapphire martini, the service was excellent. The next night, not so much. An additional server was assigned to our table since our first server seemed quite inexperienced. First taking our drink orders, we ordered some local brews only to find out they had none left. After the second try, we finally found a beer they had. The second night I had the Caprese Panini which was excellent. My colleague had the crabcake sandwich the first night and the cobb salad the second night. I must say their portions are very generous and I thought the value was very good. I could see the crabcake wasn’t like you’d get from Maryland, but did have a fair amount of lump crabmeat in it. I should mention they start you off with bread which is nice and warm accompanied by butter with balsamic vinegar drizzled over the top. Very nice signature dish.

I didn’t really expect too much from an airport hotel restaurant but Ironbound was surprisingly good. Service was attentive & friendly. Both times we dined there, I ordered the Ironbound Salad with steak… baby arugula topped with candied beets, butternut squash, fried goat cheese rounds, onions & pepitas with a generous portion of sliced skirt steak. Excellent salad… I’ll replicate the recipe at home! My husband ordered the Cobb Salad with steak both times as well with a similar feeling of enjoying a very fresh, fully-​loaded salad. The prices are steep…$ 23 for mine with steak added; $ 22 for his, but it was a huge salad with absolutely no skimping. I would certainly return.

The Cioppino was fantastic!!! Seafood in it was delicious. And the staff were very nice and attentive even though the bar area was very busy.

Night staff was friendly enough, but please avoid this place during the day! You have been warned. I get that this is an airport hotel restaurant. I didn’t have very high standards coming in or anything, but the service here is just terrible. I sat down at a table and they promptly asked if i wanted anything to drink and i said just iced tea for now. Which they brought. They didn’t check up on me again for maybe 30 – 45 minutes so i went up to the bar and put in an order for ceviche. Maybe 15 minutes later someone finally came to my table to ask if i would like any food. I told her I already put an order in for ceviche with one of the other servers. Maybe another 10 – 15 minutes go by, and another server comes around and asks if he can take my order. I tell him the same thing. Finally, my server comes out to me with… tomato soup… *womp womp*. The waitstaff goes silent again and my bf goes to remind them that i am still waiting on my food. And finally! I get my ceviche. It came in a little martini glass with NO CHIPS… What? Am I supposed to eat ceviche with a spoon??? So i asked for chips or crackers, just something and he told me it would be an additional $ 5. $ 5!!! Are you kidding me. You shall get no more of my money! Especially since not once did any of the three of them apologize for any of it – not the wait time, not the wrong order, nothing! I mean, you are in the hospitality industry! Be a little more hospitable!

I have a hard time rating places like this, here’s the breakdown as to why.
Ambiance ²⁄₅ it is really just a bar area with some booth tables set up. But it it’s also a hotel restaurant, so apparently that means screaming toddlers on Friday night.
Food ³⁄₅ Fresh mozzarella salad, I wouldn’t consider the mozzarella fresh, it wasn’t Polly-​o but it wasn’t fresh either. It was somewhere in between, and the prosciutto was exactly one slice cut and bunched into thirds. The balsamic glaze was good though. Halibut was dry but risotto was good.
Drinks ⁵⁄₅ I ordered the basil gin martini, asked for it with no simple syrup, waiter came over and said it was going to be really bitter, but he would add extra cucumber to cut the bitter and it worked out perfectly. Also ordered a nice bottle of Malbec for $ 36.
Service ⁵⁄₅ everyone was so nice and helpful and our water never went empty.

For a hotel restaurant, this is damn good. Compared to traditional restaurants it’s good. I was impressed but maybe my expectations were low.
I had the crab cakes which were better than I’ve had in a long time. It wasn’t just the dried hunk you get at a place like Applebee’s — it was a good portion, moist and tasty.
Then I got the barbeque chicken pizza — delicious. Fresh and tasty. I would absolutely recommend it.
I ate at the bar, staff was nice but was a little late with the beer refills.

Met a coworker/​friend here for the breakfast buffet. It was awesome! A great spread of fruit & yogurt, cold & hot cereal, breakfast breads & pastries and then hot entrees of eggs, potatoes and bacon & sausage. Juice & coffee are included in the price. Nice open & light eating area. Friendly service. :)

This place was better than I expected. Service was great and the food was good. It was just fine for me.

The star is for the very friendly service, the excellent house salad, and the yummy cheescake.
The lack of any other stars is for the absolute mess my entrée was — I think it was supposed to be a flank steak, served with chimichurri, broccoli rabe, and roasted potatoes. The steak tasted like old blood, that kind of funky off-​taste, which wasn’t appetizing at all. I might have been able to get over that had the supposed chimichurri not been essentially guacamole smeared on the steak. Yep, not chimichurri, which I’ve had and is delightful. Instead, this was (I swear!) avaocados, tomatoes, and onions squashed up and served. And even then, it wasn’t good! If it was at least decent guac, I probably wouldn’t complain. Plus, the broccoli rabe was so very bitter that I could barely eat it, and the garlic it was sauteed in tasted like it came right out of the giant jar you get at Costco. I didn’t say anything to the server because my companions seemed to be enjoying theirs and I didn’t want to appear fussy. But it was seriously horrendous, and at that price point it really shouldn’t be. I hope they just had an off night.

I was staying at the hotel and needed a quick bite. So I called in my order. I read the reviews and decided to order wings.
1. Wings are terrible. They are breaded and sauced, so you get an über bready, soggy wing with a weird variant or Franks Red Hot Sauce on it. Didn’t enjoy them at all.
2. Expensive, even for a hotel! Wings plus a coke (which they give you in a small paper coffee cup) cost over $ 16! Argh!
3. The two stars are simply for service, which was wonderful.

Great wings! Spicy and good sized.

Excellent service & food. You should try this place, if you are staying at Newark Airport area and looking for a place to eat.

We’d been in Newark working for 2 days and it was our final night and since we didn’t want to eat at the Airport Hilton again, we decided to try the Ironbound Grill at the Renaissance. Five of us went and we were pleasantly surprised as the service was professional and prompt and the food was great. I had the chicken and chorizo stew and it was yumyum tastey. My team mates gobbled down their food and were more than satisfied. The food was hot, tastey, and well presented. Our team leader had a porterhouse steak (huge!) and he ate every bite … wow!
After dinner we hopped in our rental car a popped back to the Hilton via Mt. Olivet road … a spooky pot-​holed lane between a wrecking yard and aged grave yard … a great «Newark ending» to a nice night. Go to this restaurant… you’ll be glad you did. But don’t walk back along Mt. Olivet Street … it’s just too too spooky. boo!!!

I came to Ironbound Grill for the first time on a weekday evening for dinner with a friend. I had a
coupon, but otherwise had never heard of the place. Inside of the Newark Airport Renaissance hotel, Ironbound has chic décor and overall appears to be a trendy place to grab a drink.
However, the food and service were a bit off. I ordered a burger ($ 15) which was pretty good but only came with a tiny, mini cup of french fries. My friend ordered the flank steak ($ 24) which was dry and flavorless. He ended up eating half of my burger, which was better than the steak. Overall I liked the ambiance, but probably wouldn’t go back unless I was staying in the hotel.