Nu Bar

Friendly yet inattentive service. Great atmosphere. Cool eclectic crowd. Good beer and drink selection. Tasty burgers, both the meat and grass (veggie) option. French fries nice and crispy. Fried calamari was pre-​frozen, a bit of a let down, but still ok. Such a cool place to hang in that you don’t even care about the slow service.

Great to have a cool local bar in this neighborhood. The wings are awesome and the specialty cocktail list is on point! The bartenders add character to this super friendly and chill spot.
Now for the down side. The owner. The owner is a douch. He walks around all night introducing himself to his kind of patrons (Which excludes most minorities). And makes statements like «the only black people in the ivy league are there from affirmative action» when joking with friends in earshot of the the bar. what a jerk off. God bless your staff buddy, without them you’d be done around here.

We love NuBar. No question. The staff is wonderful with one exception. And that is the reason for four stars instead of five stars.
The Tuesday bartender did not know the correct price for a bottle of wine and that is fine except she went to great effort to belittle us as well as a coworker. We found this offensive and weird. We are regulars, we love having a neighborhood watering hole.
But if we walk in and see this person is working we will take our money elsewhere.
Again, the rest of the staff is across the board excellent and a treasure to us. But we will not go there any night she is working. I wish I knew her name.

I was there on Tuesday, it was awful. The bartender — I can’t believe they let her work! She was ignoring me and my boyfriend to flirt with guys at the bar, was not knowledgeable about the menu, and then was opinionated about our choices. I have been in at other times, and like the place. But never again!

Great atmosphere, perfect little corner bar. Tonight there were veggie burgers from JC Veggie Burgers that were awesome. The buns on the burgers kinda sucked, but the food was still good. Great service from Brittany the bartender. Very attentive. All around good time.

I always wanted a local, and I live just around the corner. Tonight we found out via social media (Nextdoor) that the folks over at Nu Bar have just started serving Jersey City Veggie Burgers, so we headed right over. They were excellent, the service outstanding, and the company delightful. We met some friends there, and made some new friends with neighbors we hadn’t met. It was a remarkably positive experience.
But it’s not always so good. On Tuesday night – karaōke night – for some reason the management has a different staff on hand – not so good. The Tuesday server didn’t understand the order and kept calling every drink a martini (gin gimlet and margarita), the Tuesday bartender didn’t understand what a «double» is, and the fries the kitchen sent out were as far from crispy (our request) as you can imagine. The karaōke wasn’t terrible – if this is the kind of thing you like, you will enjoy it. But it was disorienting to experience a completely different kind of bar on that one night.
So we’ll keep going to Nu Bar, but not on Tuesdays, and we hope that the management can keep the great staff on duty most nights.

This was my 3^rd attempt at this spot and I will not be giving it another. First time was ok; had drinks and food and both were good. The second time my girlfriend and I went was on a Friday. It was very crowded and they were very under staffed. We waited more than 20 minutes before anyone even looked at us. Needles to say we got up and walked out and I’m pretty sure they didn’t even notice. This evening was my 3^rd attempt… I figured a beer and a burger will hit the spot for the evening– it def would have if the bartender payed a little more attention to the patrons and not work on her business plan with her business partner… at the bar! you should def do that on your own freaking time and not have me stare at you to get your attention. I hope the service gets better as this neighborhood definitely needs a place to chill at. I’ve seen the other 2 places go out of business and I believe this one is setting themselves up for the same fate. I live at The Foundry which is a block away but I would rather walk to any spot on Grove in a heart beat… Maybe Nu Bar needs a little competition so they can appreciate their patrons a bit more.

I know there are people who love this place because it’s their «neighborhood bar» but I can’t buy in. The place has a nice setup and the DJ does well when he’s here but that’s where it stops.
The first problem, service. I had to flag down the server to get her attention to order my drinks and when my glass was empty I asked for another, let’s just say I’m still waiting for it. They ran out of one of the main beers that I consider to be a pretty popular item. You are a bar you cannot run out of your main product!
The food is mediocre at best if you can even get it. We ordered some food and 30 minutes later only half of it comes out and we are told that the other dish isn’t available. I mean there are only 8 things on the menu how can you not stock it all? The worst part was the wait only to be told that it wasn’t available instead of letting us know in advance while we anticipated the dish.
Did I mention the poor service? Food comes out, no utensils or napkins as if we are supposed to eat like we are cave men.
I had hopes but this place is a disappointment to say the least.

Awesome and fun neighborhood bar. Really good food, sophisticated drinks, nice atmosphere, great service, cheaper than grove st… perfect 10. I highly recommend the spicy margarita and nu old fashioned drinks.

This is a great local restaurant and I am so grateful for it because it is right next-​door to my house, always ready to satisfy my food and yummy cocktail cravings! The staff is friendly, the food selection is small but they have daily specials on top of the regular menu, drinks are delish and the atmosphere is groovy! Some of my favorite dishes are the chorizo tacos and the salmon burger, as well as the mac & cheese with chorizo.

Nu Bar is the bar every neighborhood should have, by default. Like, the government should mandate/​subsidize every ‘hood having one Cheers-​esque bar. That’s exactly what this place is to me, a place where everybody knows your name. What makes the perfect neighborhood bar you ask? Cheap drinks, great food, a cast of eccentric regulars, oh and a lovable curmudgeon bartender doesn’t hurt (neither does being stumbling distance from my house).
Décor-​wise, the place is a lot swankier than you’d imagine in the Lafayette neighborhood. The area is definitely on the up and up, so I think this is a great thing. It has a rustic, sort of steam punk vibe going for it and I particularly love the antique bar. My one gripe is that sometimes I wish the place was brighter, but it’s def not a deal breaker.
The food is surprisingly fantastic pub fare, most people I take are shocked how good it is. Juicy handmade burgers, scratch made sauces, rotating array of specials, all pretty baller. My personal favs at the moment are the chimichurri sliders and the ginger-​scallion wings. Also, keep an eye out for the soups of the day, I hear great things about those as well.
I love the staff here. They really contribute to the family atmosphere of the place and expertly balance being friendly and professional. The manager Dorian is extremely amiable and has accomplished something previous businesses in this space couldn’t, creating a neighborhood institution.

You remember the scene in Animal House when Otter, Boon and Flounder (with their white dates) walk into that bar where Otis Day was playing? Like, the music stops and the patrons all stare at em?
Hahahaha…yeah, that scene.
Well, this spot IS in the fuckin ‘hood, BUT, it was like all a buncha white people in here, eating deelish tacos, nachos, sliders, mac n cheese, drinking Guinness, talking about how they moved here from downtown, JC and bought giant houses in this area for like $ 400 and shit.
The bartenders are hella affable, the manager is über-​fetch and the vibe is chill.
Homeslice, I’m buyin me a neib crack house for like $ 38.56, next week, so I can come here urryday.

Great neighborhood bar!
I enjoy coming to this place for many reasons.
The location is great — walking distance (can’t beat that).
Service is fantastic! The bartender/​waitresses are always friendly & attentive.
The food is yummy. It’s a small menu, but a tasty one!
The drinks are always on point! They’ll make any type of drink desired & will accommodate any special request!
Great addition to the neighborhood. Definitely recommend checking out this spot!

Update #2: I find myself constantly choosing Nu Bar over the many other options in JC. The food is quite good– if you have a small menu, it needs to be good for it to work and the food I’ve tried here overall has been. They also have what might be my favorite cocktail list in town– everything is well made and well thought out. Beer list isn’t particularly noteworthy but they normally have at least one or two decent/​good things on tap. I think what makes me give them 5 stars though is the combination of everything– the small details in the food and drinks, the amicable service from the bartenders and Dorian, the manager, the excellent prices. Overall, I just find something genuine about the place and I’m a fan. I think they definitely deserve this rating, which has gone up from my original 3 stars to 4 and now five. My original review is still below–
They have a small food menu, maybe 8 items or so. I got the chorizo tacos which were pretty good. Nothing spectacular, but lots of chorizo and some salsa. A bit too oily but with chorizo that is more or less unavoidable I guess. Not sure if they plan to expand their menu but I hope they do. They have a bunch of specialty cocktails including the «Nu Old Fashioned» which is an old fashioned made with spiced simple syrup and lemon. I just got a regular Old Fashioned made with Maker’s. It was good and I would definitely order it again. I then switched to beer and was excited to hear they had the River Horse Pumpkin on tap– I love when bars offer NJ beers. While not my favorite pumpkin ale, it was nice to see they had at least one more interesting beer option. The other drafts were more or less typical and they also had a bunch of bottles though I didn’t get a great look.
On a Friday night, it was kind of dead initially around 9:30 but more people started coming in later. The bartender and manager were both friendly and helpful. I would definitely come back as the drinks were solid and I look forwarding to try more of their menu. Hope people keep supporting this place.

Good beer, food, and music. I wish them the best,. I had the Blue cheese burger and calamari which was perfecto!!! Parking was sort of tight in the area, so it might be better to go via lightrail which is just up the road. I will be back, great crowd and the bartender was very attentive and professional. Good Job!

Local crowd of good people? Did any of those good people make you feel scared for your life? Was one of these good people an oblivious bartender who should know his customer’s limits?
I stopped in for the first time with my wife and her friend to get a drink at around 10 pm on a Saturday night. We were only able to stay for about a half hour because an extremely intoxicated male patron proceded to call my wife the n-​word (she’s white, he was Hispanic), and demand that we show him some respect. We had done nothing to this man and were just sitting at the bar enjoying a drink. At this point I decided it was prudent that we pay our bill and leave as quickly as possible. But it seems that the bartender decided to disappear, leaving us with a waitress who did not seem to appreciate the urgency with which I wanted to get out of there. So we pay, leave and make it about halfway down the block when we hear said drunk patron scream obscenities at us and claiming he was in a gang.
Bartender, who I suspect was also the owner of the bar, how can you let a customer get so intoxicated that they threaten another customer, and then when this take place not attempt to diffuse the situation and run and hide to avoid it?
Won’t be back.

Great food and beer. Reasonable prices. Nice atmosphere. Local crowd of good people. Recommended

Great addition to the neighborhood, well priced food and drinks, and while you don’t have to go upscale with a fancy cocktail-​when you do it’s crafted with care and serious intent!
We haven’t yet been for brunch, but it looks like a great bargain for drinks so it’s on our list once we’re around on the weekends after the summer is over.

Small menu but they add a lot of variety in their offering with meats and sauces. Cocktails enjoy the same variation with a fruit of the day. Today’s was prickly pear. I had a mojito with the prickly pear, delicious and refreshing. For dinner I ordered humus to start and a burger with fries for the main. The humus was okay nothing overly special. The burger was great and fries a nice accompaniment. The integrity of the bun was not enough to carry the burger, that would be my only complaint. Prices are really reasonable. The atmosphere was welcoming and service was attentive and pleasent. I left fully content.

Small menu, but the food is tasty. Service is attentive and friendly. For some reason all their cocktails have blueberries as a star ingredient. The menu is just kind of all over the place. I enjoyed it for a neighborhood joint and will return.