Baker’s American Bar & Grille

A great time every time. Jess on the Bar, Emily everywhere and Carlos making margarita pizza… A perfect afternoon.

WORST experience ever!!! (1 star because there are no zero stars available) We sat at the bar and the bartender was the rudest bartender I have ever encountered in my entire life. She had no interest in taking our order. After giving us our drinks, she never came back to take our food order. She would pass by us and blatantly ignore us. We tried to get her attention but she was too busy flirting with ALL the male customers. Inappropriate language, and whorish behavior was part of her routine but taking care of her customer order I guess wasn’t. We left without placing the order & I don’t regret it. From what I see from the other reviews the food is HORRIBLE so no loss here. Do NOT even try this place; just read the reviews and you’ll get a clear picture of what this place is all about! And don’t be fooled by the billboard either (that’s what we saw when we decided to try this place out). Once you’re in it, good luck surviving the horrendous customer service and the lack of respect you get.

When you walk into this bar… a particular song comes to mind. I LOVE THIS BAR… even when it’s crowded it’s still cozy and not elbow bumping. The patrons range from blue collar to college kids… although not many to bar stool warmers. The bar tenders are friendly… Jess is awesome and sweet. Their quick to fill a drink or clean up.
As for the food… it is delicious. Many people in area come here for dinner, not exactly a «family oriented place» but not my kids… appetizers are always delicious. I’ve had the mozzarella sticks, garlic shrimp, pretzels are amazing I can eat them all night. Last night I had a spicy crab and spinach pizza the flavor pops were at first weird but it worked really well. My friend had grilles chicken Ceasar salad and other friend had lobster bisque and nachos which looked awesome. She said the soup was off the charts didn’t get a pic bc she ate it too fast. Lol and wasn’t sharing. they have awesome happy hour 7 days a week. Definitely a great place for meeting up with friends, dates or just coming in for a drink. It’s nice to go where everyone knows you’re name. Lol so if you’re heading down rt. 33 definitely check this place out don’t be fooled by the exterior. It’s worth it.

I guess this place is hit or miss, but in my opinion I’m not interested in that. We ordered takeout once and it was great! Then we ordered 3 lunches and 2 orders of buffalo wing orders the other day. They couldn’t get my credit card to work even though I was on the phone with my credit card company who informed they were charging me over and over again. After speaking with the manager multiple times he was finally able to figure it out. I got home and our «medium» burgers were more than well done… I will even enjoy a burger cooked medium well and I couldn’t finish my burger. The entire time I was choking down my burger I was praying that my husband’s burger (he was appeasing our infant twins while I ate) was cooked better as he would prefer medium rare to medium. Well his burger was just as terrible. My sister ordered a chicken sandwich and it was also inedible. The wings were gummy and they didn’t bother to give us any kind of blue cheese/​ranch sauce. If either of these incidents were isolated I probably would have been too lazy to post, but my disgusting $ 55 lunch almost cost me $ 170 because the manager couldn’t figure out his own system! Pathetic. And did I mention the food was really really bad?

How on God’s green earth does this place stay in business?
Chicken wings taste like Tofurkey.
Fries are nasty.
Ambiance is shit.
People are virtually zombie.
This restaurant should blow up or burn to the ground ASAP.
Don’t be deceived.

Service was good, food was ok but I’m picky. Had the Tex mex burger and the chilly was really tasty. For an appetizer my wife and I had Naxos and they were really good partly because of the chilly. The room was loud… Lot of little guys which would be expected. So if you’re going to bring the family it’s great. Yes I would go back but not often. Prices are reasonable.

Looks like a house conversion but done very well with a laid back friendly atmosphere inside. The sound of people enjoying themselves easily drowns out the background music. Really nice change from the normal bar and grill type of restaurant where you have to compete with the music to make yourself heard.
Which probably sums up this place pretty well. Even though the premise is a friendly neighborhood bar where you don’t have to dress up to go, the food quality is definitely more upscale. This is also reflected in the prices. You’re not often going to spend $ 50 per person here but you can probably plan for $ 25+ per guest.
Back to the reason you go to a restaurant, the food. This was not my first time here and like always the food was tops.
I went to dinner with my 8 year old «foodie» daughter and instead of entrees we played around in the starters to get a good selection of flavors albeit with a strong fried leaning…
Their seafood roots (other Bakers location is in Toms River on the water) showed very clearly in the Lobster Bisque. Creamy but not too much so with subtle flavors that doesn’t overpower the delicate, sweet taste of the liberal amounts of lobster meat finishing with a hint of sherry or port. Delicious and at $ 6 a bowl, good value for money.
Onion rings is so often a deep disappointment but when you get the real thing you remember why you keep on trying it. Good rings should be crispy (check), not greasy (check) and most importantly the onion should never pull out of the batter in a string (double check). Matter of fact, you could break the rings in two with your forefinger and thumb and the perfectly sweet onion inside was so well cooked it just broke through cleanly… The coup de grace was that it was served with horseradish sauce — which worked perfectly! Compliments to the chef on thinking outside the box.
The calamari was done perfectly in a very light batter. I prefer my squid grilled but this version of the normal heartburn creator was so well done that I overcame my initial reluctance quickly. Tender but cooked through with no greasiness. I still prefer mine grilled but understand why fried calamari is so popular.
I don’t understand why anyone would want to order mozzarella sticks but they are my daughter’s favorite. She said they were grrrrreat!
The service was quick and efficient and friendly Vicky gave my dinner date a whole bunch of extra cherries for her Shirley Temple without being asked. It is the details that distinguishes a dedicated server from the average…
OK, so why 4 stars and not 5? The marinara sauce. Freshly made and not from a can but just «too tomatoey» according to the 8 year old. And I have to agree. I think it definitely needed some more seasoning (tasted much better after I sprinkled it liberally with salt) and it was difficult to taste much herbs or spices. Not a deal breaker of course but a slight demerit in my book.
Will I go back again, definitely!

The Hostess made us wait twenty minutes for a table of five while three tables of four sat empty. She refused to push two of the tables together because we weren’t a party of eight and those were the last tables and she may need them. I pointed out to her that at 7:30 pm she may or may not fill those table while she had, standing in front of her, 5 people ready to eat. She said she would check and walked away never to be seen again.
It was late and we were hungery otherwise we would have left. We were eventually seated. Meanwhile two of the three tables remained unused and other tables freed up.
The lack luster food combined with the cavalier treatment we received by the hostess earned Baker’s American Bar and Grille a solid single star and a promise that we will never eat there again.

Good place to for a casual meal; nothing more, nothing less.
The food and price is on par with AppleBee’s but I would rate the food of this place slightly better.
A decent neighborhood place to grab a burger and beer.

I live in East Windsor and have have not found a place near by that makes the perfect chicken wing. Until now these wings are by far the best I’ve had in a long time. No over fried barely any meat wings. We have come here several times now and I have to say we are never disappointed.

For some unknown reason, I thought this place was higher end.
(How’s that for an opening line? LOL)
I guess it’s because it used to be Jack Baker’s Lobster Shanty; even the name alone definitely exudes an air of quality (any place with Lobster in the name has to be good right? Like Red Lobster?). I had heard good things about the Lobster Shanty, so I guess I transferred that over.
This isn’t a bad place to grab a bite to eat. Definitely more of a family place (trust me, we had no shortage of wailing babies and loud kids when we went). I got the chicken and waffles, which I thought were pretty good (bearing in mind this was the first time I had gotten chicken and waffles ANYWHERE EVER). A friend got the same thing though, and she said they were just OK, so your mileage may vary.
Miscellaneous notes: Our waiter was awesome, VERY patient, and had a great sense of humor. I highly recommend the white wine sangria — I am usually neither a fan of white wine nor sangria, but this was excellent, so coming from me maybe that should mean something? LOL
On a down note, we did order the mussels for an appetizer, and when they were brought out the majority of them were still closed. I know this is sometimes debunked as an urban myth (that closed mussels are/aren’t good to eat), but I tend to err on the side of safety/​superstition. We had them sent back and got a new order that was satisfactory.
Overall, not a bad place to get a bite to eat. No reason that I wouldn’t be back.

I have been here a ton recently, they have great lunch selections and I haven’t had anything I wouldn’t eat again. I’m trying new things and love it all. Solid beer selection but its just a great pub style restaurant. I love this place.

The beer selection was good when we went. Clean dining area. Our waitress was attentive and friendly.
We started with a French onion soup that was pretty good (I’m kind of a FOS connoisseur and this one got a 3 out of 5 for me). I got the chipotle chicken wrap that had poco de gallo and an awesome chipotle ranch dipping sauce on the side which was my favorite part of the whole meal. Opted for a Caesar salad in lieu of the fries and was not disappointed. I tried my boyfriends pesto chicken panini which was also very good. We will definitely come again.

Really had a horrible experience at the American Grill. The server was terrible, had an attitude and was rude. The appetizer and meals came out late, cold and incorrect with skimpy toppings. The only thing good about this place was the Sam Adams Cold Snap and the pita chips the we didn’t get to finish because the appetizer they came with was cold and we sent it back. The manager didn’t resolve the issue. The only thing we were looking for was a sincere apology. All we got was a manager who seemed put off, gave a bad excuse to why this happened and gave us an insulting 10% off the bill. Gee thanks for the $ 2.00 off. We will never come back to this place.

It’s a quaint pub restaurant. I was hoping the paninis would have been better but both my friend and I felt they fell short on the paninis. Burgers next time.

I went with my mom for my birthday lunch yesterday. We ordered a few appetizers because we were there for happy hour. We ordered the sliders (no cheese or onions), the Margarita Pizza out of the brick oven, the Thai Chili wings, and Coconut Shrimp with Mango sauce. I liked the atmosphere. I love pubs or anything close to it. But it was kind of slow and the waitress was either managing a whole bunch of tables I didn’t see or she was just slow and forgot that we needed the bill. As far as the food. there were ups and downs. The coconut shrimp was AWESOME. that mango jelly was to die for. I loved it. I would like to find a jar of that. The pizza was pretty good too. Perfect crust thickness and crispiness. The sauce was awesome too. The sliders were kind of dry. They needed ketchup and I put A-​1 sauce which made them better. I loved the sauce on the wings. However, when I went home and re heated my wings, some seemed under done which is a big no no. Anyway. that’s all.

Average food. Atmosphere is good. I hate when you have a large group and you get thrown in the rear room. Kind of kills the experience.

Decent pub food with a decent beer selection, although they have few craft beers on tap.
A nice place to come and watch Sunday football as they show most of the games. Make sure you inform the hostess that you want to see the games as I have had them try and sit me at the tables that only are able to see 1 TV, even when the place is almost empty.
Consistency is a problem here. Even if you order the same item every time you come here the quality and size of the dish vary greatly each time. I have found the Moore’s tavern in freehold (which has almost the same menu) is more consistent when it comes to quality and portion sizes.

Baker’s offers a great happy hour deal with drink specials and half price appetizers. Of the apps, the hummus, calamari and sliders are my favorites. The bartender service is speedy and friendly. There are some nice deals for meals during the weekdays as well.

Unfortunately this seems to be as good as it gets in this area of Monroe. I’ve come here way too many times for my liking but there really aren’t many bars or even restaurants within a short drive unless you go towards Freehold or the Brunswicks. I’ve gone here probably about 10 – 15 times after work for a few drinks and a quick bite to eat and I’ve never left satisfied. The drinks are fine, usually just ordering beer or wine so they can’t screw that up, but even sitting at the bar you have to wait a while to get a drink since the bartenders/​wait staff seem much more interested in socializing between themselves and if they happen to have friends stop by for a visit (free drinks) good luck getting any service at all.
The food is just meh. I’m not expecting a 5 star gourmet meal here, mind you, but if I order a burger or a sandwich I’d at least like it cooked fully and hopefully pretty fresh. Stale/​soggy rolls are prevalent here.
I can’t tell you how many times we’ve waited for food after ordering. I don’t know if there’s an issue with expediting in the kitchen but half of the food will come out at once and then 5−10−15 minutes later the other half will come. I once was served fries and not my chicken sandwich. Another time I received my meal and my friend waited 15 minutes for her pizza, clearly the waitress forgot to put the order in and of course blamed the kitchen for it. Many times we’ve had to wait 15+ minutes to get our check or to pay after receiving the check as well.
If someone was smart they would open a really good casual dining restaurant in the Monroe area around Route 33 with a liquor license, it would make a killing. Until then the American Grill will continue to serve patrons with sub-​par food and crappy service.