Red Oak Diner & Bakery

We’ve visited this location a few times. We always have a friendly and attentive server. Diner is family-​friendly. Our children request to eat here when we dine-​out together as a family. Food is the standard offerings found in nearby diners. They recently added an espresso machine, and the fresh cappuccino is a nice addition to the menu.

Absolutely the worst diner I’ve been to. I work for the department of corrections and I’ve had better burgers in a prison. The turkey burger was such low quality it actually had bits of bone in it.

Nice diner, coffee is complimentary with some breakfast specials but not refillable. The bagel and lox was substantial but not very special.
Tastiest breakfast dish was probably the French poached with French toast and eggs and other things.
Waitresses are very good at accommodating for babies and baby chairs and strollers and the like.
Got take out but they mixed up one order. So if you get take out for breakfast you should check before you leave.

Came here on a business lunch with friends. Same as previous reviews. The place wasn’t that full and it took 30 minutes for a few wraps and burgers. While we were waiting, the tables that came in after us were served ahead of us. The tables were sticky as was the silverware, of which was slopped on the table haphazardly. The food was just barely ok. The owner seemed clueless and the whole place seemed overwhelmed for a place that should be able to handle a lunch crowd of 6 tables. When I asked the waitress what had happened the reply was this was an unusual volume of customers for lunch and all the orders went in at same time. To the waitress’ credit she was nice: took our order, checked up on us If we needed refills and eventually brought the food out when it was ready. Interestingly the hot food came out first, then another 10 minutes later the two wraps. In summary, avoid this place.

Downloaded the Unilocal app specifically to write this review. Wish I would have looked at the reviews on here sooner, especially since Google reviews rate this place over 3 out of 4 stars. What a joke. I just ate breakfast at Red Oak and couldn’t be more disappointed with the food.
My first impression was the coffee, which tasted like burnt, dirty water — an obvious trademark of a coffee machine that has not being cleaned in a long time. I ordered an extended Father’s Day weekend special they had: Lox Benedict. Think of an egg benedict but with lox instead of the typical Canadian bacon. The eggs were cooked well, and the lox was plentiful. However the english muffin that it came on was completely burnt. I can’t believe that the cook and the waitress both thought it was okay to serve a completely burnt (black) English muffin to a customer. Because of this, the Benedict was almost inedible.
This dish came with hash browns which had absolutely no flavor at all and were certainly frozen at one time before they were fried. I had also ordered a side of bacon ($ 2.70 on menu, $ 3.30 when my check came). They actually gave me about 5 pieces of bacon in this order, which normally would be generous. However the bacon here was around 99% fat. It may have been the lowest quality bacon I’ve ever been served at a restaurant. In addition, the bacon was served mostly limp and flaccid (because who would want their bacon to actually be a bit crispy?) and a strange white goo was smeared on one of the slices. Butter from another dish that the bacon slipped into before it reached me, maybe? I’ll never know because it was going nowhere near my mouth.
Though the service was prompt, because most of the food and drink was horrendous I will never be going back to Red Oak ever again. And I wouldn’t recommend you doing so either.

I’ve always thought it’d be hard to find a bad diner in New Jersey, but after going to red oak, I’ve changed my mind. This place has terrible service, their tables and silverware are sticky, and their food is honestly just bad. Never going there again.

This place needs a makeover. Where’s Gordon Ramsey???
Passing through town and came to breakfast with friends. The place was practically empty and there was no one at the hostess station. So when we saw a waitress gathering place settings, we asked to be seated, and she said someone would be with us. A young kid eventually showed up to show us to a booth: the table had electrical tape at the edges, which I’m assuming is because the formica is falling off and it was to prevent anyone from scraping their arms on the sharp edges. It was incredibly shabby.
There was a Spring Breakfast menu, which we basically ordered from. They were interesting (in a good way) twists to the usual breakfast items, like cheesecake inside your french toast, as an example. The food was good, and this is really where this place gets all my 3 stars.
The service, while cordial, was lackluster. We couldn’t have had a more dour waitress. Not a smile, not a good morning, nothing. She took our orders, set them in front of us when they came out, walked off, came back to check with us once, then didn’t see her again until it was time for the check. It wasn’t like she was busy; the place had about 5 other parties.
Maybe they’re only friendly to locals?

Dingy, dirty, and horrible service. Everything about this place is gross and puts you off your food. Most of the tables have dirty, peeling masking tape on the edges to conceal the peeling laminate. It smells bad. The entrance has a disgusting open ashtray full of butts. Pancakes were fair. The potatoes and eggs were tasteless. Worst of all was the service. Other diners would be full on Sunday at noon. This one was ²⁄₃ empty and it’s no wonder why. We put in our food order with the nice but inefficient waitress. My daughter and I waited over half and hour for pancakes, eggs, and hash browns. We weren’t told until I asked that our food had been sent to another table, which was the reason for the delay. My coffee was empty while we were waiting because the waitress and the host guy had disappeared. Then I had to wait for another ten minutes for cream only after I had to chase the host down. I never received a check. When I went up to the paying station, I asked who the manager was. The terrible host was also apparently the owner/​manager of the place. His name is Jeff, and he sucks at running a restaurant. As I was paying a way too high amound of money for subpar food, I told him that he must really not care too much about his customers. He argued with me and tried to tell me what a good job he did. When I had had enough of him and told him that he had a shitty attitude, he told me I have one too. I guess that’s one way to handle an unsatisfied customers and ensure that they never come back.
Summary: unappealing environment, lousy food, slow service, and a weak and rude owner; needs a complete overhaul
There are way better places to eat than this. Don’t subject yourself to this dump.

Negative reviews are not my thing. But I have to make an exception for this place. How is it possible to screw up scrambled eggs (something from a MASH episode), bacon (deep fried fat is more like it), hash browns and toast. Sorry, but that’s the first and last time I’ll visit.

The people working there were so nice, so I feel bad… but the food was extremely unpalatable. Everything I ordered.

We really could use better diner food in this town. We tried again after many years and were disappointed. The French toast made with purportedly house made challah bread reeked of rancid food service grade oil. Please bring in a culinary school intern and taste everything and fix it. This could be a decent place.

My wife and I went looking for a great piece of cheesecake in the Skillman area, and happened to notice Hans W’s previous comment recommending this place for their cheesecake.
For dinner I had the gyro and my wife had the reuben panini with lentil soup. The food was about what you would expect from a diner, although the lentil soup was pretty tasty.
For dessert we ordered a slice of plain cheesecake, and a slice of the strawberry cheesecake.
WOW. Hans was correct. The cheesecake at this place is PHENOMENAL. We bought the rest of the strawberry cheesecake to take home for our kids to try, and they loved it to.
If you’re in the area and appreciate a good piece of homemade cheesecake, this is where you want to be.

I am a huge diner fan and visit quite a few diners in Jersey. Red Oak Diner is a much-​improved venue. The new ownership has done a lot to make their offerings more palatable. You must try their new homemade cheesecake. It is amazing! One of the best cheesecakes I’ve had anywhere. Waiters and waitresses are very attentive. The cheesecake alone is worth the stop!

As far as diners go, this has it going on, with your classic diner look and lots of shiny chrome. There seems to be a well-​varied menu. Coffee is decent. My omelette– shaped scrambled eggs were more than edible, and the home fries were cooked thoroughly. Thats about all I can say. The food is very plain and nondescript. Generic would be the best term for it, I’m afraid.

Awful food, the matza ball soup was sour, my meal was a waste. To top it off service was slow and awful im pretty sure our waiter was a crackhead. I thought for sure the «homemade» carrot cake would make up for it but it was the worst I ever had.

I was told once if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all so I am going to say MAYBE breakfast is their thing; because dinner sure isn’t.
Slow service and we were one of two customers, the food is basically like eating at a school cafeteria. Too bad it’s not better since we are local.

I often stopped here before doing groceries at the nearby Shop-​Rite to cut back on my impulse food purchases. I enjoyed supporting an independent business. The food wasn’t great, neither was the service, but the place felt very genuine, the prices were right and the portions were good.
Well, I had my last experience there tonight. I have to admit, I was always a little wary about how the meat was cooked, though that wasn’t what did it. When I ordered the meatloaf special, I found a few crunchy bits in one mouthful. Shards of glass. They took it back and gave me another meal, and took $ 5 off my meal. Well, that’s a nice gesture, but little shards of glass in your food is pretty serious, easily missed, and easily could send you to hospital. They didn’t assure me they were going to figure out how it happened. I just don’t see how I can trust this place again.

This place is under new mgmt, but the new owners still haven’t upgraded the food, as I had hoped. Have eaten here twice now — for breakfast & lunch. Omelet was dry, potatoes mushy & bland, bacon tasted bargain-​basement special brand. Chef salad was nothing special, but at least tasted fresh. The service is friendly and efficient at least. What this place needs is someone who really has some experience as a chef — not a just a short order cook.

This place is under new ownership. The service and food has improved from a 1-​star to at least a 3-​star. I’ve been there a couple times since it has switched to new owners and haven’t been disappointed. The food proportions are larger especially salads and the quality is improved. The service is no longer horrible.

Great