Just Plain Dave’s

This place is well priced with delicious food! On a more recent visit the wait staff was being berated by an unsympathetic customer when having to wait for their meal… when I inquired it turned out the kitchen staff was short due to someone walking out. The wait staff were continually apologizing to customers for the wait and the food was still good. People should be better behaved when eating out! I love eating here!

Best salads in the area! Amazing (homemade) balsamic vinaigrette! Cheesesteak is awesome and I’d have to say the fries are one of the best I’ve ever had!!!

Really enjoy the food here. If you’re looking for huge delicious sandwiches for any time of the day Dave’s is the place. Everything from breakfast to cheesesteaks to burgers to chicken sandwiches. Not to mention all the various appetizers like fried pickles and mozz sticks. It’s in a little hideaway location on St. Georges, but if you know Butch Kowal’s it’s right next door. Go check it out. Great for eating in, pick-​up or delivery.

Just Plain Dave’s serves the best burgers I’ve ever eaten. That’s a bold statement, yes, but it’s the simple truth. I’ve eaten there twice and I liked the Green Mountain Burger so much I ordered it both times. It’s funny because my wife liked the Roast Beef au Jus sandwich so much she ordered it both times, too! We ordered take away both times so u can’t really speak to the service or the staff very much other than paying when I got there to pick our orders up. I say so inky because lots of Unilocalers seem to have been offended by the staff.
The burgers and the platters in general are gigantic. The burgers were cooked perfectly to order. There are three sizes of burgers and I got the medium (10 oz) burger both times. Both times I ate half of it for dinner and the other half for lunch the next day. Plus, there were so many fries that u still had some left over after eating them for dinner and the following lunch. Same was true for my wife’s Roast Beef au Jus. In fact, the second time we ordered we only ordered fries with my burger because we knew we could both have our fill with some leftover. We did, too.
As far as the staff goes, like I said I did take out so it was only the cashier I interacted with. She was nice and our order was ready when I got there. The cashier was pleasant and seemed to like to kid around and be friendly. Maybe some Unilocalers have taken that the wrong way but if that’s true, I’d say they have no sense of humor whatsoever.
I am looking forward to my next meal at Just Plain Dave’s. I’m going to try to order something other than the Green Mountain Burger but it won’t be easy.

I went there two weeks ago on a Saturday morning, with three friends for breakfast. Food and service were great. Loved the moist French toast, bacon was wayyyyy over cooked so I didn’t touch it. However the French toast was so good I convinced my husband to take me there for breakfast today. We won’t be back.
First we waited for 15 min for a very rude waitress who acted like she was the owner to finally come to our table to take our order. One waitress in the whole place. She waited tables, took cash, answered the phone and stood around chatting with her regulars while we sat. Finally she brings us coffee. I take one sip and its ice cold. When she returns to take our order, I said, I know you are busy, but when you get a minute please get us new coffees, these are cold. She gives me a dirty look and says very nasty I just made it. I said, I am sorry but maybe the mugs were cold because it’s more like a cup of iced coffee. She takes them and scowls. She returns once again. This time coffee IS hot! I order French toast, (had to ask cause it isn’t on the menu, when I asked she said «yeah we forgot to put in on». For goodness sakes add a sticker, but I regress). I am a diabetic and I said, «please no powdered sugar»…my husband ordered eggs and home friends. Order comes, my French toast is drowning in powdered sugar. I said, oh no, I said no powdered sugar. She ignores me and walks away. Now I am pissed, mostly by her attitude. I pick it up and try to shake as much off as I can, it’s splashing and flying all over the table but I don’t really care at this point. I clearly told her I was a diabetic and NO ADDED sugar. Finally after watching me scrape it all off, she asked if I want him to remake it. I said no, forget it as I had already taken my insulin shot ten minutes before. Now, the delicious moist French toast from two weeks ago was nowhere to be found on my plate. It was dried up, crust was like chewing card board and was horrible. As a diabetic I just use cinnamon and Splenda (mixed like cinnamon sugar) no syrup. I guess if you buried it in syrup it might have been chewable. She never came back to ask how the food was. I had asked earlier if they had a to go menu, she said no we are out of them. I also told her I asked because their website is not paid for and is parked by go daddy. Obviously not only are they not organized, don’t have enough help, over priced and don’t pay their server bill or their website and menu would be up online working. As we left, we saw the cook, outside smoking, filthy clothes and totally unkempt. After seeing that I thought, oh my God, the kitchen must be filthy. Needless to say, it will be our last visit to Just horrible Daves. Our bill was $ 15 for two eggs (no meat) French toast (no meat) and two coffees. At Mannys diner, it would have been $ 11 for same order including two glasses of orange juice. Much cleaner, better service and I wouldn’t wreck my car in their parking lot. If you go to JPDs drive slow as the lot is just full of craters and holes. Worst breakfast and service we have ever had. If that waitress is an owner, they won’t be in business much longer. Save your money, go somewhere else for breakfast, I know we will.

If you go during peak hours on a weekend, be prepared to wait a bit for your food, but other than that, I don’t have a negative thing to say about this place. We’d been to the Clark location here and there, but we’re regulars now that it’s just down the street from us in Rahway. Prices are very reasonable, and the quality of the food has never disappointed me. French fries are fresh, not frozen. Burgers are tasty and cooked to order. Breakfast is always on point. Be polite to your server. They get really busy here.

This place sucks !!! I have gotten sick from their breakfast. How do you ruin breakfast ??? The manager was so rude and un helpful they will never see not even a penny from me. Terrible

Just plain awful. Gave the new location a try after a not so great experience in Clark. Bad idea. The service was bad and the place was empty. Food was nothing special, my order came out wrong and the soda machine wasn’t working. Our waitress was acting like we were bothering her when we asked for extra napkins and ketchup. Will not be back, don’t waste your time.

First, I’ve been a customer of Just Plain Dave’s for many years. We’ve always enjoyed the food and I have written at least 1 or 2 good reviews for them.
However, right now I’m not pleased. Ordered for delivery. One dish was missing something which should have been in it. It was listed on the receipt. I called and before I could completely explain the missing item the girl on the phone says to me «Yea, I know, You got the wrong food» and said the guy was on his way with a new one. She didn’t even leave me time to say anything.
Well, my husband had already started eating the meal, as he was hungry and, didn’t even know exactly what I had ordered for him, other than it was a burger so it made no difference to him.
When the right burger came, he took it from the driver and the driver, asked for the other burger back. Told him he’d already started eating it. And, that was that.
Well, I then get a snippy call from the girl who took my order, insisting we give back the wrong burger. I tried to explain what happened, and that it was impossible but she started to cut me off, now raising her voice at me. Let me tell you how angry this made me. She/​the driver/​whomever are the ones who screwed up, not me. And she had the nerve to start bitching how «my ticket was open» and she couldn’t close it out without the food returned. Finally, she asks if they can pick up the second burger sent over — which was the correct one. I’m like, come get it, what do I care? It isn’t like we wanted to eat a leftover burger tonight.
Here it is now going on 15 minutes later and they still haven’t showed up. We tore through the burger, on the off chance they wanted to pass it off to another customer. I have no idea why they would insist on having the meal returned. You’d think, they’d just chalk it up to an error, and let a customer keep it. Even though we didn’t want it — the result would have been I didn’t feel the need to review negatively and it’s because of the poor attitude given to me for something which I had no cause of. If you’re going to cover your ass from the boss for screwing up, at least be nice about it
BTW as I was finishing writing this, I realized about 20 minutes had gone by and no pick up. I called, got put on hold twice only to be told «We’re too busy to come get it. It’s ok to destroy it». WTH? After all that?
It isn’t the first time I’ve experienced poor service from them since they move to the new location. Many times I am hung up on, have to scream my information into the phone, repeat myself over and over because they aren’t really paying attention to taking the order, etc. And now this.

Consistently good food. It’s definitely far from fancy but that’s why i love it. Down to earth and friendly staff. My last two trips the kitchen was slow but they seem to have fixed that issue. Sandwiches and breakfast are very tasty. It’s a great hangover spot because the food options are perfect whether you want breakfast or a burger to soak up the booze. The new location is way better than the one in Clark and the décor is very cute.

Something has shifted since they moved to the Rahway location. I am 0 for 2 on both order accuracy and taste. Both times it was to-​go, so I didn’t bother going back. I think I just had my last visit. For my money, I’ll be headed to the awesome Yuno Bagel in the plaza just North of Dave’s (next to Deal’s).

I’ll admit it was a tough week leading up to today, but all I wanted from my weekend was a nice, simple meal. While visiting the folks in NJ they suggested this place. I went online and found the menu… mostly sandwiches, which I don’t like for dinner, but also a chicken scampi entrée. Sold.
We arrived for an early dinner and looked through the menu and saw mostly sandwiches. A few entrees too, labeled as lunch entrees. This was a lunch menu. When I asked about this, explaining my choice wasn’t on this menu, the server said, «It’s actually an all-​day menu.» I went on to explain that I really wanted the chicken scampi, which I saw on their website. The server replied that the online menu is… out of date. Oh, so it’s not accurate. «That’s right,» she said. I was disappointed, since my translation of her statement was that I had read misinformation about chicken scampi being on the menu; it was in fact not on the menu. I told her I was disappointed. She said, «We have a dinner special menu.» I didn’t understand this cryptic phrase, because if the restaurant had one of these, why was it not in my hands at dinner time? We went back and forth on this point, me saying «but this is a lunch menu» and her replying «there’s a dinner special menu» in response, but I certainly couldn’t find it so nothing changed. I ended up feeling unsure of the restaurant offerings but let it go and ordered a sandwich.
We ate, everything was fine, paid the check and as we were walking out, I saw a dinner menu at the bar. The server was standing there, as was the owner. I asked why chicken scampi was on the dinner menu. The server said that it always was. She said she told me they had a dinner special menu. Ah, I see, so now the clouds are starting to clear. When she said «We have a dinner special menu,» the mind-​reader hiding inside me should have known that translated to «We do have chicken scampi, on a menu I won’t be showing you because you should just know what’s on there.» But I’m not a mind-​reader, and as it turned out this was a case of my server being extremely bad at her job. She then went on to insist that she told me when we got there that if I could wait a few minutes while they finished making the dinner special menu, she’d show it to me. Huh? She never said that. So not only was I being gaslighted by the server; I was also being blamed for the confusion and misunderstanding. Who knew I’d need a translator for a server to understand that all I wanted was chicken scampi, which they had on a menu I wasn’t given, yet I saw it on their website menu and was told that info was out-​of-​date (when it wasn’t). We turned to exit and the server called out sympathetically, «Next time!» Next time, what? Oh please, there won’t be a next time.
Let me simplify the issue then so there is no more confusion. When a customer says «I wanted chicken scampi and don’t see it on the menu,» if the restaurant DOES have it, the server should then respond «SURE» or «OKAY» and ORDER IT FOR ME. Or, if the same scenario happens and the customer is very sad that chicken scampi isn’t on the LUNCH menu at DINNER time, then orders a SANDWICH, the server should say «Did you want the SANDWICH or the CHICKEN SCAMPI?» Even better, LUNCH menus should not be given at DINNER. OR, if the lunch menu is an ALL-​DAY menu, and a DINNER menu is also available at DINNER, then B-​O-​T-​H M-​E-​N-​U-​S should be GIVEN TO THE TABLE. What I got instead was a Who’s On First bag of trickery and thoughtlessness, the antithesis of what good service should be.

The new location is much better than the last place in Clark. I come here about twice a month for breakfast and the food never disappoints. I have 2 active toddlers and they always treat us well. Service is very good.

We had gone to the old location in Clark occasionally. Food was always good but the place was not clean or decorated. Tables were clean but cobwebs on the fixtures. Still we would go. We were thrilled when they moved to Rahway and we’re still happy to go there. Now we even bring the kids and grand daughter. Décor is funky and fun. Hey Dave! I need either more of that fantastic seafood stew or the recipe. Never a bad meal. Will be back soon.

Good coffee
Decent burger… could use more flavor
My fiancé loved his sandwich.
Lots of choices. Fun atmosphere

I never made it inside the restaurant i pulled in the parking lot and seen the cook in a dirty apron smoking. Totally lost my appetite..

The new location is much more friendly and more welcoming than the old location. The food is always delicious and usually made to order. Don’t get too custom with any kind of sandwiches over the phone though. You can ask for a single burger with mayo, you’ll receive all burgers you ordered with mayo. The kitchen needs to pay much better attention to orders because this is a reoccurring problem every time I’ve tried to make more personalized sandwiches. It’s easier to order plain!
The real downside to this place is the fact that they have set delivery hours. It’s a real pain to hear that «our driver isn’t here yet» or «we don’t have a driver today.» If I’m not leaving the house, I’m not leaving the house, I’ll just order a pizza.

I would say that this is a hidden gem, being that I havent gone to their former location. If you’re in need of some greasy goodness then this is the place to go. The interior is cute with some rustic and hometown pride. The food was pretty good and the portions were pretty generous in my opinion.
Burger — fresh, ground beef and cooked the way you want it. I forgot which burger we had but it had crispy string onions and pepper jack cheese. It was pretty good!
Cheesesteak– I love cheesesteaks, especially ones that aren’t overwhelmed with bread, so this is my go-​to place for cheesesteaks. I ordered half a portion and it was way more than I had expected (yes!) covered with cheese, beef, onions, peppers… YES! Great value too — not more than $ 8!
Gravy cheese fries– turned out to be more gravy than cheese, but their fries are good nonetheless.
Worth a try. Careful with parking, the lot in the back needs to be repaved as it is pretty much gravel.

New location is a definite improvement to the old one & the food is just as good. We thought the menu was more streamlined for the appropriate meal and we hope this change helps the efficiency of the place so they can stay around for a long time!

I can go anywhere for breakfast but I choose to come here. Just Plain Dave’s has an awesome breakfast menu and I always get great service when I come. If I lived closer I would definitely dine here more often.