The Waiting Room

Amazing food! Fabulous and friendly bartenders. The pork chops and lamb chops are a must have! But have the crab cakes or buffalo shrimp as an appetizer first.

Friendly bartenders. Affordable food and drinks. No frills bar but spacious. Will return

I had the surf and turf. All I have to say is oh lawd oh lawd. Love this place after only one visit. I will be back.

It was our first time going and we had a great time. The food was AMAZING, the waiter was AWESOME and the atmosphere was pleasant and comfortable. I’ve lived in Rahway for 5 years and never stumbled upon this hidden gem! We will definitely be visiting them again.

First time customer. There was never a time when we weren’t being waited on by each member of the staff tonight. Super attentive and cheerful.
Our waiter was great and is the son of the chef so he was helpful with meal suggestions, which did not disappoint. The chicken deluxe sandwich and salad with Thai peanut sauce was delicious. I’m always worried about the food at bars but everything was fresh! Perfect spot to grab a few beers and watch games while listening to one of the bands playing.

Bartender was super nice and helpful about the parking information. Unfortunately Rahway has 24 hour parking meters which is a thumbs down for me. The sliced beef sandwich was good, but it was very thinly sliced, kinda like cheesesteak meat. Drinks were ok and this place was reasonably priced. Just a regular bar, nothing too special for me to want to return again.

The waiting room is possibly the only thing I miss about living in Rahway. Always a great crowd and a fun atmosphere. The food is awesome — especially the crab cakes. Great beer selection too!

Went for a football game on a Sunday afternoon with family — they have this giant projector TV on one wall and lots of small TVs by the bar area. Cool crowd, attentive staff, varied seating with high and lower (regular) seats, great drinks.

The Waiting Room is my regular company go-​to bar for happy hour. For that purpose it suits us well, being close to our work place. Hence it’s a convenient location to have our regular gatherings/​celebrations etc. It’s also super close to the train station so that works out perfect for the colleagues who commute on the train home after that.
They do have quite a number of beers on tap. But coming from Wisconsin, I have yet to find a substitute that I really like as of now. I’ll keep looking in the meantime… Food is the usual bar food. Pretty decent, just not spectacular. Our regulars are their nachos (both the meat and vege options), mozzarella cheese sticks, buffalo wings etc, food that are easy to share around the table. Their lunch menus feature burgers, sandwiches and appetizers. Cheeseburger and quesadilla are good choices. They also have daily specials. Once I was pleasantly surprised to find Korean BBQ sandwich as one of their specials and that turned out to be pretty good so I hope they do it again if they read this =)
For those who love live music they have that over the weekend. This is an ok place, though I have always been there with my co-​workers and haven’t found myself coming back on my own.

Can’t go wrong with The Waiting Room. It’s a great local spot that has a variety of food and drinks. Some of my favorite foods… Nachos w beef, the Voodoo chili, turkey burgers, grilled cheese and more. On the weekends, they have JUMBO shrimp cocktail with each shrimp being a dollar a piece. Mostly American food and bar food menu.
Good atmosphere… Usually the jukebox is playing, but they have local bands there as well. The servers are great. Sometimes, it gets very busy here (as this is the local hangout), and then the service lacks a bit but the servers and bartenders are nice enough that it makes up for it.
Good spot to bring friends, go on a date, or meet up with family. They have plenty of tables and also a fairly decent size bar area.
Prices are moderate and reasonable.

People honestly gave this place anything more than a single star?!
An okay bar with shitty frozen bar food. Avoid the pu-​pu platter (it tastes just like it sounds) for $ 10 you get two jalapeños, two mozzarella sticks and 2 dry tiny pieces. Jalapeños are really good, everything else… Not so much.
We ordered from their «speciality» menu and it is anything but special. Avoid the crab cakes… that’s all I’m saying.
Also, the server had no clue about any of the beers and than brings over a quarter filled beer for us to try since he couldn’t describe or compare to anything. The beer was good so we ordered it. And surprise surprise the beer we ordered and the «quarter» beer was on the bill. Normally I’d argue but I just wanted to get out of there.

Great bar! So many beers on tap!
I had buffalo shrimp and seasoned fries; I was in the mood for something lightly spicy and that’s exactly what I got.
My firefighter honey ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and he loved it.

Walked in to a very friendly and fun staff so that set the mood! Great variety and selection of craft beers, our food was awesome and came out in a good time. We had the «July Special» which was Cajun shrimp mac and cheese and their fried calamari… WOW soooo good that we devoured them both in a matter of mins! Definitely will be back!

How did I not know about this place until today? Checked Unilocal and saw this place has good food so I figured I’d give it a try, what the hell I live in Linden anyways.
HUGE portions of delicious food. I’m bloated after finishing my dinner. Hand cut fries with just the right amount of seasoning, meatloaf was juicy and flavorful, my brother was raving about their blackened catfish, and my mother devoured a fully cooked yet still juicy burger. These guys know how to cook. I’ll be stopping by for lunch sometime in the future. Damn good.

The amount of stars this place got makes me wonder two things: 1) did I just have a different chef? 2) do people not know how to use Unilocal properly in this area?
My husband and I stopped here for lunch. He got a chicken sandwich and I got salad with chicken. After both of our first bites we spit out the food at the same time. The chicken was way wayyyy under cooked, we nearly barfed. I get nauseous remembering the texture of it –so very rubbery and absolutely disgusting! Awful experience. Terrible.

Eeeeverything was great!!! The staff was great, always checked up on us.
The food wasnt heavy and greasy which was great! I

I don’t really know how to feel about this place. I don’t know if I have any feels at all really, lol. But, I must have thought it good enough to take my friend to for her first time in Rahway anything.
Probably my third time there. My first time there I remember having to wait a minute to get served. I do like that you can sit yourself.
Second time we went there to play Forbidden Island… because playing it in any other public place with beer and food is weird… The Waiting Room at least has board games in the corner so you’re at least expected to play.
I do wish I ordered more food and drinks that time though… this was last year and I’m actually starting to feel bad when I look back at that night.
But I’m also sure I tipped way more than I should have since I always tip more than I should… unless I am alone lol
But yeah, I had a salad which was too big to start, let alone finish.
French onion soup was good.
I guess I like this place for the atmosphere… it’s huge, parking in the back is relatively cheap. If you like sports, they have huge screens, and again, they have board games.
But once again, the thing I like the most, is sitting myself.
The last time there, service was not bad. It was also not a guy for once.

This is a straight up bar with good tasting bar food. Nothing more, nothing less.
From the minute you walk in it reeks of beer, there were signs of what seemed to be a busy place with need of more staff? I say this cause the place looked a little unkept and I noticed our waitress and bar tender frequently rotated roles. With that said the service was still great. We were greeted as soon as we walked in, our bartender/​waiter was super nice and helpful with both the drink and food menu, we were served in a timely manner, and never neglected. (NOTE: there is no assigned seating, you can sit anywhere u like). it was football Sunday and sports aficionados were in their gear getting rowdy showing their support.
They have beer on tap, kraft, and a well stocked bar. The menu is pretty basic American Traditional food. However, not all bar food is created equal. I must admit that this place serves THE BEST NACHOS in NJ. They have the right amount of cheese, chicken, tomato, and lettuce. The tortilla chips are fresh tasting and crisp. For my healthy dinner I had a good ol’ cheeseburger and fries. The burger was tasty, wish the bun was softer, but the fries were perfect. The fries taste like they have a crunchy batter to them they really hit the spot.
I bet this place gets even louder at night. It seems like a fun place without pretentiousness. BTW the name of this place is not visible, but when you walk up it says Public Bar on the window. There is also parking for 25 cents an hour in the back.

The best Buffalo Shrimp I’ve ever had. Also a great selection of craft beers in bottles with others on draft. Good atmosphere and great service.
Parking in back but make sure to toss a few quarters in the machine.

My wife and I came here on a Sunday as soon as they opened as there were no other restaurants in the area that were open.
We walked in and of course were the only ones in besides the bartender who told us to sit anywhere. This place is very bright, not in a bad way, for a bar and welcoming with lots of TV’s and music playing. They have daily specials and a pretty decent selection of craft beer in bottles only.
The bartender recommend the lobster mac and cheese and a chili burger. The food came out quick and was already split for two to share. very nice! The mac and cheese was not really great, pretty standard with small chunks of lobster. the burger while very good was actually small on a huge bun, but pretty tasty.
What really makes this place though is the atmosphere. I can definitely see myself coming back to watch a game or two in the afternoon or get an adult beverage in the evening.