217 East Main
Tuckerton, NJ 08087
www.217eastmain.com
I picked this location for brunch because it was my dad's birthday and I wanted to pick something a little on the nicer side. According to the website, and a review that I had seen online, the brunch had a "pick one from each category" menu for a price of $18.95. This seemed like a great deal for the amount and quality of food offered, so we decided to go for it.
The ambiance of the restaurant is a cute, quaint, Victorian house. It really was beautiful. When we walked in, we waited for someone to acknowledge us. Despite two servers passing us, no one really did anything. We were eventually seated in a separate room with no other people. The room was gorgeous, but chilly. We were poured glasses of water, but one glass had lipstick marks on it. Yuck.
When seated, we were offered a complimentary mimosa. I had planned on getting the mulled cider advertised on the website, but that was not given as an option. Also, notably missing from the menu was the choose an appetizer, choose a meal, choose a dessert option. Instead, we were informed that everything was a la carte.
We got a small tea cup of coffee and our mimosas and waited to order our food. Since we were the only people in the entire room, it seemed a little difficult to get anyone's attention. When our waitress did return, we ordered a Mediterranean sampler for an appetizer, two crab and egg dishes, and French toast. We were all out of coffee by the time our order was taken, but we were not offered a refill. Moments later, we requested one.
Each of the two egg dishes came with 2 sides: hash browns, fruit, bacon, French fries, and some others. The French toast did not, but we ordered bacon cooked well done, and fruit. We waited a substantial amount of time for the Mediterranean sampler. For $10, we received 6 triangles of pita, a spoonful of bruschetta, a spoonful of Baba Gnoush, a spoonful of hummus, and some cubes of feta. It seemed small, but tasty.
By this time, another couple had come into the room. They apparently knew the owner because they chatted for a while. They received their food far before we did. After waiting for over an hour, the setting was starting to get old. We saw plate after plate come out of the kitchen and go into the other room, but nothing for us. An hour and a half after arriving, we got our food. My $17 crab omelet was good, as was the fruit that I chose as my side. The well done bacon tasted over burnt on the edges, but not that cooked in the middle. The French toast was great, with a special kind of cinnamon butter.
After we finished eating, we waited another 15 minutes before flagging someone down and asking for the check. The owner apologized for the wait and said it was a "long story" but she adjusted the check. She had removed the charge for the Mediterranean plate, and gave us what she called a $10 gift certificate, but was really just a coupon cut out of a magazine.
The bill was $60, including $3 per cup of coffee, and a total of $7 for additional sides ($4 for bacon, $3 for a tiny fruit cup). The food was good enough to come back, but the wait was absolutely infuriating. I would call the customer service terrible, although not in a deliberate way. From start to finish, the meal took 2 hours. I would not recommend this establishment.
