Justiceiro wrote:
Wow. What an experience. Let me interrupt the love fest.

1st off, let me say, though a lot of the following "Review" will be negative, I will be going back to skinners loft. Not for a while though. A good deal of the problems (though not all) are probably due to the fact that it was their first day.

The Positives:

The beer list is outstanding. A lot fo microbreweries on tap, (Blue Moon, Anchor Steam, etc.) As well as some nice standards (Yuengling, Brooklyn, etc). They have Fuller's ESB on Draft. Which is sweet. The owner was very smart to invest in a draft beer setup which allows them to carry a number of different types, and has made good choices. I can't speak to the wine, I didn't have any.

The location is nice. Very pretty inside, decent amounts of space. Sort of like "edward's" in the layout, but far more publike. Although the restuarant area upstairs is very classy. Nice for a romantic dinner, I imagine, but it could be a little less dark. It's also 4 blocks from my house, so that's nice.


The food is very good, when it is properly cooked. I had the porkchop, magnificent, others at our table had the ribs (a tad dry) and the penne, whcih looked great. I would have the porkchop, it is so good that I doubt I will ever eat anything else there.

The Negatives:

Organizational skills are badly needed. The place is shambolic. I arrived at 8:20 with my friend, waiting for an eventual party of 5. They put us in the super huge table along the window. No waiter appeared. It took me 15 minutes to get the busboy to bring me a list of wines and beers. This, however, never elicited any anyone from the restuarant actually talking to me and, perhaps, taking my beer order.

15 minutes later, my friends arrive and we get to order beer.

35 minutes into the evening, we finally get the beer, and get to see a menu.

45 minutes: we place appetizer orders.

1 hour: a totally new waiter brings us 2nd round of beer.
We place food orders.

1:15 1st waiter shows up and blames everything on the kitchen, then dissapears, we attempt to order beer from him, but fail.

1:25- waiter number three asks us what we ordered for appetizers. She writes it down. Not a good sign.

1:40 from the kitchen people appear with appetizers. They are not the ones we ordered, but they are free. And good. Except for the chicken sticks, which look tasty but are actually raw. I'm not overstating this, they were not merely pink but still gelatinous. quivering raw chicken. This rawness was not noticed until someone, wondering why the chicken was cold, held it up to the candle that was on the table (this place is very dark).

1:50- It is now 10:10 We decide to give them 10 more minutes and then go to Hollywood Fried Chicken. I am dying of hunger at this point.

5 minutes before the deadline, the food arrives. It is excellent.

The owner (I think), then announces that everything is comped.


All in all, I was amazed at the fact that we had multiple waiters, only one of them (the lady) seemed to care about us at all, and the rest were nonchallant or basically never there. Towards the end, the restaurant was pretty empty, so I can't imagine why they couldn't work out some relatively simple orders. They definitely need to be proactive- If they tell me they are having problems, I can dig that. It's the 1st day. But I must, as the customer, be kept in the loop. If you don't walk by my table for 30 minutes, I am going to get pissed. Particularly if I am out of beer.

That being said, they did the right thing and we left having had a good meal without paying a cent. I would have expected to have paid for at least something, but they comped everything without us even asking or saying anything about it.

This indicates that the management has the right attitude about service, so I am sure the rest will work itself out and it will be a great restaurant. A really great one. I will give it a few weeks to shake out a bit, then I will return. I

JSQ wrote:
i would not be able to live without electricity... respect!
this man is of the kind that will save the planet from global warming.

matchjames wrote:
i took a walk down there one evening with friends and we were chased off the pier by guests. "There's a wedding going on!"... "Oh? and this is a public pier". We stayed 5 mins to enjoy the view and wished them well...

NNJR wrote:
The cops do enforce traffic laws, just ask any construction project manager.

alb wrote:
Quote:

ECH wrote:
The entire light rain system, south of
Newport, after dark, is dangerous --
no doubt about it.

I'm all for having that trigger happy gunstore owner go after the young monsters, but I don't think the light rail system is any more dangerous than any other place in Jersey City after dark.

I understand that the West Side station and the underground Tonnelle line stations are dangerous just because they're so isolated, and I agree that some of the problem kids are using the light rail to get to their crime scenes. But I've ridden the light rail system all over, sometimes at weird, hours, and I've never had any problems whatsoever on the trains or in the stations.

Were you the person who posted about NJT underreporting crime statistics for the light rail?

If so: I can believe that there's plenty of crime on the light rail system, but my sense is that the crime level is similar to the crime level around the stations themselves.

Of course, one very simple solution to light rail-linked crime would be to base foot patrol officers or Guardian Angels at the light rail stations in the evenings.

alb wrote:
Quote:

sullyx wrote:
that's awesome, I wish they would open up some type of bike lane in either the holland or lincoln tunnel

And also a pedestrian route.