Allendale Bar & Grill - Restaurant Post

One thing we've talked about doing in this blog (but haven't got around to yet) is to do a post for some of the restaurants we've been to while living here. We figured this would be a neat way to describe some of the local flavor we've seen when we're here. What better place than Northern New Jersey - which has plenty of it's own unique restaurants, but is also very close to Manhattan, which may have more unique cuisine options than anywhere else in the world!

The first restaurant we'll write about is called the Allendale Bar and Grill. We just ate there on Friday.

About (What it is): The Allendale Bar and Grill, opened in 1935 as a neighborhood tavern in the Allendale Hotel by the Connelly family. In 1948, the family moved the restaurant to a tavern built next to their house, and has been there ever since.

Location (Where it is): Located on W. Allendale Ave., the main street in the town of Allendale. Allendale is one town south of Ramsey, so the AB&G is 5-10 minutes from our house.


Atmosphere (Why we go there): The word tavern is appropriate - the restaurant isn't dark, but the lights are turned down appropriately to give it that pub/tavern feel. The place does good business - it's been fairly crowded every time we've been there. We've always had the type of friendly service you'd expect from a family-owned restaurant.

When you walk in, there is a good-sized bar right in front of you and a number of tables in the first room. There are 5 or 6 TVs in the first room. There is another room to the left with some more seating, and you can also head upstairs for 2 more rooms with more seating, a smaller bar and 2-3 more flat panel TVs. On weekends, they often have live entertainment set up in the corner of the front room.

The food (What we ate): The tavern has a good-sized menu with typical bar food and a lot more. You can order anything from wings to sandwiches to pasta to a steak. There is an insert to the menu with chef's specials (for the week?), and we often order from there. The food is fairly priced; appetizers and sandwiches will run you $8-$12, and an entree will run you a little bit more.

We've eaten here quite a few times; this is actually the first place we ate after moving to New Jersey. We stayed in a hotel in Allendale the night before the movers arrived to help us move into Ramsey, and Charlie picked up food from here to go. The menu has a sliced steak option over toast points, and we've had a variant of this from the specials menu, and enjoyed this each time.  Their burgers are hearty, tasty and have good options with quality toppings. There are a number of sandwich options; the "Godfather" and the "French Dip" are both really good. The chili is excellent, and a great starter option. We've ordered off the specials menu quite a few times, and they often have 

Charlie's Wings Test - *** (3 / 5 stars)
The buffalo sauce is spicy, but it looks like there is just one option. The wings are a good size, and have a little more breading than I'd like. They give a good amount of sauce. The wings are decent, but since the other food options are really good, I usually go with something else.


The verdict (What we thought): As mentioned, we've gone here a number of times. The atmosphere is friendly and we've usually enjoyed ourselves here, and the food is good and reasonably priced. It's a decent place to watch a game, though not every seat can see a TV, so it can sometimes be difficult when it's crowded. There is plenty of standing room by the front bar, so you can always have a drink or two and wait for a good seat. And the food is worth it, too. We did go there once to watch a Michigan football game on the same day as a Yankees playoff game, and they wouldn't put the Michigan game on any TVs. In all fairness, that might have happened at a number of places, but a place with more TVs wouldn't have the problem. They lost our business that day, and it took a while to decide to go back, but it's won us back over as a good place for dinner. We'll have to go back for drinks later on a weekend night to see the live music.