I had dinner last night at Hamilton's on Main to celebrate a milestone event for a work colleague. My first time here. The restaurant itself is very nice. We were a party of 18. I think our waitress did a pretty decent job. I would have thought they might assign more than one person to a party of that size, but there was only one. So things like getting our orders in and getting drink refills took a while.We started with some cheese and bread boards for the table. There was a nice variety of cheese and accompaniments, but a knife sharp enough to cut the bread would have been better. One of my friends had to resort to ripping the loaf apart with her hands rather than continue to attempt to saw through it with a dull knife. I ordered a medium-rare NY strip. They were out of ribeyes. Someone else at my table ordered the same steak, but medium-well. When the entrees arrived, they were not to the requested temperatures. Mine was what I would consider medium-well and his was a solid medium. I wound up going around to his side of the table and we switched steaks. While the exchanged steak was a little less done than my original, it was still a bit tough and overcooked to my liking. In fairness, I did not complain to give them an opportunity to make another. The steak had a good flavor overall, but not $55 worthy. My sides of brussel sprouts and bistro fries were pretty tasty.Lastly, I ordered a piece of chocolate cake to take home to my wife and was excited to present it to her. The cake was severely dry and not fresh in the least. It was quite the disappointment. For $14 for a slice of cake, they should ensure they are giving you a fresh piece of cake, whether you are taking it home or not.I would probably give them another try, and I enjoyed the evening overall, but this experience wouldn't necessarily bring them to the front of my mind if I were looking for a place to have a nice dinner. I don't mind a somewhat elevated price for a meal, but I also expect a somewhat elevated experience and, for me, it fell just a bit short.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 3
Mark N
This weekend, my wife and I took her mother to Hamilton's on Main for a birthday brunch celebration. The food was, in a word, terrible. So terrible that it's interesting to ponder how an establishment of "approachable fine dining" could produce such poorly prepared meals.My wife and I had fish tacos. The fish was overcooked and rubbery. My brother-in-law had a salad with white meat chicken that was dry and stringy, in that way you get when you cook chicken breast to over 200 degrees. But the birthday girl’s frittata was ... really something special. I kid you not, it looked like a burnt piece of plastic on her plate, and didn’t smell or taste much better.I understand that even the best kitchen can sometimes have an off day. But something as bad as my poor mother-in-law's frittata should never show up on a restaurant plate. Think about it. Someone had to do the baking and take the frittata out of the oven. Probably someone else plated it. And then the server brought it out to the table. That’s THREE chances for the staff to say, "This looks god awful. Send it back for a redo."But that didn’t happen. No one in that chain of handoffs payed enough attention not to serve a piece of plastic to a well-dressed woman on her 90th birthday. Why? There's really only one possible answer: Hamilton's on Main doesn’t have the kind of management that inspires their staff to care about what they're doing.Downtown Newark deserves better.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 2
L. Dannete Stanford
I had two previous positive experiences at this restaurant, but Mother’s Day was a disaster. I was served raw salmon and overcooked prime rib. What made it worse was that the server was horrible. Her standard excuse was that they’re busy due to the holiday. I’ll never come back. No thanks!
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
Lauren Cichocki
LOVE this place! Food is incredible. I’ve never had a bad meal here and the staff are great as well. Atmosphere is super comfy too! Can’t recommend it enough.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
NL Pilchard
Very greasy burger.No "squeak "from the overly salted cheese curds.And the Buffalo chicken flat bread was overly salted as well and just not that good.Sorry, but a bit disappointed ?.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 4
Bobby Perose
Without a doubt, one of the WORST dining experiences I've ever endured, and the food quality is nowhere near justifying the price. My partner and I chose Hamilton's for our anniversary dinner on a Monday night, only to be met with disappointment from the start. Despite the emptiness, it took a staggering 15 minutes for someone to acknowledge us at our table. The waiter we had was flat out awful and only came to our table 3 times the entire night never refilling our drinks once. We ordered the bread board as our appetizer and it wasn’t bad no complaints there. However, the main courses were a different story. I ordered the fillet mignon with what was supposed to be "mashed potatoes" and "bristro fries" but these sides fell short of their descriptions. The bistro fries say they come with "parmesan, parsley, ketchup" but my fries didn’t include any of these three and for the price point I could have had much better fries off the dollar menu at a fast food restaurant. The mashed potatoes were by far the worst I have ever had and tasted and looked like glue on my plate, a huge embarrassment for this type of restaurant. The other main meal was a fillet mignon as well with the side mac and cheese. The fillet was over cooked and just had no flavor. The plate came with no presentation what so ever and even was served on a dirty plate which for this restaurant is just sad. No complaints with the mac and cheese since that was the best part of the whole meal even though it was equivalent to a box mac and cheese. Overall Hamilton's on Main is by far not worth the price, has absolute awful service and serves below average food I would stay away from this restaurant at all cost!
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
Robbi Grippi
Service was kind of slow but it may have been an off night. Atmosphere was very nice. Will try eating at the bar next time I go.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 3
Edward Pabian
Food was delicious. We will definitely go there again. Excellent service!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
John Hallinan
Went for Easter brunch. Excellent Bloody Marys! Just the right amount of spice. Creole Crab Mac and Cheese was outrageous. Again just the right amount of heat. Wife had Avocado Toast with scrambled eggs and bacon. Again excellent. Our server Hussain was excellent. Pleasant but not hovering. A great experience. Highly recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Powell Gill Trotman
Great food and attentive staff. Our go to in C'ville when we can get reservations.
Atmosphere is very casual and welcoming. Bartender was attentive, pleasant and knowledgeable. Drink menu is exotic and diverse. Originally eyeballed the 14oz. NY Strip but $55.00 is out of my ballpark. Settled for the burger it is flavorful but not worth the price of $22.00 in a $14.00 town.
Janene Williams
Portions are small for the price
Parking: Download the app.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 5
Nandita Nilayangode Mana
Food was good but not great. Not sure if it’s ’fine Dining’ after having dined at good restaurants at Florida, DC and such. I asked to sub the carbs and the service guy kept asking for subbing the protein instead. The live DJ music was just too loud and jarring that it was hard to have a
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 4
Service: 3
TekPro Solution
A fine dining restaurant with night club environment on a Saturday night… I will not go back!
Agnes Hughes
This place is one of my favorites. Love their season food and drink menus. They do a beautiful job with the seasonal decorations. This place is magical. Great foe happy hour as well.
I had dinner last night at Hamilton's on Main to celebrate a milestone event for a work colleague. My first time here. The restaurant itself is very nice. We were a party of 18. I think our waitress did a pretty decent job. I would have thought they might assign more than one person to a party of that size, but there was only one. So things like getting our orders in and getting drink refills took a while.We started with some cheese and bread boards for the table. There was a nice variety of cheese and accompaniments, but a knife sharp enough to cut the bread would have been better. One of my friends had to resort to ripping the loaf apart with her hands rather than continue to attempt to saw through it with a dull knife. I ordered a medium-rare NY strip. They were out of ribeyes. Someone else at my table ordered the same steak, but medium-well. When the entrees arrived, they were not to the requested temperatures. Mine was what I would consider medium-well and his was a solid medium. I wound up going around to his side of the table and we switched steaks. While the exchanged steak was a little less done than my original, it was still a bit tough and overcooked to my liking. In fairness, I did not complain to give them an opportunity to make another. The steak had a good flavor overall, but not $55 worthy. My sides of brussel sprouts and bistro fries were pretty tasty.Lastly, I ordered a piece of chocolate cake to take home to my wife and was excited to present it to her. The cake was severely dry and not fresh in the least. It was quite the disappointment. For $14 for a slice of cake, they should ensure they are giving you a fresh piece of cake, whether you are taking it home or not.I would probably give them another try, and I enjoyed the evening overall, but this experience wouldn't necessarily bring them to the front of my mind if I were looking for a place to have a nice dinner. I don't mind a somewhat elevated price for a meal, but I also expect a somewhat elevated experience and, for me, it fell just a bit short.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 3
This weekend, my wife and I took her mother to Hamilton's on Main for a birthday brunch celebration. The food was, in a word, terrible. So terrible that it's interesting to ponder how an establishment of "approachable fine dining" could produce such poorly prepared meals.My wife and I had fish tacos. The fish was overcooked and rubbery. My brother-in-law had a salad with white meat chicken that was dry and stringy, in that way you get when you cook chicken breast to over 200 degrees. But the birthday girl’s frittata was ... really something special. I kid you not, it looked like a burnt piece of plastic on her plate, and didn’t smell or taste much better.I understand that even the best kitchen can sometimes have an off day. But something as bad as my poor mother-in-law's frittata should never show up on a restaurant plate. Think about it. Someone had to do the baking and take the frittata out of the oven. Probably someone else plated it. And then the server brought it out to the table. That’s THREE chances for the staff to say, "This looks god awful. Send it back for a redo."But that didn’t happen. No one in that chain of handoffs payed enough attention not to serve a piece of plastic to a well-dressed woman on her 90th birthday. Why? There's really only one possible answer: Hamilton's on Main doesn’t have the kind of management that inspires their staff to care about what they're doing.Downtown Newark deserves better.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 2
I had two previous positive experiences at this restaurant, but Mother’s Day was a disaster. I was served raw salmon and overcooked prime rib. What made it worse was that the server was horrible. Her standard excuse was that they’re busy due to the holiday. I’ll never come back. No thanks!
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
LOVE this place! Food is incredible. I’ve never had a bad meal here and the staff are great as well. Atmosphere is super comfy too! Can’t recommend it enough.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Very greasy burger.No "squeak "from the overly salted cheese curds.And the Buffalo chicken flat bread was overly salted as well and just not that good.Sorry, but a bit disappointed ?.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 4
Without a doubt, one of the WORST dining experiences I've ever endured, and the food quality is nowhere near justifying the price. My partner and I chose Hamilton's for our anniversary dinner on a Monday night, only to be met with disappointment from the start. Despite the emptiness, it took a staggering 15 minutes for someone to acknowledge us at our table. The waiter we had was flat out awful and only came to our table 3 times the entire night never refilling our drinks once. We ordered the bread board as our appetizer and it wasn’t bad no complaints there. However, the main courses were a different story. I ordered the fillet mignon with what was supposed to be "mashed potatoes" and "bristro fries" but these sides fell short of their descriptions. The bistro fries say they come with "parmesan, parsley, ketchup" but my fries didn’t include any of these three and for the price point I could have had much better fries off the dollar menu at a fast food restaurant. The mashed potatoes were by far the worst I have ever had and tasted and looked like glue on my plate, a huge embarrassment for this type of restaurant. The other main meal was a fillet mignon as well with the side mac and cheese. The fillet was over cooked and just had no flavor. The plate came with no presentation what so ever and even was served on a dirty plate which for this restaurant is just sad. No complaints with the mac and cheese since that was the best part of the whole meal even though it was equivalent to a box mac and cheese. Overall Hamilton's on Main is by far not worth the price, has absolute awful service and serves below average food I would stay away from this restaurant at all cost!
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
Service was kind of slow but it may have been an off night. Atmosphere was very nice. Will try eating at the bar next time I go.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 3
Food was delicious. We will definitely go there again. Excellent service!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Went for Easter brunch. Excellent Bloody Marys! Just the right amount of spice. Creole Crab Mac and Cheese was outrageous. Again just the right amount of heat. Wife had Avocado Toast with scrambled eggs and bacon. Again excellent. Our server Hussain was excellent. Pleasant but not hovering. A great experience. Highly recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Great food and attentive staff. Our go to in C'ville when we can get reservations.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
Atmosphere is very casual and welcoming. Bartender was attentive, pleasant and knowledgeable. Drink menu is exotic and diverse. Originally eyeballed the 14oz. NY Strip but $55.00 is out of my ballpark. Settled for the burger it is flavorful but not worth the price of $22.00 in a $14.00 town.
Portions are small for the price
Parking: Download the app.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 5
Food was good but not great. Not sure if it’s ’fine Dining’ after having dined at good restaurants at Florida, DC and such. I asked to sub the carbs and the service guy kept asking for subbing the protein instead. The live DJ music was just too loud and jarring that it was hard to have a
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 4
Service: 3
A fine dining restaurant with night club environment on a Saturday night… I will not go back!
This place is one of my favorites. Love their season food and drink menus. They do a beautiful job with the seasonal decorations. This place is magical. Great foe happy hour as well.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Cheese Board, Chicken Wings
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