We actually did not eat here. We were looking forward to a high end dining experience, as the website seemed to allude, but it was basically a sleepy hotel bar. A very nice one! And the people were very nice (so I gave 4-stars for service), and the ambiance was nice.... For a hotel bar. We were disappointed this was not made more clear when we booked the reservation.
Rachel W
Food is absolutely delicious! The service however, is horrible. We sat at our table for 45 minutes before a waitress took our order and it took us 30 minutes just to get water. There were only two tables in the restaurant so I'm not sure why? The table next to us got drinks, coffee and appetizers before our server even came over to us to take our food order. I was really disappointed as I was very excited to try this restaurant and was really let down by the service.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 1
SimonZ
I'll go there again only if it's raining hard. They do have comp valet parking. Made reservations for the dining room and when we got there were told a group of about 20 people had reserved the entire dining room that held maybe 100 places. We could sit in the lounge. If it hadn't been raining we would have left. Food was ok but when we asked for bread they didn't have any. Really? My wife asked for Sangria and was brought something else for $14 a glass that tasted like red ink. Coffee after dinner usually comes with sugar but had to ask. Server brought 3 little bags. There are no table cloths so utensils are put on the table between courses just as previous diners did. Were they sanitized between customers? Yuck. Dinner of 2 salads 2 fish entrees one dessert and one drink was $155. Plus tip. Definitely an Allegory for a real restaurant. The good news is there are always tables available. I wonder why?
Food was good, service was okay. Was sat at a table that was not very clean. We had reservations and no one knew was what happening. Didn't even have utensils to eat. The floors looked like the place need it a mopping. Honestly we could have gone to the diner
Shamus Burke
First time visiting after hearing about the place from some friends. Music was not too loud so was able to enjoy a nice conversation. If Diego is working make sure to ask for the espresso martini, he makes the best I have experienced.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Noelle Sprenkle
Diego makes THE BEST espresso martinis! 10/10 recommend. Great atmosphere and incredible service.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Myckel Saintpierre
Great friendly service n great
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
JP G
We had a cocktail at Allegory's bar in the lobby bar. It was at times bustling and at other times quiet. The bartender's service was perfunctory, no garnish and no water. The bar is part of a hotel that is trying to be boutique but is really a corporate behemoth so it was appealing to a variety of people and so they had sports on the big TV. Meanwhile a large wedding party filtered through as they prepared for the big day. I wouldn't say you should come here for the scene nor amazing cocktails nor amazing service but it's a good place to start off the evening and then onto more interesting places
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Poor service upon arrival and just got worse. Tried to sit us at a table that was still not cleaned or bussed from a previous customer and then a waiter never came by. After 20 minutes, I had to chase down a waiter who said he wasn't aware that we were sat in this area and he'd come by soon. Took our drink and appetizer order and we waited another 20 min for those, only for octopus appetizer to come out burned to a crisp and oysters to come out without oyster forks or any forks for that matter and the drinks to never come at all. After going to the bar directly to collect our drinks, lead bartender who was dismissive and had tons of attitude didn't acknowledge that drinks were never sent. Finally, our steak and salmon entrees that we ordered medium came out well done. Seems like no one even tried. To the left of our table another couple was having a heated exchange with a person that we determined was the manager, so poor service and food appears to be the theme here. Very disappointed as we had looked forward to our reservation. Will absolutely never return.
Wyatt Knight
Extremely underwhelming. Drinks felt small and cheap like I was taking an economy class flight and given a “free” drink. I got a margarita. Lemon brussel sprouts had absolutely zero lemon and were overcooked. My medium rare burger was cooked well done when I asked for medium rare. The bacon was extremely dry..akin to the kind you find on a ghetto bodega sandwhich. The cheese was tasteless. The primary flavor I got was of the “special sauce”, which wasn’t at all special. The fries were the best thing and I’d rate them 2/5. Everything felt cheap and rushed. My partner wondered if the chef had even read their own menu. Don’t come here.
We had a Christmas party last week with 25 of our family members. The food was delicious and the service was AMAZING. The waiter worked so hard and made sure we were all happy. We really had such a great experience here and will definitely be making it a yearly tradition. The ambience is great and everything was above and beyond what we expected.
This was the absolute worst service I experienced. My family and I came on a Saturday night. It took the restaurant 15 minutes to seat us. The restaurant was not busy and there were a lot of tables available. The hostess said they were figuring out where to put the 3 of us. Once seated, it took almost 30 minutes before we got a glass of water and were offered menu's at our table. A couple that was seated 15 minutes after us was serviced before my family. A waitress dropped a glass and it took 10 minutes before anyone picked it up. Overall the Service was terrible!!!!!! I will NEVER visit Allegory again. They need more and better staff before anyone visits.
JeffreyK
I had recently read that a new Executive Chef had been hired and not having dined there in a while made a reservation for dinner on Saturday night (11/25) at 6:00 p.m.. Taking advantage of the fact that the dining room was stylish we dressed for dinner. When we arrived there was no host/hostess to greet us and though the weather is turning colder no where to hang long coats. Most surprisingly was that the dining room was almost empty. The young waitress attending the bar crowd offered to seat us in that area but we respectfully declined and asked to sit in the dining room which is really well put together in all respects. Given the lack of other guests we had some well founded concerns and second thoughts but realized that we were all dressed up with nowhere to go so we decided to stay and take our chances. Our decision was rewarded with an excellent meal. My wife had the braised short ribs ragu over pasta to which she paid the high compliment that it was the "best she ever had." As a vegetarian my menu options are more limited but my ceasar salad and spaghetti pomodoro were excellent. We shared a chocolate cake dessert which was also very good. I asked for coffee but was told there was none so our helpful waitress offered to brew a fresh pot and I accepted that offer. Given the quality of the meal and the quality of the room we were surprised that there were so few other people in the restaurant especially when it is so hard to get a table at a good Montclair restaurant on a Saturday night. We have eaten at many of the popular places in town and would rate the cuisine at the Allegory as on par or better than most. We would recommend the following upgrades: (1) make your guests feel welcome when they enter by having them greeted by a host or hostess, (2) provide a place to hang coats, and (3) train your wait staff and have them wear a uniform befitting of the atmosphere you want to create. We will be back.
Chris
Last went here over two years and it was horrible then but decided to try it again since I live so close and figured two years had passed; surely Allegory has edible food by now. I brought an out of town guest with me and he said “this is the worst meal I’ve ever had in my life”. That’s all anyone needs to know. Food is burnt, inedible, and missing things that are literally on the menu for that dish! Find anywhere else to eat
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
manger
At Allegory the food is good and as long as your waiter/server is good then you will have a good experience. But the waiters are variable and the management of the restaurant is busy with special events so as long as you get a good server you will be happy there.
We actually did not eat here. We were looking forward to a high end dining experience, as the website seemed to allude, but it was basically a sleepy hotel bar. A very nice one! And the people were very nice (so I gave 4-stars for service), and the ambiance was nice.... For a hotel bar. We were disappointed this was not made more clear when we booked the reservation.
Food is absolutely delicious! The service however, is horrible. We sat at our table for 45 minutes before a waitress took our order and it took us 30 minutes just to get water. There were only two tables in the restaurant so I'm not sure why? The table next to us got drinks, coffee and appetizers before our server even came over to us to take our food order. I was really disappointed as I was very excited to try this restaurant and was really let down by the service.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 1
I'll go there again only if it's raining hard. They do have comp valet parking. Made reservations for the dining room and when we got there were told a group of about 20 people had reserved the entire dining room that held maybe 100 places. We could sit in the lounge. If it hadn't been raining we would have left. Food was ok but when we asked for bread they didn't have any. Really? My wife asked for Sangria and was brought something else for $14 a glass that tasted like red ink. Coffee after dinner usually comes with sugar but had to ask. Server brought 3 little bags. There are no table cloths so utensils are put on the table between courses just as previous diners did. Were they sanitized between customers? Yuck. Dinner of 2 salads 2 fish entrees one dessert and one drink was $155. Plus tip. Definitely an Allegory for a real restaurant. The good news is there are always tables available. I wonder why?
Food was good, service was okay. Was sat at a table that was not very clean. We had reservations and no one knew was what happening. Didn't even have utensils to eat. The floors looked like the place need it a mopping. Honestly we could have gone to the diner
First time visiting after hearing about the place from some friends. Music was not too loud so was able to enjoy a nice conversation. If Diego is working make sure to ask for the espresso martini, he makes the best I have experienced.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Diego makes THE BEST espresso martinis! 10/10 recommend. Great atmosphere and incredible service.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Great friendly service n great
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
We had a cocktail at Allegory's bar in the lobby bar. It was at times bustling and at other times quiet. The bartender's service was perfunctory, no garnish and no water. The bar is part of a hotel that is trying to be boutique but is really a corporate behemoth so it was appealing to a variety of people and so they had sports on the big TV. Meanwhile a large wedding party filtered through as they prepared for the big day. I wouldn't say you should come here for the scene nor amazing cocktails nor amazing service but it's a good place to start off the evening and then onto more interesting places
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Poor service upon arrival and just got worse. Tried to sit us at a table that was still not cleaned or bussed from a previous customer and then a waiter never came by. After 20 minutes, I had to chase down a waiter who said he wasn't aware that we were sat in this area and he'd come by soon. Took our drink and appetizer order and we waited another 20 min for those, only for octopus appetizer to come out burned to a crisp and oysters to come out without oyster forks or any forks for that matter and the drinks to never come at all. After going to the bar directly to collect our drinks, lead bartender who was dismissive and had tons of attitude didn't acknowledge that drinks were never sent. Finally, our steak and salmon entrees that we ordered medium came out well done. Seems like no one even tried. To the left of our table another couple was having a heated exchange with a person that we determined was the manager, so poor service and food appears to be the theme here. Very disappointed as we had looked forward to our reservation. Will absolutely never return.
Extremely underwhelming. Drinks felt small and cheap like I was taking an economy class flight and given a “free” drink. I got a margarita. Lemon brussel sprouts had absolutely zero lemon and were overcooked. My medium rare burger was cooked well done when I asked for medium rare. The bacon was extremely dry..akin to the kind you find on a ghetto bodega sandwhich. The cheese was tasteless. The primary flavor I got was of the “special sauce”, which wasn’t at all special. The fries were the best thing and I’d rate them 2/5. Everything felt cheap and rushed. My partner wondered if the chef had even read their own menu. Don’t come here.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 1
Service: 2
Restaurantji Recommends
We had a Christmas party last week with 25 of our family members. The food was delicious and the service was AMAZING. The waiter worked so hard and made sure we were all happy. We really had such a great experience here and will definitely be making it a yearly tradition. The ambience is great and everything was above and beyond what we expected.
This was the absolute worst service I experienced. My family and I came on a Saturday night. It took the restaurant 15 minutes to seat us. The restaurant was not busy and there were a lot of tables available. The hostess said they were figuring out where to put the 3 of us. Once seated, it took almost 30 minutes before we got a glass of water and were offered menu's at our table. A couple that was seated 15 minutes after us was serviced before my family. A waitress dropped a glass and it took 10 minutes before anyone picked it up. Overall the Service was terrible!!!!!! I will NEVER visit Allegory again. They need more and better staff before anyone visits.
I had recently read that a new Executive Chef had been hired and not having dined there in a while made a reservation for dinner on Saturday night (11/25) at 6:00 p.m.. Taking advantage of the fact that the dining room was stylish we dressed for dinner. When we arrived there was no host/hostess to greet us and though the weather is turning colder no where to hang long coats. Most surprisingly was that the dining room was almost empty. The young waitress attending the bar crowd offered to seat us in that area but we respectfully declined and asked to sit in the dining room which is really well put together in all respects. Given the lack of other guests we had some well founded concerns and second thoughts but realized that we were all dressed up with nowhere to go so we decided to stay and take our chances. Our decision was rewarded with an excellent meal. My wife had the braised short ribs ragu over pasta to which she paid the high compliment that it was the "best she ever had." As a vegetarian my menu options are more limited but my ceasar salad and spaghetti pomodoro were excellent. We shared a chocolate cake dessert which was also very good. I asked for coffee but was told there was none so our helpful waitress offered to brew a fresh pot and I accepted that offer. Given the quality of the meal and the quality of the room we were surprised that there were so few other people in the restaurant especially when it is so hard to get a table at a good Montclair restaurant on a Saturday night. We have eaten at many of the popular places in town and would rate the cuisine at the Allegory as on par or better than most. We would recommend the following upgrades: (1) make your guests feel welcome when they enter by having them greeted by a host or hostess, (2) provide a place to hang coats, and (3) train your wait staff and have them wear a uniform befitting of the atmosphere you want to create. We will be back.
Last went here over two years and it was horrible then but decided to try it again since I live so close and figured two years had passed; surely Allegory has edible food by now. I brought an out of town guest with me and he said “this is the worst meal I’ve ever had in my life”. That’s all anyone needs to know. Food is burnt, inedible, and missing things that are literally on the menu for that dish! Find anywhere else to eat
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
At Allegory the food is good and as long as your waiter/server is good then you will have a good experience. But the waiters are variable and the management of the restaurant is busy with special events so as long as you get a good server you will be happy there.