My bf and I stopped in Lateral for a drink on my b-day before our dinner reservations, and enjoyed the atmosphere, so we made reservations for V-day. When he made the ressie, he asked if it was a limited menu and was told 'no'. Well, of course it was, very limited may I add, to the point where there was absolutely nothing we would or wanted to eat on the menu. We got up and left, and wound up eating at Ralph's Tavern for V-day! I ate at Lateral this past Thursday evening, which, unbeknownst to us, is 'steak night'. We were very disappointed with the service, and the food wasn't that great either. We weren't seated, we had to seat ourselves, which wasn't difficult, considering there were 2 other tables occupied, and 2 couples at the bar (IDK how this place stays in business, whenever I pass by, it's that empty). We weren't given water, there were a couple of tables that were bussed, but not cleaned, and stayed that way for the duration of our meal. We weren't given appetizer plates, and wound up using our bread plates for the app. You may ask why we didn't address these issues, but for as not busy as the place was, our server was absolutely non-existent. He was in the back nearly the entire time, and the only other staff, the bartender, was so engrossed in conversation with a couple at the bar. I had asked about a dish that I had seen on the menu previously, hoping they could prepare it, and we were met with an 'oh yeah, the menu changes a lot'...ok... The glass of reisling I had was very good. The appetizer, ricotta and artichoke dumplings, were more like croquettes, deep fried and breaded, and came with a tasty marinara sauce. The sauce was boiling hot, the dumplings were cold in the middle. My bf asked me 'are they supposed to be cold'? Still not quite sure, but I didn't ask for fear of the waiter's brusque attitude again...For our entrees, he ordered one of the steak specials, a 12 oz strip with a bourbon sauce, garlic mashed and asparagus. The asparagus was absent, replaced by a mixed veg of summer squash, cucumber and carrots, no biggie, he prefers that to asparagus. The gravy - eew - tasted like Heinz brown gravy with something sweet added to it. The steak was cooked to temp and was tender. I ordered peppercorn crusted seared ahi tuna served over spinach. The spinach was overly salty and overly garlicky. The ahi was flaming spicy hot from way too much peppercorn, I kind of cut off the sides and ate the rare middle part. The tuna was fresh, however. Long story short, I wouldn't return, except for a drink at the bar, because it's quiet and they have nice TV's. The chef seems to be heavy-handed with the seasonings, and the service is definitely lacking...too bad, because there really are limited 'nice' restaurants in Nutley, and I try to avoid going to Montclair frequently b/c of the parking (although there are a couple of exceptions to that rule!) Hope this helps.
