Charlie Brown's in Hamilton Twp.

[TomDel]

Last night my wife and I had 5:45 PM appointment that lasted for about an hour. Since we had not had dinner, we decided to get something to eat before we went home. We went to Charley Brown’s located at 2110 Whitehorse-Mercerville Road & Klockner Road in Hamilton Twp., since it was close to our then current location.

Now before you all start ranting about how terrible the chains are, I have to tell you that I’ve had some excellent meals at this location. Unfortunately, the meal that I had last night did not fare as well.

We started off with drinks and decided to share the three cheese crab dip appetizer. We purposely didn’t order entrees in order to give us time to enjoy our drinks and the crab dip. We got our drinks and halfway through them, put in our meal order. I ordered the 9 oz. filet mignon with a blue cheese topping, fries and a Caesar’s salad. My wife had a combo platter of wienerschnitzel and tempura shrimp along with a baked potato. She chose the salad bar. This is when things started to go bad.

Within a minute or so after ordering our entrees, the waitress showed up with my salad. I asked her what happened to the crab dip. She gave me a perplexed look and said that it was in the oven being cooked. Her expression said, “Duhhha! It’s a hot appetizer dummy”. I advised her that we didn’t want it and to cancel the order if it came out with or after our entrees. I pushed my salad aside, ordered another martini and waited for the crab. It arrived in a few minutes and was delicious. It was served with toasted pita bread wedges for dipping and was basically crab meat au gratin.

Our entrees arrived after a decent interval, allowing us to enjoy our drinks, the crab, and most of our salads, which by the way were excellent. I started to cut my steak, with a steak knife mind you, and it bounced off! I tried a different section with the same results. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the meat was interlaced with a very fine gristle or connective tissue, giving it a rubber like consistency. After a few more tries, I called the waitress over and explained the situation to her and told her that the steak was unacceptable and that I would like a replacement. She said no problem and took it back to the kitchen. After about fifteen minutes she returned with another steak, or so she said. Of course by this time my wife was half way through her meal, which she enjoyed. The second steak looked suspiciously like the first. My attempt to cut it yielded the same results.

I called the waitress over again and told her that I wasn’t going to pay twenty plus bucks for this junk and to please take it back and give us a check for what we had eaten and drank, and no I didn’t want to order something else.

The good news is the Manager came over to our table while we were waiting for the check and expressed her sorrow that we didn’t enjoy our dinner and as a show of good faith comp’d us for the meal and drinks.

It had probably been a couple of years since I had been to this location. They may have changed management, chefs, cooks or owners in the interim. Whatever the reason, I won’t be back anytime soon.

[Rich Pawlak]

I've been stuck sver al times having dinner at both the Hamilton Charlie Brown's and the Princeton branch of the chain (now mercifully closed), and I can safely say that I've never had even a decent meal at these places.

[menton1]

The problem is, we only have 2 or 3 opportunities to grace ourselves with food daily. With such limited chances, why would anyone that cares go to a chain? In the Princeton area, there just HAS to be a better choice.

These chains are ALL formula, I've heard of chefs getting FIRED for daring to add an herb or a nice little touch that wasn't on the spec.

[jmbrightman]

I went to the one in Woodbury NJ one time (my boss at the time was from out of the area and made the choice) and it was horrendous. So much money spent on the glossy multipage menu, so little spent on the ingredients...

[punkin712]

We went to the East Windsor, NJ location a few times before we finally learned our lesson.

Our first visit was shortly after that location opened for business. The food was fine, the salad bar was well-stocked and the servers were generally competent and pleasant. Every visit after that went downhill fast, culminating in the last and final time we subjected ourselves to the horror that is Charley Brown's.

On that occasion, my husband and I took my mom there for dinner and we all ordered the same entree - beef tips. Halfway through our meal, my mom says, "What do you think this is?" I look over and she is holding up a large staple, like one you would find on a wooden crate of produce. She said it was sticking out of a piece of meat and, at first, she though it was a bent toothpick.

We asked a busboy to call the manager over. When we showed him the staple, he snatched it up and said, "Hehe. These things happen. Can I get you a piece of prime rib instead?" As my husband and I looked at our meals - the same as what my mom had - we pushed our plates away and told her to get the slice of prime rib. The manager came back and presented her with the smallest, most well done end piece of prime rib any of us had ever seen. He made such a show of it, you would have thought he was the mayor giving her the key to the city.

Although he took her meal off the bill, he did nothing else to make up for the fact that the two other diners at the table were unable to continue with their meals out of fear there might be another staple somewhere in the mix.

[TomDel]

I’ve since discovered that CB was sold to a New York private-equity firm on March 7, 2005. If these people were only looking at the bottom line it might account for the drop in the quality of their food.

[tommy]

before that they were owned by an investment firm as well, as are many large entities. before that they were owned by Restaurant Associates, who owns several restaurants in NYC, some of which are not bad at all. CB's doesn't seem to be a mom-and-pop, at least not for the past 18 years or so.

any business owner who isn't watching the bottom line won't be a business owner very long! letting quality decrease and losing customers isn't a good approach to staying in business. of course, if quality decreases, as well as costs, and you *dont'* lose customers, well then that's pretty good.

for my part i had a pretty horrible turkey club at a CB's about 3 years ago. that was the first time in recent memory, and the last, that i've even given the place a second thought. the place wasn't all that uplifting, to say the least.