Cafe Monet, Millburn

[scarlet knight]

We ate at a charming new French bistro on Friday night 7/15/05. We noticed it listed in Rosie's 7/13 update, so we called for a decsription, it sounded good, so we made a reservation.

This place is on Millburn Avenue across from Oksenhorn Jewelers and the Post Office.

I had a lump crab with mango appetizer (a special). Very refreshing, tropical and light for a hot summer night. The crab was generously apportioned. My wife had a goat cheese palladiere (spelling?), which was goat cheese, sauteed onions and oven-dried tomatoes in a pastry crust. Very tasty.

Our entrees were chicken for me and duck for my wife. Both were very good.

Our waiter was young and while he admitted to inexperience, he did a very good job. He was attentive and he was working hard. We recognized another waiter from Le Rendez-Vous in Kenilworth. He told us that his brother was the former owner of that restaurant and that the chef here was from France. No surprise , the food was very good.

Our only complaint was that the restaurant was very hot. They had two upright, rotating air conditioners, but they were not enough to do the job. They are only open for 12 days, so hopefully they are considering how to solve the problem.

Finallly, the prices were fair (chicken-$17, duck-$21) and it's BYO. It reminds us of Le Rendez-Vous and The Show, but the prices are lower and the food is better.

We recommend it!

[PaulaJK]

We had a rather negative dining experience at

this restaurant.....although, in all fairness, it

has been open less than a month. I hope it gets

its act together as it would be a lovely

addition to Millburn center.

[scarlet knight]

what happened, paula? i'm curious.

[Rosie]

The owner of Café Monet previously owned The Show in Chatham so he has had experience in running a restaurant. When entering the restaurant we noticed a dirty rug by the front door and that the room was very warm. We were told that an “older” lady said that the room was too cold and therefore we dined in a warm room.

My app was a thin gazpacho with shrimp. I prefer gazpacho that has chunks of vegetables and some substance rather than being just a broth. Also, rather than a doily, there was what looked like a folded paper towel under my soup bowl. Lowell had an arugula, mushroom and roast tomato salad which he liked but I thought the dressing was too sweet. Entrees were good but small. The salmon topped with potato crepes came with a lemon wine sauce and ratatouille. The potatoes tasted like mashed potatoes that had been grilled. The tuna was perfectly cooked and came with a very tasty carrot-ginger puree.

Service was amateur. The waiter didn’t know where to place the dishes and we couldn’t help laughing at the lack of communication between the two waiters. One example is that one waiter asked us if we wanted dessert and was told no. Then the other waiter came to our table with the dessert menus. The dessert menus had no prices except for the cheese course. We assume that this was the waiters’ first night on the job because when we asked him the price of desserts he didn’t know. He did find out and came back to the table to tell us “all desserts were about $7.” I have no idea of the price of the coffee or tea.

The restaurant is BYO and the waiter was also clueless on how to serve wine. I prefer my wine glass not to be filled 3/4 full and I don’t need an ounce of wine poured into my glass to taste when the bottle is first opened. The restaurant has bare walls and an unfinished look. Loud music and the hot temperature didn’t add to our lackluster experience.

Another friend who has not posted here was at Café Monet and said the food was excellent. The restaurant is new so hopefully improvements are on the way.

[scarlet knight]

Well, it does sound like there is a consensus that the food is good at Cafe Monet.

The service was earnest but amateurish when we went. Maybe they have to bite the bullet and get more experienced waitstaff.

I'm with Rosie on the wine pouring. I really don't want anyone else to pour our wine. We have our own pace. Sometimes, I tell the waiter that I want to pour the wine. Hope they're not offended, but I don't want to drink wine like it's a Big Gulp.

I still think that this place has potential. Having good food is the rarest commodity; service and atmosphere are more easily corrected. We will try it again on a cooler night.

[PaulaJK]

Scarlet...Restaurant was only open 2 weeks...uncomfortably warm....

Service was below acceptable [5 requests for water] although

not mean spirited. Very slow. Next table repeatedly tried

to order, finally walking out.

Out of a few items on this short enough menu.

Cuisine was ok

Woman at next table sent back 'mussels' as they weren't

"as fresh as they need to be"

It will be good news if all of this is merely a reflection of

starting up. We could use a nice continental restaurant in

the area.

[scarlet knight]

We returned to Cafe Monet for a second try on 9/2/05.

The flaws of the first visist remained. It was hot as blazes in this place. HELLO, if you want to open a restaurant, you have to do what it takes to keep it under 80 degrees.

We had the same earnest waiter who tried hard, but needs some seasoning.

Speaking of seasoning, my entree came with sweet potatoes that contained what seemed like the shells of peppercorns. It was not edible. My duck entree was pretty tough and chewy. I did not like it.

My wife's chicken, which can be so good in a French bistro setting, was dried out. However, her potato galette was good.

The profiterole dessert featured stale profiteroles and icy ice cream.

Well, my raison d'etre for this restaurant, good food, has evaporated. Back to Lilac, Orbis, Wish, Table 8 and CocoBella Cafe.

[emmaline]

We ate here two days ago. While a nice addition to Millburn, we expected somewhat more from the place. It is not a close second to

Rendevous but was certain less noisy than Show, which we only ate at

once.

We did glean one piece of information. They are in the process of getting permission to serve NJ wines only under some state provision. When that is to begin they did not say Maybe they pour you a taste of the wine you brought yourself (which we found bizarre) as a practice exercise!