Elephant Bar Restaurant

Hello, my name is Jack and I’ve been a long time customer since this location opened some 10 years ago. My family often dined here for a variety of special occasions, and I am willing to credit myself for having brought many customers to your establishment due to my unhealthy addiction to your Jambalaya and previously the Lamb Shanks. Unfortunately, I will no longer be visiting. I have had my granddaughter transfer my written letter onto the Internet because I felt so compelled to write to you, albeit long overdue, but the Internet has not been a friend of mine, I digress.
Some odd weeks ago, my dear wife and I visited your location in Belmar during lunch time on a week day, I cannot be more specific as it has slipped my mind and for that I apologize. We were seated overlooking your patio area and a young employee, whom we recognized as someone who has served us before, entered through the side doors. Originally cheerful, as she always has been when attending to our party, she ran into and inquired another Elephant Corporation employee. I listened to her entire interaction with whom I would assume her superior. The rather short fellow began raising his voice at the young lady and frightened not only my wife and I, but clearly the employees as well. The girl became increasingly flustered under such attack and understandably began to cry. At one point, I stood to intervene as the gentleman began to insult her personality, and he took this as a cue to leave, and the girl followed asking to continue the conversation of her employment. I wish I could have caught her as she ran out the door a few minutes later as I assume she was fired by said superior. I wish to inform her she deserves better. She deserves to be talked to like a human and not an animal. I wish to inform you, Elephant Bar Corporation, that you have failed your employee, as well as your customers for having aired out your laundry in such a public area. To belittle a young girl, who must not have been over the age of 20, and then fire her is downright harassment and had it been one of my children, my heart would break at the thought of someone ever treating them in such a way. Maybe the years have softened my heart, but I know a disservice when I see one.
After witnessing this atrocity, my wife and I said a small prayer to this girl in hopes she finds peace and agreed to never give this place business as well as spread this message. My message to you, Elephant Bar Corporation, is simple, you will quickly run out of employees to step on and mistreat if you allow their supervisors and managers to speak to them in such a way. This poor girl was subjected to public humiliation. Upon my final departure from the restaurant I once knew fondly, I caught the name of the manager in charge of this location, Mr. Ryan Brown, and you should be embarrassed. I don’t know who was the supervisor in this situation, but it is your responsibility nonetheless. Although this particular girl’s employment was terminated, I’m sure you have nearly 100 staff at your restaurant who fear similar treatment from their superiors. Shame on you, Ryan Brown, and shame on you, Elephant Bar Corporation.
Sincerely,
Jack H.

Elizabeth is awesome! Even tho she is from Jersey, everybody can’t be a native. Food was also top notch.

Awful service; subpar food
Let me start by saying the restaurant was far from busy, the servers were all standing around. My extremely pregnant sister a I went in at about 12:15 with 3 littles (4, 4.5 and 17 months). 15 minutes to get 2 molks, a juice and 2 non-​alcoholic tea drinks from the bar. Then we ordered. Fifty minutes later I told our waitress to box our food up so we could just go. The manager had the balls to argue with me that we had only been there 50 minutes. I explained we needed to get the Littles home for naps. He had the gall to say he had no way of knowing he was up against other plans.
First of all, it should never take 50 minutes to get food that is already made or a quick dish. (We ordered salads and soups & fries and macaroni cheese with apples or quesadilla and apples for the Littles). Second to not think Littles need naps after lunch is asinine. But it is not the manager’s business that we have plans after lunch. There was no reason for him to throw attitude. No one spends all day at lunch with Littles.
After some arguement we paid and took the food to go. It was pedestrian, the soup was not the same from their buyout and the quality had taken a severe downward spiral.
Sadly we will not be back. Elephant Bar had good food and a good concept. Now it is a poor low-​class, poorly staffed addition to all other poor food options in the area cleverly posing as a comfortable family restaurant.
What a shame.

Nice ambiance and friendly staff. Food was not very good. I had the chicken lettuce wraps and my husband had the Mongolian beef. The Mongolian beef was better. The chicken had chunks of raw garlic. I love garlic, but it would’ve been better cooked. The tie that held the lettuce together at the grocery store was in my salad.

I don’t like to write bad reviews but, this was not a good experience at all. I brought 4 adults and 2 kids for dinner after the Christmas weekend. I felt sorry for our waitress since she covered the whole bar. They were short on staff and I understood that. 45 min for apptz and a beer. When the food came out, my burger was rare rare. I love rare beef but not rare burgers, I called the waitress over to show her and she went to get the manager. The manager came and said this is the second complaint tonight. Duuubhhhhhh! He asked if I wanted it re-​cooked? I told him I was fine and was out of time. Bill came and I was over charged for my burger and beer which was happy hour. I just shook my head and left. Not coming back

Management really needs to adjust the tvs. It’s unwatchable and pointless how they are now and I saw multiple people walk out when choosing where to sit in the empty bar area, I walked out moments later before I ordered, I just really wanted to enjoy football and drinks/​food but another time I will be back for happy hour when I am not interested in watching any sporting event

The service here is in a category of its own.
I have been here numerous times over the years and it has remained consistent since the very first day they’ve opened. If you are expecting a 5 star restaurant with exquisite tasting food this is not the place. However if you are expecting quality for for a decent price you cannot go wrong with this place.
The one thing that sets this restaurant apart is the service. I am truly astonished by the staff at this location. They are quick, knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. I had the pleasure of having Shelby serve me recently and she made our night.
Ultimately I highly recommend this restaurant for any occasion.
Taste: 4
Atmosphere: 4
Service: 5

It sucked with a snotty waitress who justified a sour margarita, and the refused to serve us. She ignored the lady next to us too

Sitting here waiting for my food still!!! 20 mins and counting… And in the dark!!! Starving in the dark

Meeh! Food was crappy, I ordered a chicken sandwich. chicken was under cooked, took them 15 min to cook it again. service was poor, the strawberry shortcake is more like strawberry tart cake. Left Disappointed and hungry.

Didn’t look like much in some respects, but the service is solid, and I left happy. I’m struggling for something creative, but that’s just not in the cards today. Simple put, I’d come again!

This place is pretty mediocre. I’ve been here a few times and I’m always underwhelmed by the food. For the price, you can get a much better meal in the area. We ordered an appetizer that took over 20 minutes to come to our table. Then due to poor service, our entrée came 2 minutes after our app… This meant either we would have to finish the appetizer and let our entrée get cold or vice versa.
We sat in the bar area to watch the game and it seemed understaffed. One woman working the entire section. We didn’t get very good service, I can’t fault her, she tried her best but you can’t attend to everyone and make drinks for the whole restaurant!
I live close and the drinks are a fair price so I might come by for a happy hour or two, but I definitely won’t be back for a full meal.

Just moved to the neighborhood and really hoped this was a good spot despite the poor Unilocal rating. Unilocal once again was dead on, this place is lame. Ordered dinner and food was mediocre, almost sent the food back because it wasn’t very good. Poor beer selection and the bar is completely empty at 9pm on a Saturday night… and I can see why. Don’t waste your money, the bar sucks and the food wasn’t very good.

This honestly is one of my favorite places! They have a large menus, everyone in your group is sure to find something they will enjoy. Drinks are great, and they even have fun drinks without alcohol. I highly recommend this place. My husband and I love just enjoying a night to ourselves at the bar, or its agree at place for a group of people!

I love to come here and sit outside on the patio. It’s so comfy and clean. I’ve had some pretty tasty dishes here. They have this tea spritzer drink that is delish!!! I’ve always had great service too. I think its corporate but still a charming place to spend an hour. Plus, it’s in belmar.

We stopped in the elephant bar for an early dinner & seated ourselves in the bar area. It took a little while for someone to come clean off the previous patrons plates and glasses as we chose the only open available table. My only gripe this trip.
We started with the soy ginger calamari & drinks. The calamari was good but I couldn’t taste any soy or ginger in it, the dipping sauce helped & the cocktail sauce that also came with it was the bomb.
My wife had the orange chicken and I had the Mongolian beef for our main dishes. The orange chicken had tons of flavor and was definitely the winner of the evening. The Mongolian beef was tender and had good flavor. We also chose brown rice and veggie fried rice, both were good but the veggie fried rice was a nice change from the norm & stood out.
Our server took good care of us and was very attentive. Another good visit to elephant bar.

A good restaurant. Nothing special or spectacular, but alright.
Lighting was kind of dim and it was a little difficult to read the menu, but otherwise our service was fantastic, and the food very good.

The drinks are amazing!!! However the food is so lackluster my wife ordered the lamb chops and they cooked them well done not even close to medium rare. The jambalaya has zero seasoning. That said come here for drinks the Mai tai is amazing the green tea cooler is refreshing for a hot day. That is why I have three stars DO NOT eat the food.

The food was good but…
They seated us in the back… way in the back, away from all other the other customers in a corner, by a drafty door. I can’t help thinking it’s because most of the people in my group were Black. I know this can sound a little sensitive, but they never sat anyone anywhere in that entire area the whole time we were there. To their credit, they were dealing with a leak in the back area (or is that really a good thing), so they didn’t really want to sit anyone there. But it sure seemed like we were being segregated from the rest of the customers. I paid a pretty good chunk of change to feed the five of us and Elephant Bar can be a bit pricey so, naturally, I expect a good experience — regardless of my skin color. They said the back is where they seat their larger parties, but I noticed plenty of groups of 5 or more seated in the main dining area. Of course none of them were Black.
What the what?

Went here for lunch a few days ago. We had the soy-​ginger calamari to start and it was simply amazing. perfectly julienned calamari which was perfectly fried. Best appetizer we’ve had in a long time. ⁵⁄₅
For mains, I had the Globally Inspired Misoyaki Salmon. Again, cooked perfectly. ⁵⁄₅
We also added sides of Sweet Potato Fries and Garlic Mashed Potatoes, which were wonderful as well (though, of course, with all fries, as soon as they cool, they dense up :-\) ⁴⁄₅
She had the Globally Inspired Chicken Marsala. I didn’t try any of her’s but she said she’d rate it a solid 3 out of 5 due to it’s being a bit bland/​underseasoned. She did like that it was served over white rice instead of with noodles. ³⁄₅
Total Avg 4.25÷5