Restaurant Review: Harvest Moon, New Brunswick, NJ

In October 2010, in celebration of my birthday, some friends and I went to the microbrewery/restaurant Harvest Moon in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for dinner.  I'd called earlier that day to make a reservation for 7:30 - it was a Saturday and the Phillies were playing a NLCS playoff game, so I assumed the restaurant would be busy.  Most of us arrived there early for beers, but two of my friends were running a little late as it was difficult to find parking in New Brunswick that evening.  At 7:30, we were told we could sit (our table, for eight, was vacant at the time), but unfortunately only six of us were present.

In this case, as we were already drinking at the bar, most restaurants would let us sit and order more drinks and appetizers in anticipation of our party to become complete.  This was not Harvest Moon's seating policy, however; we were told that our friends had five minutes to arrive, or else our table would be given to the next waiting party.  We protested quite loudly about this, as it seemed to make no sense - after all, most of our party had arrived and we were planning to continue spending our money at the establishment.  (In fact, we even tried blackmail - a larger group of approximately 15-20 was planning to "pub crawl" back to Harvest Moon later that night.  This fell on the deaf ears of Harvest Moon's management.)

Long story made somewhat shorter, our friends were more than five minutes late, I became very upset at Harvest Moon and our group of six left in a huff.  (We eventually had a wonderful meal at the always-accommodating Old Bay, perhaps New Brunswick's best dollar-for-dollar restaurant, and yes, the "pub crawl" never made it to Harvest Moon later that night.)  In fact, I swore I'd never go back to the restaurant. 

But, time has a way of fading old grudges, and more or less the same group of friends ended up at Harvest Moon last night for dinner.  I now intend to review Harvest Moon - I tell the story above because I want to leave it aside completely for the rest of the review and focus on the recent past (in order to be fair).

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Harvest Moon has interesting ambiance - in a reasonably small space, it somehow combines a working microbrewery, bar, first-floor bistro, and second-floor dining room.  The building is very old, and vestiges of its residential past are clear to the discerning eye - there are stanchions separating two parts of the upstairs dining room, for instance, that clearly separate a living area from what may have been bedrooms, or sitting rooms, in the late 19th century. 

The restaurant occupies what was once a fairly unique niche in New Brunswick cuisine - it is on the low-priced end of casual American dining, on a nice (if relatively quiet and buttoned-up) block of George Street.  The restaurant attracts a mix of younger and older individuals, though on Saturday nights, particularly before shows begin at State Theater, the crowd definitely skews older.  (There are often DJs on party nights that begin spinning at 10 pm, Harvest Moon does attract a younger crowd at that point).

When our group arrived, we were told the wait would be sixty minutes, but with a hint that the wait may end up being significantly shorter than that.  This fortunately ended up being the case, as the manager (the same who argued with us in October 2010) found the head of our table twenty minutes later to let him know that our table would soon be ready.  As we were hungry and a little cranky, this was very welcome news.

The high point of any Harvest Moon experience is the up-close microbrewery experience.  As you enter the restaurant, you can look to the right to see a multi-platform brewing system.  On the top level (about eye level as you walk in) are the storage tanks, each seeming to hold (this is an approximation) about 200 gallons of fully fermented beer.  But any avid home brewer should kneel down and observe the live boiling of the wort on the basement level of the restaurant; on this night, there was an active boil happening in one of the four giant stainless steel tanks. Interestingly, you could even see the boiling effluent pour out into a steaming, 5-gallon fermenting bucket (the exact same kind of bucket that my friends and I use at home, to ferment our own beers).

And the beer at Harvest Moon almost never disappoints.  I started with the Double IPA, which had wonderful citrus hoppiness balanced perfectly with mildly sweet and floral aromas.  Later I had a Pale Ale to complement my Harvest Moon Burger, which was stronger than the name might suggest (6.4% ABV, I believe) and much more robust - it nearly matched the previous IPA in all aspects of the beer drinking experience (hops, malt, and finish).  They had a special Barley Wine on tap this weekend, which my friend purchased thinking she would not like, ended up really enjoying, and letting me have a sip in the process - it was not my cup of tea, as it was very thick and strong, but I agreed it was (at least in small doses) delicious. 

There were many other beers on tap, and a beer aficionado visiting Harvest Moon would be well-served to select the Beer Sampler; seven or eight 5-ounce tastes of each beer, provided in a wood harness that is labeled and presented alongside a tasting guide.

I haven't mentioned the food yet, and this is with reason.  There are few excellent dishes available at the restaurant, and it's never good news when the best dishes are the appetizers. The Moon Nachos, with grilled chicken added to the mix, are incredibly rich and possess just the correct amount of melted Mexican cheeses.  The buffalo wings are breaded (always how I prefer them) and served medium by default, with considerable spice balanced by the generous portion of sliced celery and blue cheese.  Both rank among the best I've ever had in their respective food category.

However, Harvest Moon recently seems to have reduced their portion sizes across the board, and does not handle special requests well.  Even my Moon Burger, requested medium rare, arrived almost well-done.  (By comparison, Tumulty's Pub, a few blocks south on George Street, not only cooks cheeseburgers rare, they basically recommend eating your cheeseburger rare in their menu.)

My dining companions had issues with virtually every main entree that we ordered.  The Pad Thai was overwhelmingly laden with peanuts.  The fish and chips were served without malt vinegar, and the request for the essential condiment of the fried dish was handled as if no one ever asked for malt vinegar before.  The shrimp salad was served with approximately 1.5 ounces of shrimp (they looked to be the factory-farmed, frozen kind you pick up at your local grocery store) and was not evenly dressed.

The service, too, did not meet our expectations.  Our waitress was clearly not enthused with her job; her service was brusque to the point of rudeness, and we often had to request items twice.  (To be fair, the bartenders downstairs were extremely helpful and polite - even going so far as pouring a draught Hard Cider for my non-beer-drinking wife, off the menu, when she asked.)  Our group of friends, whom I've never seen act stingily with gratuities, unanimously felt that the almost-insulting 15% tip was fair for the dining service that we received.

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Objectively speaking, I'm not sure there is a less pleasing dining experience in all of New Brunswick than Harvest Moon.  (In this calculus, I am excluding the shitty restaurants on Easton Avenue that predominantly cater to drunk Rutgers undergraduates.)  While the restaurant is pleasing in a superficial sense, it appears to be fundamentally mismanaged, from the seating policies, to server training, to the care put into crafting the food.  Beer is the strong point of the Harvest Moon experience, which would make the venue fantastic if it were only a bar.  Unfortunately, it is also a restaurant, and it is a restaurant that no longer stand apart in the American-fusion casual New Brunswick dining segment.

For your money, you're better off going to Tumulty's, Old Bay, or even Old Man Rafferty's.  Tumulty's is a wonderful restaurant with perhaps the coolest vibe (for under $30 a plate) in the city.  Old Bay's food is excellent and their service is so polite and friendly that you might actually think you were in the South.  And Old Man Rafferty's is seemingly more self-aware of its culinary weaknesses; when the desserts are first in the menu, you know that dessert is going to be the best part of the meal. 

Harvest Moon, unlike any of the above-mentioned restaurants, is at risk (in my opinion) of becoming irrelevant in New Brunswick.  There are now more choices than ever, and any restaurant that isn't improving in this environment is clearly fading away.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars (ratings take into account food quality, drink quality, service, ambience/atmosphere, and last but not least, value).

Best for: A delicious beer or two with friends, perhaps accompanied by an appetizer.

Average price: Beers are between $5 and $7; appetizers $8-12, entrees $8-$30.  My Moon Burger was on the low end ($9, not bad for a burger).  There's a late night menu as well, but I've never ordered from it.