Lafayette House

Went there for our parents 60^th wedding anniversary, horrible service and food. Wait staff was inattentive at best. Having read the other reviews I do not understand how anyone could give this place 5 stars unless they have never eaten in a 5 star restaurant before. The Culinary Institute has 5 star restaurants, I could go on but it is not worth the time.

Delicious food and great service. We always look forward to seeing Carolyn when we come to eat in the tavern. She’s fast, attentive and sweet. Try their seafood on special next time you’re there.

To my dismay, the restaurant is now in the business of hosting seances. I won’t be going back.

I haven’t been in this area for many years. I am so disappointed in the number of restaurants that have declined. Lafayette house being one of them. For many years i was a regular customer and been to many weddings here. Even had an event catered. The steaks reminded me of a steak from a nyc steak house. The desserts were amazing. For the first time in 20 years i was so happy to be going back there to eat. I ordered appetizers, soup, and steak. I was so upset when the first thing to arrive was stale store bought italian bread. The bread used to be amazing there. The vegetables were raw in the bean soup and it was luke warm. The steak was cooked well done and had some kind of blue cheese mixture all over it. It was disgusting! I ordered a ny strip. I was never told they automatically drown it in blue cheese slime. I didn’t even taste the steak. All i tasted for days later was blue chesse. The butter came in small diner packets and was melted and tasted a month old! The talapia dinner was horrible as well. It came over pasta. The pasta was sqishy and the dish had a layer of water the fish ended up being soaked in turning it into a soggy mess. The pasta had no flavor at all. They didn’t even bring parmasan cheese or butter to flavor it. The appetizers calamari was like a rubberband and tasteless. The crabcake wasn’t hot. Nothing at all tasted good. Eating there reminded me of an overpriced new jersey diner. So sad to see what this place turned into.

The food was expected but the server «Stella» was excellent.
The steak and prime rob were good. I would have hoped for a larger selection of Wine by the Glass.

Great food, great (and always changing) beer selection, and an awesome little place to hang out!

Not sure how there are so many mediocre reviews. Brunch here is always awesome, lunch in the pub, and dinner are always very consistent. And by that I mean I have been going here for 20 years and the food is always great.
We usually prefer the pub for dinner, (Make sure if you go you try the coconut crusted shrimp). And their live entertainment has been amazing the last few times we’ve been in. College aged kids playing everything from Avett Brothers, Lumineers, and Good Old War to Sheryl Crow. One thing that was a little annoying was I think they used to have a better bartender– I’ve ordered mixed drinks a few times and they were a little heavy handed on the spirit pour but some may not complain about that. :)

I don’t know what to say about the bad reviews. I’ve been to the marquis tavern with my family a couple of times and had really good food and service. Finally, we came to the main restaurant, Lafayette House, for father’s day brunch. It was really lovely! I highly recomend the place. The food was very good. My mother does not like buffets, because usually what is offered is not as good as what comes a la carte. She was very happy, as we all were, with the buffet on father’s day. I could only try a small portion of what they had (because, really, how much can one person eat?), but it all looked fresh and delicious. They even had an omelette station (granted, I didn’t try it, because, again — how much can one person eat?) where a cook would make you your own omelette. My parents were especially thrilled with the lox — they said it was excellent and very fresh. Lox happens to be their favorite — they like any kind of salmon, as long as it’s fresh and well prepared. I don’t like salmon, so I’ll take their word for it. There was so much food and the staff made sure the buffet was all well stocked. As for the staff, they couldn’t be nicer. I don’t know what to say about the reviews slamming the staff — maybe an off day? When we went, everyone was on the ball, and it was busy. The décor is nice — upscale country. I think Martha Stewart would approve. Most importantly, the place is very CLEAN. I usually look in the corners and the bathrooms, and I look at details. The place is quite large and it’s all spotless.
The other reviews mentioned that the restaurant is frequented by many «old timers» or «blue hairs». This is true. When we’ve eaten at the tavern, most of the patrons were of the «mature» variety. So, what’s wrong with blue hair? To be honest, I’d much rather eat with old people. Hipsters annoy me, and they make me self conscious. Who needs that? On father’s day, there were people of all ages, and actually quite a few children, and everyone was well behaved. It was a very pleasant afternoon. We will definitely be back.

half way decent food, with decent service. Nothing to write home about, but not bad.
I went for dinner, ordered the 14 oz prime rib which came with potato and vegetables, and salad.
The salad was not the freshest, looks like it was plated and left in the fridge for a good 2 – 3 hours, dry. dressing seems like it came out of an old Ken’s brand bottle.
The prime rib was barely above room temperature, and while I can see some sort of spices on the surface, it didn’t taste like it had any. lackluster.

I have been coming to the Lafayette House for years after cutting down our Christmas tree each year. It was always a nice atmosphere and a delicious meal. That is definitely not the case anymore.
Last year, when we came, our waitress was noticeably drunk during our lunch. She was stumbling around, fumbling over her words, and hit on my dad in front of our entire family. We chalked it up to one bad fluke and came back this year.
Unfortunately, we won’t be coming back. We ordered our meals without issue. The cheese platter appetizer was good, but that’s the best I can say. We waited an hour and a half for our food. We didn’t even get a bread basket until then. When the food did come out, it was cold — actually cold, not just not hot. The cheese on my grilled cheese wasn’t melted. Steaks were rubbery and overdone (we asked for medium rare — they came out well done). Sadly, this family tradition has come to an end.

Waited for 30 minutes past
our reservation time to be seated for brunch. Sloppy, poorly stocked buffet. Management non existent to address needs of their customers. We will choose another place to eat on the future.

I have a large Italian family so we needed somewhere to accommodate us for our yearly Easter Brunch so we chose the Lafayette House. We were seated pretty quickly because we were a few minutes for our reservations (Mainly because none of my family knew where this place was). We all walked into a pretty nice atmosphere and the Maitre d’ was polite also.
As soon as we sat down we all noticed how busy it was. We waited only a few minutes before our drink order was taken, but when the waitress returned, not everyone received their drinks. My 5 year old daughter had to wait nearly 30 minutes before a waitress brought a pitcher of water to the table. by the way, this was the third waitress we had to ask. I literally had to walk up to 2 of them to get their attention. They all seemed to be more interested in cleaning tables than waiting on them.
My mother and father had to wait 8 minutes for plates because there were no clean plates at the buffet and my 8 year old son had to wait 10 minutes for the omelet guy to return to the omelet station. I mean, come on… It was a full house, but clean your plates, get them out, and stay at your station.
On the up side, I do have to say, the food was pretty good. We also had to wait nearly 40 minutes for the check, then once we squared the check up with my family, we waited another 25 minutes for them to return to pick up our payment, yes, that’s over an hour just to pay them.
I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. I couldn’t believe how bad the service was and would have complained to the manager if I found one.

One of the best places in the area. Great for everything from Sunday Brunch to Lunch to Dinner to Banquets.
Very high quality and a favorite place of mine for many years. It’s the kind of place that if your local is definitely worth getting to know and if you’re visiting the area, certainly will not disappoint with the good food and charming country atmosphere. NB: I said «country» atmosphere, not «hick» atmosphere which is what some people think about Sussex County.
The Sunday Brunch has always been one of my favorites for a special occasion. Also, there are a number of banquet rooms of varying sizes for group gatherings. I have been to many a surprise birthday party, high school sports or academic banquet and holiday party at the Lafayette House over the years.
There is also a nice pub attached to it and it is possible to order dining room food there and vice-​versa.

Excellent food a. d great atmosphere.

Large portions of sub par banquet hall food.
Limp calamari, improperly cooked and overly seasoned steak, huge bowl of pasta that was overcooked and absolutely reeked of garlic.
On the plus side, nice waiter but didn’t make up for the poor food.

Good brunch nice menu selection

Very average restaurant all the way around. Definitely more of a place to go to for a casual bite to eat than a nice dinner. They have a large menu selection. Their fresh shrimp served on ice is a great appetizer. But I was very disappointed with my last entrée here. I ordered the salmon which was overcooked (tasted more like chicken than fish) and covered in an overly sweet sauce. I can tell they tried to cover up the taste by spreading it on thick. The vegetables were also overcooked which sucks out all the nutrients. You would think a professional chef would know how to boil vegetables… The atmosphere is cozy and the rest of the menu is pretty safe. Just stick to simple orders.