the comments on this place mostly reinforce my belief that people bitch and moan about 'bad service' mainly because they don't know enough about food to talk about it.

if i want someone coming by my table every three seconds to ram some more shit down my throat, i'll just go to kellogs or something.

Love this place - been here many many many times and have always received excellent service and food. Not sure how some of you are getting such horrible service, I'm thinking you are either used to too much pampering or your servers pegged you for douches, which they are adept at picking out - this being Williamsburg and all. As far as the "cool crowd" comment, my mother eats here all the time and doesn't feel out of place - and she's 60!

WOW,
Are we talking about the same place?
I live right upstairs and have had at least 40 meals there. The menu shows loads of skill and creativity. The specials are awesome. The teas are delicious. I can't think of one server that isn't at least pleasant and many are really sweet. They have my favorite burger in Williamsburg and the best tuna sandwich I have ever had (on the simple) and some of the most delicious, complex fish specials on the very same menu.
If you have not had great meals here, perhaps you should ask for the servers guidance......

Daily.....

GET THE BURGER!
GET THE STEAK!
GET THE TUNA SANDWICH!
GET THE ROAST CHICKEN!
GET THE PEAR SALAD!

OR a fish special!

Wow. I've never been treated more rudely in my entire 31 year life...like I tried to crash the "cool kids" table in 7th grade.

I can deal with pretentiousness but this place is like a parody.

My waitress disappeared after taking my beer order. 20 minutes later I asked the bartender - who gave me an attitude like I had just crashed his party. I left.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Wow. I've never been treated more rudely in my entire 31 year life...like I tried to crash the "cool kids" table in 7th grade.

I can deal with pretentiousness but this place is like a parody.

I can't tell you how many times i have eaten at Roebling. It's definitely become one of my favorite places to eat during my short existence in brooklyn (2yrs). Now that I am moving away from the city, its one of the main things i will also miss the most.

I can say i have eaten brunch more frequently than i have dinner. But even though i normally go to brucnh with crew of people (at least 6), i rarely have problems with the service. This seems to be their busiest time so, i guess i (we) expect it to take a little more time to get food. And as far as i am concerened, the food is more often than not excellent. And if not, its never far from it. The grass fed cheeseburger all the way is always good and is a staple for me... hell everything i have tried on the brunch menu has never been a disappointment.

When eating dinner, you should always expect things to be a little slower. There are people at work on good food. And good food takes time to prepare. That means it should also take time to eat. Why be bothered with someone asking if everything is okay every 2 minutes. Maybe its just me but, i prefer to be left alone while eating. I can be patient for the next approaching waiter/waitress... or at worst get someones attention if something is off.

The basic menu is loaded with awesome optoins. But, the specials are where this resaturant really shines. It seems everytime i try something new, they have stepped it up exponentially. I have noticed in some resaturants (maybe this one included) that it is important to take an active roll when listening to the waiter/waitress expalination of specials. The more you listen and provide feedback, the better they are going to be able to steer you in the right direction and the more passionate and in depth the explainations will get i.e. flavor profiles, personal tastes and opinoins, pairing recomendations etc. ...

All these sour reviews make me wonder if we are dealing with bad waitstaff or just bad customers.

I think everyone should try this place. Try it multiple times. There are too many great options to base your opinion on a this great resaturant with one meal.

side note... the decor here is amazing. And, its somehow strikingly different from day to night with little changing but lighting.

Really cool atmosphere, and great food. BUT, both of those positives are killed by the attitude of the waiters. After 20 minutes of waiting for my beer, I politely asked if the waitress would mind checking on it. She was very rude and almost bothered that I asked. Same thing happened when we asked for missing silverware at our table. I'm a laid back person, and even I was getting super frustrated.

i went to this place for the first time the other day based on a rave review from a friend, and i have to admit i was quite disappointed. the atmosphere is wonderful, but that's probably the restaurant's best feature. the service wasn't as terrible as most of the reviews make it out to be. the waitress wasn't overly friendly, but she wasn't a bitch and she did her job well.
the main issue i had was the food quality and portion size. i came in hoping to have some tea and a nice brunch and relax. i have to say the tea was superb. but the food was mediocre and COMPLETELY overpriced. i ordered fruit and yogurt with granola and the portion was so tiny i ended up having to head to the store afterwards to fill up my still-empty stomach. :( plus, the so-called "fresh fruit" you get is basically a little bit of pear and dried cherries. go to bliss, and for the same price you can get fabulous granola, FRESH fruit (a variety of types) and tasty yogurt. and literally THREE TIMES AS MUCH for the same price!!
overall i'd call this place mediocre.

i love roebling tea room. before i even get to the food, let's address the service issue. i agree that their service is slow, but look at it from another perspective...

haven't we all been to restaurants where they rush you through the meal? where there is constantly someone coming to the table, prompting you on to the next interval of the meal, basically trying to turn the table as soon as possible. if i'm eating in a hurry, i don't mind.

but not at roebling. i don't go there when i'm in a hurry, because i know the service isn't reliably fast. but i can be sure that if i go with old friends, or if i get into good conversation with a date, we won't get rushed along.

restaurants should be judged based on what they are, not based on what they're not. the food at roebling is transcendently good. imaginative dishes using clean ingredients, prepared expertly.

give it a try on a slow day!

Its a cute space, but the wait staff is the worst, I sat 10 minutes at my table with my two year old before I flagged down some hipster waiter with a bad attitude that could not even be bothered to bring me a menu. Also its a huge space, not one high chair or booster seat in the place. Guess its fine for a night with friends ordering from the bar, but avoid it for sit down. There are plenty of other places in the hood where the wait staff is glad to have you there.

nice for happy hour but the WORST service. You'd think by now it'll be better but each time i have wait for way too long for a menu and being ignored by useless staff. how does one restaurant manage to have the worst service?

I enjoyed breakfast twice and dinner once last week and our server was not only attentive and professional but she was smoking pretty. It is what you come to expect from Little Rock! The food was great and the scene on fire. I love local!
We have similiar restaurants in Boulder, CO, where I live and it seems in these tough times, the local restaurants with roots in the community coninue to rock! I wonder what the Grand Slam specials were at Denny's?

The inside is beautiful, but, alas, I must agree that the staff are too busy practicing being aloof and dressed-down with precision to be of much use to anyone.

The food, like the staff, looks good and sounds good but lacks in delicousness what it makes up for in potential and ultimately disappointment.

I chose a dish that sounded rather fancy but ended up being several giant clumps of cold/partially cooked mushrooms (with dirt still attached) on dry cold scrambled eggs. I couldn't eat it.

The latte was excellent, really excellent in fact.

Does Squid really own this joint?? I will go out of my for tea for her. :)

I've never had a less than heavenly experience at this place. The food has always been AMAZING, the atmosphere is low key and relaxing, and the happy hour is great.

The last time we were there (and I had a delicious Journeyman's steak with peppercorn and juniper berry sauce), our server was kind of slow on the beer delivery and disappeared for quite a while, but it didn't really inconvenience us. We still got our food, were able to ask her questions, get service, etc. It wasn't the best service ever, but the food more than makes up for it!

this place suckswild

Love Roebling.

Great menu and always incredible specials. I have actually never gotten anything at Roebling that I didn't like.

I have never really had a rude server (Relish wins that award).
At brunch it is always busy, but I have always gotten my food in a timely manner and had an enjoyable experience.

I go to the Tea Room all the time. Everytime, it's great. Whoever is complaining about the service must be having a very different experience than what I have had, which is nothing short of delightful. Every time.

I've eaten there a few times, hopeful. The food is incredibly mediocre. The service is shockingly bad and 'tudinal. I mean I've had some bad experiences there, not just one.

They always seem harried and put upon. Its not grand central station, its a restaurant/bar - so it strikes me as weird and inappropriate.

I think since they're their own mini-scene, they're a little overly prideful and know that foot traffic is going to be heavy, so eff off if you won't swing to THEIR tune.

Oh well. Nicely renovated and conceived space, but sort've poorly run.

Pretty unattentive service. Waitstaff too busy being too cool for school, i guess. What a shame cuz the food is actually good and the decor is very cool. If you don't mind s#*! service w/ lotsa tude, go for it then.

I've been to this establishment a number of times; both for dinner and drinks late-night.

Last night I arrived around 1:15 or 1:30pm with a date. I saw that there were only a few people still remaining so I asked the bartender if you were going to stay open before I bought our drinks. He said "yes," so I tipped him $4 for two drinks. A few min later we were the only two people remaining. At that point the bartender began blasting music (much louder than it had previously been playing). In addition, the musical choices were abrasive and not something I had ever heard there before. And, he kept switching the track mid-song and suddenly lowering and dramatically raising the music level. I then asked him if he could turn the music down, to which he replied "sure." From there the music only got louder and less predictable as he worked the i-pod (switching songs mid-track). That bartender is really abrasive.

I used to wait tables and I know what its like to have to sit around while someone finishes a drink so you can go home (after counting your tips) which is why I asked him if we should order a drink there or go somewhere else. We were in and out the door in less than 10 min and never touched our drinks.

I am a polite customer and a heavy tipper. But this place just tried my patience for the last time.

I don't see the purpose of even fostering customers with menus, when most of the food on the menu is "sold out." Went today at a reasonable hour for Sunday brunch, but the first FOUR separate items ordered by both myself *and* my friend were sold out. Then our cocktails came at completely different times, my coffee came without cream/milk/sugar accoutrement, and the waitstaff spilled milk all over the couple dining elbow-to-elbow with us. As a grand finale, my drunken beans came cold--decorated with unmelted, cheap, grocery store shredded cheese.

Is the staff really so helpless as to not be able to take a quick run to C-Town? As to not be able to carry over drinks when they're still cold, and entrees while they're within the vicinity of lukewarm? As with a previous commenter, I had the experience of staring at my entree on the counter as it slowly went cold. We left with the impression that no one was even trying.

I went there last night, Sunday. I had a wintery salad and few glasses of house white. Very good. We had a male server at the beginning, then switched for a female server. She was the best part of the night.
Friendly, petite, classy, she looked like a porcelain doll with dark hair, skirt and small boots.

this place is *always* lovely.
haters be gone!

well, maybe some of you are unaware of this but servers here in new york work for tips. they are not paid (virtually) anything by the house and sometimes they are paid nothing. if this place has "no laptop" policy "the capitalist" intention here is to turn the tables at this RESTAURANT so the servers make a wage. again....this is a restaurant. would you bring your laptop to one in the city at 8 o clock on a friday and attempt to use it as your office?
these complaints are made all the more ludacris considering there is one wireless coffee shop in the building already, and another a block away. they are designed with laptoppers in mind.
furthermore, as a server myself, i am sympathetic to this rule. i go to the roebling tea room- a restaurant- for dinner at night and always have a lovely time. so cheers!

omg, the food was horrendous.
the space is lovely though.
ordered frittata with salad and a side of roasted potato.
the frittata was salty and cold. the 'salad' was a few leaves with olive oil and the 'roasted potato' were literally 10 thin oily discs of fried potatos with no flavor. it was awful. my friend's fruit and yogurt never came. food quality seems to be an afterthough.
don't eat here.

Thumbs up!fuck the whiney hipsters and their laptops,i dont know what i look forward to more the chicken or the oppurtunity to put one of these cunts under my car. Love how baby freindly the tea room is

Get it right Danielle, it's "dissevering."

Anyway, I do like the food, and I'm confused why the vegetarian only orders bread and butter - maybe he's gone for dinner only. I think the dinner menu is a bit limited, but the lunch/brunch menu has plenty of veggie options. I like the baked cheddar eggs w/ grits and apple butter + toast, or the drunk beans.

Anyway the one complaint I do have about this place is their laptop policy. You never know when they are allowed and when they aren't. I guess now it's been a little more consistent - no laptops during the weekends or at night. That's kind of annoying, if you ask me - they'll allow them when business is slow (i.e. during the daytime on weekdays) so that the place gets a little more business, but if you want to go do some work there at any other time, you get a big 'fuck you' so that they can turn tables more quickly. Obviously they're more interested in making a buck than in treating repeat customers well. American capitalism at its best...

Roebling is a great place to meet up with friends for some drinks. Especially a mix of imbibers and non-imbibers. (Excellent tea list!)

I'll admit that during the day I've been disappointed with the service, but at night, I've never been disappointed. In fact, I've been impressed!

The menu leaves a lot to be desired. (Esp. since I'm vegetarian.) It's so limited, that all I order is bread and butter. The bread was great, though!

The decor, inside and out, is beautiful. Dark wood and green walls makes it feel relaxed, but sophisticated.

The back garden's tin roof (maybe it's not really tin!) provides not only shelter in the rain, but: 1. it's pleasant to hear the drops hit upon it, and 2. the corrugated metal, leads the gathering rain drops to pool. When this pool leads down the multiple gutters, straight lines of rain water stream out from the roof. Adding an interesting element of geometric shape contrasted against the diagonal lines of the soft strings of little globes of light hovering overhead.

It's just so pretty!

I love this place, and I'm so glad that none of you whiney privileged yuppie assholes are going there again. I hope it will now be occupied by a more deserving clientele(as opposed to a "disserving" business, Whatever).

Well JOSH you are probably just the lame ass hipster clientell these jokers want. I have been to this so called not so bad service place. And well IT SUCKS. I have no idea who any of these people are seeing how I just moved in to the neighborhood. In short this place should be occupied by a more dissevering business.

Honestly, never have I had a poorer example of welsh rarebit, a classic English favorite, in my entire life. My homemade rarebit is better. Plus: the service was slow and snide, and there was no quich available despite it being listed as a special OUTSIDE. In short, this was a terrible dining experience.

You can kind of tell that a great many of these negative reviews are posted either by the same person or by a person with a vendetta who has gotten their friends to bombard the page with bad reviews. I've eaten here 4 or 5 times and although the food is not exceptional, it is decent and the service has always been totally fine if not actually very friendly. Maybe the suspiciously similar sounding negative reviews are due to the fact that the restaurant supposedly treated the people living in the lofts above it poorly when they first opened. Whatever...the food and service is not nearly as bad as these reviews make it seem.

Went over the weekend and it just drove home to me that there are not many *pleasant* places in williamsburg to eat, even now.

No one greated us. The service is slow, tired and poor. The food was horrible to a point where i believe we paid about $9 for a half can of black beens. Tea service was promising, but our waitress didn't know how to drink tea -- ie that it requires spoons. a saucer for the bag. milk. a teapot maybe? the service was as bad as it gets. The food actually is worse than it gets. It's a gorgeous space, too bad it has to have williamsburg spoiled attitude, service, food and just general lack of caring.

I highly recommend staying as far away from this place as possible. Not only is the food unbearable the service is appalling.

Used to love this place, however the porions seem to be getting smaller and smaller while keeping the same price. The quality of the food seems to be a little cheap too. Seems like they go to C-Town to pick up some of their staple items. The service is alright, don't really care about that though cause dealing with people is always a pain in the ass no matter what side you are on.

All in all they need to do something about their kitchen. They need to up the quality of their food and the size of their entrees. If I want tapas I'll go for tapas, if I want appetizers I'll order an appetizer, if I want a full meal, I'll go somewhere else.

i actually went there twice in the past week and both times were just lovely experiences. maybe they've wised up to the comments on this site and are giving better service now?

I can't believe how many other people had the same experience as I did. I used to go there all the time (and spend a pretty penny I might add!) and the last time I went the waitress was horifically rude-yelled at me for holding a wet umbrella, then chastised me for sitting on the couch when there were 2 fully empty ones! I will not be back, the service there has gotten terrible. If they went back to the way they used to be I'd consider re-visiting. As it is though, I'd rather spend my money elsewhere!!!

Seriously, what is wrong with this place. My friend and I were seated at the end of the bar because lack of space (ok) and told the bartender was our waiter, who took FOREVER just hand us a menu even while we both decided to actively just stare with hungry/pleading eyes, finally we got the menu, and a bottle of water. After a few minutes the hostess, this little curly sue of a bitch, promptly came over and took our 3/4 full bottle of water from under our noses and gave it to another table. When she walked back I said "Uhh, you took our water" and she said "You shouldn't have put it there"

WTF!?!?!?!

Meanwhile I ordered the Spiced Carrot soup as an apetizer and after waiting 30 minutes for it we finally started talking loudly about how annoying it was that the PRE MADE soups and food were sitting just inches from us, yet it took over a half an hour for someone to ladle the soup, at which point a heavy set man groaned and said "come on man! Your ticket is not up! and the spice carrot soup is finished, you'll have the beet soup"

Luckily I love beets, but the most audacious part of it was he never offered me the opportunity to say no, he just went over in attempt to shut me up and got me the beet soup, which wasn't even what I ordered and then essentially had the balls to act like I was the asshole for ordering the carrot soup and complaining to my friend that it took over 30 minutes for someone to dish it out of the vat it was just chill'n in.

My lamb entre was insanely salty and the whole experience sucked.

I highly recommend you stay FAR away from this shit hole where you'll be treated poorly and given semi decent food that was made that morning and sitting on a hot plate all day.

I live less than a block from this place and used to love it. I even hosted a 50 person party here I thought so highly of the food, etc. Every subsequent vistit has been more and more of a letdown. My final visit a few weeks ago was so bad, I literally had to leave without ordering. Waited for over 20 minutes with menu and then was told they were not serving food any longer--that I was 5 minute too late. The waiters (yes multiple waiters standing around with their wanna be hipster attitudes and stoned out eyes not doing anything) were utterly rude to me and my girlfriend. I wrote to owner and she didn't even reply to me. Bad neighbor. Bad addition to MY neighborhood.

I used to like this place a lot. But then my favorite tuna salad sandwich kept shrinking and shrinking in size, so much so that the last time I went I had to lift open the bread to see a small mound of tuna salad hidden between two big pieces of bread. W. T. F.

and yes, the service is terrible. Especially the woman with a million tattoos. she sucks xtra hard.

The food is AMAZING but the service during the day is UNBEARABLE. The girl who is always working looks stoned or something and leaves our food getting cold on the coulnter, casually setting a table, not checking ot or expecting it at all. It is truely AWFUL. And this is with 5-10 people in the place. I was about to give it up for good, then I had dinner there and the waiter at night has been amazing. I mean, not non-NY, talking to you kind of amazing, but totally comptetant. The food is still great but I say boycott the daytime hours until they get a new waitress.
Interesting that they are ending the laptops. Sometimes we think maybe they think that even those of us who clearly have no computer or work with us also just want to spend hours there, which we don't, so maybe things will speed up.

I am boycotting the Roebling Tea Room. I went there at least once a week when they first opened, and was like a pig in shit. I didn't even care that the service was just OK; the food was fabulous and you could camp out on the couches.

But slowly, over time, my opinion began to shift. The service became almost unbearable.* Then, on my last visit, I was told that I wasn't ALLOWED to use my computer at my table, which, after working in restaurants myself, i totally understand. What sent me over the edge is that I was told I couldn't use it anywhere inside or outside; not at the bar, or on the couches. I ate my food, and as I was preparing to leave I noticed several people using their computers. I don't know why they chose to alienate me, but it worked, I'll never go in there again.

*I noticed that the staff didn't use trays and asked about it. Some girl told me that they're not ALLOWED to use trays, so instead, they have to make multiple trips back and forth for ever table. As a former waitress, I can tell you, that's the main reason why the service is so bad. And why don't they bring your cream with your coffee???

Wait staff is slow, disengaged and useless. It seems the idea of water, bread, silverware all on the table at once is an idea past the zingarella waiter's inrellectual abilities. Don't expect your entree and wine to share a table either. While the food's good it's not worth having to endure the night of the living dead service.

i love the food at this place but i have to agree about the ridiculously slow waitstaff. i've been twice, once for brunch and once for dinner, and both times there were only 2 or 3 other tables occupied. the staff is friendly when they actually show up at your table, but good luck trying to catch their eye when you're ready to order or get your check. still a great place to go eat, but make sure you're not in a hurry!

This is a favorite of myself and my girlfriend. We're both non-drinkers so its nice to have a large selection of beverages other than coffee or soda. The tea selection is quite impressive and the speciality teas (try the ginger/mint infusions if you're feeling under the weather... serious ginger actions) are worth a shot.

The food does tend to be a bit on the pricy side but they're filling and you get a goodly portion, even for the smoked fish which most places are notoriously stingy with.

It does tend to get crowded some nights so don't expect instant gratification. I understand complaining about waiters with shitty attitudes but if someone's busy, they're not going to be up your ass every three minutes.

great food, and the waiters are really nice, you just have to be a little patient because its a huge place (especially when back garden is open) and during the day there's only one waiter. definately worth the wait, a very laid back atmosphere with awesome jams on the stereo, and good coffee too.

great space as long as only 10 people are in it; making/selling food on the margin of a functioning license leads to plates run amok (arugula and gorgonzola salads with out the gorgonzola; "oh our taps are down, oh we're out of Dos XX"). People indifferent staff teflon coat the place from needing to offer anything more than big hangout space to those who can make their own parties (welcome and picnics)

this place used to be fantastic, and the wifi is on, but the staff will ask you to turn off your laptop during most hours that anybody would want to be there with a laptop. and that sucks. there's not really much other reason to go there since there are better restaurants with better staff all over the place.

Dude. This place has the most unbelievably horrible service. With at least 10 people working and only TWO tables occupied, we waited AT LEAST 5-10 minutes between every appearance of the waiter, including AFTER the bell rang indicating our food was ready. We could SEE our food and I was unbelievably tempted to just hop up and get it myself. One of our dishes was served hot on one side and cold on the other side, and our silverware was delivered well after our food arrived. I will NEVER eat at this place again. And the legions of bored hipsters behind the counter apparently wanking off while being paid is laughable. Get off your asses you slackers.

wifi is not turned off btw

Cool place but they recently turned off their Wi-Fi. The waitstaff told me they were dicouraging computer use to increase turnover. I think that's pretty lame and it tells me what they think of their customers which is not much.

Black bean soup with polenta for brunch? Genius.

what gets a place a star on here. this place is way better than a lot of the shit that gets stars. dunno. tuna sandwich is fucking awesome

I took my boyfriend's parents here for brunch on a weekday. The food was great ( I had the salmon frittata with baby arugula salad, it literlly melts in your mouth-only $5!), the coffee was fantastic, and his folks (upper-west-siders) were quite impressed with the elegant decor. Bravo!

I've been pleasantly happy with the improved service at Roebling. The coffee is really good, the sofas are comfortable, and the appetizer selections make it a great place to go in the afternoon or late night.

Thanks for a splendid addition to the hood!!!

Really good stuff here - I had the best egg sandwich here...pulled pork sandwich is excellent too. LOVE the tea selection. Just make sure you go on a weekday or else you'll be hunting for a seat - and the only one left will be that one really annoying table that rocks no matter how many napkins you shove under the leg.