The Laurel

I think they're still working out a few things but in general the place is pretty good.  I think they could unbend a little on how they present the menu (no substitutions is fine.. but refusing to cook a burger medium rare or medium well?  Lighten up folks!).  

The service was painfully slow during this visit.  It's a small venue and gets a little loud - thought to be perfectly fair, the service was so slow it was getting on my nerves and that could account for the feeling of noise and confusion. According to the Yelp scale, three stars is "A OK" and 2 stars is a "Meh"... so three is about right.

I'll come back in a few months and will update this review!

The Laurel is my favorite neighborhood restaurant. The staff is friendly and the atmosphere is charming. It's one of the few places in town that is both family and "date" friendly. I'm going to be a breakfast regular. The fresh fruit is really and truly freshly cut (strawberries, pears, bananas, apples.) Eggs are fluffy and tasty and the coffee is the best in town. Chicken salad for lunch is delicious. And the chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese and vegetarian stew for dinner are hearty and heavenly. Highly recommend this place to anyone in the Maplewood/Millburn/Short Hills/West Orange area.

Experienced The Laurel for the first time this past Wednesday. There was a good crowd in there for a Wednesday night. The atmosphere is much like the menu - simple, yet eclectic. Definitely veg/pesc friendly! We had the chickpeas, mac and cheese, one of the salads, the mussels and the vegan stew. I've never had chickpeas prepared that way. They were great! The wine sauce the mussels were in was fantastic. The stew was delicious..perfectly spiced and kept very well.  I had it for lunch the next day and it was still great. I'm very excited to try the Fall menu (once it comes out) and I will definitely be back!