The Kove

Was there for Valentine’s Day 2016 THE WORST MISTAKE WE EVER MADE the soup was cold the table they put us at was by a door that let a cold wind in and made it miserable eating, when told about it THEY DID NOTHING! Didn’t have an item. WOULDNT GO THERE AGAIN! on menu and substituted it with something elsehttps://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=942 327 939 175 907&id=678 539 155 554 788&substory_index=0

Come here for the bar! This restaurant is open and spacious. The appetizers are good as well as a good drink selection. The dinner and the service leaves much to be desired. The food was either over salty, poorly cooked or bland. But this is a great place to meet up with some friends and grab a drink and a light snack.

I love this place. I’ve been here a bunch of times and every time it’s awesome. The staff always goes above and beyond and seems like they are genuinely happy to do it. The food is great, I’ve never had anything that I didn’t really enjoy. They always have plenty of interesting beers on tap and a good drink list. I sat outside on their small patio this weekend for the first time and it was perfect– I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t packed out there! If you’re in the mood for a yummy, low-​key bite to eat or a drink, do yourself a favor and check out this hidden gem.

This place was better then expected I will list my reasons why this place was better than amazing.
1. The staff.
The staff was very friendly and welcoming. I forget our waitresses name but she deserves to work there. I will move on to my second point.
2. The food.
The food was better then decent. It didn’t take long and the service was great.
We felt we were a little under dressed for the Kove because it seemed fancy but we were just happy to be there. I would recommend this place for anyone looking for somewhere to eat if u live in a area around Barrington Haddonfield Etc. One more thing I liked about the Kove was that the bathrooms were very clean and neat. Can’t wait until next time!

Christmas in July was a great time and great food!!! The buffet was so reasonable $ 15.00! And it was delicious !! Overall, this is the perfect place for everyone! If you want great food and friendly service consistently … This is the go to place!!! Best Burger I have ever had!!! The specials are fabulous!!! The outdoor seating is another plus !!! Been going to the Kove for the past two years and it just keeps getting better!!!

I went this past Sunday for the Mother’s Day brunch. The staff was really nice, and attentive. But, they were all younger, and their uniforms needed a lot of help. They are required to wear all black from what i saw. I saw bleach stains, crumpled unironed clothing, poorly fitting clothing, different shades of blacks, and super tight tights. With the atmosphere they seem they strive for, they need to fix that problem.
As far as the food, therr was absolutely nothing spectacular about it. It was an open buffet, and I don’t particularly eat a lot of things due to being picky. They had a variety of warm food. I will say the bbq orange chicken was the best thing I ate.

I’ve really tried to like this place I’ve tried it 5 – 6 times
I love the building very spacious bright and airy. I’ve been in there for lunch where there were only my party and a couple of people at the bar. Sometimes you are greeted as you walk in sometimes you wait for what seems an eternity to then be told sit anywhere
No matter the time of day the service is slow. The wait staff pleasant and efficient but it takes forever for the food to come out
Then the food. I ordered a hamburger it was obviously a frozen commercial patty. You can get fresh ground beef at smash burger or five guys. Nachos came with black olives that were old and made me nauseous. The pizza not fully baked and unacceptable for a bar and even frozen Ellio’s has more flavor. Steak sandwich was ok not good for the south jersey area a crab cake sandwich so so
Tonight my wife ordered a shrimp pasta dish in wine sauce that was very good. I ordered the pan seared crab cakes. Service was slow. The salad of mixed greens tasty but small dressing served in plastic containers. My crab cakes came burnt the inside had plenty of crab and was tasty but they should have never been sent out of the kitchen in that condition
Since it took over a ½ hr to get our meal I ate the insides of the crab cakes and brought the burnt part to the attention of our server she apologized and took the meal off the bill.
IMHO this place has an identity crisis it does not know if it wants to be a bar a fine dining restaurant or a caterer. The dining room seems to be an after thought. I’ve heard the catering was sub par also (a mashed potato bar??? Really???)
Although my wife has had good experiences here I’m done

Gomez loves it. So I love it! I cant tell you how much Gomez loves the waitresses. Tiffany I think.

This place does a nice job and isn’t pretentious about the food or service. Highly recommended.

We’ve been back a couple of times since my first review and things have definitely improved at The Kove. Service has been better — more prompt and accurate. The food, which was not an issue before, remains good. It’s so nice to have a place within walking distance. I was worried that it might not be around very long, but if they keep improving, then I’ll keep supporting the neighborhood bar and come back again and hopefully other people will too!

I was pleasantly shocked at the quality of the food. Great choice of draft beers, excellent service. Everyone seems to try hard.

Oof, where to begin? I feel like this restaurant doesn’t know what it wants to be. We pull up and one person says «I think we’re underdressed.» I saw the menu online and said no, you’re fine in jeans. There is a man standing outside who appears to be a valet and greets us. There is no one inside to seat us. The man comes back in after a minute or two and seats us (apparently not the valet). The architecture (high ceilings, large windows, trendy colors) does not match the tables or chairs (plastic, drop-​leaf, low end). Each place setting comes with a red paper placemat.
The Guinness is cheap enough at $ 4 a glass, but the staff doesn’t know a Guinness from a wheat beer. Really? I don’t even drink beer and that’s a no brainer. Wait staff was awkward and uncomfortable. To reiterate the reviews of others, you would’ve thought they had never waited tables before.
Had the roast pork, which is served on a gargantuan round sourdough roll. Bread was very good, but there was too much of it. Pork was gristly and smothered with canned gravy. This pleased my husband, who likes canned gravy and greatly displeased me as the menu stated «natural juices». Sandwich came with exactly 13 french fries. This amount would not even fill half a coffee cup. Fries were limp and appeared to be slightly seasoned with garlic salt. There were also about 5 pieces of mixed greens lettuce for color (I can only assume).
The other members of the party had the crab cakes, the cuban and the roast pork. They thought the food was decent but would probably order something else if they went again. Me? I’m not coming back.

I went to the Kove for dinner on a sunday night. The place is quite visually appealing and provides a decent atmosphere. The waitress was friendly albeit a bit nervous but I didn’t mind. I had the plain pizza which was decent for a bar pie. My wife got the crab cakes which she enjoyed but I was pretty surprised that they came with no dipping sauce or remoulade. I wonder what the thought process is behind that. My father in law had an audubon burger and my mother in law had a fish entreé which they both seemed to enjoy.
My major bone of contention is with the beer selection. They are definitely attempting to make craft beer available but it looks like the selections were picked by someone who is on the outside of the craft beer culture. The most appealing thing I could find was a Sam Smith’s oatmeal stout which was 6.50 for a bottle. Way too expensive and will never compete with places such as the pour house where you can get the same thing for almost half the price. As far as the rest of the beer menu, how about some double ipa’s, imperial stouts, barleywine’s, barrel/​oak aged beers? They list Goose Island on the draft menu. Goose Island makes like 50 different beers, so that being listed as Goose Island tells me nothing. If this place stepped their game up with the craft beer, I guarantee that customers would come in droves. There are plenty of incredible craft beers that are widely distributed and readily available. So this was a major turn off for me as well as the open bible on the table by the exit. That’s just inappropriate. Obviously they are working out the kinks, but overall it wasn’t bad. I hope the owners take heed to this advice: Differentiate yourself with a truly great selection of craft beer, and they will come. Craft beer is a huge trend and it is growing exponentially. It will make your establishment truly succeed.

We had stopped in for an early evening dinner during the week. I must say, the outside/​inside has been nicely remodeled! I especially like the bar area. The dining room has lots of elbow room between tables… almost too much, maybe a few two-​tops or four-​tops are needed to fill-​in some space & make the downstairs a little less banquet room looking.
For an appetizer we started off with the ‘Pub Style’ PEI Mussels. It was just meh. The broth had no flavor (was neutral)… So, in return, the mussels didn’t take-​on any goodness. The mussels only came with (2) small toast points… fine by me since we didn’t want to soak up the tasteless broth. The Mussels were a little chewy (maybe 60 seconds too much cook time).
Kate had the Top Round Beef sandwich. She really liked it. I had the Cuban Style sandwich. It was okay, nothing to write home about. Both sandwiches came with shoe string style fries (we prefer skin-​on style fries).
Our server was attentive/​friendly. However, she seemed kind of shy or maybe this was her first time being a server? She would not come close to our table, she maintained a 3 ½ feet distance from us while she was talking to us (besides when she cleared our plates or refreshed our beverages). Maybe she thought we had some sort of communicable disease.
The prices were very reasonable. (both food and alcohol).
I would like to see some vegetable side items like swiss chard, Brussels, etc.
Maybe I am biased since this restaurant is located a few blocks from our home. I want this place to succeed. I am still giving them a respectable 3 stars which earns them a return visit in my book. Next time we will try some of there entrées or we will sit at the bar for a few drinks.

Finally an addition to Audubon that is worth Unilocaling. The place which was once a broken /​failed upscale restaurant come diner is now an appropriately priced establishment that should be around for a long time.
The food is ok for the type of menu (catering driven) and they have definitely worked out the kinks. unless there is an event.
The wine selection is limited and on the low end and the bar prices for the whiskeys are very reasonable.
Over all I am glad to have them in town!!!

We stopped in for lunch on a Saturday afternoon just a week after the Kove’s ‘soft’ opening. We were the only patrons when we arrived (around 4pm) but a few more parties were there when we left. My wife had a Moji-​tea (mojito like cocktail with sweet tea) which she really liked. It was very sweet. I had a draft Guinness (in a standard pint glass, but still fresh and tasty). Food quality was very good. A crab cake sandwich was extremely flavorful. Served on a snowflake roll with lettuce and tomato. The Audubon burger was topped with bacon, portabello mushrooms, white cheddar, and a hint of horseradish sauce. It was prepared just as ordered (medium well) and was fresh and juicy. Rather than a standard hamburger bun it came on a fresh brioche roll. Both sandwiches were accompanied with standard shoestring fries and pickle chips. The Kove is located in a large building. The main bar and dining area are in the first floor. There are two more floors above. One for parties of about 30 or so. The top floor is a large hall adequate for larger groups and weddings. The building location is on a light traffic side street so you really need to know where it is because you probably won’t just randomly drive by. All in all I’d say the Kove is a great addition to Audubon. The Lamainia family has a good reputation for serving quality food/​drink both as an event caterer and as lunch/​dinner neighborhood restaurant. My only advice is that because the Kove is not located in a high visibility high traffic area they need to strive to be something unique. Simply, there are too many other choices in the area (Pour House, Taproom, Giumarello’s G-​Bar, etc). I’m guessing that banquet/​catering might be a big part of the operation. That could be the differentiating factor. Nonetheless, The Kove is a fine choice for lunch, dinner or just drinks.