Three Wise Monks Pub

Place blows cocks happy it closed down. I heard the owner is panhandling for dope now.

Closed heh? When was the last call? Back in 2013 (and 2014 too) was one of the better pubs in town, as I literally walked out of my house and down the hill to Monks.
I suppose the two (2) new craft beer places over in neighboring Saddle Brook did ‘em in no?

Love this place its down the block from me. Why give it three stars well sometimes the service isn’t all there, or they misplace your credit card. But what keeps me coming back is the beer selection and you can fill up your growler. They have cool shots my fave is the bee stinger, Jack honey with fireball. Awesome!

Great beer selections… The owner is friendly… Thursday nights are awesome with Joe and John… Roxx Entertainment karaōke!!!

Where u been all my life. Tough to find and to park but worth the search and the trip around the block.
Nice tight pub menu. Real cute bartender Tiffany actually enjoyed discussing beer selections and options and knew her stuff.
Will return. They have Whiz! Now that’s a cheesesteak.

I had been meaning to check this place out for a while and when I finally did I wasn’t disappointed. Three Wise Monks is part neighborhood water hole, part craft beer bar. The older locals mix with some variations of illennials.
About 20 plus craft beers on tap along with a bottle list of craft beers. Was satisfied with the three I tried. The owner, Brian, was super helpful about the beers and offered a sample of it before I tried one (not sure if that’s standard but a damn nice thing to do).
If you’re in Garfield and wanna grab something fancy, or just settle in with a no frills well drink, Three Wise Monks is the place.

Nice little place crafted beer u can go wrong with that I stop by last Sunday to watch a game the owner give me few samples of beer to make me decide which one I wanted which I though was nice of him other places don’t do that I order some food I order some. Wings buffalo and Asian wow they were awesome I really like them however the wings didn’t have celery sticks like other places does but they were still yummy worth a try on the weekends… I will def came back they have karaōke on Thursdays.

Very divey feel to it but they have an excellent craft beer selection. It’s definitely a little gem that you wouldn’t really expect from the outside. The crowd is mixed with hipsters, wanna be gangsters, old couples and young kids. Everyone gets along and has a good time. Like it lots.

I love craft beer and was excited when this bar opened in place of the old dive ghetto bar. Unfortunately although they have craft beer I feel the selections are limited; as in only a few microbreweries represented and too many hop focused beers /​IPAs.
So pros:
One of few bars in the area that focus on craft beers.
Nicely renovated/​cleaned bar
Friendly staff.
Cons:
Some of the old clientele (obnoxious)
I feel the owners focus on too few microbreweries and styles of beer.
Still it’s worth checking out.

Definitely my favorite bar in the area. Very laid back crowd and they are always changing the menu! The owner Brian is also very cool. Always has tons of beer facts for you. Their tap takeovers are also a must.

I had been meaning to try this place for quite a while, and I was very disappointed when I finally did.
It was completely dead on a Friday night. There was no music playing. Just an awkward silence when we walked on and a couple of regulars sitting around smoking e-​cigarettes.
They had a good selection of beers on tap, though. And my husband was practically drooling over the bottle list, but that’s where the problems started…
He asked for a particular beer, and the bartender wasn’t sure if they had it. She went to check and couldn’t find it. Then she poured me a flight. She asked some guys on laptops (presumably owners/​other employees), and they couldn’t figure out if they had this beer either.
They looked around some more and then asked my husband to pick something else. He obliged, and they repeated exactly the same routine of asking if anyone had seen it, and what fridge it might be in.
By this time, my flight was half gone. Then, the bartender came back with a handwritten list much shorter than the typed menu (probably less than a quarter of the beers from the real menu), and asked him to pick from this list.
He pointed to something on the list. Again, the blank stares and questioning began and it turned out they didn’t have that one either! So now I’m almost done with my flight because about 15 minutes has gone by.
She again asked him to try another bottle, but he gave up and asked for a draught beer. We finished our beers quickly and left.
It’s really a shame because we planned on staying out longer and would have ordered more beer, had they actually had some of the things we tried to order.
There’s so much potential here, but management clearly doesn’t care.

Watch your receipts when paying with cards. I am merely advising customers to keep track of what you spend and what is charged on your card. Several of us went out, two separate bills and were both overcharged by 5 to 6 dollars. We knew exactly what we drank, ate etc and knew the charges were too high.
Maybe an accident, maybe not. As I said, just advising to be aware. The last time we came here, bill seemed high for what we had ordered but I let it go and just signed receipt.

Smells like the deep fryer throughout the place. Unfriendly wait staff and patrons… No atmosphere

I couldn’t agree more with my fellow Unilocalers when they say this place isn’t living up to its potential. The concept is there, who doesn’t love craft beer and pub food?! BUT, and a big one at that, the beer isn’t cold enough and the food is pretty stinky.
The name is cool. The atmosphere is fine. I even like the huge chalk board of beers listed out. They had a pretty solid variety too, but my beer wasn’t cold enough :((maybe it was that specific tap…)
The service was very nice. Someone blocked me in (I parked in the tiny back lot) and the bartender did a stand-​up job of finding that person. Although the food was… not so stand-​up. We ordered the truffle fries and when they came out they were not very warm and they had tiny shredded cheese pieces just sitting on top, falling off when I reached for one. I felt it should have been melted or something. We also shared two sliders, pulled pork and angry sliders, they both were OK. The pulled pork ones tasted way too sweet. The Angry Sliders (Jalapeño Chipotle Sliders w/​Pepper Jack Cheese) were better.
Overall I would come back, but I wasn’t overly impressed.

I’d been going to this spot for years when it was Taps, and it was a divey shit hole but I loved it because it was a few blocks away and almost always empty. I was reluctant to try 3 Wise Monks thinking that it would be too trendy and up tight now, but it’s still down to earth. I went for a friends’a birthday last night and I’d gone a couple times over the last year. I’m by no means a connoisseur, but they have a pretty vast beer selection and I’m very pleased that they’ve for cider on tap (Angry Orchard). They had decent music, a pool table, and the service was friendly. It’s a stones throw from home for me, so I’ll certainly be back.

This place has been stuck in a downward spiral for well over a year now and to be honest I’ve lost my patients. What the plan was and the place has become are growing further apart as the craft beer scene appears to have suffered another casualty. Let’s start from the top down.
Ownership is unclear, the person in charge clearly lost focus and has this place leaning back towards a neighborhood gin mill. Choosing shots designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator getting shit-​faced drunk rather then a craft beer enthusiast who’s taste buds dare to be challenged over many styles of distinctly crafted brews.
Service is a big issue as the clueless staff consisting of tubby females who are absolutely clueless about the beer offered and when asked stare blankly over your head to find the price and volume to pour on the blackboard behind you, really? One of the people who pour liquor in a glass behind the bar walks around with a rag constantly wiping down everything in site, never washing her hands… I cringe when asked «can I get you something?» NO!
So if your into a DJ setting up 500W speakers five feet from the back of your head and pumping dance music through your skull, shitty food, sketchy characters and limited street parking you’ve found the right place.
BSE32

I’m not really sure what to make of this place. I feel like it has great potential to be a top craft beer spot but the few times I have been in there I run into the same problem… They don’t have the beers that are listed on their menus or or Beer​menus​.Com. The other issue is the bartenders (and even owners?) don’t even know what they have…
The first time I went in I asked for two bottles that were listed on Beer​menus​.Com which had been updated earlier that day. When they couldn’t find either of them, I kept ordering different beers for me and my wife. It took to the 6^th and 7^th try for them to actually find something we ordered. Not to mention over 20 minutes of us ordering and them checking the Cellar. And when they found those beers they served them to us warm. Not cellar temp… Warm. Unfortunately when I’ve gone back it’s been mostly more of the same.
Tons of potential but not quite there yet.

The Monks is a welcoming new addition to the increasing North NJ craft beer scene, they’ve been open for a little under a year but have gained quite a following by newbies and beer enthusiasts alike.
The owners took over a drab old dive bar that had been around for years and transformed into a craft beer Mecca of sorts. I enjoy the bar a lot, from the non pretentiousness to the amount of knowledge the bar staff tends to have.
Brian the owner is a pretty cool sociable guy who enjoys chatting with the many patrons from the new guys to the regulars. The bar has a great neighborhood vibe to it and a very solid selection of 12 craft beers that are always on constant rotation.
They do carry bottles of bud, corona and what not for those not ready to dive into more adventurous grounds. The bar tenders do try to encourage those to give unfamiliar beers a try with open minds.
One of the great things about their selection is how balanced the offerings are, they have a little of everything for all tastes… From your wheat ales, to lagers, porters, stouts, Belgians, IPAs, brown ales. This is quite nice as I’ve Ben to plenty of craft bars that focus primarily one r two styles. Sometimes they are way to IPA centric and tat can turn plenty of ppl off ESP if they are new to craft beer as some of these styles can be quite overwhelming to a pallet new to craft beer.
The bar also has a variety of weekly events, from open mic nights to karaōke to those into that kinda thing. It’s always a fun night whatever night u go.
They also have a very small kitchen and offer a variety of bar bites from sliders to onion rings. Pretty good for bar food. Overall this is a great bar and one that I frequent often. If you enjoy great beer, a cool crowd, knowledgable bar tenders this is your place.

I like this place. We’ve been going 2 – 4 times a month for the past few months now. The owners are nice guys, knowledgeable, good to talk to. The atmosphere is improving, as is the variety they offer on tap.
Beers tap out quick, so if you see something you have to have, don’t wait to head over. I saw a beer I wanted to try go on tap on Monday, and it was gone by the time I got over there on Wednesday.
I agree with Stephen D. They absolutely HAVE to print out descriptions, it’s just too much hassle to have to spend time checking out the beers online before you go.
They also offer fun parties, picnics, etc, meet the brewer events, and special beer tappings.
Clientele is a mix, and you get some real jerks, racist, etc.. .but they get told to shut up or leave.
They are registered on groupon rewards, so if you have a groupon account, dont forget to register and use one of your groupon-​linked credit cards to build rebate certificates.

Beer quality and selection is subjective. This place carries 14 beers on tap, the first time I came here we ordered 4 flights (thanks to groupon) and were able to taste every beer. At that point in time, I would say 9 of the beers were very hoppy (IPA’s), 2 were dark and rich, 2 were light, and 1 was sweet (Cider). To me at this time there wasn’t much variety.
* I think it would be great if they had a print out of descriptions for each beer, they only show the beer name, brewery, and alcohol content. When it’s busy, you can’t easily ask the bartender to explain each beer, so a reference would be great. It’s easier to taste the subtleties of beer when you have a description in front of you.
They serve chicken fingers and fries I believe, they are in the process of getting a full kitchen. *It would be great if they sold beef jerky, popcorn, or something salty that would go great with beer.
All the woodwork in the bar is pretty impressive and unique. They also have a digital jukebox.
I think this place is evolving, they’re on the right track, it will just take some time to really become an awesome gastropub.