Harvest Moon Brewery & Cafe

Beware of the sampler prices as they don’t post them on the menu. There were 8 beers on tap and we decided to try 7 and double up on one. The total came out to $ 20! which is absurd for a flight of 8 beers. I questioned it and was told that the price of each sampler varies depending on the beer, ranging from $ 1.25 to $ 3 per pour. So essentially to make an affordable flight you would have to order multiple samples of the same cheaper beer, defeating the purpose of a «sampler». I’ve been drinking craft beer in NJ for quite some time now and this is ridiculous. I might be more understanding if the beer was actually good, but it definitely wasn’t worth it. And don’t order the Beetz pizza either. The yellow sauce they smother it in was gross and pretty much ruined the whole pie. Won’t be coming back anytime soon.

We love Harvestmoon
Highly recommend it.
I love The Beer, Nachos
My favorite
Is the shepherds Pie appetizer
And of course they do make an awesome
Margarita on the Rocks
Ask for Rico, Marisol

Everything here was phenomenal; from the service to the beer to the food. Our server Josh was knowledgeable and friendly. The beer pretzels and crab dip apps were on point. For diner I had the pork chop medium: it was one of the best I can remember. The beers were great as well. This place is a must if you are in the area.

Beer is great, bartender is very friendly, and they gave me an entire pound of bacon on my BLT! Love this place.

Great beers, (sours!) and I devoured my pizza. Husband much enjoyed his bbq sandwich. It is a brewery and you get a good view of their kegs, which is enjoyable. We happened to be there just after school let out, so it was a little dead — but we really liked the beers. I would go again in a heartbeat if we lived in this area.

This review is only about the food, as I have not tried the beer.
Our server seemed very eager to get us out as quickly as possible, despite the fact that we arrived 2 hours before closing. As soon as the last person of our party sat down — who was only 5 minutes late, we were immediately asked if we were ready to order.
I ordered a pizza, which came out cold, soggy, and lacking in flavor. I opted not to send it back, as the kitchen was «closing» at this point, 1.5 hours before closing.
The other guests in the party ordered a variety of meals and they enjoyed their food a bit more than mine. I tried the nachos and they were tasty — and very large in portion size.
Don’t get the pizza and you’ll have a decent meal as long as you arrive three or more hours before closing.

Well to put it bluntly, some elements were just above average while some were just below average. So all in all it was just an average experience. Beer selection was definitely above average but not getting it really cold was a bit disappointing. The food was good for the most part. Nothing really stood out as amazing. The service did stand out though, as really bad. It was afternoon lunch time and the place had a total of six people inside. That should have been my first clue. We did get seated but weren’t offered even a drink much less a menu for at least 15 minutes. Finally we flagged down a server and she seemed surprise we didn’t get even a menu yet. A different server brought our food and never saw another soul until someone brought the check. Pretty bad service. Won’t be back there again.

Two of their house beers on tap were out. One of which was the one I wanted to try. So I got the pale ale, which was lackluster and completely unspectacular.
My roast beef on a pretzel bun with house chips was pretty average. I enjoyed the pickle on the side. The date’s chicken fajita salad looked alright too, and there were no complaints on his end. Atmosphere was nice — mainly grad students and young professionals, according to the local Rutgers/​NB New Jerseyan I was with. Service was fine as well.

Better than we expected it to be — fresh, tasty food for bar food. We really liked the sweet potato fries, burger and rueben. The beers were good, too — my husband had a stout he really liked, I went lighter and the white ale was refreshing.

It’s a tough sell to call yourself a brewery when two of the house beers were out of stock for a Sunday lunch crowd. I had to settle for a selection of beers in which I had ZERO interest. I tried two and liked neither of them.
The server and the floor manager were very nice but seemingly overwhelmed and not overly communicative. Thus, we waited over an hour for our food, which isn’t a pleasant experience with tired, hungry children.
Apparently, they were out of the sourdough bread they use to make grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids’ menu, so they used a multigrain sub bread, with one of the slices turned the wrong way. If you have kids, chances are they don’t eat like this.
Our server also forgot the ice cream that comes with the kids’ menu options, although we were so ready to leave once we’d gotten our check.
That said, the burgers were decent and properly cooked, so at least there’s that. But I wonder if we should’ve opted instead for a couple of Subway sandwiches from just down the street. Doubt we’ll be back.

I come here almost everytime I go out in New Brunswick. This is a very cool little place. Has a big L shaped bar with normally around 6 – 8 of their beers on tap and normally has a guest beer on tap from another local NJ brewery. The workers are great and super super friendly!
When you walk in, you are treated with a glimpse of the brewery on the right side, you can see how it ranges all three floors. (you have to go there to understand what I mean).
All their beer is very good, I give them a lot of credit for creativity as well. I once had a jalapeño beer, although was really good, was too spicy for me to have another glass. Glad I tried it though.
The bar area gets very packed at night time on weekends and makes it hard to get a drink sometimes. But a packed bar makes it more fun right! Sometimes they have live bands playing. One time they had live karaōke night which is a live band playing while somebody gets up and sings the song. This was really cool and I haven’t seen that before at a bar. It also didn’t help that everyone that got up to sing was AMAZING! If I went up there, I would’ve gotten booed off. Wouldn’t be surprised if someone threw a tomato.
The food here is very good as well, I normally sit upstairs when I go to eat. There is a railing that you can look down into the bar area on the first floor and also a nice skylight above.
I recommend this place is you’re into craft beer and like a good eat.

Harvest Moon is located in the heart of New Brunswick. Therefore prepare a strategy for parking before heading over. Unless you have a coveted Rutgers parking tag that can «open sesame» various parking lots in the area. I had made a reservation for a mid-​size group the night before with no issue. They even sent a text reminder and confirmation a few hours before which was a nice touch. We waited a few minutes before being seated, although admittedly we were 10 – 12 minutes late.
The place was bustling, but not packed. The bar is on the ground floor, but if you’re a privileged group you can take the grand staircase to the upstairs seating area. Our consensus was positive on the Moon Nachos (with vegetarian chili). Despite it being called a «small plate», it was sufficient for all 5 of us. Be wary if you’re ordering that for just you and another companion. My personal opinion was that they served us a big bowl of nachos with the usual dressings. It was good, but the bar is low since how can you really ruin nachos?
My order that night was the Veggie Flatbread, which to my delight was served warm. The eggplant, peppers and squash were perfectly cooked, and the wrap was flaky, almost pastry-​like. It came with ruffled potato chips, although calling them «chips» feels insulting since they were thick, crispy and bereft of salt and grease.
Nearly everyone’s order was just a bit too much to finish, but that might have been the nachos fighting off further bites from entering our stomachs. The prices of the entrees varied from $ 9 to $ 20 so to make a meal and a half from your visit here is pretty good in my opinion.
Overall, a solid American-​y-​esque-​with-​other-​random-​things-​like-​pad-​thai restaurant.

Went here with a large group. Had to drive, which means I only have 1 drink. The 1 drink I had tasted good. I do not remember the drink, but it was a an ale suggested by the waitress.
Had a chicken sandwich with fries. Acceptable. Everyone had basic bar type food and no one complained.
The prices were good and our service was excellent.

I enjoy Harvest Moon. It is one of the pricy restaurants/​bars in New Brunswick but its nice. I came here for lunch the other day and ordered the Elsinore Deluxe which is a bratwurst sandwich. It was very tasty. My friend ordered the Moon Pad Thai. She enjoyed it as well but thought it was a little to creamy.
The wait staff was kind and speedy.
I’ve come to Harvest Moon on Friday nights and this place can get very packed. But it is located in downtown New Brunswick so not many students come to this area. I enjoy bar hopping in downtown New Brunswick and I like to stop at Harvest Moon.

Atmosphere: 4 stars. Beer: 2 stars.
The beer is just average. They should make more varieties. It’s a nice place to catch a drink though. I wouldn’t avoid it but I wouldn’t make a point to come here either if you are farther away.

I will probably always be a little biased towards Harvest Moon as my husband and I had our first date here. Back then the beer was the draw as the food was just ok.
Over the years the menu and the beer have gone through a transformation. Now the food is the real draw of this place. The menu is diverse in options and I have never had a bad meal here. Everything from appetizers and burgers to the entrees have been excellent. They lose a star only because of the beer. In the last year they have gotten really into sour beers which are an acquired taste for most. For a restaurant that only severs beer made in house you want to make sure you have something for everyone but that is not possible when you have 2 or 3 sour beers on the menu.

Probably more like 2.5 stars, but I’ll be nice. New Brunswick is a total dichotomy in my opinion: full of pizza and fat sandwich places and then nice and upscale restaurants. It’s hard to find something in the middle and Harvest Moon is one of those options. The problem is, it’s just not that good.
The restaurant is two floors with ample room and there’s hardly a wait thanks to a good amount of seating. They do have a decent amount of beer selections on tap. Service was fine, but not stellar.
In terms of food, the veggie chili nachos are a good starter– they are rather large and have a lot of toppings. I really like the veggie chili in general. The main course food is just so-​so. They used to have this killer veggie lasagna that I used to dream about (in a non-​creepy way), but they took that off the menu a few years ago and I still cry a little about this. This time, I ordered the turkey burger only to be told 10 min later that they were out of turkey burgers. GUHH. I instead ordered the roast beef pretzel which was just not that flavorful or exciting at all. The meat was bland and it wasn’t made up for by the pretzel roll or cheese. The fries were pretty good but they cost extra to get them instead of chips.
It’s a mediocre option for a casual dinner, but not one I would be thrilled to go back to at any point!

One of the main eateries in the downtown New Brunswick /​Rutgers area. I’ve been coming here since my college days and since I was in the neighborhood again, I revisited this familiar haunt.
Its a microbrewery so as you might expect, the craft beer is on point. I recommend the Kolschleibier (I probably butchered the name there), which I believe is available year round, and the seasonal Octoberfest and Pumpkin brews.
Onto the appetizers! We had the Hummus and Fried Pickles. The pickles were a little disappointing since they were soggy. Maybe its just hard to fry pickles? The hummus however was spectacular. The chopped vegetables on the plate really added a lot to the dip/​
As for the entrees, the dinner options are much better than the lunch options. The Negimaki, which I’ve had a number times, has always been done well. (That is to say «well» as in good, not that the meat was «well-​done» which ironically is bad.) The Fish & Chips are my other go-​to, nice rich batter and well fried (crisp not soggy!) and served with a side of malt vinegar and tartar sauce. The fries were extremely salty on my last visit, but I have a hard time recalling if they were always like that. They could definitely stand to use less salt. My girlfriend had the BLT which I felt was sorely lacking in the mayo department. I would be sure to ask for extra mayo next time.
Verdict: –1 star for lack of BLT mayo and soggy pickles, but +1 star for awesome beer.

I had made plans with a friend that lives off the turnpike, so making plans in the city, which is my default, really wasn’t convenient for him, so I consulted a map and saw that New Brunswick was a nice mid point for both of us. After browsing around on Unilocal and my friends requirement that there’s food, we settled on this place. It’s pretty easy to find and nicely set up inside.
We got there around 9 on a Friday night and we were a little concerned it would be overrun by the Rutgers crowd, but it seemed pretty happening with people closer to our age. We grabbed a spot at the bar while we waited for a table. I had to flag down the bartender pretty hard to get a drink, which I couldn’t figure since there really weren’t that busy yet. It’s a microbrewery, as shown by the tanks when you walk in and the beer selection reflects that, but I didn’t really feel like there was that great of a variety. The beers I had were tart and there were several with that quality, thanks to the addition of probiotic bacteria during fermenting. It’s different, for sure, and I’m all for it, but sometimes you want something a little less out there too.
The upstairs is a great spot for dinner. It’s not too noisy since the drinking crowd mostly stays downstairs but has a cool spot where you check out the downstairs from above. The food is pretty typical bar food, but the sandwich I had with sopressta and mozzarella was pretty darn tasty. Our waiter was really friendly and attentive. I kind of wish we had checked out the Irish place down the street, but this place is a very solid choice.
We left around 11 and a DJ had just started spinning, so I’m sure this place gets really going later in the evening. It definitely reminds me of the bars in my college town. A good back up place, but not on the starting lineup.

Food: I ordered the Atlantic Salmon and swapped out my potatoes for steamed veggies and chickpea salad. The fish itself was good quality, however it was very dry and lacked flavor. I think it was a little overcooked, because it wasn’t really flaky at all, hence the dry comment. The chickpea salad was my favorite part of the meal, it tasted pretty close to authentic medi chickpea salad. Steamed veggies tasted normal, I ordered them because my body was in need of fiber.
Ambiance: Bar-​type feel downstairs, upstairs is mostly dining. Very different environments depending on which floor you’re eating at.
Price: Too expensive if you ask me. If the food was a bit better, I wouldn’t mind paying more, but that just wasn’t the case. Nothing special, but also nothing bad.
Service: Very slow. Our waitress was super friendly and nice. I asked her a lot of questions regarding the preparation and nutritional value of the meal I ordered and I also changed the meal a lot, but she was patient and friendly throughout. However, there was a problem with the credit card reader that night and because of it my entire party and I had to wait about 40 minutes post-​dinner. We were very upset as it was late and we wanted to go home. I can’t blame our waitress for that.
Overall: The food is okay, it’s pricey for not being the best food ever. I would come back if it wasn’t as expensive.