Oak Haven Table & Bar

Short version: Brunch mediocre and small portions, waited 20 minutes for our seat despite reservations, waited 45 minutes for check. Won’t be back.
Long version:
My family and I had reservations at 11:45. When we arrived we found the restaurant to be incredibly warm. It was around 50 degrees outside, but it was closer to 80 inside, and really stuffy and unpleasant. We finally got seated around 12:05, which was especially annoying because there was no place to stand without feeling awkward and in the way.
Our food was lousy. We all split two orders of the breakfast risotto, two pork belly benedicts, and short rib hash. Weirdly, dishes came out one at a time, with a few minutes between each one. It makes for an strange brunch when no one is actually able to eat at the same time.
The short rib hash was probably the best part, but it was very greasy, and a few people at my table wouldn’t eat their share
The breakfast risotto was very plain. It was about enough food for one person who wasn’t very hungry. The menu indicated it came with «toast points,» but it actually came with an english muffin.
The pork belly benedict was not good. Both of the eggs were already broken by the time it got to us, and there was no hollandaise sauce to speak of. As a result, the whole dish was dry and severely lacked salt. Also disappointing that the benedict did not come with home fries.
When we finished eating, we sat around for twenty minutes waiting for our check. Finally, we decided to seek our waiter out, but against all odds, we couldn’t track him down. After 45 minutes we finally snagged him at the register.
My recommendation is to just head a dozen or so yards down the street and go to The Pantry. The wait there is comparable (don’t be intimidated by the line, I’ve never really waited more than 20 – 25 minutes). The pantry’s prices are better, and the portions are almost double what they are at Oak Haven.

Food is very good and I like how it’s not just simply prepared. A lot of thought and love goes into creating their dishes. However for the price I feel you should get slightly more food. But, it is considered a farm to table style restaurant so you’re getting good quality food. It’s also just off the busy downtown New Haven area so that’s probably why they are priced slightly higher. As for drink options the bar is very sophisticated. I had one of their special bourbon barrel cocktails and omg it was amazing! The drink menu is really something but again you’re going to pay! My friend and I stopped in for a nightcap the other night and she got 2 glasses of house wine and I got the bourbon barrel special and it was $ 33 plus $ 6 tip. It was worth it though, we had a great time catching up and watching the scientific experiments the bartender was whipping up! He was also very friendly and periodically checked up on us to see if we needed anything. I would go again, more for drinks though than dinner.

Had brunch here. The service was friendly and kind. We ordered the seafood and grits, the risotto and the mini waffles. The risotto and the grits were amazing! The waffles were good but they had either char on it or part of the grill was all over the waffles we sent them back. The waiter was very kind and brought my son pancakes because something was with the waffle maker. We had to remind them to get our orange juice. It seemed like an off morning the waiter dropped a dish and syrup everywhere. We were ok with it. The breakfast margarita was incredible. My husband appreciated it. So over all pretty good experience besides some humans being humans! Will come back.

What a great find! Oak haven was recommended by a friend and I’m so glad I checked it out. I went with another friend and we ordered one app, two small plates and one medium plate. The food was all on point. I also ordered a draught beer which was delicious. Our waitress was super friendly and overall we had a great night. We will definitely be back!

Way overpriced for the fare, and the service tempo bordered on the ridiculous. (2.5 hrs for 3 plates). Thankfully the bartender took one item off my bill due to the wait times, so two stars instead of one.

Probably shouldn’t review a restaurant based on drinks alone but here goes nothin’.
We stopped by for drinks at the bar after our Valentine’s day brunch at another restaurant down the street. I ordered a breakfast margarita & the bf ordered an old fashioned. Drinks were wonderful. Large cubed ice so they don’t become watered down. The margarita was sweet, smooth, strong. You can taste the hint of maple syrup in the old fashioned.
This restaurant was in the running for our valentines day brunch & we noted how happy we were that we chose the other one since the 2-​seater tables were so incredibly small & squished in back to back among other tiny 2-​seaters. The restaurant is pretty small– we counted about 12 tables total. We’d definitely be back for drinks, maybe even try the food if we could snag a regular sized table.

The drinks are pretty fabulous, which make up for the food. The food is just not the best. Aside from the bacon wrapped beets. All the drinks are amazing.

How fitting to kick off my 800^th review with my first meal of 2016. Living in Hartford, I rarely make it to Oak Haven but when I do, this State Street delight never fails to deliver fabulous food and drinks.
After ringing in the New Year with plenty of cocktails, I wasn’t really feeling like a bunch drink when I arrived at Oak Haven. Still, their menu is quite tempting with build-​your-​own sparkling cocktails, breakfast margaritas and all kinds of lovely libations. After gazing longingly at the strawberry and whipped cream cheese stuffed french toast (next time!), I instead ordered the bourbon braised pork belly benedict. TRULY a wonderful choice — savory, rich, each bite more flavorful than the last. My fiancé adored his breakfast risotto with cheddar, crispy bacon, poached egg, and toast points.
Our server was so friendly and quick (wish I remembered her name), and while our table for two seemed bit small and wobbly, it prevented us from over ordering which is ultimately a good thing!
Perfect first breakfast of the year. Next visit, I’m all about the cocktails!

Good spot for a quick drink. The food was somewhat bland this evening in comparison to another night I had been. I had the Mac and cheese which was mushy and no flavor, and the mussels needed more garlic and butter, however they did taste fresh and sweet. The drinks were great, but a bit pricey. The place has a hip crowd and gets pretty packed, so try and get there early if you want to beat the crowd.

Ordered the Walden Hill Butchers cut pork, so nice and porky! Very nicely done!
Now to the cocktails! Pappy was in! I ordered 2 20 Year olds one for each of us, so smooth and creamy! Makes me want to open the bottle I have been sitting on! Then I had the 15, 12, & 10 respectively. Really likes the 15 year old. The 12 & 10 were good but Ive have better to be honest.
Our waiter was Spencer… I thought I knew a ton about bourbons, this guy is King! Great server and very knowledgable! My new favorite place!

great locally sourced food prepared with creativity and care. service was top notch. Burger and fresh if the boat fish special followed by cheesecake, proceeded by cheese board, accompanied by locally pressed cider. Well done!

Came here with a Groupon deal that was $ 50 worth of food for $ 29. My girlfriend and I ordered several small, medium, and large plates and I honestly didn’t enjoy a single dish. I’m not sure if any of the food was seasoned. The funniest dish was the meatball, which was this ginormous hunk of overcooked meat in a little pool of tomato sauce. It was incredibly unappealing, unappetizing, and tough to eat.
Wouldn’t come here if I could get the Groupon again, and definitely would never pay full price.

Came here on a Friday night, and luckily we had a reservation. The place is small and cozy!
The service was great and attentive, and I didn’t find it pretentious at all. My one complaint is that I wish the specials had been printed out. There are so many specials and things on the menu that change daily that it was hard to remember all of them after our server recited them to us. It was a bit overwhelming to process it all with all the noise in there.
We started off sharing the arancini and the flat bread. The arancini was nothing special but the flat bread was really fantastic! I wish I had ordered another flat bread as my main entrée. Instead, I moved onto ordering the burger. The meat of the burger was really the star. Do I think the burger was worth that much money? No, but I could tell they were using quality ingredients and it was good. My fiancé ordered the gnocchi as his entrée, and he complained that it was too heavy with butter that overpowered the other flavors. He wishes he had ordered something else.
Overall, it was a nice date night for us. The cocktails were great, the food ranged from ok to fantastic. If I lived in the area I’d come back to try more things because the food seemed hit or miss.

I forgot to review this place! oops! We had a groupon so we recently went here for dinner. I was worried it would be overly expensive, but we were both surprised at how reasonably priced everything was, and how much food we got with our $ 50 groupon.
Of note were the meatballs. I usually don’t like meatballs but these ones were an exception. They were juicy, filling, and had flavor beyond just tasting like plain meat.
I also enjoyed the portobello fries because they were unique and interesting. We also enjoyed the mussels, especially with the white wine/​garlic sauce.
Sadly they were out of the burger and the pork belly, but those are definitely things we want to try. Also I dont know what «pork nugs» are, but I want to try those too.
We definitely plan to return asap when we have occasion to. My husband also loved the whisky he tried, but I hate whisky so I can’t comment fairly haha. Also the art on the walls was cool and contemporary and fit well with the overall vibe of this restaurant.

It was an on again, off again rainy Sunday morning so we chose to sit in the back away from the open windows, but the quality of my photos suffered due to the darkness. We were initially handed dinner menus, but a second waiter exchanged them for the brunch ones. We began by sharing an order of French toast nugs described as being crispy bourbon vanilla challah nugs with Bourbon Barrel maple syrup. My initial impression was we had not received much of a helping for $ 10 though after taking a first bite, I told my wife she made a mistake by not ordering them as an entrée. Her first bite resulted in a grimace. With that one exception, every other nug was burned and dried out. This apparently was the norm for at least this day because the couple at an adjoining table were grumbling about their order.
We each ordered a crab cake Benedict that turned out to be the worst we have experienced this side of a Las Vegas buffet. The egg was overcooked, the Hollandaise sauce was sour tasting and the undersized crab cake possessed more filler than crab. On returning home I compared my photos to those of prior diners and was shocked by the dissimilarities. I now covet my neighbor’s Benny.
The highlight of the meal proved to be hash browns with in-​house made ketchup. Lastly, the coffee was served lukewarm though the pot seemed to be steaming.
We have now dined at Oak Haven a total of 4 times with this being our first brunch experience. Based on these visits, I can only conclude, paraphrasing an old Jerry Reed song, that when the kitchen is hot, it’s hot, but when its not, it’s not.

Went here for brunch was very impressed by all the pictures of the food. It’s a nice place inside with a good size bar. And they have a wide variety of whiskey and bourbon at this place. Got there around 12 ish. Idk if the air conditioning was broke but it was pretty hot inside.
Thank you Unilocal for a nice $ 8 whiskey flight for checking in. I found out about Jefferson whiskey it was absolutely delicious, very buttery smooth.
As for the food it was a little disappointing. I was expecting a lot better. I ordered the Benny flight that consisted of a pork belly, tomato, duck, and crab cake.
The best was the pork belly I could have eaten 4 of them the, tomato was next and the duck and crab were not edible I didn’t finish either one of the meats. The eggs however were cooked ok not a perfect poached egg but the yolk was seeping out but not as much as i would like.
The staff was very friendly I would go back but will be hesitant to order those two Benny’s.

A stop into a nearby restaurant, and the subsequent (and immediate) hurried exit out the side door left us hungry and with no idea where to go. We walked a bit, and it wasn’t until the question, «Does this place have food?» was asked did I even notice it.
Set back from the street and dimly lit, but once inside, it had a nice, quiet ambiance and as it was a Monday, we were able to sit wherever we wanted. The menu isn’t terribly expansive, but as it’s farm to table, the quality is high. The wine list could use a bit more variety, but given the right mood, I’d be into the creative cocktails.
My dinner, a burger, was cooked perfectly, but came out cold — not just the center. The whole darn thing was cold. The salad with it was fine — plain, nothing to write home about. The scallops across from me, on a bed of shredded veggies, looked far better. The place is fairly new, so I guess they might need to settle in with the food, but service was super which was nice. I have heard that the brunch there is quite good, and there are a few other things I’d want to try on the menu if someone were dead set on going there, but otherwise I might head somewhere else.

This is one of my favorite places to eat in New Haven! It has great atmosphere and décor — I especially love the fireplace. The food is even better. I am a big fan of the arancini, burger, meatball and small cheese plate. The great thing is, even if you order the same items each time you go, it changes every week based on what is locally available.
My only issue is it is a little pricey, though you do get what you pay for. However, they usually have great deals through Groupon or LivingSocial!

This was my second visit. We dined later in the evening so decided to share a few appetizers. We ordered crab cakes, mussels in beer broth and the beet and parsnip salad with goat cheese and baby greens.
The salad was excellent though They were out of goat cheese and we were fine with a blue cheese substitute. I prefer blue cheese over goat so I was happy. The two crab cakes came first. They had lots of crab but several of my bites had shells or something in them. Next were the mussels. I thought the broth was bitter so after dipping the crusty bread twice I decided not to indulge further. We had the capichino crème brûlée for desert which was awesome.
Our server Spencer was pleasant.
If not for the crème brûlée I would give 2 stars.

Let me take it back, take it all back.
A few weeks ago I visited Oak Haven and wasn’t satisfied with my overall experience, the owner reached out to be to express his apologies and to shed some light on why everything was a few steps off. The company lost a friend that day, so they were short handed and those who were working had to push through grieving all while trying to cook and provide stellar service. It made sense with the reviews posted and the potential this spot has I was more than willing to give them another go, and boy am I ever so happy that I did.
Everything was so perfectly executed this time around that I want to sing their praises. I started with the pretzel nugs which were the most delightful snack food I’ve had in recent memory. Savory and served with two dipping sauces it really got me excited. I knew with the first bite this was going to be a totally different experience.
I went with crab cakes, mixed veggies, a salad as well as the burger again and everything was flawless. Cooked to perfection, presented beautifully. Every bite burst with flavor, and was refreshingly fresh. Service was impeccable. Clearly today was better staffed, it was easy to flag someone if we needed something — but we didn’t, they were always available to ensure we had a drink in front of us as well as checking in to make sure everything was good.
I also opted for their special cocktail which was some sort of peach purée, with vodka some other stuff I can’t pronounce, but it was the nectar of the gods. If I didn’t have to drive home I would have sucked down ten of them.
Without a doubt, based on this experience I will be back. Even if just to people watch, eat those pretzels and have a drink. Seriously, get the pretzels. I’ll gladly bump the 4 to a 5 if my next experience is as great as this one.
We all have an off day, and I appreciate when someone let’s me know that. No excuses, or denying it — just a I’m sorry, and an explanation.
TL:DR — fabulous service, delicious food, creative cocktails, GET THE PRETZELS.