Stone Balloon Ale House

The atmosphere of the Stone Balloon is a hip bar. I especially like the modern light bulb lamps around the bar. My reservation was at 5:30pm on a Saturday night, and it was pretty crowded. When I was leaving around 7pm, there was not an open seat in the restaurant area nor the bar!
The Stone Balloon is definitely a hot spot for all types of drinkers. speciality drinks/​cocktails for $ 7 – 8, which is a pretty good price in comparison to the other restaurants on Main Street. There are 8 wines on tap, and a variety of craft beers. The restaurant seems to have live musicians fairly frequently, but there was no music during my dinner.
The waiter was very attentive, and brought us a second carafe of water before we even finished our first pitcher.
They have an extensive menu of bar food in addition to entrees. I ordered the romesco chicken tacos, which were pretty good. They came on a cute taco-​stand and looked very appetizing, but were a little oily for my taste. The fries were a bigger disappointment. The texture was fine, but they were not seasoned well at all. The only seasoning that I could taste was a little cheap salt that Burger King probably uses on their fries. A little more seasoning would go a long way!
On the other chance, my friends ordered the pot of mussels, veggie burger, and pretzels with beer/​bleu cheese sauce, and they all were very satisfied with their meals.
In my opinion, it’s a good spot to go to for a drink and maybe to get an appetizer on the side, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend choosing this spot on Main Street over the other options for a sit down dinner.

Nice fresh food. Lots of beer options. We went for lunch and it was good and tasty.

The new management has done a fantastic job. Nice menu (food and beer) and a good ambiance.

Not friendly towards college students.
We were excited when we heard the Stone Balloon re-​opened because apparently it used to be a great bar for college students back in the day, but that is no longer the case. The staff had an obvious dislike for us-​the bartender made a rude comment about us ordering cheap beers and our waitress made it very obvious that she was unhappy that we were only ordering food from the happy hour menu. The food was good, but we were made to feel so uncomfortable by the constant requests from our waitress to order more food and drinks that we didn’t get to enjoy it. For a place on main street, you wouldn’t expect such dislike of college students by the staff, especially since there are specials directed towards us such as $ 1 beers and «Cheap date night wednesdays».

Hubby and I stopped in here on a whim last week as we were passing through the area. Wasn’t very crowded due to the holiday, but the atmosphere was warm and inviting. We were seated immediately, and the menu had some really unique and tasty looking items. I got the chorizo sloppy joe and WOW it was so good! Service was great, food was wonderful — upset we don’t live near here so we could come back more regularly!

Food and service was mediocre. We went with some friends on a Saturday for a late lunch and we did not like our meals and the service was slow. I had the Chirozos sloppy Joe. there was hardly any meat on it. Taste was OK at best. Also they give you a can of soda for $ 1.50, so there are no free refills. With all the great choices in Newark we will NOT be returning.

The establishment was nice and cozy, tucked away in college town. The staff were all very attentive and on point. The place was clean for the most part. The restroom faucet had gunk all over it and there were crumbs all over the chair. Luckily, it was a four top so I just sat on the chair without the crumbs. Besides that, clean utensils and no lipstick on my glass.
The duck sliders would have been perfect if the filing had more flavor. Otherwise, great marriage of the duck with greens on a perfect brioche bun. The tomato soup was the absolute best I have ever had. Perfect amount of everything. The stroganoff would have been better if there was more shirt ribs. It was pasta with a hint of meat. I think meat with less pasta would have been better at that price point. The burger was cooked to perfection. The meat was fresh, the bun was perfect, and the giant slice of tomato was fresh and delicious.
Worth the trip and all the hype.

Excellent Sunday brunch and top notch service! My friend and I thoroughly enjoyed our meals. Appropriate price point for the cocktails and meals themselves. I had the J.C.‘s Mom Bloody Mary martini with the portobello english muffin melt. My friend opted for the Fire-​Cide Mimosa and A Hot Mess (home fry skillet with scrambled eggs, short rib, beer cheese fondue, bacon and Cholula sauce). Brunch is served on Sat & Sun. Highly recommend this place! Check it out!

Our first visit to Stone Balloon was awesome. Food, cocktails and service made our dinner fantastic. Juliana was our waitress… made food and drink suggestions that we loved and great personality as well. We can’t wait to come back – our new favorite as UD parents!

Visiting our son at UDel and looking for place for a bite for him and for us before hitting the road back to Northern VA. Someplace a college kid won’t go eat himself.
This restaurant has been so many but the food never seems to change. I think we try it once each year we come up and never go back again that year. So… This may be the one time for this academic year. Everything on the menu sounded great but all fell a tad bit short when delivered. The glasses and serving plates were all leftover (with the names and everything) from the last restaurant. Clearly things haven’t really changed…
I had the prime rib sandwich. Described to be tender prime rib with melted cheese and horseradish sauce. It was a bit overcooked and no bite to it at all as far as sauce or spice from any horseradish.
My son had the steak and cheese. It was fine but nothing fantastic. My husband had the chorizo sloppy joe. It was an open faced, sweet sloppy mess. Interesting but not worth ordering again. Not very hearty other than a huge roll and a little bit of meat drizzled over it.
Side salads came with their house mustard vinaigrette. The greens were a spring mix with shaved carrots. It was decent but a little overdressed for me. I’d suggest a different dressing and/​or asking for the dressing on the side. Fries were tasty — nothing to run back for.
We won’t rush back. There are plenty of better places on Main Street. Probably why this place keeps changing names. Guess what — name changing isn’t going to bring customers back… you need to change the food!

The restaurant was really fun. I’m from out of town so Delaware food is definitely new to me. I came with my family, which was perfect. You could come with either friends or family and it would be totally fine! The service was good – our waitress knew the restaurant very well. She recommended the Keg fries (which we got), and I would 100% recommend it again!

How fast things change. Took a friend for dinner last night and sat at the bar. Drinks were served promptly but we were afterwards virtually ignored for half an hour, and then attended to sporadically after that (very similar to the experience described below by Beth A.). The place was medium busy but there were two people on a relatively small bar– whatever priorities our bartender had, it wasn’t us. Food was, as usual, good. The contrast between last night and prior service may be greater because I am friendly with several of the previous bartenders, so I only knocked it down one star.

Went here for Cheap Date Wednesday — 2 entrees, 1 dessert, and 1 bottle of wine for $ 35. A nice night out for that cheap is what gives this place 2 stars instead of 1.
The food was tasteless — the chef needs to learn how to use salt and herbs for the corn and dumplings, as well as how to make a tasty dumpling instead of a doughy plop. The chef also needs to learn not to cook beef until it is tough and chewy, use less cloying cream, and not be stingy with mushrooms, in the steak & portabello dish (similar to beef stroganoff). Both entrees reminded me of microwave dinners.
The pretzel bread pudding was decent, but a small portion.
The server did not properly serve the wine — there was no presentation of the bottle to make sure it was correct, there was no taste pour to confirm it was good, and the waiter chose to reach in front of me to pass a glass to my husband instead of easily walking 3 feet around the table.
We will not be returning… no matter how cheap. I’m not sure if it’s related, but this restaurant’s lack of food quality is similar to what we encountered at the 16 mile restaurant that was here before Stone Balloon. I wonder if the same person is doing the cooking — because no restaurant can survive with sub-​par offerings.

Ehhh. First time dining, probably the last. Wait staff was great. Very friendly and nice atmosphere. First they had zero crayons. My kids were not happy about that but the waitress did offer a pen. Love the ice cold bottled water. Kids meals were extremely high priced, $ 8 for a tiny bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. Ordered the ale and cheese soup… whatever they do with their bread is disgusting! It was burned, smelled terrible and tasted terrible. Returned the soup, they brought out another with the exact same burnt charcoal taste. The cheeseburger my son ordered and the prime rib burger my husband ordered was exactly the same with that terrible burnt taste and smell. There is no way people WANT their food to taste like that. Beef stroganoff was delicious. Take care of the way you «burn» the breads and maybe we will come back.

Came here randomly with some friends for Sunday brunch, chose here because they got outdoor seating and we have puppy with us, and the parking was very easy. I didn’t have much expectation but food turned out to be much better than I expected.
4 of us had:
— Asian Quinoa Salad with Chicken
— Shore Chef Salad x 2
— Soup of the day — Apple Soup
— SBA Salad with Shrimp
— Side Fries
— Brussel Slaw
Everything came out great, it was a really nice surprise. The Brussel Slaw is a bit different but in a good way.
Service was very friendly and food also came out very fast. Food was also very reasonable priced.
Good spot for brunch!

Solid spot in a town with a lot of mediocre restaurants ! A few good vegetarian options and a great happy hour (food and drinks both). And on weekends too! The home made black bean burger is awesome. Plus you can Get it (and other sammies) prepared in a variety of ways. I like the one with hot peppers :) hummus is good but we were served old stale chips. They made fresh ones after we said something though so that’s fine. I wish they had more wine by glass for less than $ 9 considering they have bottles starting at $ 18. Plenty of beer tho. Good bar for watching sports … I plan to return !

Robert was our server this evening. He was very nice and made sure to check on our table multiple times and went into detail with all of the questions we asked. We also had the pleasure of meeting the manager, Brittany, who asked how our meal was going and provided excellent conversation. Overall, my family and I definitely enjoyed our experience at stone balloon and can’t wait to visit again! We would also like to note that the food was exceptional! Everything we ordered was delicious and everything came out very quickly! One of the best restaurants we have been to!

Went here for Sunday brunch this week. We hadn’t been here before and figured we would try some place new. It was after school let out so there wasn’t a crush of college students like there can be August through May (to varying degrees depending on school breaks). The food was very tasty and the service was decent. The issue I had was the bread/​appetizer plates on the table. The one where I was seated had a big chunk of cheese or cream based sauce on it. The one I grabbed from the next table had red sauce or ketchup still on it. The other one from the next table, the same. Someone needs to #1 — do a better job with the pre-​wash of the dishes #2 — not accept that those dishes are clean and #3 — before tabling the plates, check to make sure that they are clean. Aside from that, the restaurant inside was not busy at all and we were entertained? By a singing bartender/​server singing along to the music playing overhead (off pitch and not well), but he was enjoying himself so if he was happy, I can’t knock it too much.
The food was good. We started with the «Keg» Fries. Very interesting take with the short rib on top. I had the breakfast pot pie (lots of puff pastry, eggs and sausage gravy with potatoes) and my wife had the breakfast tacos. Everything was good. Coffee was OK and I didn’t drink
It quick enough but was never offered a refill. My wife had iced tea and it was refilled once. Food came out quick (a little too quick honestly for having an appetizer on the table and entrees being put down).
It wasn’t enough to dissuade me from not going back, just might go when it is a little more established to let them work out the kinks.
Side note, menu items were a bit pricey. Breakfast was $ 41 plus tip for the three items we ordered. Not super high but $ 15 for the pot pie was a bit high for what it was in my opinion.

3.5 stars… Enjoyed a nice dinner last night on the patio. Stone Balloon is filled with friendly and helpful staff, as well as a cozy atmosphere. In the past I’ve tried the quinoa salad… which to say the least was delicious and the black bean hummus, a sub par app lacking much flavor.
Last night we went with the Mac and Cheese which in my opinion is both perfectly portioned and priced. ($ 4.) I ordered the Garden and Grit entrée which came highly recommended by the manager and server. Sadly, I was underwhelmed by the dish. Although the grit cakes were good all I could really taste was spicy and stewed tomatoes. Different veggies would have helped. My date thoroughly enjoyed the house made black bean burger. It came with italian long hots, mozz cheese and dijonnaise sauce. I thought it was delish as well! Veggie burgers tend to be on the bland side so it was nice to have such a savory house made burger! The side salad, fresh and light was enjoyed as well.
I shall return to try more of the broad menu!

Just got back from a late night dinner here and it was amazing! The atmosphere is wonderful, the service was great, and the food was phenomenal! We started out with the chicken noodle kettle corn and two glasses of wine. Our dinner was so good, my crabcake was served with a brussle sprout slaw and house made fries. I would definitely give this place a try, especially if you are looking for quality food with thought put into the preparation, and a good sophisticated (but not stuffy or snooty) atmosphere. Thankful this place is in Newark!