Pure Restaurant & Lounge

Got a Groupon a month ago. Called today to reserve and got message they are closed indefinitely «for renovations»…

This place doesn’t even deserve a one star. I got pad Thai and my friend got Thai curry. We both asked for tofu but there was no tofu in the dish. That’s fine, I can get that go. But I couldn’t eat more than 6 bites without getting a really bad stomach ache. I had to stop eating even though I was starving and ended up getting a drink from Starbucks to fill myself up a little bit. Maybe I got the wrong food… maybe their other food options are great! But definitely don’t get any Thai here.

I don’t understand why there’s so many bad reviews! The sushi here is awesome, the wait staff is always very attentive and it’s clean and decorated beautifully. I brought

Happy hour here is great. Half price drinks. Great app specials. David the bartender is awesome.

Great taps ranging from the rare expensive Duval, to good body yet moderately priced Goose Island IPA, Stella, Ichiban, etc. can get the great deal of half priced sushi on Sun at the bar with the always friendly bar tenders, waitresses, & manager. Nice atmosphere, good food (a bit pricey with out coupon or deal), & delicious beer. I’ll be back.

AMBIANCE
–Dimly lit with a pinkish-​red hue in the bar area
–Dimly lit with lots of fairy lights exuding a romantic vibe in dining area
–Very relaxing, classy, and romantic
SERVICE
–Very friendly
–Attentive
–Efficient
FOOD (Sushi)
–Average
–Flavorful sauces (spicy mayo, mango sauce, etc)
–Average quality, frozen fish
–Fresh, crunchy cucumber
–Soft rice
I had the pink lady and desire rolls, and they were both very tasty with bursting flavors of sweetness and spiciness. But they were lacking the fresh fish taste and fattiness. As an Asian fusion/​sushi restaurant, I was expecting better quality fish. Also, I had a Dragon Berry Mojito, and it was flavorless! It looked pretty with floating strawberry chunks and mint leaves, but it didn’t sweet with juices or bitter with alcohol. It tasted like flavored water. Despite of the average food, the ambiance and service are lovely, and I would come back because the atmosphere definitely puts me in a good mood.

My friend and I sat at the bar area with a table. I ordered two cocktails and the Thai Chicken salad. Both the salad and drinks were a bit disappointing. There is no distinctive taste or different with the two drinks I ordered (cucumber aloe and ginger strawberry). All I can taste was syrup. I gave 2 stars because it has decent environment and service is decent.

We visited here for the first time last night. We had stopped going to this location as we did not care for the service of previous owners. But that has changed. The food, service and décor were really great. I could find little to complain about. I consider myself a bit of a foodie. The place was very nice and no problem getting in on a Saturday night. We had the tartare sushi appetizer and the yam dumplings. The dish was creative fresh and tasty. Great combinations of flavors. For dinner we had the lamb chops with goat cheese mashed and the crab cake with mashed sweet potatoes. The chef made a good use of siracha in many dishes adding just a hint of spice. The lamb was perfectly prepared and crabcake had large amounts of fresh crab with a nice sear on the outside but a very moist center. The cocktail list was great and they have a huge bar. Please give it a try. They deserve to do a healthy business.

Pure gets four stars because of their sushi, which is why I purchased a groupon recently. I enjoyed my sushi, but my boyfriend said the steak was not good and the portions aren’t good for the prices. I would go again, but only with a discount and/​or happy hour. I wish I could remember the names of the two rolls I had on this trip, but I’m drawing a blank. Ambience is also good for a date night.

Food bought: calamari (awesome), spider roll (disgusting), steak strip (good), and salmon in paper (good)… So I bought the groupon for Pure, THEN read all the mixed reviews. Had I done the reverse, I might not have bought the groupon. We got the waitress who told the story of Japanese businessmen loving the sushi and buying $ 200 worth… Blah blah blah… Like the other commenter said, those businessmen were either starving, or make believe… I would not come back there for sushi… However, the staff was polite, the entrees, though REALLY expensive, were delicious, the atmosphere was nice and relaxing. A good place to go for a date. Bring your groupon. Not worth the trip other wise.

Been back a few times, always with a groupon/​livingsocial (which might skew my rating a bit I guess). Proteins are always spot; I’ve had the crispy duck, rack of lamb, quail (when they had it), and steak. Cooked to the appropriate temperature and well season. I don’t order sushi as a main course here (it’s expensive and I feel the options are limited) but they are great as an appetizer. I usually skip dessert but the pannacotta was well done — big punch of lemon cut through the creamy custard. The cocktail menu is great as well. It’s not a mixologist’s dark twisted fantasy, but it is an actual cocktail menu. Service is good with my one complaint being that it is sometimes a bit overeager, but I’ll take that over absentminded. A nice spot for a date or a quiet celebratory dinner.

The ambience was interesting, but doesn’t make the food any better.
It seems that groupon is the only reason people go here since that was the first question our wait person asked. We had the lobster dumpling, deep fried and no real significant lobster taste. For my entrée I had chicken ginger overcooked white meat still bloody dark meat and hardly and ginger flavor. The Macaroni and Lobster seemed to have imitation lobster meat. My girlfriend had the duck, she enjoyed it. The waitstaff was nice but it seems this place is not busy enough to support fresh and tasty food. I am embarrassed for this place. They will most likely fail.

This place is hopelessly overpriced and does not offer the quality you would expect for that kind of money. You can get the same exact quality of sushi, if not better, at all you can eat bars in the area (where unlimited Sushi costs as much as one roll here).
As far as the non-​Sushi food items are concerned, I was not impressed, my husband ordered the cowboy steak and it was chewy and not seasoned well. Their ‘CRAB CAKES’ are made from IMITATION CRAB MEAT but priced like a real crab cake ($ 30!!!) — I am so glad I asked before I ordered. I ended up getting the ‘crispy’ duck, which was mostly fatty on the outside and dry on the inside. The rice on the side was overcooked.
The atmosphere is strange, with red lighting, it is kind of dingy and has the strangest mix of styles. It seems like it is attempting to be Asian with lots of Asian artwork and red and black walls but then they put a huge wall mural of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam in the middle of the room. Oh, and it seems to be seat yourself because there was no hostess to be seen anywhere.
The drinks are too sweet and the bartender appeared to be drunk. He consistently tried to pressure our table into ordering shots, etc. And when we did would always drink one too. It seemed like he just didn’t want to drink alone.
We went to this restaurant on a Groupon deal which includes a 20% tip. While the service was not bad, if it had been up to me, I would not have left that much.
I don’t think we’ll be back anytime soon.

First off, since we only ordered the sushi, my opinions might be biased. However, I cannot say it better than my friend Gerald did, when he reviewed this page in February of 2014:
«What is this place? High end appearance inside a lower budget hotel. Sushi ordered by a price/​quantity formula, rather than quality/​taste alone. «
I think Gerald was completely right in classifying it so. Our waiter took quite a while to get us anything, and the place was eerily empty. Despite having enjoyed a tasteful sushi dish myself (the Angry Birds which I would in fact recommend), it did not make up for the atrocious wait time. The food was overpriced, at least in my opinion, and the only reason my family went, or might ever go again would be if we used the Groupon deal that finally pushed us through Pure’s doors in the first place.

Well, we got a groupon and it was weird.
Its clean, modern, a bit swanky for NJ and way overpriced.
The low point of this experience was our waitress. She was way too hyper and excited for us to be eating here. Furthermore, she proceeded to recommended pretty much everything on the menu, and explained that with the following «businessman from Okinawa come here and eat sushi, and they say its the best sushi they’ve had.» We paused for a second, and then she said the following «I know it sounds spiffy coming from a white lady, but its true.‘
The lowest point was the food — We ordered the following things
Dumplings
Sweet potato fries
Philadelphia Roll
Avocado and Cucumber rolls
Yellowtail
Pure roll
Chocolate Fondue
Crème Brulle
Well, we think that those businessmen from Okinawa must be very hungry and delusional. The best dish, hands down, was the sweet potato fries. They were hand cut, right amount of crispiness and yummy. Please note that this is an Asian fusion restaurant. The dumplings were greasy and tasted like mush. The sushi were of… strip mall food court quality. Disappointing. Deserts came out of your local grocery store bakery. Never again.

This is my first review on Unilocal!
I got a Groupon deal on Pure restaurant And I think this is the worst deal I have ever got. I went to Pure restaurant with my boyfriend on Friday night And it was surprisingly not busy at all! We were seated in the bar area with the dark, red lighting which I didn’t feel comfortable! It gave me a feeling of Halloween so I requested of changing seats.
Then we were seated in the other area which was better! The waitress came And took order for us. I could smell the cigarette on her! We ordered tuna tartare for appetizer, pad Thai And 4 rolls include spicy salmon, shrimp tempera, pink lady And one I forget. The food came out extremely slow which was not understandable because the restaurant was not busy!
The tuna tartare was soso. For the pad Thai, I usually ordered pad thai in other restaurants for less than 10 dollars with a choice of chicken, beef or shrimp. In pure restaurant, this is the first pad thai I had ever ordered that was over $ 10 And with no meat in it. The pad Thai tasted weird, nothing like the pad thai I had before.
And I also had the worst sushi ever! (Worse than sushi palace which was for quantity not quality)! The sushi was so loose And the shrimp tempeura was not crispy at all!
We told the waitress to give us the check And waited for 20 minutes which were not satisfying! We also ordered tea But we had been waited for so long. The waitress was Really slow And I don’t think she deserved the 20% tips!
I won’t recommend this restaurant to my friend And anyone Who is craving for sushi And Asian food!
*I would give no star if I could
*every thing is overpriced

I took my boyfriend here for his birthday last year. We had a decent Groupon and still ended up paying a fortune.
The seating layout is horrible. Tiny tables are all lined up right on top of each other leaving it impossible to have a private conversation. I felt as though we were dining with the people at the tables on both sides of us. I generally don’t complain, but it was so bad I asked to be seated at another table.
The next table was much better, it was a tucked away booth.
As far as food, my boyfriend got a steak and loved it, but it didn’t come with that much food.
I don’t even remember what I got, but I know that he ate it too because I didn’t like it.
Overpriced and overcrowded.

What is this place?
High end appearance inside a lower budget hotel.
Sushi ordered by a price/​quantity formula, rather than quality/​taste alone.
Steak that often misses the mark.
Pricey drinks.
Definite sense of self conscious excessiveness without the back up.
Resting on laurels it fails to deliver consistently.
Pure what?
Not for me, thanks.

Came here on a Wednesday night and was surprised when the hostess told us it was a ½ hour wait. We opted to sit in the lounge and have appetizers there but the wait staff was extremely slow in coming around to us. I was extremely disappointed from the start.
After we were seated the food came pretty quickly and our waiter was being attentive enough so the atmosphere really picked up.
We started with rock shrimp and crispy lobster dumpling. The sauces on both were very good but the food itself was less than mediocre. The lobster wasn’t really lobster and the shrimp was pretty nonexistent.
The three sushi rolls we ordered were the Ninja, Buddha, and Dance Eel. One or all three of then had a bad aftertaste, can’t tell which one.
Really unfortunate…

Went here on a double date with my cousin and her boyfriend. It was easy to get to from Rt. 1 South, but the location doesn’t match this restaurant’s concept. It’s a beautiful asian inspired restaurant! There is a ton of space in this restaurant. They have a large bar/​lounge area, the main dining area, and an upstairs dining room or private room. They do have happy hour specials during the week, so check those out. We sipped on some half price riesling while waiting for our beaus.
We were seated promptly in the dining room and given menus. Both of us has a Living Social deal, but we could only use one of them. I was disappointed, but they sent us a delicious mushroom dumpling as an apology. I quickly forgot about my disappointment! I ordered the Siddhartha roll, (a vegetarian’s paradise) It was perfect! and the chipotle/​plum sauce was a nice touch. For dessert we had chocolate fondue, which was okay.
The servers were friendly, knowledgable, and hospitable. The décor is classy and modern. To use the bathroom facilities, you actually use the hotel’s bathroom since the restaurant is accessible through the hotel. A little odd, but it works. Pure is a really nice place to go to for girl’s night out, happy hour, birthday party. And if you’re traveling far, you can always crash at the adjacent hotel. A good spot for NYE!