Ridgewood Culinary Studio

I was at this location last week for a corporate outing my company set up. I was the first to arrive & when I walked in to the building I was not greeted at all by the woman that was working there. She completely ignored me. After a few awkward minutes, I decided to wait for my coworkers outside.
Once we all arrived outside, we all went back in. Again, we were not greeted for a little while, until the first thing said was.“is everyone here?“
We were then instructed to put on an apron. Obviously, these aprons have not been cleaned in a very long time, if ever. There were very sticky and many of them had dirty napkins in all of the pockets.
We were told what items we could use to prepare our food. Many of the spices the rack were out of date by a couple of years. The bottles were very dirty. The avocados were not ripe and when we asked if she had any others we could use, she told us they were fine. Believe me, they weren’t. There was one jalapeño for our entire group to use. How can we all be expected to make Mexican food with one jalapeño. Again, we asked if she had any more. We were told one was enough.
I feel like man of the items we were provided with were leftovers from an earlier group.
The restroom was very dirty and cluttered.
The vent in the ceiling of the kitchen area was full of dust. The beverages that were «included» were an old bottle of coke that was flat and a half empty Pocono spring water bottle.
I could not get out of this establishment fast enough. I have no idea how this business has survived. Not one person in my group was happy.
I do NOT recommend at all. The woman working (sorry do not recall her name) was so unfriendly and honestly made rude comments. Made it a very uncomfortable afternoon.

I came here with 9 coworkers for a corporate event and it was a full house. The place was outdated and wished they paid more attention to their ceiling fans and tiles. They were filthy. The aprons had dirty napkins in their pockets which lead me to believe they aren’t very thorough with their cleaning.
The woman who was there to help and «lead» wasn’t the friendliest. We were not greeted until a few mins into the event that she asked if everyone was there.
There was no direction or structure. We were just given ingredients, cooked rice, chicken and were told to come up with a plate Mexican style. I didn’t like that; no one in the group did. While I knew I wasn’t going to come out an expert, I thought that we would have guidance by having the recipes printed out for us and possibly receive a few tips from «the expert».
The rice that cooked for us was very pasty. The avocados for the guacamole were not ready. They were very green and hard. We let her know but she dismissed our complain. At the end when the guac was ready, it didn’t taste good. The woman was very quick to blame us for putting too much lime in it. I thought that was rude.
The woman referred to this place as «Ridgewood’s hidden gem» and that they must be doing something right if they have been in business for 9 years. I don’t know how they have been in business for that long and calling it a gem is a stretch. No one in the group was satisfied.
NOW The Hudson Table is one of Hoboken’s hidden gems. Same concept but modern, trendy, clean, friendly and knowledgeable staff. I believe it is pricier but so worth it. I highly recommend it and feel free to check out my review for The Hudson Table.

We decided to go to the Ridgewood Culinary Studio for a bachelorette party. Prior to actually attending, it seemed like it was going to be a really good time. Unfortunately, as soon as we got there it was all down hill.
Our «class» was supposed to start at 7:30. Naturally, we arrived a little early since it was our first time there. We knocked on the door at 7:20 and were greeted with a «Well, you’re early, I’m not ready yet. You have to be patient» I responded quickly that we would just sit at the table and chat. We weren’t expecting to walk in and start instantly, but the cook could have started us off a little better than that.
Another issue that I had was when discussing the evening with Nanci (I think the owner) she said that the price is fixed because there are two chefs and she can’t do anything for a party smaller than 10 in regards to the price. Especially because it needs to cover the chefs and ingredients. There was only ONE cook there, so I’m not exactly sure what the «fixed cost» is about.
Once she was ready (around 8:00) we started. Let me first say that for the $ 450.00 water and soda were included. There was half a gallon of Poland spring and one bottle of Coke. Next, as we started reviewing our recipes, we asked the cook about missing ingredients. She said she didn’t have them and just to use what she had (WHAT?!). Trying to be a good sport, we went on with preparation. As the cook took out the ingredients, they were total leftovers (half a pepper, half an onion, etc.) I don’t think food should be wasted, but humor us and give us new ingredients OR tell me ahead of time that it’s your philosophy.
As soon as all the items were cooked, I paid the cook the $ 450 plus tip. Which, according to Nanci (the owner?) was at my own discretion. Prior to leaving, the cook pretty aggressively approached me in regards to the tip and kept saying that it should have been more. She was so loud and demanded more money in front of my guests and the bride to be. I was totally disgusted by this behavior and couldn’t believe she had the audacity to behave in that manner. This was literally the straw that broke the camels back.
Upon leaving, literally in the car, I wrote Nanci an e-​mail about the experience. She has yet to reach out with an apology or explanation. Clearly, her customers experiences are not the priority. I would never recommend this studio to anyone.

I recently organized a team building event for my group of 20 people. At first it seemed like the studio would be too small to accommodate the group but I would say it was the right size and felt cozy. The feedback I received from the team is that it was an excellent experience and the food was delicious!