The Brightside Tavern

Wow! My wife picked the best place in New Jersey! The food is superb, next time I’m in Liberty Park I’ll come back for more! The staff is friendly! Great job guys!!!

The food and drinks are second to none for bar scene food in Jersey City and the owner Tom is a sweetheart of a guy who cares for his customers like a good owner should. With football season coming in a few months it’s one of the best sports bar for all NFL games… but if you’re a big Giant fan that’s Tom’s team and he’s a diehard so when you hear him screaming then all is good. Try the Jazz night and Karaōke nights too… lots of fun.

My neighborhood spot and I can say no wrong about it. Tommy puts in the effort to make this place exceptional. From Comedy Night to Monday Night open mic Jazz — he loves to sing and be part of it all. Great place for football, basketball overall a sports destination. Great sound, lots of TVs. And then there’s the food. I tried the fried cauliflower tonight, not yet on the menu but I MUST SAY — INCREDIBLE. Texture, flavor. please try it, you will be shocked to like it so much. Great Burgers, even better Loaded Tots. This is a fun place to be, and feels like family around here.

Today I had a High School Reunion Food Tasting Meeting with The Owner, Tommy and it was Perfect!
The Flavorful Chicken Marsala, Meatballs, Egg Plant Parmesan, and Penne a la Vodka was Beyond Great! Thank you Chef Eddie and Chef Chris!!!
Brightside Tavern is the Ideal Location for Great Drinks *Must TRY. Person Overboard Rum Punch*, Sabroso Food, and EVENT Spaces.
God bless Brightside Tavern and Tommy.
I hope this place sticks around for LIFE!

Great place and atmosphere; anyone who’s a jazz fan not only should but MUST visit on Mondays.
Great ownership as well — I was offered and then given a ride when I should not have been driving home.
Thank you again!

I can’t believe they actually use canned cheese for the Nachos and the cheese was ice cold
Sent it back they nuked it and sent it back
Now come my Fish and Chips I could tell immediately that they were soggy
Apparently they don’t really serve anything hot
I guess it’s better if you’re drunk
Then again so is a beef and bean burrito from the gas station
Someone in that kitchen doesn’t give two fu (ks
The «Brightside» is I didn’t waste my caloric intake on that lunch
Bartender was very attentive and sympathetic
To the issues asked if I wanted to speak to the owner I declined
Because he should know what’s coming out of his kitchen
I won’t be back there again too many misses in one lunch to think it would be any different any time soon

One of the best nights we’ve had in a while in JC. Shout out to Monica and Brian behind the bar for keeping us laughing and taking great care of us. Also got a chance to meet Tommy who is a great guy. Awesome atmosphere with great food and drinks. Definitely going back.

I really like Brightside! It’s never super packed, the bar is great, and it’s a great place to watch a game. I also don’t have any complaints about the food, although we usually just split appetizers (pulled pork nachos are awesome!) or get brunch, so I can’t speak to the dinner options. This bar is also a great place for groups, and they recently opened an upstairs lounge that has pool, darts, and shuffleboard which is great. I really like this place… it’s definitely our go-​to spot if we’re meeting a big group and/​or to watch a game.

The tater tots are amazing and the staff is so friendly. Especially the owner Tommy. Really friendly guy and you can tell he cares about his customers

This place was weird — we showed up a few minutes after opening, and apparently the staff «wasn’t there yet». This could happen anywhere, but they were unapologetic, and didn’t seem at all concerned that the place was open and they couldn’t seat or serve customers…

Just had my first experience at bright side and let me tell you the food and drinks are awesome!!! The owner tommy is wonderful and welcoming. Brooke was my server she was very sweet and helpful! Thank you bright side for making my first experience one to remember! I will definitely be returning very soon!

Do brunch at Brightside! The warm and friendly staff will make your visit a memorable one. I was pleased with the prices, service, and quality of the food. You’ll definitely get a bang for your buck!

TAKE OUT NIGHTMARE: Food was late; beverages were forgotten and had to wait for a 2^nd delivery. Shrimp in Po’boy was undercooked. Ordered a Moroccan Burger Medium RARE and it came Well done and Dry as a desert. Best part of the order was the salad. how sad.

Tommy the owner is fantastic! He let our 6 lunatic children sing karaōke and play the piano. the food selection is bonkers… from brunch to fried calamari all the way to shrimp po’ boys and risotto… this place has it all… DEFINITELY COME AND CHECK IT OUT! We live in Staten Island and will be back soon!

Great service, food, hospitality and overall a fantastic experience.
Extra bonus — Tommy is the greatest owner and made us feel at home!

Really nice sports bar– very clean, TVs, and great for games, although the volume was low.
Was disappointed that my fried pickles had a ton of calamari pieces under them, especially considering I have a seafood allergy.

We LOVE the Brightside Tavern! My husband and I had a very small wedding in May 2015 at City Hall, and wanted to have a party months down the road to host our friends and celebrate (about 100 people total). When my husband called to ask if they do events, he was immediately put in touch with the owner, Tommy, who was very nice and extremely helpful. We met with him months before the event to go over logistics. The prices are very reasonable and the Brightside can provide you with anything and everything you might need to host an event/​party (good stereo system, ping pong and foosball tables and shuffleboard, big screen televisions, screens for slideshows, piano, private bar, private restroom, and even private smoking deck, etc.). Tommy was very easy to get in touch with while we prepped and gave us free ice cream and let us bring in our own cookies for dessert.
The event was a big hit, the service was amazing, the food was delicious, everything was perfectly timed, and the staff could not have been friendlier and more professional. We even went back for brunch the next morning. If you are looking to host a private event that is a lot of fun and very efficiently run while in a reasonable price range, Brightside is a great spot.

Best place in Jersey City, good food good service, best of it all you can pick your favorite music and band and watch it on big screen tv all for fee.

A friend recommended this place, we went on a Thursday It ended up being comedy night :) We had drinks and watched the comedy show, It ended up being a cute spot. I will certainly return.

I love this place. Tommy is amazing. I went here to Brunch with my friend and my daughter had a couple of mimosas and I ordered the“Turkey Blat” from the Brunch menu and it was soooooooo good. Waitress was friendly everything was good. Bonus Kid Friendly. Plus I’ve been here for Jazz night and the bang bang wings man it was banging. Pun intended. Will be back

Look at their hours of operation! They claim to be open at 10AM. We walked here in 38 degree weather with our 3 year old just to be told they don’t open until 11AM!!! Not even an apology. I can’t give them any more stars without trying the food. I will update my review as soon as we actually get service. We decided to go to Marco and Pepe’s.

Come down and visit you’ll have a wonderful experience. Love the workers. Love the place.

If you like sports bars, then it’s cool. I am giving one star because the service was subpar. I was very disappointed with the bartender’s response time and attitude.

I love this local tavern/​social hub in JC. The food is delicious and the owner an sagacity are awesome. I love all the energy of the place and it many offerings from jazz, gospel, poetry readings, lounge acts, sports screens and community events.
The tater tots are out of this world and the fish tacos are filled with big chunks of tilapia. The burgers are huge! The sweet potato fries are perfect.
The bar has a wide selection of beers and wines and other spirits and is a beautiful piece of furniture.
Parking can be tricky but I usually luck out. And they even offer us a valet service if patrons become to impaired to drive. Awesome customer service.
The bathrooms are well maintained which is very important to us all.
There is plenty of good music being piped through the restaurant and the owner is always happy to play the music you like.

Great place to be everyone is friendly. Tommy the owner is great drinks and food are great too.

I am very disappointed to write this review because the food at Brightside Tavern actually is good, but the staff who work outside the kitchen is so incompetent it defies description.
Calling tonight for delivery, I was hung up on two times. My first call was answered, and I was asked to hold. After a few minutes waiting, the line was disconnected; my assumption was that it was accidental as the person switched lines. This is not the first time I’ve had difficulty ordering from Brightside, especially getting someone to answer the phone, but it’s never been as bad as what we experienced tonight.
I called back and the phone range about 6 times before someone picked up the handset and immediately hung up. I waited a few minutes before calling back and the phone rang at least 10 times before I abandoned the call and decided to try another restaurant in the neighborhood — and this is MONDAY night.
As I was looking at another restaurant, my phone rang; it was a very nice woman who apologized for being hung up on. I decided to order, but as I did I realized I was using an old menu with items Brightside no longer makes. After a bit of confusion, we finished the order and I hung up.
Five minutes later, my phone rang again. I answered, saying hello multiple times, before hearing people in the background having a conversation. A woman said in a very nasty tone, «why are they ordering things that aren’t on our menu?» I said hello again, and a man informed me that one of the items we ordered was not the menu and asked if we could choose another item.
Annoyed, I explained that I was extremely frustrated because I had been hung up on twice, already modified my order because I had an old menu and then heard someone making nasty comments because of the situation. He denied that she was discussing my order — I guess ordering outdated items from Brightside’s menu is rampant! — and asked us to select another item. We chose Meatballs.
Twenty minutes later — a full 40 minutes after making my first call to Brightside — a third person called, informing me that they were out of Meatballs, the item we selected in their second call to us.
Needless to say, I cancelled the entire order, and I don’t plan to try them again. As I said from the outset, it’s very disappointing. The food actually is good — when you can get it!
To the manager of Brightside, this all boils down to training:
1. Train your staff how to answer and use your phone.
2. Train the staff who answer phones while your primary person is on calls with other patrons to say «Brightside Tavern, please hold. Someone will be with you momentarily.»
3. Train your staff to ask «We don’t serve that item. Are you possibly ordering from an old paper menu?» if people ask for something unfamiliar.
4. Inform «Brunhilde» that sh*t happens and some people still use paper menus when ordering, so she should keep her foul, nasty mouth shut when she’s in earshot of customers — in person, by phone or any other means.
5. Train your staff to know what’s on the 86-​list before calling customers and asking them to change their order. Once is acceptable; twice is abhorrent.
6. Train your staff to handle situations instead of passing customers off at each point of the process. I spoke with four of your staff tonight — plus overhearing Brunhilde — and none knew the situation.
I’m providing 2 stars because the food is good.

This is one of the best taverns I’ve ever been to.
I went for the first time a couple of Sundays ago because they were kick-​starting a new Blues/​Jazz jam session from 7 — 11 pm. It was fun for me because there were so many people there to sit in that I actually got to sit with my friends who usually play in the band. It was awesome. As an extra bonus, the guy who was serving me all night got up on stage and sang Marvin Gaye so unbelievably well, it was just mind blowing. All of these guys are going to be famous world touring musicians one day. I’m calling it now.
I had red wine and a salmon wrap. It was really refreshing and delicious. I took half of it home and brought it to work the next day. It wasn’t even soggy, how wraps usually get! I was so pumped.
I decided to come again this past Sunday. Crowd was smaller, but I hope the word gets out soon so people come by. I had the quesadilla burger with sweet potato fries and a Dark & Stormy. It was awesome! Had the 2^nd half today for lunch and it is one of those leftovers where you’re like, omg this totally made my entire Monday, thank the lord. Sweet potato fries were crispy on the outside and delish on the inside. I dipped them in Ketchup instead of my usual honey mustard… very abnormal for me. I think my taste buds are changing.
I’m excited to come back and try the Shrimp Po Boy and some other things. So far everything has been really good. It’s such a nice way to end the weekend!

The Brightside Tavern is a nice place to go to on a Monday night for Jazz and dinner. One of the Brightside’s best dishes is their Grilled Chicken Roasted Pear Salad with pecans and Goat Cheese. Absolutely delicious.
They also do a great job with wings… just ask for them crunchy!

We went for a surprise party and instead of being the ones to surprise someone, Britghtside surprised us. The staff and owner were extremely accommodating as well fun and friendly. The event had mostly apps to pick at while drinks were the choice, but everything that came out was on the spot. Crab cakes felt and tasted fresh and not frozen. Fish tacos and all their burgers made you leave full and with a smile. I would imagine this spot being packed for events or just a cold rainy night for forgetting about life for a while. I will be back soon and looking forward to a bright experience once again!

It was Saturday and brunch time. We knew some places would be mobbed, and Brightside Tavern was not one of those places. The bar eatery looks so different in the daytime with the sun streaming in and the brunch menu was plump with options, so we thought it was worth a try.
It turned out to be a grease fest and the service was slow, but not unfriendly, considering how few people were in the restaurant when we first got there.
Despite the great variety in brunch items, the execution was not where it could be. The fancy hollandaise aioli on my breakfast burger was already cooked by the time the dish got to the table. The egg and the patty were both overcooked. The patty definitely was lacking in flavor and the toppings, like the cheese and tater tots, were meant to make up for it. Unfortunately, grease conquered all. The fries were limp and kind of oozed brown grease. They would have been scrumptious if prepared properly.
The steak hash was expansive and also greasy, weighed down with cheese. The sunny side eggs were perfect, and the yolk made for a great sauce to kind of unify the overcooked steak pieces with the potatoes. I always wonder why servers ask how you want your meat cooked if it is going to come out completely different than what you ordered.
Mimosas were tasty. And the prices were definitely good; there was a lot of food, albeit not super great food, but a lot of good intentioned food for the prices. I am pretty sure I will be back despite it all because there are other things I want to try (ahem, stuffed French toast!).

One of my favorite spots in Jersey City. Great atmosphere and great people.
Love the menu especially the too hot burger. Always a go to for me.
Karaōke nights are crazy fun and the owner is always there to keep the place lively. Great events happen as well and the private room is perfect for hosting.

This was my first bar experience in Jersey City and I loved the atmosphere and the food and the drinks that eventually came… The waitresses were a little beyond slow and confused considering my Brightside Punch went to two people at different tables (might I add that we were seated at opposite ends of the place) before the waitress (supper cool) came back and admitted she was practically losing it lol but very delicious food (I ordered the sampler).
There is also a room for karaōke and that I am a huge fan of! Everyone was also very friendly and they have a wide range of beer selection.

Love this place. Cool bar atmosphere. Great food for it being a tavern. Service can take a little long but everyone is very friendly. They have a large 2^nd floor that my company has used for holiday parties. They have karaōke and jazz night on certain nights that I would like to check out.

Came on Sunday night to watch a football game. A lot of locals from the neighborhood were there it was really nice crowd and atmosphere. The food and the staff were also very good and friendly