MJ’s Pizza Bar & Grill

Went to dinner last night with the family– they have a new menu– not impressed at all– the prices went up– we also ordered wings and their nachos as an appetizer– the smaller sized nachos are no longer available only 1 size and 1.00 higher in price– and they also no longer use real cheese the way they used to-​it is now canned cheese sauce-​ummmm YUCK– they also smother them in Verde Salsa now? there were truly the best nachos around and now yuck–
The wings they use as well must have changed– definitely smaller than they were months ago when I was there last-​the garlic parm is still a good flavor-​tacos for dinner– were delicious but increased price as well for nothing different in selection–
when they opened the quality and portions were good-​now they are hopping on the «like everyone else“train.

For what it is this place is not bad. Have been here with my family several times. The food is average, but the value is good, the staff is attentive and its kid friendly.
The pistachio crusted salmon was my favorite dish to date and the veggie wrap wasn’t bad. Wine menu and cocktails are decent too.
If you are looking for a decent bite to eat nearby and a place to take the whole family the place is worth a visit.

Tried out MJs a few times. The food is good, but the service at the bar was very slow both times I was there. They were not even busy and I’m waiting 10 minutes for another beer.

MJ’s is pretty new to the Spotswood area, and boy is it popular! For anyone that knows this area, MJ’s bought out Cambridge and they spiffed up the place quite nicely! My mother and I finally decided to go one night when they were having a charity event so we were seated by the bar. The atmosphere was very clean and neat and the staff were super friendly. I ordered the pistachio crusted salmon and OMG was it cooked to perfection. I really love my seafood so if a restaurant doesn’t make it right I will be sure to tell them. It was so decadent. Every piece made my mouth water. My mother got soup and salad which was also super yummy. We then came another day on a Sunday, which was also busy as usual. I ordered a blackened salmon dish with broccoli rabe. Every dish I get is superb. Waita go MJ’s! The staff is also quick on their feet and very nice and attentive.

I’m SO happy that the Cambridge Inn is gone. It was terrible. MJs is okay, but there are a couple of issues.
My family and I have had some great meals. Specifically, the grilled chicken & Portobello mushroom sandwich is delicious. We LOVED it and will continue to order it. But, on the few occasions that we have visited, there has been some serious issue with meat temperatures. My family and I have ordered the burger on several occasions as well as an Ahi Tuna sandwich. Every single time that we have ordered something where we can request the cook to be a certain temperature, it has been very well-​done. We order a rare cheeseburger, it comes back medium well, on the verge of well-​done. We order the Ahi Tuna as rare as possible, it comes back completely cooked through.
The service has also been an issue on some occasions. My brother came in a few weeks ago to order a take-​out meal. He left never wanting to return to the restaurant again because of how he was treated by a staff member (and my brother has never once complained about service at a restaurant — he usually just doesn’t care either way). When we followed up with the manager about it, he became defensive and we felt the like the problem wasn’t addressed. It’s so disappointing to see how such a simple problem was treated. We understand that the server may have had a long day and that because my brother is a teenager, he could be treated differently but when we made the effort to contact someone about it, the manager made us seem like the ones either exaggerating or lying and offered no remedy.
Even with the issues that we’ve seen, we’ll return to the restaurant. It’s the only real restaurant/​bar in town and some of the food items are very good. I hope the temperature issue is resolved and the simple service problems can be addressed because this restaurant as a lot of potential to be a great local choice in Spotswood.

Found this place after trying another «brewpub» down the road that turned out to be a dive sports bar. This place Worked very hard to make sure everything was right. Had an issue with our dinner but it was taken care of promptly with many apologies. Lots of food and beer choices. All was good and with great service.

I’ve been to multiple MJ’s locations and the only thing they really have going for them are the wings.

We stopped in for dinner on the way home on a Sunday evening. It was immediately evident that this was a big upgrade over the prior restaurant at this site, the Cambridge Inn. As noted by some other reviews this isn’t a gourmet restaurant — it’s a bar and grill type of a place.
The bar is large, it was full of people and looks like a nice place to enjoy a game. The restaurant is also large and in addition to a nice assortment of pizza, wings, ribs, and salads there are also a decent number of entrees. As a pleasant surprise the entrees (which include a salad) were very fresh and not drowning in oil and butter as it all too common. Overall I would say that it’s a great place to have a drink and some light food.
Prices were reasonable and the service was good. Also, there’s not much open late in this area and they serve dinner until 10 and bar food even later.

Wonderful place to go! They have a good happy hour and a free hot buffet Friday’s before 6. My only wish was that is went until 7 because it’s hard for people to get there that work later.
They have a full bar with lots of beers on tap. The place seems vey successful and is always packed. They have bar seating in their bar area also. The staff is friendly, kind and welcoming.
This place has a full menu and dinning room. Their pizzas are excellent. The thin crust is one of the best we have had. MJs also offers banquet areas.

Environment is friendly and cozy. Food is pretty good and a good choice of dishes. Bar pie is a must and the wings are yummy! The only thing I’d say is that the servers could be alittle more people friendly and the lighting lit up more in the evening. And thank you for taking down the curb speed bumps from when Cambridge was there! Phew!

Been wanting to try this place out since it is no longer my cambridge inn. Well I can say thing positive, they cleaned it up nice and rearranged nicely. Noise level is still the same.loud. the servers are a little better, which is not saying much. I suppose at least they are all old enough to drink or at least serve alcohol.
Now for the «food» we ordered a large Margherita pizza. All I can say is wth!!! It was like a giant tortilla with cheese n a few blops of sauce with basil crumbles. Eewww yucko. I was still hungry so I ordered a Ceasar salad with grilled salmon. The salad was decent but the grilled salmon was like a frozen mass lump with no flavor. Yucky. So as far as I’m concerned that cured me of wanting to go back there. I will stick with my stand by bars with awesome food. That will not be in the rotation or even a thought. Glad I got that out of my system. What a waste of time n money, left hungry and annoyed. Oh well.

I am a big fan of the MJ’s in Matawan so I have been coming to MJ’s in Spotswood pretty much on the regular since it opened.
Just so everybody understands, this is not going to be the best meal you have ever had. It’s not going to be the best service you ever had. It IS a great place to come with the kids and get a good burger and a beer while your wife has a glass of wine and a salad and your kids get their Mac and Cheese or chicken fingers.
Whatever game you want to watch… it’s on. Want something a little stronger than beer… they have a full bar. Want to have a nice romantic high end meal with a superb bottle of wine? Yeah… wrong place… this is a sports bar, numb nuts.

I stopped in here with my sister, future brother in law and little nephew. The front of the restaurant is a bar with lots of big screen tvs for sports watching. After passing the bar section there is a good sized restaurant seating area with a few more big screen tvs.
The servers were friendly but overall service was about average. Nothing special or notable. My nephew ordered Mac and cheese with broccoli. It was Kraft Mac and cheese and the broccoli was steamed. The rest of us ordered sandwiches and found them ok. I got the eggplant parm sandwich and asked to sub broccoli for French fries. I was told there was an up charge for broccoli, which I found odd. The panini bread was chewy, soggy and sad. I took half off. The eggplant and mozzarella were good but there was literally 2 slices of eggplant on the sandwich. Overall the whole experience was average and when the almost $ 70 bill came it left me regretting eating here.
I’d come here for a beer and French fries but not much else.

Went in for nice little manly date with the bros. Very short wait but alot of the crowd was focused in the bar due to football Sunday. They seated us (8 people) within 3 min. Our waitress was on point with very good service, got our drinks in a timely matter even with a some what crowded bar. All the food was good and had zero complaints.

I was excited to try MJs. We got there and it was crowded on a Saturday evening. There were still a few open tables at 6pm. Although we were seated promptly, our server seemed to be overburdened with tables, something that would persist throughout our meal.
We had the spicey shrimp appetizer which was good. Very. spicey. The garlic toast was ok. Seemed like frozen prepared garlic bread.
My fried fish sandwich was disappointing: it was over-​fried to a deep brown color and the oil tasted old. Bun was a bit hard. Fries were ok. I really would have preferred a McDonald’s or Burger King fish sandwich.
Someone else had the reuben sandwich. They were disappointed as the meat was very tough to chew. Two other fish dinners came with vegetables that looked very bland– looked like boiled zucchini and cauliflower.
Our server was pleasant but very, very slow to get to our table. She never looked over to see if we were ok in between dropping off the food or drinks. This place maybe ok for a burger or an appetizer and some beers but I would not eat dinner here again.

Given how busy I have seen this place of recent I was surprised my wife and I got a seat immediately.
The first thing you notice is the bar area is enclosed by glass which makes the dining area quieter. The furnishings and fixtures are ordinary. You won’t be wowed by it.
Service is good. I like the waitress we had. She made a big save which I’ll explain in a moment
It was Thursday and Split Pea Soup was on the menu and I tried it. It was a little on the dry side but tasted pretty good.
For my entire I ordered the MJ burger which is a huge 10 oz burger and fries for $ 13.00.
We seemed to be waiting a long time for our meal and I noticed nothing was coming out of the kitchen as far as meals are concerned. It was then the waitress came over to say there was a problem with the ticketing system and the kitchen didn’t have our order. In fact they were cooking anything waiting for orders to come in. But it was fixed and our food came promptly.
I call this a save because the waitress was honest about what happened instead of glossing it over. If she didn’t say anything I would have called this a poor service for a hamburger shouldn’t take 45 minutes to cook.
The burger came and it was AMAZING! I haven’t had a good burger like this in a long time. It had a spicy taste that wasn’t overwhelming. It went well with the Sam Adams Summer Ale that I ordered.
I was stuffed so we didn’t order dessert.

Saw the personal insults and name calling cluttering the reviews, and decided to check MJ’s out for myself. Glad we did.
While Cambridge had deteriorated into a dump, seems like sufficient remodeling has been done to bring it up to a decent level of «local dive bar». Not anything unusual, and not a complete rework. Waiting area was crowded for 6:00pm on a Friday night. Indicated a 20 minute wait. Appeared that possibly some sort of «event» was just ending, and they had to clear it out. Waiting area is small, resulting in confusion. We indicated a preference for bar area seating (always our preference) and scored a high top in the bar area (a separate room) within a few minutes. Bar was extremely crowded, again possibly due to some sort of event ending and people having one for the road.
Hostess and wait staff were friendly, attentive and efficient. Service moved at a nice pace. Quickly took our drink orders. Like the fact they have some decent drafts. Wasn’t in the mood for anything heavy, so opted for an Angry Orchard hard cider. Large glass, low price. Barb had a couple of the nightly special Long Island ice teas, and they were «ok»… a bit heavy on the ice.
Chose everything from the «specials» listed on the menu insert. App — tomato and mozzarella, drizzled with balsamic, and a sprig of fresh basil (could have used more), plus a finely sliced red onion garnish. Very good, a little pricey. Mains — a spicy shrimp salad for Barb and a sliced flat iron steak for me — both very good. Salad greens were a nice, fresh variety, including a generous amount of arugula, shrimp were correctly cooked, firm and the spicy dressing was nice.
The flat iron steak was as good as it gets. Correctly grilled as requested to the rare side of medium rare, with an EXCELLENT char on the outside edges… wish the local steak chains could manage this. Melted provolone, caramelized onions, and drizzled with their onion soup. Accompanying salad, garlic mashed, and al dente fresh vegetables were very good. Special thanks to Jenn S for excellent service.
We enjoyed the atmosphere in the bar… a lot of people having a lot of fun. What more can you ask for. We will return.

Went to MJs the day after it opened and although I was sad to see Cambridge go, I was excited for this new place I’ve heard so much about. There were so many delicious looking things on the menu that it was hard to settle on one, but we started with the nachos and then got burgers and pizza.
As far as the nachos, my favorite part was the guacamole (which was so delicious we actually kept it just to be able to use it with any other part of our meal)… Just didn’t like we had to pay $ 1.50 extra for it, when it usually comes included at every other restaurant. However, the nachos as a whole, I wasn’t very satisfied with. I thought they were bland and the cheese wasn’t the best, but I’m a sucker for more of a ‘queso’ sauce on my nachos.
Onto the pizza. Honestly delicious! I had the Italian pizza and there was the perfect amount of garlic and tomatoes. I got the personal size and still had plenty to take home. I can’t wait to try the other pizza selections! Not too sure about the burger since my bf ordered that, but it looked delicious and cooked a perfect medium. And he said he liked it!
Now onto the service. For a place that just opened, I wasn’t overly pleased. Our service was good and we tipped the usual 20%, but that’s definitely not the first thing I’d boast about when I recommend this place to other people. I’m looking forward to coming back and seeing what else MJs has to offer.

The Cambridge Inn is dead – Long Live MJ’s!
Several years from now when MJ’s has turned into something a large as Buffalo Wild Wings, we can say we knew them when. The newest outpost of this regional bar chain, MJ’s in Spotswood is a busy but seemingly well-​run place on Summerhill Road.
We arrived on a Saturday night – their official grand opening – and the bar and restaurant were packed. The hostess said we had a (mere) 15-​minute wait and, at exactly 15 minutes – another hostess retrieved us and took us to our booth.
We were then immediately greeted by our server and ordered our drinks and an appetizer. The Spicy Shrimp and Scallops – a special for the evening – was amazing. The shrimp and scallops were nicely sized, but the spicy sauce that enrobed them was superb. It was full of flavor and just spicy enough to stand up to the garlic toast and shellfish. I’d definitely get this again.
For dinner we had burgers and, while they switched the medium and medium-​rare patties, the burgers were plenty tasty. My A-​1 Burger had A-​1 steak sauce, caramelized onions, and blue cheese, and everything worked. Funny enough, we had a very short wait to get both our appetizers and our dinner, so whatever complaints were made during the soft-​opening seemed to have been solved by the time they officially opened on Saturday, July 11. I’d venture to guess that you could disregard all the one-​star reviews and give this place another chance.
While I was never really thrilled with the food at the Cambridge, I think MJ’s might have something here and it might be worth making this a regular stop.

I rarely write a review for a place I’ve only been to once, but I feel compelled to do so for MJ’s after reading a few of these other negative (and highly questionable) reviews.
A good Unilocaler can sniff out BS reviews pretty easily — reviewers with no profile photo, 0 friends, no check-​ins, and maybe a handful of other questionable reviews. I, however, actually went to MJ’s today, and enjoyed a great lunch with my wife, served by an incredibly hard-​working and attentive staff, all eager to please.
If you’re not familiar with the area, there’s a little history to be known here. MJ’s now stands where the former Cambridge Inn once stood. Despite being popular with some of the sketchier locals, the Cambridge Inn was one of the most disgusting, run-​down bar/​restaurants I had ever had the misfortune of dining at – and that’s saying a lot for a guy who loves really divey dive bars! Thank god the owners of MJ’s completely gut renovated the place, or I wouldn’t have dared come back.
So it came as no surprise when Cambridge finally closed and MJ’s was rumored to be moving in, that not everyone would be excited about the change — some people just love their crappy little local joints, no matter how bad they might be. But for the rest of us who actually enjoy good food and drink in a great atmosphere, hearing that MJ’s was coming to town was awesome news.
I had been to one of their other locations in Matawan at the Buttonwood Manor. It was during football season and the place was bustling. Wings, pizza and other apps were delicious. Today, in their new location, I tried a simple but classic cheeseburger, flame-​broiled to a perfect medium rare — a little crunchy on the outside, pink and juicy on the inside. That’s the way you do it. It was by no means the best burger I’ve ever had, but it was just fine for basic pub grub.
My wife had the Green Chili Pepperjack Turkey Burger, topped with poblanos and sautéed onions. She said it was seasoned well, with a little bit of heat, and very juicy — something most places get wrong when it comes to turkey burgers. They also have a veggie burger and other vegetarian items for non-​meat eaters, as well as a gluten-​free menu. (Kids menu, too!)
Our server was an adorable young girl named Colleen. She could not have gone more out of her way to make sure my wife and I were having a great meal. She even popped by quickly after we started eating to make sure our burgers were cooked to our satisfaction. Service is very important to me, and when I get bad service you will hear me roar. But from the moment we were greeted by the hostess to the moment we paid for our meal, all of the staff we encountered were helpful and super-​friendly.
Things are off to a great start here at MJ’s in Spotswood. It’s so nice to have a new place in the rotation. I can already see Marc N. and I having many power hours here. Wishing these guys good luck. Come out and give them your support.