The other night, a couple of my girlfriends (including Caryn) and I were looking to get dinner together in Murray Hill. Â We thought we’d try Mason Jar, mainly because we were able to get a $25 restaurant.com gift certificate there for $4.50 with a coupon code (so each of would spend $1, and get $6 off our meal).
Photo Courtesy of Yelp
We seated ourselves in a spacious booth and started the meal with a $5 beer from Flying Dog Brewery. Â Most of the beers were priced from $5-$7, with the $5 beers being your typical Bud, Bud Light, Miller Light, so it was pretty cool that one craft beer was at a lower price point.
Of the four of us, three of us had salads, and one of us had BBQ ribs.  I didn’t try the ribs, but our CTO (yes, Chief Technology Officer), McKenna, referred to them as “reminding her of the taste of a chicken stew.”  She also added that they weren’t very barbecuey.  I on the other hand went with a cobb salad.  I thought my salad was great, and it had all my favorite toppings – blue cheese, bacon, egg, olives, tomatoes and lots of chicken.  My one request would be that I wish it was mixed together more. All the toppings were laid out in rows over the bed of romaine, and as our friend Alicia pointed out, it was difficult to mix all the toppings together since there wasn’t a ton of room on the plate. I had the chicken avocado salad – greens, grilled chicken, cherry tomatoes and avocado with an avocado vinaigrette. It tasted very fresh and flavorful – I loved it!
The waitress didn’t rush us and we were looking to catch up, so I appreciated that she didn’t keep coming to check in, other than to refill our glasses of water once our beers were done. Â She also gave no attitude about us using a Restaurant.com gift certificate (yes, some people have seemed annoyed when we whipped out coupons in the past). Â So all in all, the total bill for each person came to $17.50 – which included the cost to get the coupon, a beer, entree, tax and tip. Â Not bad!
Overall, if you are in the neighborhood and want to go some place where you’ll get a decent meal, consider checking out Mason Jar.
The Basics Name: Mason Jar Location: 43 E 30th St (between Park and Madison) Who to bring: Friends Price: $$ Most entrees were between $10 – $15 Overall: Decent meal. Â Not rushing me to go back, but I enjoyed my salad. 3 stars.
