A giraffe looking down over dinner is not usually part of the steakhouse experience in New Jersey, but Pub 199 has never been interested in “usual.”
This Mount Arlington spot sits at 199 Howard Boulevard, close enough to Lake Hopatcong that it feels like the kind of place you stumble into after a day outside, hungry and not in the mood for anything fussy.
Then the door opens, and suddenly you’re surrounded by mounted animals, fish trophies, TVs, a busy bar, and plates of steak and seafood that look far more serious than the casual name suggests.
Pub 199 is part neighborhood pub, part hunting lodge, part local legend, and somehow it all works. The menu keeps things direct: T-bone, porterhouse, lobster tails, snow crab legs, clams, burgers, sandwiches, and enough surf and turf combinations to make decision-making pleasantly difficult.
Pub 199 Looks Ordinary Until You Step Inside
From the road, Pub 199 does not try to charm you with dramatic architecture or a glossy steakhouse entrance. The building is big, practical, and straightforward, the kind of Morris County place you might pass while thinking about where to get gas or how close you are to Lake Hopatcong.
That first impression is part of the trick. Nothing outside fully prepares you for the scene waiting indoors, where the room immediately announces that this is not just another bar with a few neon signs and a fryer basket menu.
The address itself is easy to remember because the name matches it: Pub 199 at 199 Howard Boulevard in Mount Arlington. It is the kind of detail locals love because it sounds like something that has been there forever, even before you learn how many regulars treat it that way.
Inside, the first thing you notice may not even be the food. It may be the scale of the place.
There is a full bar, dining space that can handle groups, TVs for game days, and a no-pretension rhythm that feels very North Jersey in the best way. People come in wearing jeans, team gear, work clothes, lake-day clothes, and nobody seems out of place.
That matters because the menu could easily belong to a more buttoned-up steakhouse, especially once you see T-bone and porterhouse options served with baked potato or fries. Pub 199 keeps the white-tablecloth routine out of it.
You are not here for tiny portions arranged with tweezers. You are here for a plate that lands with confidence, a room that gives you something to talk about, and a place that understands its own personality completely.
The Dining Room Feels Like a Hunting Lodge Gone Wild
There are restaurants with themed decor, and then there is Pub 199, where the theme has clearly won the argument. The dining room is covered with mounted animals, antlers, fish, and trophy-style displays that make first-timers pause before they even find their table.
Deer heads would have been enough to make the place feel rustic, but Pub 199 goes far beyond that. Look around and you may spot safari-style mounts, fish trophies, and enough glassy-eyed wildlife to make the room feel like a hunting lodge crossed with a roadside attraction.
It is strange, funny, bold, and very much not designed by committee. The best part is that the place does not act precious about any of it.
Nobody is handing you a lecture about the decor. It is just there, surrounding your burger, your lobster tails, your steak, your beer, and the table next to you debating whether to order clams or crab legs.
That casualness keeps the room from feeling like a gimmick. Pub 199 has leaned into this identity for years, and the effect is less “theme restaurant” and more “local institution with a personality nobody could replicate if they tried.” Kids tend to stare.
Adults tend to take pictures. Regulars barely blink.
There is a certain comedy in cutting into a porterhouse while a mounted animal watches from the wall, but after a few minutes, the room starts to make its own kind of sense. It is loud without being chaotic, memorable without being polished, and much more fun than another dining room painted the color of mushroom soup.
In New Jersey, where people have strong opinions about everything from pizza to parking lots, Pub 199 has carved out a category all its own.
The Steaks Are the Real Reason Locals Keep Coming Back
The taxidermy gets people in the door, but the steak is what makes the place more than a weird one-time stop. Pub 199 keeps the steak choices refreshingly simple, with a T-bone and a porterhouse anchoring the land-lover side of the menu.
The T-bone is currently listed at $26.95, served with a baked potato or fries, while the porterhouse comes in at $31.95 with the same choice of side. In a state where a steak dinner can quickly become a financial event, those prices explain a lot about why people talk about this place with such loyalty.
The appeal is not that Pub 199 is trying to compete with high-end steakhouses in Morristown, Jersey City, or Manhattan. It is doing something else entirely.
It serves a big, familiar, satisfying cut of beef in a room where you can actually relax. You are not studying a wine list the size of a novella.
You are not wondering which fork seems expensive enough. You are deciding how hungry you are and whether you want to add shrimp cocktail, a lobster tail, or two dozen clams to the plate.
That is the genius of it. The steak is hearty and direct, and the surrounding atmosphere makes the whole meal feel more like a story than a splurge.
A porterhouse here has the built-in drama steak fans love, with strip on one side and tenderloin on the other, while the T-bone hits that classic old-school dinner note that never really goes out of style.
Add a baked potato, maybe a cold drink, and the fact that you are sitting under a wall of wildlife, and it becomes the kind of dinner people remember in oddly specific detail.
Surf and Turf Makes This Morris County Pub Worth the Drive
Morris County has plenty of places to eat well, but Pub 199 has a very specific advantage: it understands the appeal of pairing steak with seafood without turning the whole thing into a formal production. The menu lets you build the kind of surf and turf dinner that feels generous instead of fussy.
A T-bone can be ordered with shrimp cocktail for $39.95, with one lobster tail for $44.95, or with two dozen clams for $43.95. The porterhouse gets the same treatment, stepping up to $44.95 with shrimp cocktail, $49.95 with one lobster tail, or $48.95 with two dozen clams.
Those combinations are exactly the sort of thing people mean when they say Pub 199 is a “come hungry” place. Nothing about it feels delicate.
The plates are built for appetites, not for photographs, though plenty of people take photos anyway because the room practically demands documentation. This is also where the pub’s location helps.
Mount Arlington sits near Lake Hopatcong, and there is something fitting about ordering lobster tails, clams, or crab legs after being near the water, even if this is North Jersey rather than the Shore. The restaurant’s own site notes that Pub 199 owns its own seafood company, which helps explain why seafood is not treated as a side act here.
It is central to the identity. A steak-and-lobster-tail order feels like the classic move for anyone visiting for the first time, but the clams have their own old-school Jersey charm.
Two dozen steamed clams as part of a steak dinner is not subtle, but Pub 199 is not in the subtle business. It is in the business of sending out plates that make the table quiet for a minute.
The Seafood Menu Has Its Own Loyal Following
Some people walk into Pub 199 thinking steak first, but plenty of regulars are there for lobster, crab, clams, shrimp, and mussels before they even glance at the beef. The seafood side of the menu is bigger than you might expect from a pub with burgers, wings, sandwiches, and TVs.
Two lobster tails are currently listed at $37.95 and come with baked potato or fries, with options to add shrimp cocktail or two dozen clams. Snow crab legs are listed at $36.95, and king crab legs and whole lobster are marked at market price.
That last detail is worth noting because it tells you Pub 199 is working with seafood in the practical, price-shifting way seafood places often do. Availability matters.
Market price matters. The menu even says pricing and availability are subject to change, which is not glamorous, but it is honest.
Beyond the big-ticket seafood plates, there are smaller but still satisfying choices: shrimp cocktail for $14, two dozen steamed clams for $18, fried calamari for $14, mussels marinara, mussels with garlic and butter, mussels Parmesan, beer-battered shrimp, and grilled salmon. That range is part of why the place works for groups.
One person can go all-in on a porterhouse, another can order snow crab legs, someone else can keep it simple with a chicken parm sandwich or a cheeseburger, and nobody has to pretend they wanted the same kind of meal. Pub 199’s seafood also helps balance the wildness of the room.
With all that taxidermy on the walls, you might expect heavy, meat-only comfort food. Instead, the menu has one foot in steakhouse territory and the other in a seafood shack, with a full bar and a local-pub attitude tying it together.
Plan Ahead Before You Make the Trip to Mount Arlington
The practical details are simple, but they are worth knowing before you point the car toward Mount Arlington. Pub 199 is located at 199 Howard Boulevard, and current posted hours are noon to 9 p.m.
Sunday through Thursday and noon to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The restaurant lists its phone number as 973-398-7454, which is handy if you want to double-check hours, ask about market-price seafood, or confirm anything before heading over with a group.
Prices can change, and seafood availability can shift, so it is smart to treat the menu as a very useful guide rather than a permanent contract. The setting is casual, but the place can get busy, especially when the weather is nice around Lake Hopatcong, when families are out, or when games are on.
Pub 199 also makes a natural stop for people coming from nearby towns like Roxbury, Hopatcong, Jefferson, Dover, and Randolph, so the crowd is not just Mount Arlington locals. That mix gives the restaurant its energy.
It feels like a neighborhood pub, but one with enough reputation to pull people from across the area. Parking is part of the appeal too; this is not one of those tiny downtown spots where dinner starts with circling the block and muttering under your breath.
The experience is best approached with the right expectations. This is not a hushed, candlelit steakhouse.
It is louder, stranger, more casual, and more fun than that. You go for a serious plate of steak or seafood, stay because the room keeps giving you things to notice, and leave understanding why Pub 199 has become one of New Jersey’s most memorable pub dinners.