Post 390 visits?

[twentyoystahs]

Has anyone been?

Walked by this place last night (Sunday) and it looked really cozy and inviting inside, with a blazing fire right in the middle of the room....checked out the menu and it also looked pretty good. They were doing an ok business, but definitely not full during prime dinner hour. Just wondering if any hounds have been and would like to report back :)

[MC Slim JB]

It's a cool space, the food is decent and reasonably priced, but the cocktails are a big disappointment thus far: a list that looks crafty with very poor execution. It's very early yet, so that may yet be fixed.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[edgewater]

Went Sunday night. The waitress was a bit inexperienced but made up for it by being most pleasant and accomodating. The food was good not great. We split an order of calamari which was okay. I had the duck potstickers with blackberry hoisin, devilled eggs and the biscuits...no main course. I really enjoyed the potstickers, eggs were quite ordinary and the biscuits were very chewy. My DC had the lemon roasted chicken with spinach which I tasted and it was quite good.....not on the level of Hamersley's but then, what is? For dessert we both had the banana cream pie with bruleed banana slices. The pie filling was delicious as were the bruleed banana slices but the crust was quite tough. I had a Crown Royal Manhattan which was $10.00 and as C. Hamster said about his Sapphite Martini it was quite ordinary. I don't know why the Sapphire Martini would be $6.00 more than a Crown Royal Manhattan.

[MC Slim JB]

$16 for a Sapphire Martini is indeed a swindle. The specialty cocktails are mostly $11 or $12, as I recall.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[C. Hamster]

My DP had a shot of crown that was 8.

Maybe it was a mistake, but since I didn't order off a drink menu I just paid it.

The place is NOT all that.

[CreativeFoodie42]

I'm heading to Post 390 tonight for a friend's birthday dinner. Any cocktail or dinner recommendations?

[C. Hamster]

Recommendation: take a lot of dough. My very ordinary Sapphire martini was $16.

[phatchris]

I enjoyed the "Green Line".

[MC Slim JB]

The Green Line is my favorite so far off the specialty cocktail list, too.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[CreativeFoodie42]

I actually had a solid experience there last night. I absolutely loved the decor and the service was spot on. We ordered a bottle of Malbec that I'm pretty familiar with and was happy that they didn't indulge in a crazy mark-up. I thought the service of the bread in a bag was off for their "urban tavern" theme. The crap and spinach dip was really, really good but the entrees were just good not great. I ordered the meatloaf, which I actually enjoyed but the marsala sauce was bland along with their mashed potatoes. The side of green beans was probably the best thing on the plate. One DC ordered the ribs which was proclaimed tasty but came with no side except a small portion of pickles. The other DC ordered the skirt steak and fries. The steak was cooked well but he was completely underwhelmed by the small portion of the steak especially compared to the ridiculous amount of fries served with it. For dessert we split the ice cream sundae, which was surprising good but nothing too exciting. The chocolate cake was seriously mediocre although the vanilla creme helped the dish a bit. It was thoughtful that the server had the chocolate sauce writing of "Happy Birthday" with a candle on the cake after he checked the ID of the birthday boy when he ordered a gimlet. Thankfully there was no singing involved! Overall, solid experience but not out of this world.

[hotoynoodle]

crap and spinach dip? oh, my. ;) who said freud was dead.

[CreativeFoodie42]

HAHAHAHA - CRAB!!!! That was one of the items we really enjoyed too! :-)

[MC Slim JB]

Yes, comfort food is done to death, and yet we'll keep seeing new restaurants with that menu concept.

As I reported earlier, my general take based on a small sample is: inviting space, ambitious cocktail menu that is not well-executed, okay but not very compelling food, decent prices. I expect it will draw crowds: that neighborhood is pretty desperate for this kind of thing. And yeah, the old bar at Excelsior crowd, ick.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[hotoynoodle]

"comfort food" and "small plates". i keep hearing both so often and those spouting it seem to feel they have invented the wheel. "oh, wait, you're sick of throwing half the food you serve in the trash because your portions are too damn big and your food costs are crazy high?" ding!! lightbulb.

bistro du midi, in the excelsior space, will be a provençal version of just that. yawn. another french bistro. :(

[MC Slim JB]

If Bistro du Midi does reasonably authentic Provençal cuisine, I think there's room for that, even if La Voile isn't that far away. My fear is that this will be yet another egregious abuse of the term "bistro", that we won't really see workingman's weeknight kind of prices there.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[hotoynoodle]

if you're a workingman who happens to live upstairs in the heritage?

their other restaurants, in nyc and london, have gotten excellent critical reviews. they run very serious wine programs. the boston chef was a sous chef at le bernadin for several years. (i think 7...) the opening concept will be lunch downstairs only. there will be open kitchens on both floors. downstairs will only serve light fare/small plates in the evenings, with the dinner menu only upstairs, coming out of that open kitchen. most diners, myself included, chafe at menu segregation, so we'll see how long that lasts, especially with the high-maintenance crowd who lives in that hood.

dinner entreés will be hovering around $30, so that's not in my bank for "several times a week."

[C. Hamster]

if you're a workingman who happens to live upstairs in the heritage?

The first 4 floors or so are subsidized housing. I know a guy moving there from Dot because his rent's going to be less than $400.

I'm sure he'll enjoy the cougar hunting.

[phatchris]

I relly enjoyed the "green line" cocktail. Although it was my first experience with Genever.

[MC Slim JB]

I had that one too: pretty good, actually. Genever is weird stuff, more like an albino whiskey than a London Dry gin. But the other cocktails we sampled were sub-par. It sort of illustrates the difference between a solid craft cocktail program, where bartender passion and training drive the culture, and merely hiring someone to put together a craft-y looking cocktail list. Free-pouring is always a bad sign.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[hotoynoodle]

the girl we saw was not free-pouring, but looked like she was really struggling to get drinks made.

[hotoynoodle]

went last night and it was very busy. wound up running into friends at the upstairs bar who were on the way out, so that's the only way we scored seats. the upstairs bar is much smaller than the down, about 10 seats. there were 3 bartenders working ( i understand opening overstaffing) but it was very difficult to even get eye contact. we sat with dirty napkins and glassware in front of us for close to 10 minutes.

i had seen the menu on-line and it's not really the kind of food that i want to pay for in a restaurant. mac and cheese, meatloaf, chowder. yawn. wasn't "comfort food", like, 10 years ago?

nothing called to my friend either. we were starving though so wound up ordering the "crispy calamari". they were greasy, no seasoning and the breading just slipped right off in stead of clinging to the fish. 2 slivers of fried cherry peppers were in there. it wasn't a tiny portion, but much smaller than what is served elsewhere.

there is a wall between the bar and the dining space which is good for the diners. but the couple leaning against it and behind us kept bumping my arm, bumping my flatware when it was resting on my plate and yelling in my ear to get the staff's attention. the stools are side-by-side with no room between so you feel packed in.

wine list does have a few bottles under $30, but the mark-ups are quite high.

agree with phatcris about the meat market potential. all the folks who used to hang at the biba/excelsior bar have had no place to cruise.

it's a cool space, but it won't bring me rushing back.

[C. Hamster]

"hi ladies, how are you tonight, tired?"

Has someone told him he works for tips?

[heathermb]

Yeah, we were all pretty stunned. (And none of us was tired, for the record!) As Lissy said, aside from that major gaffe he was very eager to get answers to all our questions about the menu.

(A note - the questions would have been unnecessary if the menu offered a little more information)

[almansa]

I went the second night they were open and my server explained that he was training. No, you don't mean it. But he did relax and did a fine job, knew about allergens, anticipated our needs w/ the kids and had a comfortable air. I just wish he hadn't brought the two extra spoons with dessert.

[lissy]

I've been twice only because I went with different people and not because it was that good. The first night I sat at the bar downstairs. Given this was two nights after they opened, I thought the service wasn't too bad. They were extremely slow getting our wine and the knowledge of the menu is surely lacking but overall it could have been much worse. The food in my opinion was just OK. My friend and I split the romaine salad which was tasty though overdressed and I have a preference for my romaine cut but this was the whole head. Then we shared the meatloaf with a side of mashed potatoes that we ordered because when asked, we were told it didn't come with anything other than the gravy. Well it came with green beans and mashed (they did end up comping us for the side since we didn't need two orders of mashed). The meatloaf was tasty but it and the green beans were way oversalted in my opinion.

I went again a few nights later with a group. Our waiter's first utterance to us was "hi ladies, how are you tonight, tired?". A very odd way to start off the night. This waiter was also unknowledgeable about the menu (didn't know what came with what) but at least he went and checked each time we asked a question. Again the food was OK but honestly, it's nothing I'd go out of my way for. I split the duck postickers which were actually quite tasty and then had the crabcakes which were good but a bit burned and their housemade tartar sauce and ketchup were both a bit too spicy for my tastes.

Overall it's a place I might pop into for total convenience (it's a block from work and three blocks from home) but at this point, if it weren't right there, I wouldn't be going back.

[phatchris]

I went Saturday night.

The Good. Cocktails and the Manager sending over three apps for our terrible seating arrangements.

The Bad. Overcooked Lamb, insanely slow service, very crowded bar scene

Will give it anoyher shot in a month or so.

Have a bad feeling its going to become a meat market, and the food will be an afterthought.

[litchick]

Where is this?

[MC Slim JB]

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=%22post+390%22+boston

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[SaraASR]

I went for their soft opening- was fabulous, but don't feel it's appropriate to review/critique a place based on a soft opening. Going back this weekend and will report back!

[heathermb]

I went last week with a group of girlfriends. I was disappointed but chalked it up to opening week problems - timing issues, menu confusion, portion size inconsistencies, etc.

(Though our waiter walking up the table for the first time and greeting us with "Hi ladies, how are you tonight - tired?" is something else entirely).

I was going to give it another shot in a few weeks and report back then.