Medium Rare — Attraction in Watertown

The food tasted like it was sitting out for a couple hours and I was not feeling well at all when I got home half an hour after leaving this restaurant. I made a reservation for myself at 9:15 p.m. When I arrived into the restaurant, the bartender took me to a table and I insisted that they check me off in the system so that I would not get a email from OpenTable saying that I did not show up. Unfortunately I had to persist to more than one person in the restaurant so that hopefully they checked me off in the system. My server Jakob was pleasant and friendly however it seemed like most of the staff were in a rush to go home. They were cleaning with a mop in the restaurant visible to me while I was still eating. I really wanted to try this concept for the simplicity of the menu. I explained that because of a dietary/medical restriction I could not eat a whole portion of steak and that I wanted part steak part mushroom. What came out was one plate of steak with the secret sauce and one mushroom with some sauce that really did not go well with the mushroom. Both plates had fries that were hard and cold and lacked seasoning. To be honest I've had much better fries at McDonald's. There was no salt and pepper on my table and no ketchup was brought with the entrees. The steak did not look like the picture on the website and the salad did not look like the picture on the website either. I did not see anything purple in the salad like on the website. The salad was overdressed in my opinion. The salad came to me before the bread and I was disappointed at that and the steak came to me before I was done with the salad and I don't understand when I'm paying for prix fixe with set courses why they have to rush out all the food... they were trying to get out of there on a slow night but that is not acceptable for a restaurant that is offering reservations online until after 10pm. I was told that they had to shut the bread off at 8:00 p.m. and they did not have any reservations listed so I don't understand why they were serving me bread from an hour before. That is not what the restaurant website says their experience is supposed to be. I see reviews that say a second portion is included so I don't understand why I was charged for a second portion. Steak should cost more than mushroom and I got a tiny bit of steak. What they did was they brought me two plates of not so good stuff and I just wanted one plate of good stuff. Even though I commented about the fries and the bread to the server and manager respectively and left an extremely generous tip of over $15 for Jakob, nothing was comped in my meal. I asked if the desserts were homemade and was told only the key lime pie so I ordered that for dessert and it came with way too much whipped cream - an unhealthy amount of toppings. In my opinion this restaurant needs to do better to survive in this competitive environment especially in this particular location where other restaurants have not survived. I hope that the management team will take my feedback seriously. I really enjoy dining out at all kinds of restaurants and giving them all my...

I’m writing to express my significant disappointment with my recent lunch visit to Medium Rare on April 6th, 2025. My first experience dining at your restaurant for dinner was quite positive, which is why I chose to return this time bringing my son and girlfriend for lunch. Unfortunately, this second visit fell far short of expectations.

I had made a reservation for 3:45 PM, and upon arrival, we were presented with the brunch menu. To my surprise, the pricing was nearly identical to what I paid during my previous dinner visit (around $36 per person). This raised a concern, but I decided to proceed, assuming the experience would be comparable in both quality and value.

Three of us ordered the steak frites, and one ordered the steak sandwich. As I described to my guests, based on my previous visit, I expected a generous and relaxed meal. We were served bread and butter, followed by a small salad and a cup of fruit for my son and girlfriend. Shortly afterward, our main courses arrived. The food was tasty we finished in about seven minutes.

When the server returned to clear the plates and offered dessert, the service felt rushed. I mentioned that we were ready for our second round of steak frites, as had been offered during dinner service on my prior visit. To my surprise, the server informed us that the brunch menu does not include second servings.

At that point, I was incredibly frustrated. Paying $158 (plus tip) for three small portions of steak frites, one steak sandwich, and four glasses of water felt excessive and disappointing. While the steak and sauce were delicious, the portion sizes and lack of a second serving left us all unsatisfied. It felt like we paid a premium for what was essentially a light snack.

The server mentioned he would ask the manager to stop by our table to clarify the brunch policy, but no one ever came. This lack of follow-through made the situation even worse and left us feeling ignored.

I left Medium Rare feeling both hungry and let down. For the price we paid, we could have had a much more satisfying meal elsewhere. While I had high hopes based on my earlier dinner experience, this brunch visit has unfortunately soured my opinion of Medium Rare. I will be hesitant to return in the future or recommend it...

We came here for Mother’s Day brunch (my first Mother’s Day) and it was, to put it plainly, a disaster. A few small things make this a two star review instead of one.

Pros: The location is great (in Arsenal Yards) and they have a nice outdoor seating area. The “bottomless” drinks for brunch is a good deal. The hostess, wait staff, and one of the managers were very apologetic about our experience, and truly were trying their best.

Now the bad parts:

We had a reservation for 5 people at 1:30 PM. We weren’t seated until after 2 PM. After sitting at the table with no menus and no water for 15 minutes, I had to go inside to ask for both. A very overextended waiter eventually took our drink orders, one of which never arrived. He then took our food orders.

By 3:30 PM, a full two hours after our scheduled reservation time, we still had no entrees. A manager came over to our table to check in and we were candid with him that we were not impressed. He first tried to blame it on the waitstaff (it was clearly not their fault at all, they were way understaffed) and when I wouldn’t let that fly he made up some weird excuse about how people stay a long time because of the bottomless drink deal and they can’t kick them out. By this logic, I guess you should prepare to not see your food until at least two hours after you arrive, even if you have a reservation.

After over two hours of waiting and no entrees in sight, we cancelled our orders and left. We were not the only people who did this today—we saw other tables give up, too.

The ONLY saving grace here was that a different manager profusely apologized as we were leaving, comped our drinks (at least the ones that made it to us) and offered us a gift card. That was appreciated and we told her as much. But it looks like they have some serious kinks to work out on busy days/holidays. I won’t be...