Foundry Tavern — Restaurant in Cambridge

We attended this place last night to celebrate three birthdays, which was mentioned to the server when we were seated.

The location is very trendy with great design features and a pleasant atmosphere, so kudos for that.

The appetizers were also excellent and we were pleased with the onion soup we had and the calamari.

The reasons why I am giving this restaurant three starts are based on the following items, which may have been a one-off, however, this was my experience.

Accessibility. The menu is written in letters so small that for those that have any type of vision problems you will struggle to read it. I had to take photos and use my phone where as most people on our table were using the flashlight on their phones to be able to read the menu. Which was even suggested by the server, so they know this is an issue.

Another issue with their menu is the way their plates are described. People in my table ordered smoke chicken power up and the seafood Mac and cheese, both were spicy and the menu (nor the server) made sure we were aware of that. It was not properly explained.

Additionally, the chicken is actually a salad, which is not clearly explained (again) in the menu (see the photo), and again, the server didn’t take time to properly explain these important details.

The second issue was the service itself. This place is not cheap, and I think that they should adjust their level of service to the expectations based on pricing. The relaxed atmosphere is all very good, however, I found that we were not given a proper level of attention and care as attention to details were not there. As an example, our table had a dietary restriction with two of the guest (not for me), and when the orders arrived, my dish had been also modified for this dietary restrictions, which was again, this was not applicable to me.

No special considerations were given to the fact that three birthdays were being celebrated, and the table at one point was crowded with dirty dishes that took a while to remove. Additionally, requests like cutlery for a dish and fixing the dish that they didn’t do properly, were not provided satisfactorily. Once again, no attention to detail.

The last thing is that the manager was doing his rounds on the tables and took literally less than 30 seconds on ours. when he asked if everything was well, I wanted to point out the error on my dish and he just smiled and said “great that all is well”. Not sure if he didn’t hear me but he just didn’t take the time to make sure he was paying attention to his patrons when he came tu us without us requesting it.

In the end, I would say that this restaurant has potential, but they need to revamp the training for their waiting staff and work on changing their menus to make them more accessible and easier to read and understand.

There were several errors to our orders, like bringing the wrong desserts to our table at the end of our meal.

Maybe we are not the target market for the restaurant but with the prices they charge, I am struggling to understand who they are trying to appeal to, if they are not able to cater to the expectations of our table (we are all in our 40s).

So, will I be back? Maybe not, I feel that my experience didn’t match the price I payed for it even though many food items were delicious, and some others, due to lack of proper description and warning from our server, truly disappointed some members of my party. The other big problem, the lack of attention to detail you get at other similarly priced restaurants like the keg.

I hope these comments can be used to improve the issues we experienced and retain future customers that fit...

I was here twice in a week. The first experience was fine. But we were charged 2 very different prices for the same drink. Which we were ok with as they were busy. The drinks were also good.

The second time was to celebrate a friends birthday. We decided to sit on the patio at the fire tables. It was a nice setting. The service however was terrible. Before being seated we went to the bar to ask questions about the drinks and we were very specific about our previous experience of the drinks pricing. So we confirmed with the bar the correct pricing. When the rude server came up to us to take an order (bringing one drink menu for the 4 of us) and accusing our friend of possibly being to drunk to be served, which she had only had one drink about 2 hours prior. We were then rushed into ordering 4 of the drinks we had asked about at the bar since most of the beers we had wanted they were out of. Once we received the drinks they were not at all what we had the previous time and they were much more expensive then what was told to us before we had sat down. 2 of us sent the drinks back for what we had originally wanted and the other 2 who were just being nice and didn’t want to put up a fuss decided to just let it be and drink them. (They did not like the drinks though) At around 10-1015 the fire table automatically turned off and we had asked if it could be turned back on since we had just ordered another round of drinks. We were told that would be no problem. We waited and nothing happened, then again another person was asked and they also said they would turn it back on. The table was never turned on for us. The bills came out and we were charged 4$ more per drink for the drinks we had not ordered. It was very irritating since we had previously discussed the pricing. The waitress seemed to just want to dismiss us. Not a very pleasant experience for our friend on her birthday. We feel bad for taking her to this poorly ran but beautiful place. It could have been a great time. This place has a lot of potential. The two who decided to make it easy and keep the drinks that were not what we ordered are very nice easy going people unlike myself. They were however the ones who were treated the most unfairly. This place was not busy the Tuesday night we were here. So there was no excuse for the poor service. Be kind to your guests, we only had...

Overall this place was okay.

We did have a reservation booked for my mothers birthday as we wanted to make sure we had a spot as this place seems to be quite popular and busy. If you want to guarantee a spot, booking a reservation online seems to be the best way.

Our server who’s name was I believe Che(?) was very kind and friendly, it was busy so he wasn’t around as much but when he was he was super kind.

We went for brunch and overall food was hit or miss. The buffet section didn’t have too much variety but to be fair the food is advertised as being more specialty, so if you’re a picky eater you probably wouldn’t like this place as the menu has more unique dishes. Aside from the buffet there were a few dishes you could order such as blueberry pancakes, eggs benedict, Churros, etc.

As for quality of food, it was hit or miss. Personally I did enjoy the Churro, hash browns, and the wings were okay… the sauce (honey garlic) was very nice but the wings themselves were not seasoned and had a lot of breading. The eggs benedict was hit or miss, my parents and brother had gotten a few and sometimes the egg was perfect and other times it was over cooked. My parents got the churros and they found theirs were chewy as if they were sitting awhile whereas I found mine to be pretty good.

Definitely something you will want to check out the menu online before you go as it is limited as far as gluten free, and allergy friendly options. It’s quite expensive as well, it’s $42 per adult which is quite costly especially if you don’t eat too much. In the price Is also included unlimited tea, coffee, and pop, as well as two alcoholic beverages per person. Of course if you don’t drink alcohol it’s kind of annoying it’s preset in the price. As far as alcohol goes, the Mimosas seemed to be almost watered down in a way? They didn’t have much flavour unfortunately.

One especially strong suit was the decor and the atmosphere. The decor is beautiful and very rustic. It’s a nice place to feel you can relax and have a good time. It’s just a shame it seems right now the food doesn’t entirely hold up to the vibe of the place.

Glad to have tried it and supported a local place, although I don’t feel the urgency...