TURNPIKE MARKET — Restaurant in Billerica

My wife and I went out to dinner two weeks ago (Friday evening) and sat on the patio. When we were sat we were told the drink menu is online. I went online to check out the menu and came across a "Mocktails & Cocktails" section, which further explained that mocktails are non-alcoholic versions. The first drink on the list was an "almare italian spritz". When the waitress ordered our drinks I ordered an "almare italian spritz mocktail" (yes, I even said mocktail). Our drinks came, I took a sip and thought it tasted weird but figured it was just some bitter ingredients. My wife even tried it and thought the same thing. After a few more sips, I figured there was alcohol in it so when the waitress came back over I asked her if the drink had alcohol in it. She told me it was made with prosecco and a couple other things. I told her I asked for a mocktail and she told me that wasn't an option and she must not have heard me. After explaining my confusion about it being under a "mocktail & cocktail" category, figuring you could order any of the drinks as either, she pointed out that wasn't the case. I mentioned that it was absolutely not ok this happened, and thankfully I just live an alcohol free lifestyle and not a recovering addict, which couldn't spiraled someone. I then just ordered a soda water to not deal with any other issues.

We then waited almost an hour for our food. Apparently my wife's burger was made incorrectly and needed to be remade. I can't confirm, but I did see our waitress talking to the someone in the kitchen mentioning my meal. I'm not sure if the burger being cooked wrong was the whole truth but either way, we waited a long time. They offered my wife a complimentary refill on her drink (alcoholic) for the wait. She accepted. Nothing for my wait.

We got our food and ate, which was good, no complaints. We've eaten here before, we even catered a party with over $350 worth of pizza. So we knew the food was good.

But here's where it really bugged me. We got the check, and my $4 soda water was on the bill. I know it's petty, but not getting that comped after serving me an alcoholic drink when I ordered a mocktail, and the waitress not listening, was very frustrating. I paid, even tipped (probably shouldn't have) and left. I called the next day and asked to speak to a manager and was told one wouldn't be available until the following Wednesday. I called on Wednesday, spoke to Kinnary (excuse the spelling), and told her I'm the reason the menu is now changed. She didn't seem to even know what I was talking about. I filled her in, and she questioned why I was calling 4 days later, to which I told her I was told a manager wouldn't be available until today. She then told me she needed to speak to the server to get more information and she would call me back. I gave her my number and never heard back. That was 9 days ago.

One other thing that really bugged me that night, a couple with a newborn baby were trying to have a nice evening out. The baby got a little fussy so they brought a stroller up to their table to lay the baby down. Our server told them strollers were not allowed (even though there are no signs saying that and the patio was pretty empty at this point). So the poor parents had to now worry about holding and calming their baby while trying to have a nice evening out. I get during a crazy busy time you don't want the area cluttered with extra things as servers have to get around, but in this case they should've let it go at 8:15pm.

Regardless, I'm not even looking for anything at this point. It's something that should've been dealt with at the moment and I regret not doing so then. But I also think they need to understand how lucky they are that it was me they served the alcohol to and not someone else. Suffice to say, we...

This is an update from the original review for the store/pizza joint from years ago to the lakeside restaurant now*

We always wanted to check out the restaurant because of the stunning lakefront patio ambience. The stars on this review reflect the ambience alone and nothing else.

There are so many conflicting issues about this place it’s even hard to start. I guess it will be easier just to itemize the issues as follows:

1. Food is overpriced for what they deliver.
2. The restaurant has an “Italian“ name to it, but it’s more like an American restaurant with an Indian twist on the dishes.(We had what the menu described as “Shrimp Scampi” but it had an awkward curry/aromatic spices taste).
3. We ordered a Sangria but honestly it was a straight-from-the-bottle-ready-to-serve drink with ice AND THAT WAS IT! No garnish, no apples, no lime, no lemon, no fruit whatsoever. $10 on literally less than 4oz drink (ice included). I’m not even joking!
4. Kids options are all $10. Kids pastas offered red or Alfredo sauces but up charged $2 without any notice on the menu at all.
5. When it’s time to pay for the bill they simply tell you how much it cost and ask for your card to run on a handheld device.(only found out about the sauce up charge when asked for a descriptive receipt which by the way they don’t bring it to the table but ask for your card to charge on a handheld device after telling you only how much the bill was!)
6. We ordered soda and had to request several replacements because every one of them was watered down (strangely felt like it was to save on soda syrup…). Gave up on the soda and asked for water at this point…
7. After informing the server about The shrimp scamp issue. She simply took the plate away (after literally taking a bite of the pasta to decide it was impossible to continue trying it) and did not remove it from the bill justifying that all the dishes were made by the same cooks therefore they could not have different tastes (????? That was a very confusing statement btw).
8. when we were ”told” about how much the bill was we asked if we were still paying for the scampi disaster to have the server reluctantly remove it from the bill as we said unfortunately we would not pay for the dish because it was not at all what was described on the menu.

Total chaos…

Other guests around us were also questioning bill accuracy… kind of shady…

This is such a shame because we have been looking forward to enjoying that place as we watched it grow and become a beautiful restaurant. I guess “don’t judge a book by its cover” fits just right here…

Not sure if ownership changed from the time we left the original review here… a real shame.

The store is so clean and neat like I've never seen a liquor store before. Not only a liquor store but they make INCREDIBLE pizza and serve the most amazing cupcakes ever!!! So fortunate to have...

A must visit for craft beer and italian food lovers! Saw the restaurant randomly on Facebook and after looking more into them it sounded too good to be true, but it truly was!

Knowing where to go to dine-in was a bit confusing because there wasn't really signage posted, so we walked into the market area in the front in which the workers kindly told us it was around back. We hadn't known this before but it's only patio seating which makes sense for where to go. The patio outlooks a beautiful lake setting so we chose a seat closest to the water and railing and it was perfect, especially with the sunset.

The service was pretty prompt at first but took a little while to get take-out boxes/ check. The waiters/ waitresses were busy talking with so many other guests that they kinda left us in the dust for a bit. Luckily we weren't really in a rush so waiting was fine with us. But our waitress was super super nice and informative about the restaurant, we liked her a lot.

The beer selection was one of the best I've seen in the area because they had some of the top breweries around if you're a craft beer lover. I decided to go with Trillium and Widowmaker for my beers but it was pretty hard to choose since there were so many good ones including Other Half, Belleflower, Schilling, Foam, and Bissell to name some. A great problem to have! My girlfriend got a Trillium as well. Also don't forget to check out the market for great cans to go!

The food menu had so many good items on it as well, so it all sounded delicious. We got the jumbo bacon tots for an app that was very good. It had a crispy bacon outside, and soft inside with a little cheese too. The chicken parm I ended up getting was super good, absolutely nothing wrong with it at all, with great sauce, pasta, crispness and tenderness, cheesy, a great meal to pair with great beer. My girlfriend got the Alfredo pasta dish and my bite of that was very creamy and delicious. We both walked away with leftovers and were full.

We will definitely come back to try the other food options and enjoy great beer! It's just a shame that it's only patio seating and will close for winter. The waitress said there could be small indoor seating in the same location, or another restaurant location with it at some point, so let's hope...