Bukowski Tavern — Restaurant in Boston

Despite the name I thought I would give this place a try. I needed to kill some time while my grand-daughter was in an art class at the MFA and the place looked like a kick. I thought the food might be better than "Ham on Rye" ha ha ha, but it turned out to be even more deplorable than the novel.

I should have known better. The place was filthy and smelled like dust, grease, and Simple Green cleaning solution,even though it didn't look like anyone had actually cleaned it in a long, long time. That said, it had both good and reviews so I was intrigued and stuck it out. I spent my time there nursing a flat Yuengling Porter and semi-cold bratwurst which eventully made me very sick. The brat tasted fine at the time, but lead to something that my daughter said was probably food poisoning but my wife said was just my bad choice of menu food.

The place was nearly empty but the surly bartender who ignored the few of us that were in the bar. He wouldn't even give his name, but he had light brown hair and a very bad attitude. He would only make a grunt kind of noise in response to anyone who ordered and when one friendly woman offered to buy him a beer, he just made a snotty remark to her. In his defense however that might have been illegal. I don't know, but he wasn't very polite about it.

The clientele was very nice and I met a charming gentleman named Steve who shared some of his greasy fries with me and commiserated as to what a dump the place was. There was also a group of young women who left in disgust after not being served. They were very nice, though.

I would never go here again but it was fun to try once and call it an adventure. Based on the reviews I get the impression that the dirty dive bar effect is their schtick. If so the acheived...

Don't let this place trick you. From the outside and even when you look inside this place is dark and a little uninviting at times. But once you get in there and sit down you won't be disappointed. This is one of those places after you've been there a few times that everyone knows your name. They even have a beer club that they open up to new patrons on occasion for those real diehard regulars.

Their beer selection is pretty much unparalleled. They have over 150 different types of bottled beers and a rotating selection of draft beers that pretty much change every couple weeks. Every time I go in there I find a list of beers that I've never tried. And if you don't know which beer to pick they have a dart board that you can use to select a beer for you.

As for food, I haven't had a bad meal yet. One of my favorites is the peanut butter hamburger. You heard that right. They put peanut butter on a hamburger. And it's amazing! It goes great with their White Trash Poutine Tots. Just be ready to go home very satisfyingly full. They also have a Chili Dog on the menu that is awesome and don't forget to check out, "Today's F'ing Specials" to change things up.

The last recommendation I have is if you want to eat cheap, remember this. If you are there from I think between 12-8pm Monday through Friday and ask for the dollar burger you will get their full burger that is normally on the menu for $10.99. You pay $1 for the burger, $1 for cheese, and $1 for fries which is a pretty sweet deal and won't disappoint. Just another little thing not on the menu that they do for regulars but that anyone can take part in.

Whether it's before a Red Sox game, during a weekday work lunch, or even on a cold winter night, you can't go wrong making a pit stop at...

I was told to stop at this bar by friends since I love dive bars and frequently stop at a few others in Boston..since I had somehow never made it to this one I decided to finaly drop in... but wow the bartender was so incredibly rude I left and probably wont be going back.I asked her where an atm machine was after mistakenly asking if they could take my card.. the recommendation from my friend forgot to mention the cash only part. I'm sure I'm not the first and I'm sure I wont be the last. She gave me what sounded like very long and confusing directions involving several streets to the nearest atm.That sounded kinda off so I went to check my phone for the nearest atm. As I was sitting there checking my phone for the closest ATM literaly maybe about an exact min after her giving me directions to the atm. She comes up and very rudely and loudly asks " soooo are you going to buy anything or not?" When I politely explained for the second time in literaly a min that I needed to go to the atm to get cash she literaly huffed rolled her eyes and walked away. At that point I got up and just left.I would rather leave than give a single dime to her. How a bartender can afford to piss off potential tippers is beyond me. Literaly the single worst bartender and bar experience I've had in Boston. Maybe the other bartenders are decent but that one should be fired... chasing off sales because someone asked you where the ATM is in a cash only bar isnt a good...