Earls Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Boston

I took my girlfriend on a date here today - we paid $120.17 + tip for a bacon burger, the 9oz sirloin steak with tortellini, two drinks, and dessert. The food itself was pretty good, and I enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant, but these are not the topics I wish to write about today.

The feedback that I believe is most pertinent to our experience relates to our server. We were seated at 6:51pm, with the order ticket being opened at 7:00pm when we requested sparkling water and requested a few minutes more to look over the menu. Nobody returned to take our order until 7:36pm, and I'm sure this lapse in time was noticed by our waitress. The wait isn't particularly what upset me, it was the fact that there was not any attempt made to rectify it - no apology, no guarantee our order would be pushed in priority, and certainly nothing complimentary. If I'm paying $120+ for a meal, I at the very least expect some semblance of an apology if something like this happens. What further exacerbated our frustration is that this continued to happen, we waited more than fifteen minutes to order dessert after we had placed down our utensils and called the main course finished, and we waited another twelve minutes for our card to be ran after the check was brought to us. All of this occurred while we literally watched our server help other tables, sometimes multiple times, while we waited. We left the restaurant at 8:56pm, more than two hours after we were originally seated.

Briellee, if you're reading this, we loved your outfit and thought that your earrings looked really cute, but now I just wish for you to take my words not in scathing fashion, but rather in the spirit of constructive criticism. As a waitress, when you do your rounds, instead of trying to visit each table one by one or trying to follow a certain routine (really, I'm not sure what you were taught to do), you should prioritize and approach your tables based on what they visually look like. If the menus are closed, your guests are probably ready to order. If the plates are clean or nearing clean, then they are ready to start being poked about possibly ordering dessert. Embrace the fluidity of the service, because no table will ever have the same pace, some people like to talk and take their time, others might not, but you should be able to discern your guests' pace by how their table looks. What I'm trying to tell you is that you should work on your ability to identify when you're needed, and act on that instinct in a much more proactive matter. Some people, some managers even, will try to convince you that good service is about speed and charisma. While this certainly helps, no amount of these two aspects can help you if you simply cannot be found when you're needed. All this to say if you can learn how to anticipate the needs of your tables better so that you can appear at very moment you're needed, you will find the job much easier.

When I left you a poor tip, my girlfriend caught you mouthing, "that's a fair tip," but it was only because you didn't say sorry to us, it had nothing to do with the quality of your service. When it comes down to it, I get that we're not always on our A-game all the time. You're human just like me, but it goes both ways in the sense that if you're not willing to acknowledge the mistake and apologize, it makes me feel like I don't deserve one, and that stings more than any amount of waiting ever will.

We liked the menu, we will come back, and I will update this review based on...

I dined in with my friend on Sunday night. I had set a reservation a few weeks in advance as this was a going away dinner for my friend. I had requested a window seat on the patio and was sat towards the middle. While the table was very beautiful surrounded by the plants inside I wish we had been placed closer to the window when we saw multiple tables open by them during our time. Our waitress while friendly barely stopped by our table. She didn't really check on us either which was disappointing. We got the truffle fries as an app and while they were good and we liked them they were not hot or fresh. Then for our entrees I had gotten the Steak + Sushi combo and while the presentation was beautiful you could tell my Steak was not hot either. It felt like they brought the hot dish to the Sushi station to be plated and it sat at the Sushi station waiting for pick up for a bit. Enough the steak was just room temp to touch. The server didn't come check on our food until we were half way through the meal. I wanted to have a sample of a wine as well and it took half my meal for the sample to arrive and by the time the waitress came to see if i wanted a glass we were done with our meals. It was disappointing to say the least that I was so excited to come have dinner there and even ordered truffle butter for my steak and while you can taste the food was high quality the fact it wasn't served hot so I felt like I wasted an extra upcharge on something I wasn't able to consume during my meal since I couldn't even melt the butter onto my Steak. I might try again in the future as it seemed others were having a good time and their meals were hot and fresh I was unfortunately disappointed at my whole experience there considering how much I looked into dining someplace in Boston for this going away dinner. The place was absolutely gorgeous and the atmosphere there seemed to be great I think we just caught our server on a bad night or something because I feel like had she checked in on us more frequently we would have had a chance to bring up our issues. We didn't even get a "Have a good night" or a "Thank you for dining with us" from her. The quickest she attended to us was when we paid the check. It definitely hampered us wanting to purchase more than we did intentionally.

Lowered rating due to lack of response on this...

I forgot to share my experience here until I was looking through my photos and think it’s important to still share.

Sleek and upscale are two words to describe this establishment and the three of us that came here this day really did not experience anything like that. First, it took someone an extended amount of time to even acknowledge that we had sat. Fine, those things happen. Second, they had a big picture of a signature drink on their menu, and when one of us ordered it, we were informed it was not available. (We went around 4PM on a Saturday). OK, she picked something else similar and it looked similar which again, was fine. Third, the drinks also took an extended amount of time to be delivered; mine was a martini that ended up placed in front of me in a cracked glass. We ordered the avocado/corn dip to start, which also took a long time considering it is a cold dip. I will say, it tasted good! My plate was dirty prior to my use, though. Our waitress was unfortunately not very attentive and candidly the restaurant was not busy. Which brings me to my fourth point, we were surrounded by tables with empty food and drinks for the duration of our stay… I mean something like five tables… We were surrounded. Lastly and the reason we did NOT stay for a larger meal, was that overflowing garbage barrels were being dragged so close to our table that the garbage could’ve literally fallen out. If I am paying $17 for a martini the minimal expectation is that I am not drinking it next to bins filled to the brim with restaurant garbage. We ended up laughing hysterically at the situation because it felt like a complete joke. Upscale? Sleek?? Not our experience. We were charged $68 and change for three drinks and guacamole and called it quits. I have no problem paying for an upscale experience and I don’t require much when I dine out, but this was unreasonably bad for too many reasons. I would not recommend Earls to my family and friends unfortunately. Again, I don’t require much but I just felt this was worth sharing.

Just so I don’t sound like an open-ended complainer with no photos, I have shared photos of the dirty tables we were surrounded by, the cracked glass, the dirty plate, the dip, and the garbage being wheeled by our table not once but multiple times in the early evening on a...