Margaritaville - Boston — Restaurant in Boston

First off. I would like to express that the one star reviews that I came across on Google mere hours after the restaurant first opened to the public were disheartening. Anyone who believes that a restaurant must be perfect within hours of serving their first table ever should ask themselves: what would Jimmy Buffett do? Because he would be patient and understanding that service may not be perfect on a grand opening, especially one on Halloween Weekend.

Now for my experience: I had been waiting for this day for three years, and made a promise to myself that cone hell or high water I would be there on opening day. A friend who went earlier informed me that, whether planned or not, the restaurant was participating in a Halloween bar crawl and to be prepared for some chaos. My work schedule prevented me from getting there sooner than 10:30PM, an hour and a half before they were scheduled to close, and a half hour before the kitchen was supposed to close. The place was absolutely packed, mostly with belligerent college students, and the wait for a table was 30min. While I waited at the bar, the hosts let my friend know that even though the kitchen closes at 11, they would be staying open late to serve tables seated after 11pm, which was so kind of them! I wasn't able to actually get a drink at the bar while waiting for our table due to the crowd (not the restaurants fault at all), so we went to the gift shop. The gift shop employees were very kind and enthusiastic and I was excited to see some items that I hadn't seen at the other Margaritaville I had been to. One curious thing was that the "booze in the blender" cup sold at this gift shop was significantly smaller than the one I bought at the Las Vegas location. I wonder if that's due to some kind of alcohol regulation? Anyways, we got our table within the 30 minute wait time, and our server Alex took our drink order within minutes of us being seated. I forgot just how extensive the cocktail menu was, and I already have a list of drinks I'll be returning to try! Our drinks came out very quickly (in plastic cups, which I didn't mind, but I wonder if this is temporary due to the volume of the bar crawl/grand opening) and my "Perfect Margarita" was, well, perfect! Our food came out equally as quickly, and my coconut shrimp was tasty! I do wish it came with more of the sauce, since the small container meant I had to use it sparingly and couldn't dip my fries in it like I did last time I got this item at another location. One thing I noticed about this menu was the lack of Lava Lava Shrimp. I understand that the menu varies by location, but the Lava Lava Shrimp is a Margaritaville staple that I was hoping to try. I would love to see this item in a future menu expansion. Alex checked in on us a perfect amount of times, and was so kind and prompt! I was really impressed with how she seemed to serve all of her tables so quickly given this was Margaritaville's first day open to the public!

The food is one thing, but I was seriously impressed with all of the staff. Not only was it their first day of service to the public at this restaurant, but it was Halloween Weekend, and this restaurant has been LONG AWAITED by Jimmy fans who were determined to make the opening day pilgrimage. I witnessed the bartenders mixing drinks (that are likely very new to them) efficiently, the hosts were patient with crowds of already drunk costumed folks expecting tables, and the servers all seemed on top of their game and upbeat despite having to stay late and deal with an endless crowd.

I was a little underwhelmed by the decor, but understand that the space is too small to accomodate a large airplane statue, Margarita volcano, or giant blender. I think the interior was the best it could be given the smaller space, and I liked the table tops, oars on the walls, and TVs of Jimmy serenading you visible from every table. Overall this was an excellent grand opening experience. Congrats to the whole team and my compliments to Alex! I know Jimmy would be proud of...

So atmosphere first. It is the bare minimum for a margaritaville. It's in Boston, so of course it can't fit much space in, but there really wasn't much decoration, especially compared to other margaritavilles. The fact that the TVs which were supposed to play just Jimmy Buffett concerts mixed ads in as well was the icing on the cake of mediocrity. The food was fine. We got onion rings, fried pickles, a garlic bacon burger, and a fish and chips. The fried pickles were great, but fried pickles are always pretty good. There were only about 8 onion rings, which was underwhelming, especially when split between 2 people. The burger came with no seasoning, and a little too well done for my partner's taste (though they didn't ask how they liked it). The burger did have bacon, but the garlic, which was aoli, was a single tiny dallop in the middle. This cost $20. My fish and chips were fine, fairly standard, but they were pretty tasteless, and I didn't get a lemon with it. Maybe that's just how they do it there, but this is the first place I've ever been to where they serve fish and chips without lemon or lemon juice. So all in all, the food ranged from fine to a little sub par. However, all of this cost around twice as much as what it would elsewhere. I know Boston is expensive, but these prices do not fit the aggressively mediocre. What I just listed was a fairly standard meal for 2 people, and wasn't even enough to fill our small table, yet it ended up costing a little under $100. And this is where the nightmare of this thing started. We were ready to pay and leave, we got our check, reacted to how expensive it was, and gave our credit card to the server. After a fairly long wait given how empty it was, the server comes back and gives another table our card, and gives us their card. We point out the issue and she swaps them back. My partner checks their bank account to be cautious and realizes we've been charged about $6 more than our check says. We realize that we have been charged the other family's check and they were charged ours. We are rightfully annoyed, especially by the other family deciding to just leave without righting the issue. We wait patiently for the server to come over so we can tell them what happened. Once she does, she goes and gets the manager, who then takes about 5-10 minutes to decide what to do. We are given the options of getting the check voided and redone, and he will then pay the missing money himself, or he offered to just give us $6 out of the register. We are tired of the ordeal and just want to leave so we take the $6. Let it be known that we in no way blame the waitress. Mistakes happen. If anyone's to blame it's honestly that family that just decided to leave despite knowing they paid for the wrong check. This would be where the nightmare ended, if my partner hadn't just checked their bank account again, and discovered the charge for $90 or so that this was all about had been replaced by a charge for $113, which is more than either our check or the family's. We didn't keep our receipt so we can't do anything about it now other than spread this horror story. Don't go here. If you're willing to pay these prices, there are restaurants 10x better that won't literally and figuratively...

I mean, if you're choosing to eat at a Margaritaville in the largest tourist trap area of Boston, you know exactly what you're getting here. A very typical uninspired menu, mediocre but not-bad food, drinks made from cheap alcohol that are masked by a ton of sugar, and lots of Jimmy Buffett posters on the walls. If you're expecting this, you'll be very pleased.

Our group decided to give it a try recently (because why not), and the staff was absolutely the best thing about the experience. Our server was excellent and very personable, and the front-of-house staff were also great and very friendly. It could have been that way because the restaurant was completely dead... in fact, there were 4 groups in the entire restaurant and they closed down early ... we were the last out.

The fried pickle appetizer was pretty good and had a nice peppery kick which I didn't expect. I had a burger, which was fine... it's a typical chain restaurant burger... tasty but nothing special. A couple other folks in our party didn't really enjoy their meals, particularly the fish tacos which had very little flavor. However the chicken quesadillas got a "hey that's pretty good" from one person.

I had the Top Shelf margarita (which interestingly was less expensive than other margaritas), and it was pretty decent but incredibly sweet. I've had so many better margaritas almost anywhere else. All the other drinks were universally semi-disliked at our table, mostly for being way too sweet. Only one person said the drink was actually "bad"; most people just said they were sickeningly sweet. But the kind of person who comes to Faneuil Hall to eat at a Margaritaville probably likes overly sweet drinks, so if this is you, you'll like this.

I really enjoyed the way they decorated the walls with photos of Jimmy performing at Fenway... I thought this was a really nice detail and it was tastefully done, so bravo for that.

Overall, if it weren't for the excellent staff, this would have been a very meh experience. But the great service, humor, and personalities of the folks that work there made it kind of fun, although I don't see a reason we'd ever necessarily go back when there are so many other...