Petit Robert Bistro — Restaurant in Boston

I've been here a few times now, and a couple of weeks ago they were having a special "Lobster Party" menu that I thought would be nice to try. It was a $95/person 5 course meal with an optional wine pairing. The entire thing ended up being an absolute DISASTER.

The problems started when we were given the wine pairing despite not asking for it. Easy enough mistake. I told our server we didn't want it and he took them away.

Then it started getting worse. It took 30 minutes to bring us the first course of a couple of small fritters. Then it took another 30 minutes to bring us our next course which was a cold lobster salad on a piece of toast. At this point I was already annoyed that we had been there for over an hour, and had only gotten 2 of the 3 appetizers courses. Not to mention even that the main course and desert were still missing.

I asked our server, who had been almost entirely absent during this whole time, what was going on and expressed my displeasure with the delay, and was given an answer along the lines of "there was more demand than we expected". For some reason they were still running their regular menu alongside this special menu, and it seems like this had completely backed up the kitchen. From what I saw no one was getting any food. It was about another 30 minutes before we got our next course which was some lobster ravioli, which was good but not notable.

At some point we were given a couple of glasses of wine as a token of apology for the delay. I appreciated the gesture, but was still pretty annoyed that things were taking so long.

Now, 2 hours into our dining "experience" we were given the main course - a baked lobster tail. Only it wasn't a full lobster tail, it was a half of a lobster tail. My guess is that they didn't have enough lobsters for the demand, which begs the question why didn't the front of house and back of house communicate this before accepting more orders for the lobster special? To add insult to injury - the half lobster tail was awful. It was completely overcooked. It was chewy and flavorless. My partner spent so much time chewing that her jaw was sore. Eventually we got our desert, which was fine. It took us nearly 3 hours total for this trianwreck of a meal. We probably should have left after the first hour, but the sunk-cost fallacy had fully set in. Our reservation was for 7:15 and we left after 10pm.

When it came time to pay the bill I checked to make sure we weren't charged for any of the wine that we didn't order. Thankfully none of that was added to the bill. Our server scanned my card on a handheld machine, and set it down on the table for me to choose a tip option. He stood at the table and chatted with us waiting for me to put in a tip. I intended to leave a very small tip since the service was terrible and the whole experience was abysmal, but I wanted to wait for our server to leave so I wouldn't have to do that in front of him. He never left, and he took the scanner without me inputting anything for the tip. Fine - I thought - nothing in this experience warranted a tip.

Imagine my surprise when I checked my credit card statement today and noticed that a $46 tip had been added to my charge without my consent! To top off this disaster they're now stealing from me. I will be disputing this charge with my credit card company. These people are thieves, and I will never be coming back, and I recommend everyone else...

I so wish this place was better. Being in town for University Parents weekend, we were looking for a brunch place. We first went down the street to a small sandwich shop, Charley’s(?), put our name in, but the wait was extremely long, so we walked up the street to Robert’s. I have to say, even with no reservation, they took us immediately for outside seating. :) We were a party of 3. The place was absolutely charming, outside and in. Our waiter, I wish I could remember his name, was delightful and very accommodating. Unfortunately, that is where the fairytale ends. We ordered the burger platter, eggs Benedict, and eggs over easy, potatoes, bacon and toast, coffee and water. We waited over an hour and a half before our food came, as was the case with most of the tables around us, who were all sitting idle for at least 90 mins without their meals. My dish,Eggs Benedict was tasty, my only complaint would be that no one ever came back to offer a second cup of coffee (coffee was delicious, btw), my husbands eggs over easy was missing toast and bacon and my poor daughters hamburger was disgustingly RAW, even though she requested well done. I noticed the table next to ours, the woman there had not touched her burger either.

The waiter, Bless his heart, felt badly (i mean the thing looked like it literally had just been slaughtered) and did not charge us for the hamburger and actually brought my daughter a chocolate mousse dessert which made her smile. The bacon never arrived, The waiter did bring my husband one piece of toast, but by the time he got it, the table buser had taken away our plates. :(

I’m not sure what kind of commotion was going on in the kitchen today, but seeing all the people at this restaurant, I’m guessing maybe they were just having a really, really, bad day . I would have marked this rating lower, but our waiter saved the day!

We won’t be back, but maybe if we were locals, we would give it another shot...

My date and I arrived to our reserved table non a Saturday night in March at 8pm. We were told us when we sat that our reservation was only 90 minutes long. We ordered in the next fifteen minutes and after we got our appetizer (snails) pretty quick.

Unfortunately next we waited almost an hour for our entree. To add insult to injury, one of which was the salmon which was rather undercooked and had to be sent back for a bit more time on the grill. I also ordered some mussels which were entirely omitted.

I honestly think our server forgot about us until we reminded her we were still waiting, and then she rushed the cooks for the food (hence the undercooked duck). That's my best guess.

The food (other than the salmon) was really pretty good. The duck (Margaret) was absolutely delicious, the ratatouille that was with the duck was so flavorful, the cocktails yummy.... but waiting almost an hour for pretty quick cooking meals (duck and salmon) only to be served something borderline raw kind of ruined the evening.

I was worried that being swanky French place would mean the portions would be tiny but was pleasantly surprised: they were not giant, but they were ample.

The atmosphere was lovely and lively (although covid partitioned). The server otherwise was attentive and friendly, as was the rest of the staff. She did apologize for the extremely late dishes, I just wished she would have comped our dessert for the trouble (the giant profitoroll) but she didn't. Oh well.

My date (with the duck) tried to be a good sport about the evening but I still felt embarrassed.

I would go back here and still recommend going here, because I think we just had bad luck, to be honest. If I do, I will...