Rowes Wharf Sea Grille — Restaurant in Boston

Beautiful restaurant interior and classy looking place to have a meal especially in the warmer months once the patio seating is available. The restaurant is located within the Boston Harbor Hotel, which is very fancy! I've stumbled into their bar with my SO last summer after our Boston Harbor Moonlight Cruise so I recognized the location immediately when one of my friends invited me to fancy Afternoon Tea for a ladies' day.

We arrived at 2:30 PM for our reservation and were seated at one of the long tables with the half booth. The staff had prepared a lovely spread of flower petals across all of the white table cloths to set the romantic mood for upcoming Valentine's Day. Priced at $45/person + tax/gratuities, I would say that this is not a good value at all especially compared to Fancy That in Walpole. (Then again there's some inflation with Boston restaurants compared to suburbs.) Besides who could put a price on quality time with friends and catching up? Our waiter fielded our questions about the tea choices and per his suggestion I ordered what I thought was a fruity tea, Orange Pekoe. In actuality upon more research orange pekoe really is just a tea leaf grading for BLACK TEA. This should not be in flavored tea category but rather moved up to the black tea section on their menu. When I first received my pot of tea I noted that it was not fruity at all and it was just black tea, so they got me a new pot and it was the exact same tea. I confirmed later on that it was just a type of black tea and nothing fruity whatsoever.

I must also point out they don't have a large or unique tea selection and the pots are quite tiny compared to Fancy That. The pot of tea only serves about 3 of the tea cups provided, and since there is no tea warmer it gets cold rather quickly. They also give you a strainer to remove the nitty gritty bits of tea leaves residue.

Despite my high maintenance fuss with the original pot of tea, we proceeded onto the beautifully arranged 3-tier tower of sweets/pastries and savory super-petite sandwiches. The other ladies also remarked that they would have appreciated more savory items ratio compared to the sweets and we were all sugared out. Some of us didn't even finish our portions! The favorite savory item was the "open faced maple smoked salmon on sweet corn cakes, sturgeon caviar" and sweet was the "vanilla bean scone" with strawberry cream. The rest of the sweets looked much better than they tasted unfortunately. All of us had a fun time and we stayed from 2:30pm until the sun set (mostly to avoid walking in the cold again). Not sure if I would come back for just the Afternoon Tea, maybe I'd try some of the...

Came for afternoon tea on Superbowl Sunday, so had the place largely to ourselves. :-) So, in general, a lovely experience overall; let's start there. We couldn't resist starting off with a bowl of chowder, which was beyond delicious (alot of potatoes, not alot of clams, but so delicious that we didn't care). Then, on to tea. The afternoon tea was charming, but the taste experience wasn't at the level of the clam chowder. As others have said, I don't quite get the idea of an amuse-bouche of hummus, as part of afternoon tea. But whatever. Scones were visually charming and well-presented, but dry. When they're small like this, and square, it's hard to master the ratio of crisp outside and tender inside. Also, could have been served with clotted cream, vs. butter. The tea sandwiches were visually lovely, but all had too much bread for the fillings -- bread slices weren't sliced thin as for tea sandwiches. I found the lobster offering --well, yucky. Weird spices. One darker cranberry bread was frankly tough as leather, vs the tender bites you want in a tea sandwich. The desserts seemed too sweet and one-tonal to me, and where was the traditional berry mini-tart with a custard base? I struggle a bit when higher-end places try to get modern and edgy with afternoon tea. People who want afternoon tea are not looking for this ritual to be re-imagined as modern and avant-garde. :-) We still enjoyed it; it just was not all it could have been. I do want to complement the staff, who were attentive, professional, friendly, intelligent, and engaging in the course of providing exemplary service. A lovely afternoon with friends, but the tea service could use alittle more love,...

It's not just about the view!!!

Although the Rowes Wharf Sea Grille has an incredible view of Boston Harbor, there is just so much more to get excited about!!!! They have so many options for dinning and eating. I sat at the bar on the Harbor Walk Terrace taking in the sites while listening to the music on the barge. The wait staff and bartenders were so welcoming, I felt like royalty being taken care of so well. A big thank you to Rowes Wharf Sea Grille General Manager; Elias Akiki who escorting me to a beautiful table on the patio with a panoramic view. During the evening, Mr. Akiki had his pulse on everything that was going on during one of the busiest nights of the year, August 30 with the incredible Boston Fireworks display. There were hundreds of folks descending on Rowes Wharf and he and his team never missed a beat, taking care of all of their needs and making it look so easy. My party and I dined on the lovely Rowes Wharf Sea Grille Patio. Our server Georgia was so warm and friendly. We started our meal with delicious fresh New England Oysters with Saffron Mignonette and Meyer Lemon cocktail sauce. For entrees we chose from some of Georgia's helpful recommendations. I had the delicious Nova Scotia salmon with jasmine rice and summer veggies. My meal was mouthwatering. Some of my guests had the 14oz Pineland Farms boneless rib eye. They said it was the best rib eye they had ever eaten. We all said no to desert until we saw the menu. Who could pass up the Salted Tahini Brownie, it was the best desert I have ever tasted. Dinner with music and fireworks at the Rowes Wharf Sea Grille was the highlight of my summer!!! I just may have to make this...