Smith & Wollensky - Boston — Restaurant in Boston

Went to this steak house excited to eat some good steak. We got a 10 oz fillet and a 26 oz dry aged ribeye with bone-in along with the truffle Mac and cheese.

Ill start with the good things: The service was really good. Our waiter was very accommodating and filled our waters often. She also recommended some really good red wines (which I highly recommend the “Justin” for you red wine drinkers). It may have been one of the better Cabernet’s I’ve tasted personally. Overall, she was great and provided us with good customer service.

Moving to the meh/negative parts:

For a $65 filet mignon, I was expecting better. We asked for medium rare but got medium well instead. If the filet wasn’t already tender (due to the cut of the cow) and the fact that it was still somewhat juicy for a medium well steak, it would’ve been sent back. Because of its price, I was expecting it to be cooked better or at least not so well done. Only the very center was pink which means there was a pretty large grey band (more than I expected for a medium rare). 6/10 experience because of the overcooked steak.

For the $98 dry-aged ribeye, I was also expecting better. When it was sent out the first time around, it had a good crust/sear. However, when I cut into it, it was definitely medium-well. As I mentioned above, if it was cheaper, I would’ve dealt with it and never come back but this was a $98 steak so I had to send it back into the kitchen to get a “medium rare” steak. I’m grateful they took it back and provided me with another steak. Excited for the next steak but also suspicious due to how fast it came out, I was disappointed with a “rare” steak when I clearly wanted “medium rare”. At this point, I figured I’d at least be able to eat the steak however I definitely didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have wanted to if it was cooked correctly. There was a portion of the steak that was still noticeably slightly cold which is a clear sign and red flag that it was rare aaaaanndd the steak was pretty chewy (in a raw way). Call me a baby for not enjoying a rare steak, but I prefer not to eat a live cow. Just not my cup of tea. To be fair, they did sear it correctly so there was a small grey band, but the heat/warmth definitely didn’t penetrate all the way to the center of the steak for a portion of the steak. This is my second time trying a dry-aged steak, but I still haven’t been able to taste the “dry-aged flavor” that so many covet when eating high quality steaks like this. I would rate this steak a 6/10. Perhaps I just don’t know what to look for or maybe this steak just wasn’t dry aged long enough for it to make a difference in its flavor. I’ll never know. Anyways, to the next item!

Truffle Mac n cheese: It had a lot of potential. The truffle oil used in this Mac n cheese was really good and paired super well with the cheese used, but it was just too salty. I naturally enjoy eating more savory/salty foods but this was even too salty for me which is a bummer. Probably like a 6/10 because of how salty it was, but the cheese and truffle oil from it was definitely what stood out the most. I imagine, under normal circumstances, it is actually really tasty.

Complimentary bread and butter: It had a really soft center but the outer crust and bread near the crust was pretty dry. Butter couldn’t save this one for me. It was “free” so it’s not too big of a deal.

Under cheaper circumstances, I would’ve dealt with it, but these were not cheap steaks which led to this critical review. I was just expecting more for such an expensive steak and high-end steakhouse.

The customer service and good wine definitely saved this rating from being lower.

In summary, I was just hoping for better when coming to this location. This experience may have just been a stroke of bad luck on my end on this day, but I still can’t justify the price I paid for the quality of...

My partner and I were in Boston for a few nights and came here for New Years Eve dinner. The food and our server (Mike) were fantastic. It was a shame that the manager really put a damper on our evening. He walked around looking very unhappy all night. I didn't see him smile or even look at anyone in the eye. When the bill came we wanted to use up our American cash as we were leaving the next day and asked if we could pay a chunk in cash and the rest on our card. Not the biggest deal in the world. For some reason there was an issue with this. Possibly because we have to enter card pin codes on top of just swiping and signing it as we were overseas or maybe because we asked to pay with different methods. After Mike trying a few things he called the manager over. My partner was asked (not by the manager as he didn't even acknowledge my partners existence) to go over to a payment area where my partner said the manager said nothing to him and just pushed the buttons on the machine and handed it to him. He entered the amount in incorrectly as he obviously couldn't be bothered with the situation. He then kept interfering with my partner and Mike's conversation regarding the card machine and my partner had to tell him to please leave them alone as he was making matters worse.

He didn't even say "good evening, how was your meal, apologies for the confusion" etc. Or even tell us who he was. We assumed he was the manager because he was not dressed in the uniform and he was in a suit. When you pay over $500 for dinner you expect at least that.

If it wasn't for that part of the night, we would have given 5 stars.

On a positive note - our crab starters were very impressive, the steak was delicious along with the lobster. The creamed spinach was the best I've ever had. So all in all, a great place for a nice seafood and steak dinner with lovely servers but don't expect the managers to be pleasant or even look at you for...

Unfortunately, we had a very sad experience there.

We got there at 16:30, in matter to have a nice table, the lady told us that we will need to be finish by 6…

I ordered a 150$ filet to eat something special for a special occasion wile I tought I was at the rite place for the perfect steak! I was wrong.

I ordered medium, the cut of my steak was weird therefore it was really cooked at the end and rare at the other end.

They decided to take it back for a new one, when the second one arrived, THEY decided to change my order and give me a NY strip probably because it was easier for them to cook it! At this point, my wife steak was finish so I played the game of the nice guy and said it’s fine I will eat wathever you give me and we are getting late to leave.

The manager ask me to look if the steak was ok at least! I cut it and it was rare lol!

Me and him look at each other and we were both really surprised!

I looked at him and say we should forget all this I prefer leaving the place then continuing this non reel scenario.

He offered me a free desert and I decided that no, I had enough so we decided to leave this place….

I will like to say that it is not the fault of the server and the assistant manager was so nice as well!!! All the issus came from the kitchen these guys were really kind and could not do more to help this situation.

At the end of the day, it was a waste of time and this place ruin my get away weekend with my wife.

It is really sad to see that this iconic steak house didn’t found a way to pre sent a….. Steak!

I been many time to the Chicago one and never I got a poor service like this one.

Really disappointed! But, I have to admit that the server and the assistant manager did a great job in this...