South End Buttery — Restaurant in Boston

If given the option, I would give this restaurant a 0 star review. Two weeks ago, I was in town visiting family when everyone decided they'd like to meet up for breakfast. Having eaten at the Buttery before, I suggested we make reservations there because it was our last morning in Boston, and the food at the Buttery had never let me down.

I got reservations for 11:45 am, and we were there by 11:30 am. Because we arrived early, we decided to get coffee (4 of them) and have our coffee outside since it was a beautiful day out. The woman who took our coffee order was fine, but the woman who made the coffee was extremely rude and disrespectful.

She talked about me and my family to other coworkers and rolled her eyes when I told her my name was never taken for the order. When we were seated, they put us in the very back of the restaurant where the AC wasn't working because the windows and doors were wide open.

My sister, who was sweating profusely, asked if the AC could be turned up, but they said that the door needed to stay open for outside service. Nothing was done to help with the cooling of that back room for our entire meal. After about thirty minutes, a server finally walked over and asked if we wanted water or drinks, so he brought us those and an order of fries, but after that one server, no one steady person attended us at our table.

About 15 minutes later, a woman came over to take our order.We waited for an hour with no request for additional drinks or apologies for the long wait. I eventually went over and asked if there was an estimate for when the food would be served. In the end, we waited an hour in the heat to get our eggs, had no server asking if they could bring us anything and what's worse, we had to be the ones to get our own water at a nearby water station.All of this being said, I will no longer be patronizing at this business or recommending anyone to potentially have the same awful and embarrassing experience that I did at the South End Buttery.

My full review is...

This restaurant is fabulous! You really must go! Me and a friend went to The South End Buttery last night, Friday, 11/10/23 located at 314 Shawmut Avenue in the South End of Boston. I ordered the Niman Ranch Bacon Cheeseburger: crispy bacon, aged cheddar, lettuce, tomato, truffle aioli. It comes with your choice of fries, house-made chips or greens. I went with the fries. My meal was delicious and the burger was well done, just as I requested. Honestly, I would have loved to have ordered any one of the other tempting menu items, but I was really in the mood for fries.

My friend ordered the Herb-Roasted Faroe Island Salmon, grilled asparagus and made a menu substitution by ordering the garlic mashed potatoes. She raved about how well seasoned everything was including the asparagus (grilled just right).

Then it was time for dessert. We shared a dessert since we were stuffed by this point and very satisfied with our menu choices. We ordered the brownie dessert with your choice of a few different ice cream flavors. The brownie was deliciously warm and soft accompanied by our ice cream selection and the best whipped cream I ever tasted. It is the perfert dessert for sharing since the brownie was served sliced in half. My friend was easily able to tranfer her dessert portion her plate.

The feel and vibe of the restaurant was very cozy, whether you are dining upstairs or downstairs where they have additional seating including a fireplace. Also, there is a restroom located on the first floor and two additional restrooms downstairs. I used the restroom downstairs since the one upstairs was occupied. It was clean and equipped with a Dyson Airblade hand dryer (a fancy touch, for sure!).

The staff was friendly, professional and attentive to all of the customers in the dining area.

Overall, me and my friend had an excellent dining experience and I am confident that...

The South End Buttery is our favorite place to eat in the Boston South End. Whenever we're taking our strolls there we usually end up reserving a table spontaneously on OpenTable.

We like their short and clean menu very much, which tends to get changed a little every now and then. My favorite (as you might be able to tell from other reviews) is the burger with their parm-garlic fries on the side. The fries are to die for, but don't plan on meeting other people when you had them. You'll smell of garlic but it's fantastic! :)

The burger comes cooked to order and even rare - which is my favorite grade - is done just great. When I had a problem with the grade once, they replaced it without any issue.

When I say "they" I'm mostly talking about our favorite server Joana. Joana usually serves the outside tables and so far we had her 4 out of 5 times. She's just GREAT, very kind and especially attentive. All the other staff is absolutely nice, too!

As you can tell from the above, they have outside seating available (about 6 small tables, which they'll put together for larger groups if required). Inside seating is also very nice, especially if you are seated downstairs in their lovely basement.

Try their cocktails, too! They're all very good (we tried them all) and have actual alcohol taste, which is not very obvious in Boston restaurants.

Besides the burger, we tried salmon, pasta, hanger steak and probably more - bottom line is that everything is just great food and their chef knows what he's doing. Complaints are taken care of and are solved quickly.

Overall a nice and neat little place we'll always go to when we're in the area. If you want to see it in a movie, you need to watch the 2015 motion picture 'Spotlight' where Rachel McAdams interviewed the victim Joe in the South...