Ward 8 — Restaurant in Boston

November 8 experience:

Please see my previous experience at Ward 8 below. I wanted to include my most recent one in an update to this review in order to present a holistic picture of Ward 8.

Following October 11 and my posting my initial review, the manager of the restaurant reached out to express sincere apologies, admitting that he knew they might ring hollow. He also graciously invited my friend and I back to the restaurant to make up for our previous experience. We gladly accepted.

We had a fantastic experience at the restaurant last Friday. We were received by the same hostess as our first visit, and we found her mood and our reception to be delightful and entirely different from our previous visit. Our server knew exactly when to visit the table and when to let us enjoy our own company. The food and drinks were great, perhaps even more so because we did not anticipate to be taken care of so thoroughly. Our evening at Ward 8 could not have been better, and I am happy to say that I would gladly return in future.

October 11 experience:

Upon arrival, the hostess informed our party of two that all tables were reserved, but the bar was first-come-first-serve. The bar was packed, and there were six to eight empty tables open in the dining area. We told her we were looking for some drinks and a quick bite, all within 40 minutes or so. Would there be any way to squeeze us in? She informed us that she had reservations arriving in 55 minutes and wouldn’t have enough time to flip the table. I tried to clarify by asking if 10 minutes wouldn’t enough time to flip a table (because in my restaurant experience, it certainly was— especially if it would keep customers from going out the door unsatisfied). She said no, it wouldn’t work.

After a really long day, this was exasperating to hear. My friend and I stood in the foyer and proceeded to check OpenTable just in case it was possible to make a last-minute reservation. We were able to make a reservation for 5 minutes from the present time, and we returned to the hostess’s stand to say that we now had a reservation. The hostess begrudgingly took us to our table.

I have no idea why she did not want to seat us in the first place. It was baffling and extremely frustrating. Our experience proceeded to feature a mediocre waiter, over-priced food, and obnoxious table neighbors. The bar couldn’t make the cocktail I had selected from their menu due to running out of an ingredient. I was given a moist towelette that was bone dry. Bussers bothered us repeatedly to try to remove plates that still had food on them.

All in all, this was a poor dining experience. I will not be returning, and I will strongly recommend that my friends seek food and...

Went here for dinner with a local when I was visiting on business. My expectations weren't particularly high; I just wanted to get a drink and some good food. But I really enjoyed this place, and would definitely come back.

We started with the Moscow Mule, which is vodka, lime, and ginger beer in a cool copper mug. The drink was delicious; not hugely powerful in terms of the vodka taste, but a very nice sour and sweet refreshing cocktail. The presentation in the copper mug also just makes it better.

We got the Tuna Tartar and Fried Cheese Steak Dumplings for appetizers. My companion got the Tartar, as she knew she loved it, and it was very fresh and delicious with a nice presentation. The dumplings just sounded too ridiculously good for me not to try, and they lived up to that expectation. Four triangle-wonton fried dumplings with a moderately spicy sauce, but the meat and cheese inside the dumplings was decadent. It wasn't overly greasy, but the flavor was all there.

For dinner, we got the Salmon and the Lobster Hole. I didn't try the salmon, but it was enjoyed. The Lobster Hole was satisfying and had a good amount of lobster. It was slightly heavy on the mayo for me, and it wasn't really a sandwich, as the top layer of bread was just a tiny little piece, but again the flavor was there. The sweet potato fries may have even been the highlight. We were both pretty satisfied, but we wouldn't let our waiter take my plate until we tackled every last one.

The service/atmosphere was good, our cocktails and food were great. Nothing to complain about here. I will be back when I'm in the area, whether it be for drinks,...

I'm not one to leave bad reviews or any reviews but unfortunately I would give this place less than 1 star if I could. It seemed like a nice place to go to so I went with my cousin and a friend for her birthday. We sat at a nice table right next to the window and the restaurant seemed decent, but I can't say the same for the service... from the start we were treated with disdain. The server barely spoke to us and paid little attention to our order. First, we ordered a bottle of wine, which he spilled quite a lot at the table and did not bother to clean up or apologize. Then we ordered some appetizers and drinks, and we would have ordered more had the service been better or had the server come back to check on us. So far we weren't very pleased, but it got worse. Since it was a friend's birthday we ordered a cake, which they removed from the table WHILE we were eating and were clearly not done with. After that we were still drinking and talking when the server brought the bill without making sure we were done ordering. Because of that, we decided to order one more round of beer before closing our tab. Here comes the best part: the server said he wouldn't be able to serve us anything else because one of us spilled a little bit of cocktail on the table by accident, which he also did not bother to clean... We asked why he would not place the order and he said we could be a liability for the restaurant! We ordered food, cake, 1 bottle of wine, 3 beers, 1 cocktail and 1 martini for 3 people and I personally don't see how that can be a liability to any restaurant! So that was my full experience with...