Garrison House — Restaurant in Brookline

My friends and I dined here for the first time tonight and it was genuinely the worst service we’ve ever had. I feel bad saying that but it’s true. We sat without service for 10 minutes, then the drinks we ordered took a long time. We ordered nachos as an appetizer, they took 35 minutes to come out. We had to ask the hostess to take the menus off our table. There was no bussing, we had empty glasses and dishes on our table the entire night. We had to ask the hostess for a second round of drinks. Two entrees came out, and the waitress asked us how everything was. But, unfortunately the other two of us had to wait an additional 20 minutes for our entrees (salads with chicken) to come out, so the four of us finished at different times. We had to ask for takeout boxes and the check. Two of us are waitresses so we are familiar with the serving process, and it just seemed like this server didn’t hit any of the boxes. Also, we felt this warranted a review because her family / friends were there and they received much better service than us. They arrived after us, all of their food came on time, and received to go boxes while we were still waiting for our food. She hugged them and they left before us. It was unfair that our dining experience took two hours because of poor service. Imagine if we had been in a rush. The manager was very nice and the...

My wife and I visit Boston twice a year for our son’s medical treatment and noticed this place on our last visit. We always stay around the corner from here so we were excited to try it out. I will say the staff was pretty friendly and the ambiance was nice inside. I could definitely see us hitting the bar for a few drinks if we lived here permanently. The Cons for me would be the food and the speed of the staff. We ordered chicken and waffles which is one of our favorites anywhere but this time it was really lacking. The chicken tasted like plain breaded chicken with absolutely no seasoning. The waffle was also pretty thin and soggy from the heat of the chicken on top of it. Normally the chicken is packed with flavor, especially since it’s fried, and the waffle is normally a nice thick fluffy homemade waffle. The other issue was the amount of time it took to be seated. It was definitely longer than average anywhere else and I also noticed this with asking for the check and waiting for them to come back and get the check. I eventually brought the check up to the bar because I got tired of waiting for someone to come back and pick it up.

Overall I would definitely return and try it out again but the food definitely needs some more flavor if I’m spending $115 here’s. Otherwise, I’ll be visiting just for...

Had dinner with a friend and the food was excellent! We were here in October so there were some Oktoberfest-inspired specials. The pretzel bites were fantastic. I had the mac and cheese, which was out of this world, and my friend had the crispy fish sandwich, which had a perfectly zesty dressing and a nice, light piece of fried fish. Nothing was too heavy. The cocktails were also excellent. I've had many espresso martinis in my time, and this was up there. Went great with the pretzel bites. The pear martini was also great with food. The cheesecake and the tiramisu you could tell were made in-house.

It was a bit louder than I'd have liked; we had to should a bit to hear each other, but it wasn't unbearable. I just wish they'd seated us in a better spot. There were plenty of options available and they kind of stuck us right next to the kitchen/bathroom area. There's definitely a preference for larger parties, I think.

Service was great! Our server was attentive and when we asked for advice on the food, I could tell they were honest and not trying to upsell us on anything.

Would definitely recommend if you're in Brookline. It's a bit removed from the busiest section of Coolidge Corner so the area is a bit less inundated by tourists and...