The Abbey — Restaurant in Brookline

Let me preface by saying that I have been coming to the Abbey with my husband for 5 years. It had always been our go to spot. After work, when family was visiting, with friends- we always chose The Abbey because we loved it. I brought my family to the Abbey last week - it was one day before my graduation and two days before my wedding. My father and my brother who is autistic (this is important to note) had flown in from Texas that day and that night when my husband got off work where else do we go to kick off festivities but our most loved place. Again, my brother is autistic and had been up since 4 am. He had a single drink and we were all enjoying ourselves when the server (who has been there since we started going) came over and told my brother that he couldn’t fall asleep and that they could lose their license. My husband and I have worked in the industry for years and he manages a bar. We have had to tell our fair share of guests not to fall asleep so we know the situation but My brother was not falling asleep.

Because he is autistic his face droops and he becomes vegetal and closes his eyes when he is overstimulated and tired. He closes his eyes to recoup and ground himself. She immediately came over and gave us the check and said we had to leave. I tried explaining to her that he wasn’t sleeping he’s just exhausted and she said she didn’t care and that we had to pay and leave.

The audacity of this woman is appealing to me. As a server I would NEVER immediately bring the check- not even after two warnings not even when I cut people off do I kick them out. I also would have had the manager do it or at least double check that my opinion on the matter was correct and would have consulted them and also talked to the table to see what was going on.

She pointed at my brother, blamed him and told us to leave because of him. He was not sleeping and she didn’t even give us 30 seconds after telling us the first time before she kicked us out.

My father pulled the manager outside and explained to him that she had just done that to my poor autistic brother and how absolutely disgusting this service was. I felt livid it was all I could do not to cause a scene and defend my brother. The manager said we could stay and finish our meal and drinks but I absolutely would not stay there after my poor brother was just publicly mortified.

As we left we tipped nothing- something I have never done- and the manager stopped us and said the bill was on the house and apologized for the server and that she was new, said he recognized us and how sorry he was. Taking care of our check was the least they could do after what they did to my brother. Also the server is not new she’s been there as long as I can remember and should have known better. Quite frankly she should be absolutely ashamed of herself.

I have really debated on leaving this review but I just can’t stop thinking about how embarrassed my brother was and how guilty he felt even though he did nothing wrong. It was a horrible start to what was to be the most exciting week. . We will...

My son and I went for a late lunch; not the best experience. The waiter handed us the menus and stated, "The only thing we're out of is the stew." Not a problem. My son ordered curried eggs and the French dip egg roll, I ordered the mussels. "I think we're out of the mussels." Wait.....but you just said....... Instead I had the cheeseburger/fries cooked medium and a side salad, requested dressing on the side. It took awhile for the food to come, surprising since there were only 3 other people in the pub. My plate arrives and it's missing fries, and the salad came dressed and no pepitas. I cut open my burger to find it bright pink, not medium. I asked for it to be cooked a little more, and it easily took 15minutes, when it should have been 5 max. It wasn't because they made a new one, I hate wasting food and made a point in telling them to just cook it a little more. By the time my burger arrived, my son had finished his lunch. About those fries? The mix-up was probably a good thing. I could see a big mound of precooked fries in the kitchen. Since it was 3:00, who knows how long they had been sitting there. The staff was friendly enough, and the food was okay, but I probably won't return. Especially since the errors happened when the restaurant was...

A very average seeming modern pub. Was disappointing is that a place called "The Abbey" did not have a single Abby beer on tap we're in a bottle. Beer menu was a pretty typical set of X number of IPAs with, Guinness, maybe (?) other sort of interesting beers, and 4(?) truly bland beers for people who don't care. In other words what you'd find in probably 1000+ bars in the greater Boston area. I can't really comment on the food because all I had was truffle fries, but it was disappointing to see that they were covered with cheese and that wasn't in the menu description. The problem is that it's hard enough to get potatoes to taste really good, truffle oil can add a good complimentary flavor, but once you add cheese, all of that is lost. The flavor profile of the cheese turns the french fries into little more than a vehicle, The truffle oil overpowered by the cheese. That's the staff, both bartenders were friendly and attentive. It's clear that there are some regulars here and the place is certainly welcoming.

Concerning the beer, I'll just add that in the summer time, something more than the typical alligash white or blue moon would be nice. A yeasty saison and (in a place called The Abbey) a Belgian Tripel could be substituted for 1 or 2 of the boring...