99 Restaurants — Restaurant in Pembroke

This place could use a little help. The manager seemed in over her head, but did her best to try to make things right in the end.

In order, my experience went like this: We showed up at a nearly-empty restaurant (after lunch but before dinner) and saw dirty tables all over the place. We waited nearly 10 minutes to be seated — ultimately not a long wait, but a little annoying when the hostess answered the phone right in front of us and told the caller that there was currently no wait.

A waiter finally seated us across from a table that was a disaster. Napkins and food on the floor, dishes scattered across the table. Looking around at the restaurant staff, nobody seemed rushed or overworked, but the table remained untouched for the next 15 minutes or so.

We initially waited a few minutes for our own waiter to come around with menus and take orders for drinks. He had a great attitude and you could tell he wanted to do well, but he (and everyone we interacted with at the front of the house) could use some more training. Our empty drinks only got refilled when we asked, he didn't know what kind of soft drinks they served, and once we finished our appetizers, it took three additional trips to our table to start clearing the dishes, despite a gentle reminder/request each time.

The food was exactly the same as every other 99 I've ever been to, so if you've been to a 99 before, you should know what to expect. There was one glaring exception to this, however, which was that a prime rib ordered "medium" came out beyond-well-done. It was a shriveled husk of a prime rib that was as tough as a boot. It was a few minutes before we saw our waiter again to try to rectify the situation. He was helpful and sympathetic, but unfortunately that had been the last prime rib remaining. Instead of waiting for another meal, we opted to share the food that had showed up already.

To their credit, that prime rib was comped, a to-go meal of our choice was given to us, and they gave us a $15 gift card for our next visit. Any one of these things may have sufficed, so I appreciate the lengths they went to try to make this right.

By this point the dinner rush was starting, and all of the employees were looking a little more hurried. I wonder if they could use a few more staff to help. Our waiter disappeared with the credit card for over 10 minutes, which was weird.

All told, we spent a little over two hours in the restaurant, and we certainly didn't dawdle. The edible food that showed up was good, but there were more than a few things to complain about along the way as far as service goes.

Again, I want to reiterate that the staff was friendly, but not necessarily on top of things. Maybe they were just having an off day, as this restaurant seems otherwise well reviewed, but I think with a little focus on getting tables cleaned up straightaway to increase customer turnaround, and just a little bit of coaching for some basic waiter roles (checking for refills, clearing applicable dishes with each trip to the table, making sure there are enough place settings, getting menus right away, etc), this restaurant has potential to be a wonderful and friendly place to visit.

As it is now, though, I have no plans to return soon.

TL;DR: Good food, friendly but slow and...

Went to the 99 Restaurant in Pemboke MA two weeks ago with a friend who was buying me a belated birthday lunch . I have serious gluten free allergies and have been a strict vegetarian since 1997. And bad stomach! About the only thing I can eat at the 99’s is a Romain salad with no croutons. Seems simple enough, right? Not for the Pembroke 99 restaurant. The waitress brought me iceberg, which by the way is very hard to digest and has no nutrients. If you have any type of stomach problems you should stay away from iceberg lettuce. I kept saying to her it doesn’t look like Romain. She argued with me in front of my friend saying it was . Rather than fight and ruin my friends lunch, I ate it thinking they might of used the lighter inside if Romain. I got so sick for two days. I went to speak with the manager. He went to the kitchen confirmed my order then apologized giving me a gift for a lunch. He said he would speak to the cooks and waitresses and make sure this never happens again especially with allergies!

Today an old friend wanted to go to the 99! I said only if we go to “the Rockland 99 one because they make the best Romain salads! “ Pembroke has poor service and they don’t know how to make a salad! He was driving and went to PEMBROKE!👎🏼 I had to help my senior disabled friend order . He confused me and the waitress with whether he could have the popcorn or not finally telling her to please take it away. Losing patience she threw the whole thing in a close barrel with a loud bang!

I softly told the waitress what happened before and stressed a couple of times.-please tell the cook “only Romain,”that iceberg lettuce makes me very sick....She said she would make sure!

You guessed it she brought iceberg lettuce! She stated she told the cook only Romain!( she must of done this on purpose because no one is that Bad of a waitress or that dense🤪!) The manager said she put ONLY iceberg on the slip! Criminal-Retaliation for us being old! This time I was very angry (and originally from the city) 🤨! The manager came to apologize. Then the manager from two weeks ago came over-Wanted to get me the right salad. I said no just get me corporates phone number I’m out of here! I then said -am I supposed to eat by myself? My friend was done by the time this All unfolded! I reminded the manager that he was going to “never let this happen again!” There were literally only about three other people in that restaurant at lunch Saturday.

This sort of thing has happened to others! My friend was upset the waitress did not bring his water. She was nowhere to be found, we tried to stop another waitress who also ignored us. He had to wait forever to get his rolls . Even if you don’t have food allergies don’t subject yourself to bad waitresses, managers, food and senior haters in Pembroke! Rockland takes more pride in their services They RESPECT disabled/seniors and their food is much better...it does make a...

I gave three stars for now, but if food and menu continue to stay consistent over the next 6 months I’ll update to 4 stars.

This 99 is a mile from my house and for years I’ve ordered mostly pickup takeout for my son and I. We were always happy with the food and reasonable prices. I mostly ordered their sirloin steak, baked haddock, applewood ribs and occasionally salmon for my son.

Then Covid happened and the takeout menu became very limited. But the portions and quality went down hill , prices increased and many items I liked were permanently removed from the menu.

Then add to all that, a poster in my towns fb group posted an unsettling video of their experience while dining in and I lost all desire to go there again. Fast forward to November 2023, a friend took me there for my bday lunch. She really likes the 99 restaurants so I didn’t have the heart to disappoint her. I’m glad I went, both our lunches were delicious. She had the country fried chicken and I had the baked haddock, mashed potato and asparagus . It was so good I’ve ordered it 4 times since then. Although the grilled asparagus portion is always much smaller for takeout compared to when I dined in and there is an up charge for that specific vegetable. Also the place was packed and service wasn’t great as our waitress was super busy, rushing around and kept forgetting things.

Lastly, I’m having faith that they took care of the “problem” that was posted on fb. It’s an issue that could happen to any restaurant and the fact that it became a well known issue , I’d like to think it forced them...