La Brasa — Restaurant in Somerville

Had our wedding at La Brasa with ~80 guests, a small/quick ceremony, no assigned seating, stationary and passed food. We paid for an extra hour of dancing (worth it). Mixed feelings about the planning and day-of.

PROs: Location/overall venue were great. Decor was perfect for what we wanted, we added signs and centerpieces. Food overall was good (corn, brussels, empanadas, churros), with the exception of a couple of dishes. Appreciated the flexibility with the menu items b/c we didn’t want the traditional sit-down, 3-course meal. The two female bartenders were amazing: accommodating & friendly.

CONs: Communication overall with the event manager (Katelyn) could have been much better. For my husband and I, communication and transparency are huge. #1 con was that we were not told ahead of time or day-of that Katelyn was leaving early. I didn’t find out until I was looking for her around 8:30pm that she went home for the night. Our event went until 12:30am. It's fine if something came up, but a heads up from her and an intro to who would be covering for her would have been the professional thing to do. #2 We weren't asked about bottled still and sparkling water. Blue bottles of water were put out as guests arrived. Would have appreciated the staff ask my husband or I before 65 bottles came out after maybe 1 guest agreed to still. Felt sneaky and a wholesale decision was made ($450 fyi) when it could have been pitchers or reusable glass bottles I've seen them use to serve tap water. #3 You'll be charged per head for the tasting. We thought it was included and later saw $141/person in our invoice. Just fyi. #4 The steak skewers we agreed to were almost non-existent, a lot of chicken skewers came out instead. The sweet chili glaze on the fried chicken that we agreed to at the tasting was subbed with a sweetened soy sauce the day-of. The amazing key lime custard we had at the tasting hadn’t set the day-of and guests commented on how soupy it was. #5 Multiple comments from guests: staff weren’t friendly. I thought it was just me when I arrived with our families to set up, but was too distracted to read into it. Staff didn’t say hi, looked like they didn't want to be there, didn’t care that we were there. It was a stark difference from on-site visits and everyone was friendly. Maybe that changes after you’ve paid 95% of the invoice before the event?

Finally, this is feedback about the planning process with Katelyn: I understand that La Brasa hosts a lot weddings and events. Couples can ask annoying questions. Try to appreciate that they don’t plan to have other weddings and will be paying you tens of thousands of dollars. Try not to sound condescending and minimize their questions/concerns because you do this for a living and might feel like they’re silly. E.g I asked about stationary food (where it'd be, should I make signs, how will people know) and your response was “if there is food, people will figure out how to find it” which wasn’t helpful at all. Turns out my guests didn’t know there was a whole table of great food in the dark corner next to the DJ table on the other side of the restaurant, when we agreed it would be across the bar right next to the dining tables so it’d be obvious to guests.

For couples considering this restaurant: 100% recommend the layout/vibe, bartenders, and food for the most part. Take the cons above as things to look out for and hopefully the staff takes it as constructive feedback...

My wife and I scouted wedding locations throughout 2019 in hopes of finding a reasonably-priced restaurant that could accommodate between 70 and 90 guests. We had dinner at La Brasa after seeing it mentioned as a fun venue for weddings and were impressed by the staff attentiveness, quality of food, and atmosphere. We quickly got in touch with Katelyn, the GM, and learned more about how the business typically accommodates weddings in our scope.

We booked our wedding with La Brasa and began planning in early 2020, with an April 2021 wedding date on the planner. You can imagine what happened next.

Katelyn and the team were great about keeping us informed on the state of the business and being so accommodating when it came to re-booking our wedding date. We moved it up to November 7th, 2021 and moved ahead with our plans. Thankfully, we'd all be vaccinated in time and the event was well-timed.

Katelyn was expertly communicative throughout the process and helped us amend our seating chart to configure tables to fit our guests appropriately. She was great with our feedback around the menu and helped us see to some last-minute amendments to things we wanted to include, and did an amazing job setting up our gifts table with all of the supplies we had for the evening.

We truly can't recommend La Brasa enough for an event like ours, or simply for a fun evening of authentic Mexican cuisine. Weddings are stressful events, and a team led by the likes of Katelyn makes so many elements more manageable and the day more enjoyable. Kudos to her, the staff, and the fantastic kitchen personnel who made it an unforgettable evening. We'll be back in the...

I never write reviews but for this particular experience I kinda had to. To start off, 3 of us order drinks. I order a very easy simple drink, a coke with lemon. Our waitress for some reason, as this was a hard drink to make said “I have to check if we can make it”. First off, what are you making? The lemon? The coke? I don’t know. Then my friend and wife orders their drinks. Moscow Mule tasted like a limeade, not a drip of alcohol. Shirley Temple was pretty much all grenadine. The menu was very confusing to understand. I understand it’s a tapas style restaurant but give more options for people that live in the area that can afford. I order the Tacos Carnitas and honestly the tacos looked just sad. Not only that but it’s one 2 for $10. If I pay that much. Fill it with meat. There was more salsa and sauce than meat. My friend orders the fried potatoes and it comes with a sauce, which she dropped and I know, our fault, we were very sorry and offered to clean but the waitress cleaned. However, as my friend went to use the bathroom, the waitress cleaned it with my friends napkin ... why? AND she never gave her a clean one back. We had to ask for it. Anyways, this place was just a downer. I know we have bad days and it’s Sunday, few hours before you close but doesn’t give you the right to be so serious. $116 later, the only thing that was appealing was the oysters. But than again, how can you mess that up! I love trying out my local places being from Somerville and living around. But I’d choose a different Mexican place around broadway, with a lot better and cheaper...