Parla XXI — Restaurant in Somerville

Very disappointed in the slow service and treatment by the bar tender. Food was subpar.

The short woman playing host was nice and polite, Star is solely for her. After she sat us at the bar nobody took our order for a long time. Bar tender finally came when i was asking about vodka shots & suggested Sin City instead- i agreed. The cocktail was just sweet fruit juice. Like others mentioned - hardly any alcohol! They dupe you.

The bartender didn't even ask about food orders, just slammed our drink and bolted away. Nobody else tried to take the food order either. Flagged the woman who had seated us earlier to ask whether the bar takes food orders and she apologized for the bartender's behavior and offered to take our food order. Again, took at least 30 minutes for the food to come and the third server just kept the dishes and went- no plates or cutlery at all. How are we supposed to eat it? Had seen the bartender offer small plates and cutlery to the couple next to us but since he wasn't coming to us, had to reach out to the same woman again and she gave us a napkin & cutlery from a drawer behind.

Food: Pecorino Chicken, Parla Burger, Crispy cauliflower. I have never eaten anything more bland. Pecorino chicken was basically a bland breast piece deep fried, Marinara sauce straight from the bottle and a dollop of cheese. No peppers, nominal prosciutto! Was just warm. Zero spices, not even salt. Crispy Cauliflower was uncooked and hard to chew, zero seasoning. Depended on the olives for some salt. Parla Burger was okay, not totally bland.

Lastly, comes the billing. This really made the experience the worst. Bartender brought the bill, not the nice woman. He tried to weasel an extra $36~. If I hadn't checked the bill, he would have added 2 more drinks which we never ordered! Tried to give us some BS about some tab being already open, us moving from the table to bar, someone else taking our food order hence the extra charge etc--it didn't make any sense! None of those happened, we sat directly at the bar and ordered the cocktail he himself suggested and made for us! He then took off the false charges after I told him we asked another server about food orders since he continued to ignore us (as if that was relevant for the wrong charges HE put). I would completely understand mistakenly adding charges to somebody's bill, but then you must realize and just accept the mistake? He instead tried to gaslight us with his BS and make us pay, until i pointed out that he never even gave us a chance to order anything with him beyond the first drink and asked him to explain the extra charges.

Our guess was he forgot to accurately bill the couple seated there just before us (we were seated there immediately) and he tried to make us pay for it or just tried to get extra $$. Either way extremely disappointing behavior and service. I was going to recommend this place for my team's next work dinner- glad i tried it out before. Never...

We visited this place because of the rolling-dice cocktails. We had four different drinks, and they are all so-so drinks without much alcohol in them.

What really disappointed us is the poor restaurant management and poor service attitude. We ordered several appetizers (one of them is fries) along with our drinks, but after we waited one hour and already finished our drinks, those appetizers still did not come. We have checked with our server at least three times and said that we would like to cancel the order if the kitchen has not yet start to make them. Without checking with the kitchen, the sever immediately said "they are coming. kitchen is making them", but the food still didn't come. How can fries take a whole hour to come? I understand that there are busy hours, but at least the restaurant should inform customers that any food will take more than one hour to come, and ask them if they still want to order!

Also, the appetizers were not good either. They were really dry, and taste like having been forgotten in the oven/ skillet for 30 min. Fries actually tasted ok , but if they take one hour to come and have no amazing flavor, why don't I go to Shake Shack?

I really wish anyone planning visiting this place checking with those constructive reviews, and then it is really easy to discover what this place looks like (long waiting time, poor service attitude, pale food, etc.). I would never recommend this restaurant to any...

Update: Went for the third and likely final time. On a slow Wednesday night, the music inside was so loud you could barely hear yourself think. We flagged down a server to ask if we could seat ourselves outside, then waited what felt like 25 minutes for them to take our drink order. He was personable, at least. Drinks were good, but not enough to justify the strange atmosphere and underwhelming service. If you want the Parla experience, go to their original location in the North End.

Original review: Great atmosphere and kind staff. Seafood/meat portions were insultingly small for the price, and not bold or complex enough to justify tapas-sized portions. Drinks are mediocre-to-good for an upscale cocktail bar. Their D20 game is a fun quirk, but has been frustratingly overcomplicated by repeated card-switching and start-overs between this location and the original.

Response to owner: the 'octopus' was a $24 salad with a tiny overcooked octopus tentacle? The scampi consisted of 5 shrimps in sauce for $23 - you can get more shrimp (with fresh pasta!) at most north end establishments for less. We've had to switch DM cards 3-4 times across your locations for various reasons (being told we have the wrong card #, being told Assembly doesn't use the NE card and vice-versa) - it just feels overcomplicated and is frustrating to keep track of when you just want to roll the die and...