Tapastre — Restaurant in Somerville

My husband and I visited this location a long number of years back. At that time, the menu was odd, it was 'this is what chef is making today", and it didn't thrill us. We've stuck to our favorites in Somerville each week there, until now! lol We recently picked up a Somerset County Brewery and Distillery passport booklet. We need to get it stamped at each location and this was on the list. We wanted to get out of the house on Saturday night and decided to give it a try. We, of course, looked up the menu and were pleasantly surprised by the offerings. We made online reservations for 5:30, outside. Fair warning, they have a $10.00 per person on the reservation charge if you cancel with less than 2 hours notice. So you have to reserve with a credit card. We parked in the municipal lot adjacent to the building. Looks like there are a few stops directly behind the place, but I assumed those were for staff. We were greeted upon entering by a gracious hostess who walked us to a table on the large wrap-around veranda. I loved it already, the porch gives air of of being some place else, maybe down south. All the needed was some hanging plants to brighten up the view! We were given a bottle of water and two ice filled glasses. Our lovely waitress, Evie, told us the specials and let us sit with both drink menus' and food menus' for a bit to decide. Everything sounded so good! They have a plethora of gin drinks, which I love seeing as so many places focus on vodka which I can't drink. But I wanted to go light, so I asked what the Seasonal Sangria is. Strawberry and watermelon sounded so refreshing, I asked for a 1/2 pitcher. Michael decided to try their Prohibitionist - a bourbon with lemon. Evie brought our drinks and was sweet enough to pour the first glass of the sangria for me (most places dump the pitcher and glass on the table and leave). Michael's bourbon drink was aromatic and tasted of a nice caramel bourbon mix. My sangria exploded with bright watermelon summer-fresh flavor! Perfectly done, not overly sweet, but sweet enough to be a great refresher! We headed into the food menu, again, bursting with options. The potstickers sounded good, as did the drunken clams, but i went with the Caramel Ginger Shrimp and Michael loves Deviled Eggs, so he went with those. WOWZA!!! The shrimp were sooooo good! Seriously - napa cabbge and crushed peanuts and scallions with detailed small shrimp, panko crusted and fried with a caramel glaze and spices. This was simply outstanding! Michaels Deviled eggs were done perfectly with the filling whipped so lightly. I enjoyed 1, but found the pepper afterbite too much for me, although the flavor was wonderful. I ordered the Pulled Pork Sliders and Michael got the Beer Mac and Cheese. My sliders were served on a board with a small cup and 3 pickles. I didn't enjoy them as much as I would have liked - the rolls were a bit on the hard side,, and there just wasn't enough coleslaw or bbq sauce to keep these from being dry. The pork was tender, and cooked well, and the sauce they did have had a nice tang to it. I would have preferred if it was served with extra coleslaw on the side, maybe extra sauce, so the diner can dress as they please. Michael's Beer mac and Cheese was yummy! Creamy and has a nice bite of the beer flavor. Served super hot too which is a nice change from other places we've tried the mac and cheese at. It was paired with grilled (griddle charred maybe?) asparagus. They were done to perfection, crisp on the floral ends to give a nice crunch and tender for the stalk. After enjoying our food, we sat for a time to finish our drinks. i headed in to find the ladies room. Again, same lovely hostess not only pointed the way, but walked me to the restrooms - so kind! The ladies room was impeccably clean and bright.

All in all, we loved it and we're sorry we've missed going there. Would like to bring friends over to sit out on the veranda for dinner one evening. We both were stuffed - very generous portions. I'm craving that...

I can't believe how good the reviews are or that they have the audacity to call it a "Mediterranean tapas" restaurant. Everything was just frozen and fried poorly -- even the "pizza" was like a greasy crepe cooked on a flat top grill with shredded cheese. The food was basically just really gross bar food. I don't know where other customers were getting their pictures from, but I highly recommend going just about anywhere else.

Edit to respond to owner: we did have the mussels and clams, which to be fair, did seem like they were cooked live, albeit not particularly well. But we also had wings and shrimp, and there is no way you can convince me the shrimp weren't frozen. If the wings were actually fresh (I'm still skeptical of this), then they were cooked way too long, just like all of the seafood and the fries that came with the mussels. We didn't complain at the time because we were very hungry and frankly didn't think there was anything better that could've come out of the kitchen, so we just ate it and paid. If it was one thing that was bad, i might have complained, but since it was everything, I'm not going to waste my time waiting for more food i don't like. The personal pizza came about 15 minutes or so after everything else, and we had one slice each and left the rest. When the waitress asked if we wanted a box, I said verbatim, "no, it was gross," and she just said OK and took the rest away. As for not being able to edit the description ("Intimate tapas bar featuring Mediterranean small plates"), Google customer service can help you figure that out, but if you havent tried to fix it for 10 years, I doubt you'll do it now. Apathy abounds at Tapastre. I appreciate the response, but will not be...

I’ve been here several times for dinner over the past few years and also once for brunch, and always have had a great experience. They have a few outside tables but seating is primarily in the downstairs, which has more of a cocktail lounge feel to it. On that note they do have an extensive list of beers and cocktails. I started with the Opportunity Hunterdon Haze which was an easy to drink IPA with a deceptively high ABV. Highly recommend to anyone that likes hazy IPAs. I also copied my buddy and got the Back to school New Fashioned which the waitress described as a PBJ drink. I really enjoyed it but my friend thought it was too sweet. We started with the bacon shareable which was a no brainer. It was very tender and succulent, it seemed to melt in your mouth. We got the truffle pork pizza; their pizza is very unique as it’s incredibly thin as a result of using tortillas instead of dough. My friend and I enjoyed it. The beer Mac’n cheese was different but very good. It wasn’t overloaded with butter or cheese which was interesting. Lastly we got the short rib pot pie, which was a very hearty portion as it contained a lot of short rib. It was my friends least favorite but I enjoyed it.

Update- I came here again with my wife for lunch and we got cheddar IPA soup, grilled Reuben and salmon BLT. The soup was different from any I’ve had but my wife and I really liked it., despite it being summer. Definitely recommend. Grilled Reuben was excellent and the side salad was nice and fresh. I was less impressed with the Salmon BLT; enjoyed trying something new but wouldn’t get it again. It came with a large portion of fries which came out hot and...