The Independent — Restaurant in Somerville

When you can't trust a new restaurant, when you need to meet up with your favorite people, when you want to select and amazing beer from a rotating selection of amazing American craft beers -- you need to be getting on the 87 bus from Davis and riding to The Independent in Union Square.

The Independent is a choose your own adventure of the most delicious and comfortable kind. For one, they have a pub side and a restaurant side. For me, the pub side is the best spot to gather with a good group of your favorite people and imbibe with ice-cold beers over delicious much-better-than-pub-food fare. On this menu you'll find grass fed burgers on brioche, deviled eggs, a small selection of oysters, pan roasted chicken and the nicest, most laid back but attentive servers. Nearly every craft beer I've tried in the past 3 years I found at the Independent first, and their rotating draught lines not only celebrate those craft beer darlings you always see, but less-common seasonals and specialty beers such as Dogfish S'ah Tea. The bar stools are the most comfortable in the entire city and have a perfect leg length to leg resting place ratio. On Sunday nights there is usually a local DJ spinning records (actual records!) of indie or soul. When the Independent did a menu revitalization, I was a little sad at first that some of the old favorites on the menu had fallen off, but the new chef has made good on his promise to keep the neighborhood favorite delicious, affordable and a great spot to be on any night...

We popped into The Independent on a random Sunday evening before hearing some music nearby. We sat at the bar and were greeted right away and poured a delicious spicy tequila drink to start (something with volcano in its name - and it DOES have a kick. We didn't think it would be as smoky as it was, but we enjoyed it nonetheless). I have celiac disease so the bartender, kitchen staff and manager all conferred to make sure I had a number of safe food choices. My friend had the "Chip and Dip" which consisted of homemade potato chips ("yum" - her word) and a french onion dip that - in her words again - was "----ing amazing." We then split the mushrooms fricasse and the statler chicken breast. Both were generous portions and both were excellent! Her polenta was pan seared to crisp up and was covered in a generous portionof tender wild mushrooms in a herby-y cream-based sauce. The chicken was tender (and the perfect complement to the polenta and mushrooms, by the way). My only comment would be to serve the asparagus separate from the smooth mashed potatoes. I added a touch of salt - but I would MUCH prefer to salt my own food than have it come out too salty. All in all, great meal - we both said we'd come back! We didn't take advantage of it, but they have a lovely outdoor...

Ok so interesting spot. Was in town with the fam, looked up spots that do dollar oysters this was one of them (Mondays 5-10pm). Table for 5 at 8:30pm/

We got a mushroom fricasee (polenta), 1 fancy salad with grilled chicken, 2 x mac and cheese and 1 indo burger. All were OK. The Mac and cheese portion is too small to be called a main dish, was more of an appetizer size. The 2 who had it were still hungry. The salad is also on the small side. Added chicken for an extra 8$ makes it a 24$ salad served in a half size dish. Burger was nice but again could be dressed up a little and maybe had a few more French fries on the side. The mushroom dish was ok 6/10. We also ordered 2 dozen oyster and those were a pleasant surprise. Good size, plump and deliciously salty. They add 3% to your bill as a kitchen service charge which is super odd. Buffer it into your price….why are you charging patrons a separate line item, seems like a weird way to say that your waiters dont share services tips with the kitchen staff. I’d Go back but would...