Conrad's Restaurant — Restaurant in Walpole

Conrad's is one of the better-known destinations for "Marinated Steak Tips" (or simply "Tips") in the Boston area. "Tips" are skewered cubes of cheap beef that have been marinated for days and then grilled over an open flame so that the sweet marinade caramelizes with the charred meat, usually accompanied with slices of peppers and onions grilled on the same skewer. Marinated Steak Tips are a well-established part of Boston's micro-regional cuisine, a menu staple in most family-run American restaurants in the area that is as popular as Clam Chowder and Fenway Franks. It was thus surprising when I left the region that I found that "Tips" are not available elsewhere.

I was not disappointed at all with Conrad's "Tips." The marinade is sweet without being distractingly so. Flap steak is usually a very tough cut of beef, but here it has been tenderized with the marinade such that the resulting "Tips" are easy to chew and eat.

I was advised by my wonderful Brooklyn-born bartender to order them "medium," which seemed reasonable to me. This is not fancy meat, and if you could eat it and enjoy it medium rare like a more popular chop, you wouldn't be able to buy a pound of it and two sides for $15 like you can here.

It's always fun to wonder about the "Steak Tips" marinades, well-guarded secrets of each of these restaurants local to Boston known for their steak tips. If I had to guess Conrad's recipe, I'd say it is principally based on a mixture of Coca-Cola, ketchup, and Italian Dressing - which is similar to how most places around Boston do it, and even one place way out in Southern California that has started to experiment with this: my kitchen.

I also had the "French Onion Soup," which was decent for a starter - rather than one circular crouton, they use crouton cubes likely from a bag, which is a bit of a cheat - but I wasn't really here for the soup.

Conrad's has two locations relatively close to each other - this well-lit restaurant in Walpole, and the original gloomier location in downtown Norwood, the latter of which is inferior in this diner's humble opinion. Conrad's menu is comfort food oriented, and although I'm sure they do other things well due to their reputation, nothing really jumped out at me as "must try" other than the Steak Tips. Staff are friendly and excellent, and are part of the reason I'm willing to drive a bit from where I'm staying in RI...

In regards to the Walpole location and in particular the island-sitting area across from the bar. Hostess stand/ is not complying with state mandate regulations for safe distance while eating by letting people in and telling them that they can sit in that location if space is available. People came in and sat right next to us after we politely asked them not to, so we complained to the waitress and she told us to move to a high top that was empty. We did and a minute later we were asked to get up by someone from the hostess stand, I assume manager that someone else needed that table. After explaining why we left and that we sat there because our waitress told us to she was apologetic about the safe distance issue but did nothing about it. Offered another table but we would have to wait after we already ordered a drink. Where were we going to go.. waiting area holding a beer?? Have picture to prove violation but will not post online to maintain people’s privacy. The issue here is not the bad customer service but the lack of respect and not following guide lines while placing people’s health...

Went Saturday for lunch and it was great.Had to work late Saturday night .I called to see what time they served food until. The girl told me 10:30. I headed down got there about 9:40 sat at the bar. The bartender came right over and got us a couple of drinks and asked if we wanted menu's . I said yes please, she gave them to us and never said anything else. I looked at the menu and made up my mind quickly.Sat there waiting for one of them to come back. Finally at 10:05 I told one of them I wanted to order. She informed me it was only pizza and app's after 10. Real helpful. I was not happy. I do not care much for their app's.Ordered some mozzarella sticks. They took a while .I did hear the girl telling someone to check on them. They were almost cold in the middle. Ate 1 because I was so hungry then went home and had slice of pizza at the house. This is the 4th time that I got screwed over on a saturday night.This place sucks at night awful help!i ONLY GAVE IT 2 STARS BECAUSE...