Back in January I read food critic Devra First's review of The Abbey in the Boston Globe. I found it very interesting that two people who worked at Washington Square Tavern (Josh Sherman and Damian Dowling) opened The Abbey literally three doors up the street from their previous employer! Ballsy.
Last week I received an invitation to a birthday dinner at The Abbey. I checked out the menu online and saw very few vegetarian options. I was nervous about what I would order when the actual date rolled around.
Over the course of the week leading up to the birthday dinner, it was revealed via an email chain that when called to double check if they had a dessert menu (who doesn't want cake on their birthday?), The Abbey said they do not have dessert and you are not allowed to bring dessert into the restaurant. Hm. Bringing in a cake for someone's birthday seems like a pretty small, unobtrusive request. The person on the phone from The Abbey went even further and suggested that our large party relocate after to dinner to Athan's Bakery up the street if we really wanted dessert that badly. It wasn't even the day of our dinner yet and I was already feeling annoyed.
When we arrived tonight with our party of nine, the hostess told the birthday girl "we don't take reservations." The birthday girl had discovered this when she called multiple times over the course of the week and the person kept saying, "We don't take reservations, but come in, it's no problem." Well, it was a problem. There were no open tables when we arrived. Two of the largest tables in the restaurant had only two people sitting at them. In fact, I overheard one of the waitresses say to two patrons waiting to be seated, "Feel free to hover near that table over there. Those women really need to get up." Um. So not ok.
We waited about thirty minutes before we were seated a table in the back corner of the restaurant. The table itself was beautiful and had a fun painting hanging over it, but there was no way nine people were comfortably sitting there. We were all sitting on top of each other (and our coats! No coat rack).
The Abbey also suffers from a serious case of mood lighting. Though it's probably great for awkward first dates and romantic, heavy petting evenings, it was impossible to even read the menu.
Speaking of the menu, it was different than what is posted online. There were more vegetarian options (phew!), but not the item the birthday girl was looking forward to ordering. Ugh!
We started with the fried pickles. I order these everywhere I can. These fried pickles were ok, not great. The best fried pickles are still at Union Street in Newton Centre. I wouldn't order these again.
For dinner I ordered the eggplant parmesan which was fantastic! It was a tower, layered with breaded eggplant, tomato slices and melted mozzarella cheese over a delicious, creamy tomato sauce. Yum! Highlight of the night for sure!
Next to me (and in front of four other people) was the burger which came with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles and a huge portion of fantastic, thinly cut french fries. One friend ordered the truffle fries, which were sublime!
Someone ordered the house specialty, the bison bolognese, but she said it was too spicy. So much so, she couldn't eat it. Other diners at the table sampled it and loved it, so don't write it off.
One person ordered the special entree for the evening which was shrimp and sausage over cheddar grits. She said the shrimp and sausage were cooked perfectly and the grits were creamy and super delicious.
As mentioned before, The Abbey doesn't have a dessert menu, so once we finished our dinner, we packed up and headed out.
Let me say this, The Abbey is a physically beautiful restaurant. It has an exposed brick wall, fun art work, mood lighting, an open kitchen and a unique (mostly meat) menu.
However, the customer service from the phone calls before the dinner, to encouraging people to give other customers the stink eye, was unacceptable. I will also never understand restaurants that don't take reservations.
Though my entree was quite tasty, it wasn't enough to outweigh all the other negative factors. I won't be returning to The Abbey.
