A Rare Miss

Last night was the first time I can remember that a Harvard Square restaurant disappointed me. The next few weeks are super busy so JO and I decided to head into the Square last night for a dinner.

Since we had recently been to our go to restaurant Daedalus we decided to go to the Russell House Tavern. We had been there once before, during opening weekend, and it had been enjoyable. We weren't able to get a table outside but they did have seats downstairs in the dining room.

That was strike one. We followed the hostess downstairs and she sat us at a high-top table for two even though there were lots of empty tables. There was even a table for two in the corner. I'm not a huge fan of high-top tables and I especially don't like them when I'm trying to relax on a Friday night. This table was removed from any of the funky lighting they have down there so we were also in the dark. What really got to me was that a few minutes after we sat down they sat a party of two at a big four person table.

We had a very strange waiter, at one point he referred to JO as a "puppy" because he thought he looked so young. He even acted surprised when we said we had been to the restaurant before responding, "And you came back?" Most of the complaints on yelp are about the service. This guy wasn't bad but he wasn't good either.

We decided to order the "wine on tap" just because we couldn't pass up the chance to say we had tried wine on tap. We didn't have very high expectations for it but it was really horrible. It was like drinking a wine cooler. It really shouldn't be on the menu but I can't blame our bad wine on the restaurant... we knew better than to order wine on tap.

I really like the idea behind this restaurant, fresh local ingredients and all domestic drinks. I can really appreciate that, but it seems like most of the dishes sound delicious except for the one "strange" ingredient like sumac honey. I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to eating out but this place pushes my limits. I ordered a burger and JO got some sort of yogurt chicken and cucumber sandwich. We got a short-rib wellington appetizer.

The appetizer was cooked very nicely, the meat was super tender. That being said I had to give the place a second strike for the amount of salt they used in the dish. Unfortunately, the rest of the food was also overly salty. I could feel my insides puckering up. Even my pickle was extra salty and super spicy.

Third strike came when my burger arrived. It was also rather pink but the strange lighting made it hard to tell for sure. I loaded up on fries and ate the bits of the burger I felt were safe. When we got outside with the leftovers we realized just how pink it really was.

I don't remember the last time I left the Square disappointed in an evening. I might go back to this place in the winter to enjoy the bar, but I don't think I'll be eating there much.