The other day, while walking home from work, I was kidnapped by one of my close friends. Well, kidnapped is a strong word. Perhaps I should say he coaxed me into meeting up for dinner by offering to pick me up on the way. Luckily for him, I was feeling tired and hungry, so it didn’t take long for me to agree. He wanted to try a new place that he had heard about called Brownstone, which is located right between the Back Bay and the South End. I had never heard of it so I was willing to try it. We had a party of three for dinner – him, another friend, and me. We were all Brownstone virgins, and excited at the prospect of, hopefully, adding a good restaurant to our list.
Brownstone is located at 111 Dartmouth Street, right near the Copley Mall, and right next to Clery’s, a restaurant/bar I had been to on several occasions. I had actually seen Brownstone, but never remembered it, most likely due to its nondescript décor. Made of mostly earth tones, it’s very easy to walk by it, thinking it’s a part of Clery’s. Fortunately, since we knew that was where we were headed, we didn’t miss the entrance.
Brownstone is not very big. It has an adequate sized bar in one corner, and high top tables and some booths spread out throughout the rest of the space. My friends and I were sat at one of the high tops, and we proceeded to browse the menu, which was not very big. We were given a 11 x 17, two-sided menu, with one side featuring its food and the other side featuring its alcohol and drinks selection. We were also handed a Specials menu, which I immediately dismissed when I saw that a tuna salad sandwich was considered a special. What?
On the main menu, there were many bar food options, like nachos, cheese fries, and burgers, which was expected since it is a bar/restaurant. I zeroed in on the appetizers, however – 3 appetizers for $15! I couldn’t resist, especially since all the appetizers sounded very tasty. My choice to do that actually prompted one of my friends to do that same, and we agreed to get six different appetizers and share. For such a good deal, what could go wrong?
Between my friend and I, we ordered the following – asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, coconut crusted shrimp, black bean and avocado bruschetta, salt and pepper calamari, citrus lime grilled shrimp wrapped in bacon, and a plate of meatballs. My kidnapper friend ordered steak wrapped in bacon and a platter of cheese fries. Seemed like a lot of food, but because we are all eaters, we weren’t worried. We couldn’t wait to start the eating.
The cheese fries came out first, and I must say, they were really good! Made of waffle fries, they were crisp, with just the right amount of cheese melted on top. The only hitch I would even write about is that some of the fries stuck together. But hey, it’s french fries. Who cares about that, right? Just pop them in your mouth.
I can’t say that I enjoyed the rest of my meal as much as I enjoyed the fries. First, the waitress got one order wrong, which I was not surprised at because she didn’t write down our order, but just tried to memorize. Now tell me, if a table orders so many different plates, like we did, wouldn’t you write it down? Granted, it was just one plate, but it was not what we wanted. I understand that it might make waiters/waitresses feel more efficient (?), accomplished (?) by memorizing, but I would be more concerned at making sure the order is taken properly. We let it slide because it was only one plate, but it was definitely a mark against the waitress.
As for the food, it was adequate, at best. The asparagus wrapped in prosciutto was too salty, mostly due to some sort of cheese sauce that they added in between the asparagus and prosciutto. Why would you add an extra sauce to something wrapped in a salty item like prosciutto? The coconut shrimp we didn’t get to taste because that was the order the waitress got wrong – we got crab rangoons, instead. What made this mistake ironic was the waitress had actually recommended the coconut crusted shrimp. Even worse, the crab rangoons were not good. The frying of them was ok, but instead of using cream cheese (like the ones we are used to), they used what tasted like ricotta cheese, which gave it a bland flavor, and there was not even a hint of any sort of crab taste. The meatballs (we got two decent sized ones) were seasoned well, but the meat was overcooked, so it was dry. The bruschetta’s only redeeming traits were the avocado and the softness of the bread. The combination of black beans and chopped tomatoes might have been a good idea if they were seasoned properly. Finally, the salt and pepper calamari was the most disappointing. Maybe I expected too much? I love the salt and pepper calamari/squid that I can get at Chinese restaurants, and this was not even close. From what I could taste, there was barely any flavoring of salt or pepper. Perhaps that is why it came with a side of a sort of spicy mayonnaise sauce. That added a little bit of flavor, but it wasn’t the flavor I wanted from a dish called salt and pepper calamari. I think I may have eaten two pieces and stopped. I was more sorely disappointed because it was the dish I had coveted the most.
Brownstone is definitely not a place I would recommend to others for dinner. Drinks, maybe. Hanging out, maybe. But if you want to actually enjoy a meal, I would not recommend it. It’s definitely not worth the price of admission.
Until next time, just keep on walking past Brownstone.
