Durgin-Park Restaurant

Decor: I felt like I was in an 80s sitcom. Weird lighting and plaid table tops.

Food: I came here for lunch and I ordered the Baked Boston Schrod w/ Mashed Potatoes & Mashed Sweet Potatoes ($16.95)
They gave cornbread with butter to start. Super dry.
The Fish was fine but the flavor was bland. I definitely needed Salt & Pepper. The Mashed Potatoes were okay. The sweet potatoes were too sweet so I didn't eat that.
For $16.95, not worth it. Maybe if it was $5 and if I am super hungry. (I know I am mean)
My friend got the roast beef sandwich or something with fries. She didn't eat all of it and I tried the Fries and they tasted...old?

Service: Pretty bad. Our server didn't pay attention to us. The food took about 35 minutes to get out to us. Perhaps that's how long my baked fish needed. I used to be a waitress so I can be quite critical on service yet also sympathetic. The restaurant wasn't busy so they had no excuse. Once we got our food, our server didn't even check on us until much later. I had to call on another server just to get my server to give us our bill. When we got our check and threw credit cards down, it took her another billion years to pick it up. I wanted to put my meal on my card and my friends on hers...but my server couldn't figure out how to do that. LIKE IT ISN'T THAT HARD. We just ended up splitting the check.

Would I ever come back? Probably not. Maybe to just try the Indian pudding. But VERY UNLIKELY.

The atmosphere has not changed in all these years!
The wait staff were helpful and pleasant.
The dining room was packed on arrival and they had a later big party on the upper floor.
My lobster bisque and stuffed shrimp were so delicious! The chunks of lobster in the Bowie were equivalent to a small lobster tail.
My Apple sin martini was amazing and so refreshing. All flavors were tasted down to the butterscotch essence.
Overall a fabulous dinner!
My one complaint is the stair climb to the dining room - if needed there is a lower bar and outside dining for those with ambulation difficulties.

Durgin Park is definitely a little touristy for the neighborhood (it's in the Quincy Market / Faneuil Hall), but don't let that stop you. I was here for dinner on a weeknight with a colleague because we wanted MEAT for dinner and we definitely had some.

Meatballs to start were served very hot in a small bowl with marinara sauce and some garlic bread. Good texture, very tasty and I managed not to wear any of it which is always a bonus for me.

Not long after, our waitress brought the steaks. Medium rare as requested, a solid cut. Served au jus and with a pot of horseradish without even asking, the meat was delicious. I had the "Yankee Cut" which is 16 ounces and it delicious. A bit of fat, as you can see, but that's how prime rib goes. I chose baked potato and steamed cabbage for my sides and they were both great.

They have their own beer, a Durgin Lager that was quite good.

Getting containers to take the leftovers home was super easy - small plastic containers with sealed lids. Excellent.

Not expensive at all for a beefy dinner. I could see returning to Durgin for sure.

Atmosphere: 3 Food: 4 Service: 5 Value: 5

Nostalgia it is for me here year after year!
Gone are the days of purposefully rude servers!

"We are across from Hard Rock Cafe" I heard!
Gone are the days of this to be the IT in Boston!

Climbing the old and creaky dark stairway!
A whiff of warmth that I'm back once on top!

Checkered red and white tablecloths!
Lead me to Station 1 by the window with KIM!

Always Prime Rib and Boston Baked Beans!
Later, Indian Pudding or Strawberry Shortcake!

Nothing Fancy, Plain and Simple!
A medium rare cut that melts in your mouth!

CHEERS!

Durgin-Park shut down as of January 12th of this year, completing its role as a restaurant that has served millions of people in three separate centuries of operation. Another unfortunate closure of an iconic Boston restaurant.

Over the past two years, I've watched helplessly from California as my favorite Boston restaurants have closed -- mourning from afar as L'Espalier, Tremont 647, Blue Ginger, Strip-T's, Brassiere Jo, and Jacob Wirth have met their end. Unlike the shuttering of these restaurants, the recent closure of Durgin-Park made me angry rather than merely sad.

How a 192-year-old restaurant can be allowed to close is shocking in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a state so proud of its history and hell-bent on preservation that you can't tear down a 100 year old tool-shed without approval from the state legislature.

While people will mostly remember Durgin-Park's chowder, Indian pudding, and baked beans, my fixation was always the "Boston Scrod," a dish I used to highly recommend to friends or family visiting Boston who wanted to eat in or around Faneuil Hall. The tried and true regional formula of "ultra-fresh seafood + bread crumbs + butter + oven + fresh lemon" represents the very best that Massachusetts has to offer in terms of cuisine, and very few restaurants will ever do that better than Durgin-Park did.

People talk about how "surly" the service staff was at Durgin-Park, supposedly a gimmick put on for tourists - but perhaps as a local I never really noticed this. I do recall ultra-generous pours of liquor, one time ordering a Glenlivet and having half a bottle poured into a pint glass with a wink and a "Merry Christmas." Whatever their reputation, these were good people, and I hope they've found gainful work elsewhere in the city.

In the meantime, I plead with Bostonians to support real restaurants like Durgin-Park. When we allow places like this to close, we lose a bit of dining history and heritage that we will never get back.

Food-Décor-Service: 4.1/3.1/4.2

A SAD DAY FOR THE CITY OF BOSTON! THE HISTORIC DURGIN PARK CLOSES ITS DOORS AFTER 192 YEARS OF OPERATION! There was a HUGE CROWD with LONG LINES to get in & yes they ran out of Food. They had to shut the line off early there were so many people who wanted to get in for the last time & could not, It was that crowded. Their specialty items they were known for here were The Boston Baked Beans, Indian Pudding, Yankee Pot Roast, & Boston Schrod. I know the food here just was OK, but the Bar downstairs was Great with so much character. They even had Entertainment in the basement too. It is a SIN that the Historical Society or someone from the Restaurant community or big celebrity didn't step in to rescue this iconic gem & revamp it with tastier food options on the menu. It could have turned this whole place around & it could have been saved. Durgin Park had such a rich history since opening in 1827 & was located in the Historic Faneuil Hall of Boston. Their logo on the front says Established Before You Were Born. I hope that they at least keep the integrity of the building & keep it as a restaurant with a new & improved menu so that Durgin Park can still live on in some small way. They have already auctioned off items from the restaurant. Well at least I got some great pictures here & a glass of their own House Brew for a Toast & a Final Farewell to this iconic institution in Boston. Sad Day!
It used to be, you had to have mega bucks & be really rich to have the Good Life, not anymore. The Game has changed. You've been Upgraded. Now You Can
Live Like a King on a Limited Budget!

It's so sad to know Durgin served it's last meal yesterday. I'm happy that I have at least come to Durgin Park once to experience the iconic prime rib and it was 9 years ago to celebrate fathers day. I still have pictures from 9 years ago. Oh that prime rib was one big bad boy!

Did someone say Boston Baked Beans????!

So here's the thing...we stopped here after we already ate lunch just for the beans!! I went in and ordered a bowl...and no one looked at me strangely. Apparently people do that all the time!! They even offered me 2 spoons & a bunch of crackers.

The beans. They were just plain delicious. Not too sweet, perfectly seasoned yummy-ness!! We ate the whole bowl!

This is just a happy cozy restaurant with very nice waitstaff. Stop by...even just for the beans!!

A old established restaurant that brings that Boston feeling
-the staff are snarky but they do that on purpose and its hilarious
-good classic New England dishes including Boston Baked beans, Clam chowder and Indian Bread pudding among many other dishes
-has a selection of whiskeys and alcohol
-good for groups and very easy going.
- I went here in Oct 2018. From what I've seen on more recent reviews, it appears it has closed now

This most recent trip to Boston, we decided to go to Durgin Park because we wanted to relive our childhoods. I'll explain---growing up in MA, a local tradition was to have franks and beans for Saturday night supper. Ask any of your classmates what Saturday night supper was and more often than not, the answer was franks and beans.

During our previous visit to Durgin Park, we had considered ordering that but instead opted for other menu items. This time, we decided to have a late breakfast/early lunch and went there when they opened at 11:30 a.m. on a Saturday.

We were immediately seated and our server was prompt getting to our table. She was a middle aged lady and very clearly a native Bostonian. When it was time to order, we noticed franks on the menu but it was in a section of entrees that said all the entrees came with potatoes and a vegetable. My husband asked if we could have franks and beans and pointed out what was on the menu. She said that was what the franks came with. When we told her we wanted to relive our childhoods, we ended up having a nostalgic conversation with her with all of us talking about how that's what our mothers served us on Saturdays.

You can get the franks either grilled or boiled. I chose grilled while my husband chose boiled. When they came to our table, we were both surprised to see 3 franks on the plate! A normal Saturday supper was 1 frank!

It was good to have a trip down memory lane! My franks were perfectly grilled and, as usual, the baked beans were awesome. I still think that Durgin Park has the best baked beans. Here is a clip from "Bizarre Foods" (there's nothing "bizarre" about baked beans, LOL!) The only thing I take exception in the video is this---Durgin Park existed a long time before 1927!

http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/bizarre-foods-delicious-destinations/video/boston-baked-beans

Do give Durgin Park a try when you are in Boston! When we took our daughter there 2 years ago, she became the 4th generation in our family to have eaten there. Next up---getting the grandkids there to make it 5 generations.

*** JBF America's Classic (1998) *** #17 **

3.5 stars for this one. There's so much good food in the area that I never made it to Durgin-Park despite having grown up in Boston, but on my last trip home, I made it a point to give it a try because it had been on my list for a long time. The service here is pretty slow, but I liked the fact that the waitresses seemed to have been working there for years. I wouldn't call them mean, but I also wouldn't call them overly friendly. I guess they were once known for their mean waitresses and I would refer to them more as disinterested than mean. I think this is the type of place that can be really hit or miss depending on what you order. The lobster salad was pretty forgettable - really just some cold lobster on top of iceberg lettuce - saved only by the fact that this is Boston and the lobster of very high quality and not needing much addition. But the scrod (which took forever) was great - very flavorful and served with a mound of buttered mashed potatoes. Certainly not healthy, but delicious. A bit on the pricey side - lunch for two without drinks ran us $30 - but we also had lobster and scrod - but I'd probably opt for something in Quincy Market unless really looking for somewhere to sit down and have a leisurely meal. Order wisely!