Punch Bowl

Went there recently and the new chef has lowered the quality of everything. The new clam chowder has smaller pieces of potatoes and clams. It is was watery. Chips where soggy and the caviar was served with a metal spoon. Which means that it was probably pulled out of the container with a metal spoon. Burger was also turned into a basic burger. Really disappointed with the new management. Since there new menu is so different I am having to remove all my original photos.

So disappointed. The food was pretty bad and the service probably worse. I did a pick up order and got the 1/2 chicken with farro. The chicken tasted awful, the farro was dripping in grease and for 30 something dollars the portion was tiny. The only good thing was the broccoli, ironically. Initially I tried to order online, but their system was down, so I called. Whoever answered the phone seemed really annoyed with me when I asked if I could just order my ONE item over the phone since their online ordering system was down. She kept huffiing and puffing and didn't even say thank you or goodbye when we were done. It was like she was doing me a favor or feeding me for free... Kind of ridiculous.

Ordered pizza (room service). Asked if one was enough and was told "oh no", so we ordered two. Weird cheese, very salty pepperoni, didn't eat half of it and not because we weren't hungry. Paid $23 in tips on a $40 tab! That's 58%!! Hotel is great but get food elsewhere!

Punch Bowl is one of the worst restaurants I've ever been to. My wife, our two children, and myself ate here on June 4th for dinner and June 5th for breakfast. For dinner, each plate was brought out individually with my wife being first, mine being second, then around 10-15 minutes later my kid's meals were brought out. What restaurant brings out the dishes separately and the kids dishes last (10-15min later nonetheless). On top of the terrible service, the kids chicken tenders were burnt and dry like rubber to the point that we couldn't even give them to our child. Furthermore, the steak was dry and the mac and cheese had no flavor. The manager ended up taking the chicken tenders off of the bill but at that point my child only had french fries for dinner... Breakfast was even worse. The continental buffet was $18 per person and the toaster wouldn't toast the bagels no matter how many times you put them through. The fruit was basically gone when we got there and the bacon was undercooked. If you have the option, eat somewhere else!

This is “room service” at the Hilton Garden Inn Brookline. They don’t answer their phone, even from inside the hotel. Their servers are absolutely inept. They make an otherwise excellent hotel look horrible. I’m not normally a complainer but this restaurant would look bad in a 300-person town in Mississippi. In downtown Boston it is flat-out humiliating to Hilton and has shredded an otherwise lovely stay for me, and given what this stay cost me, Hilton has not heard the end of it from me.

Really enjoyed my meal here! The salmon tartare was unreal - extremely flavorful and delicious. The fries were also super tasty!! Loved the drinks and live music too!!

Beautiful restaurant in the bottom of the Hilton Gardens Inn Hotel. The food was pretty good and the prices were decent. The 3 course dinner is reasonable priced and has good options to pick from. The dessert options are doughnuts or apple crisp but beware the crisp has nutmeg and some other spice that gives it a very unique flavor. Only reason for 4 stars is due to the limited and extremely overpriced breakfast. $17 for a dry breakfast buffet is a bit steep.

Overall, Punch Bowl was a great experience. The service was 5 star and it was a really nice, low key atmosphere. The food was decent! The brussels sprouts were a little too well done and fried, not crispy as advertised. The nachos were more like mini fajitas than nachos and enough food for a meal! I’d recommend the calamari and the burger.

I had a bloody mary (flavor mediocre), shrimp cocktail (4 big fat shrimp), and two pizzas....pepperoni with mushrooms and sausage with tomatoes and onions. Best pizza and crust I've had in the last 30 years. Perfect, crispy crust, not too thick or thin. Honestly, I ate the whole sausage pizza myself. Mom scarffed the pepperoni up, and she's not a big eater.

I arrived at the restaurant around 5 PM, eager to explore their cocktail menu and wine selection. Although they don't have happy hour, I was impressed by their extensive list of red and white wines, as well as their specialty wines. To start, I ordered their Cup of Calm Chowder and Calamari. The chowder was soothing and comforting, while the calamari was incredibly fresh and delicious. I did notice that the seafood selection was a bit limited, but the overall menu was still impressive. I chose to sit at the bar, which was very spacious and could easily accommodate groups. The vibe was cozy and welcoming, with comfortable seating options at the bar. The service was impeccable - my food arrived promptly after ordering, and the bartender was both friendly and engaging. We had a great conversation while I enjoyed my appetizers. Overall, I had a wonderful experience at this restaurant and would definitely recommend it to others.

Dont do it stay away. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever again. I bought my 88 year old Mom for brunch and we were seated for 1hour waiting for our order. Servers serverd all the other tables that arrived after us. Come to find out they never placed our order. The ownership constantly understaffs the restaurant and on previous occasions they always get orders wrong. I have always given the benefit of the doubt but this time i decided to spot and say something.

This is a typical not so good hotel restaurant. That pretty much sums it up. We read the reviews and still went! We were staying in the hotel and were tired and didn't feel like going anywhere. Don't make the same mistake we made. Go the one mile into Brookline Village. There is a ton of great restaurants to choose from.

I just came for breakfast this morning and it was so good! I ordered a veggie omelet with sausage, home fies, and toast. Sounds ordinary, but it wasn't! You could tell the ingedients, especially the sausage, werevery high quality. And the home fries were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Delicious! I usually ignore home fries, but these I ate. The service was really nice. I asked the server what his name was so I could put it on Yelp and his boss would see it, but it turned out he was the general manager and was working so his employees could have Christmas off. How nice is that?? His name is Nick, btw.

Really underwhelming $18 continental breakfast with basically cereal, a few bagels, and some scrambled eggs (all bland looking). There's other breakfast places around here, and since Hilton didn't actually include breakfast I preferred to go to those. Same price better quality elsewhere.

Upon arriving, I was promptly directed to our group table. I had the 12 oz NY strip steak. Overall, the food was good but could've been better. For example, the steak was seasoned well with herb butter, with the roasted mushrooms perfectly complementing the steak's flavor. Nevertheless, the steak was slightly overcooked. For dessert, we had the donut holes. While beautifully presented, I did feel that the donut holes tasted a bit burnt, with the frosting being somewhat bland. Overall, I feel that Punch Bowl is one of those restaurants that's decent but takes itself too seriously and attempts to present itself as a Michelin Star restaurant.

A rhyming poem for Punch Bowl: Punch Bowl is a phoenix that rose from the COVID quarantine ashes. My second time here since the quarantine. Have we forgotten how to socialize? What if my friends and I have clashes? Not much into cocktails or liquor, so I go for the wine or beer. Takes forever to put in an order. I'm here to eat and drink. Is that not clear? If you sit indoors, you might smell oil. All that frying, maybe switch to the broil? First time I came here, I only had time for the calamari side dish. Second time, I kept with the seafood theme and got the hake fish. Calamari was a nine out of ten. Better than the fact that my surroundings were mostly men. For the hake dish, they overdid it with the salt. But we've all been there, it's not all their fault. After more than 30 min, I had to chase down staff to put in our order, so service was lacking. I don't get it, are you slacking? Once we were done, wait staff was no where to be seen. We needed our check so I had to find wait staff again -- good thing I'm no English Queen. Would I return to Punch Bowl? Yes, and I promise I'm no internet troll.

I was staying in the Hilton Garden Inn the weekend of 4/6 and had a terrible experience at the Punch Bowl. We decided to have drinks and appetizers at the Punch Bowl before going to dinner. We arrived at the bar about 6pm and ordered drinks. I gave the bartender my credit card and asked that he leave at tab open as other members of our party would be there shortly. We stayed at the bar until about 8:15 ordering drinks and appetizers. When I asked for the check and to close out the tab, the bartender handed me the check and asked how I wanted to pay. I told him I gave him my credit card and asked that he open a tab. He appeared to have no idea what I was talking about and told me I didn't give him my card. Then he said he gave it back to me which he didn't. The other members of my party were certain as well that he didn't give me my card back. My group was seated at a table directly across from the bar and we never left the table for the entire time we were there. He continued to insist he gave me the card back and did little to even look for it. This caused me to spend the next half hour canceling my card, being late for my dinner reservation and incurring the cost of an additional Uber. There was no manager present to assist at that point. Later a manager appeared and advised my family members he would look into it. Needless to say I never heard from anyone at the restaurant. The following morning I got a call from the hotel front desk that someone returned my card. The lack of customer service and concern that the bartender had lost my credit card that easily is very concerning. The bar was not crowded and there were about 5-7 people sitting there the whole night. I reached out to the manager/owner through the restaurant website on Monday and of course received no response.

I dined this evening at Punch Bowl after flying in and staying at the Hilton for a work trip, it's on property so I thought it was pretty convenient after a long flight. I sat alone and enjoyed some quiet time, it really is a beautiful location. However, I witnessed something very alarming that I can't help but mention. There was a server this evening who you could tell was of the LGBTQ community and she was doing a really lovely job with her tables, I want to point out that she was not serving me, but I happened to notice the chaos as I was sat closely to the kitchen. One of the managers, who I am pretty sure was the owner, would mock the server every single time the server came through the kitchen door and said 'corner.' The owner would mock back 'corner' in a high pitched voice. I really couldn't believe what I was seeing, I kept a close eye on every other servers that were coming from the kitchen saying 'corner' and the owner wouldn't mock them. It was very clear what was going on here and truly disturbing to witness. If this is how they are treating that poor employee in front of customers, imagine behind closed doors!?

I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn and thought it would be quick and easy to have breakfasts at this restaurant downstairs. Sadly, when I arrived at 8:30 am they have only offered very sparse continental breakfast for $18. They also had no staff helping customers. Yes, if you have no other choice, I am sure you won't leave hungry. However, if you have time to spare, find another place for your breakfast.

I died and went to heaven the other night on punch bowl's patio. went with 3 friends and ordered: jumbo shrimp cocktail $12 for 4-the shrimp was delicious and fresh!!! not the best shrimp cocktail i've ever had as the sauce didn't have enough horseradish for my taste but still recommend. painted hills beef & pork belly burger $20-I can honestly say BEST BURGER IVE EVER HAD do miss the opportunity to have this bad boy. punch bowl fries $7-me and everyone at the table agreed these are the perfect fries. not too salty, perfectly seasoned, perfectly thin, perfectly crunchy, not too greasy. Seneca falls (large format cocktail for 4-6) $75-the price tag seems steep but the drink tastes like that perfect fresh punch you dream of in the summer. it took us a while to finish and its the perfect thing for a hang out instead of ordering multiple drinks. I will dream of it in my sleep :) Overall; amazing food amazing amazing amazing service (we are sorry we stayed so late we were really enjoying ourselves!!) lots of options and that gourmet flavor and experienced.

Worst service ever. We arrived for lunch on a Saturday, it wasn't busy at all, only one more table outside, and a couple other tables inside. By the way sitting outside is not nice at all, looking over a busy street. We waited for 45 min for our food to arrive, a simple french toast and pizza and left without eating. They were still making the making the French toast after a 45 min wait! They didn't even apologize, and even charged us for the drinks. Such a shame, will never come back.

I went there for Sunday brunch around 12:30 and it was empty. That should've been a sign right there to not eat there. Service was so slow and food wasn't anything special.

Ever since Punch Bowl opened up in the new Hilton, I was excited to try it out. I was hoping this could be my go-to for drinks or dinner, since it is the closest sit down restaurant to me. My boyfriend and I made a reservation for a Saturday night and were excited for a nice meal and drinks. Unfortunately, our experience was lackluster and I won't be coming again for food, only for drinks. Ambiance: We requested to sit on the patio, which is lovely and large enough. It is blocked off and on the side street so there was no traffic close by. The weather was nice, and many people were dining on the patio with us, but there were still a few empty tables. Because it is a hotel restaurant, the other guests were a mix of families staying at the hotel, locals, and older adults enjoying a meal. Definitely far from a young, hip vibe. However, we wanted a quiet, relaxing meal for our date night so it was perfect. Drinks: We ordered the Muddy River mule and the Riverway. The mule came in the cute, traditional copper mug and was raspberry heavy, but not very sweet. The Riverway was also not very sweet and slightly sour. I couldn't taste the strawberry flavor as much as I would have liked. Both drinks tasted very strong, yet we didn't feel the buzz that would correspond to the strength of the drinks we believed we had. Not very impressed overall. I will say, I had the sangria during a previous visit (just for drinks), and it was very good- would recommend. Food: We ordered a few things to share, but felt the menu was quite limited so we weren't overwhelmed with items we wanted to try. We started off with the cheese board. It came with 3 different cheeses (1 of which was a blue cheese :( ), about 4 pieces of grilled bread, some strawberry preserves, candied walnuts, and dried strawberries. The menu lists "housemade jams and preserves" but they must've made a typo and meant to say "housemade jam or preserves" The portion was on the small side, with a measly amount of accoutrements. We also ordered the Mezze platter and the potato gnocchi. The Mezze platter was by far the best thing we got. It was huge, with generous portions of delicious bread, whipped feta, and hummus. Lots of veggies, with the pickled cucumbers, sautéed eggplants, and olives. There were many combinations to try out and we enjoyed this dish. The gnocchi was very disappointing. It was on the small side, and the texture of the gnocchi was more boiled potato than pasta. I'm not sure it was cooked correctly. Additionally, it was room temperature-slightly cold which definitely didn't complement the South Asian-reminiscent flavors. From the description, I was expecting Italian. Pesto, pine nuts, squash, gnocchi. However, it tasted like an Indian vegetable dish our parents made for us at home. Not what we were expecting or wanting. To top it off, we ordered the almond streusel cake. This was pretty good. I'd give it a 8/10, since it hit the spot after an otherwise mediocre meal. Service: For a fancier, more expensive meal, I was expecting a certain level of service. Unfortunately, I felt that the mediocre service negatively affected the meal. I'm not one to normally care about how positive the service is, but when it detracts from your experience, it is worth noting. It wasn't even about our waitress; she was great. The overall experience created by the waitstaff was not very pleasant. We were sat down and introduced to our waitress. A different server brought out our water, and said not a single word to us, not even hello. I knew we were off to an interesting start with that awkward encounter. Our original waitress came to take our drink order, and came back later for our food order. She was friendly and went out of her way to take a picture of us, which we appreciated. Midway through our meal, they started putting away the patio furniture. Tables and chairs from around us were being dragged inside, and it was very distracting. There were still around 4-5 other tables occupied on the patio too, and it was around 2 hours before their closing, so I'm not sure what the rush was. About 30 mins after our meal we realized that my boyfriend forgot his umbrella at the table, so we went back to see if they found it. We asked a waitress if anyone had seen it while they were putting away the furniture (at this point all but 2 occupied tables were gone from the patio). She said she'll check and came back and told us no one had found it. She took his number down and said they'd call if they found it. 2 weeks later, and still no umbrella. Can't blame them for his mistake, but it's surprising that they didn't encounter the umbrella when it was right on the chair at our table. Overall: Punch bowl gave us an expensive meal ($100+ for our meal and we didn't order many items), not very tasty food or drinks, and meh service. I would not go back for dinner, although if I was wanting to meet a friend for drinks 5 minutes away from my place, I would consider it.

Fun new bar/restaurant in Brookline! Multiple options for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. It's definitely pricey, but that isn't unexpected for a hotel bar in Brookline. Would come back if I was looking for a place in the area, but not sure I would go out of my way to stop by.

Friday, October 22, 2021 - Dinner seating around 9:00 p.m. I ate at the bar and it a was good experience... Cheers to the bartender for the great pours and the attentive but not intrusive service. The food was delicious... Oysters for my appetizer and NY Strip steak for my entree along with french fries and homemade chips. Definitely worth a try if you're in the area.

Service was very slow. Not enough staff working. Order came out wrong and it was over priced for the quality.

This restaurant has potential, the drinks were very good, as were our entrees. We had the Bass and Trout. The ceviche and sausage appetizers were only what I can describe as odd tasting. The servers were very nice and attentive. We will try it again.

Went for a weekday breakfast here with friends. Food was outstanding, as was the service. Really great ambiance too! Strongly recommend!!!

Great women owned business! We split the ceviche and had the pork chops and sirloin for entrees. Great atmosphere and friendly staff!

There was a pebble in my trout. The waitress didn't apologize for it (she did take it off the bill). The food itself was very ordinary so finding a pebble in the dish without an apology was quite disappointing

I am compelled to leave my first review in many years. The food here was atrocious. Clams Rockefeller were essentially cold, with half cooked spinach and greasy crumbs on top. The "mezze plate" was hastily thrown together from rubbery unidentified vegetable, inedible salty ricotta, bland hummus. Chef, please, go to Sarma or Soffra to taste an actual mezze plate. We left half way, before ordering entrees. You need to find an actual chef, folks... Sorry.

Food & Service in Boston is pretty much always disappointing. I worked in service industry for many years so I am not just "some yelper". I come here because it is one of the very few place I enjoy being at when I want to eat or drink out. It is very new and I am really happy it is around. It is pricey because it is in a hotel - but I have not had a problem with food nor service. The bar staff is extremely nice and DIVERSE which is something I rarely see in Boston area. I feel very comfortable here and not surrounded by racist like I do at most places in the area. The last time I went that had a new GM. She was very pleasant and everyone at the bar eating breakfast had an enjoyable time. I forget her name but she was Croatian and super friendly! I like this place a lot.

I really enjoyed dinner at Punch bowl. I especially enjoyed the quinoa and tofu dish, it was an excellent vegetarian choice, very tasty and filling. The cinnamon donut dessert was also great.

We came for a late lunch and ate outside, so there were less people. The staff were al friendly and the service was good. The chocolate mousse and brittle-like thing was amazing! The donut hole could've been better. We ordered it as a starter but it definitely could've been a dessert. The Benedict was great and the omelette was over cooked but still good. The carbonara was just OKAY, but would not do it again. Besides the chocolate mousse, the potatoes were amazing. I would probably come back here again. Worth trying out!

I was excited to try this restaurant because there aren't many other restaurants in the area. The service was very good and they let us move indoors even though we'd reserved a table outdoors, since the weather was colder than we'd expected. However the food itself was disappointing. The roasted beet salad was mostly arugula: definitely not worth $16! The charcuterie board was okay, though the choice of accoutrements was a little odd. And the mushroom pot pie had a strange sourness, though the puff pastry on top was good. Overall the food was definitely not worth the price.

Drinks were good, but overall not a good value. Way too much ice and not enough liquid (finished them in less than 5 min. The food was pretty bad. Had to send back one of the chicken dishes because it was way too salty. The eggplant was fair, I've had better from takeout restaurants anywhere in the Boston area. Would not return.

Great atmosphere with huge windows and outdoor seating. A bit pricey with a burger at $18 but for special night out the seafood looked delicious. I had the pork chop and it was very garlicky.

Creative, fun menu. Excellent service (for these Covid-troubled times). Josh Zifkin knows how to produce great food with style. It's informal, relaxed, friendly, and delicious (despite too much A/C and an uninspired hotel). We'll go back again. So glad to have Punch Bowl in our town!

We expected more of Puncbowl because it is owned by the same people who own LaMorra, which is a fabulous restaurant. We will give it another try in a few months, hoping that they work out the growing pains of opening a new establishment. The food we had was Ok....nothing special. The cocktails we had were very disappointing, and overpriced. The waitstaff was nice, although a bit unorganized. It was not busy when we were there, so that kind of confused us. And one of the most annoying things during our dinner, were the loud voices from the kitchen. The chef/s were literally screaming out orders, and since it is an open kitchen in the dining room, it was really obnoxious. Maybe there is a better way to manage this? At points, it was hard to carry a conversation among the diners. Hope Punchbowl works out the kinks.....We want to be repeat diners!

I just went to Punch Bowl with some friends. We had a great meal. Two people got the burger and loved it. I got the trout along with someone else. We both thought it was delicious. Another person got the pork chop and was happy with his choice. It was a great experience with plenty of seating outside.

I initially moved to Boston in the early 1990's, and then returned twenty years ago. While I would agree with the Yelp reviewer who wrote "Food & Service in Boston is pretty much always disappointing" back in the day, Boston has had an amazing burgeoning food scene for about a decade now. I don't know where this person goes to eat, but I can tell you-as serious Foodies-my husband and I have fantastic food experiences at many restaurants throughout the area. The service is sometimes touch and go, but that's the case with all industries these days. We had been looking forward to trying Punch Bowl. It was a huge disappointment, and because there are too many great alternatives in the immediate area we won't be back. The space itself looks like a hotel lobby. I get that it is in a hotel lobby, but given the prices, and the fact it's presenting as a higher end restaurant, I'm surprised more effort wasn't put into separating the restaurant from the rest of the hotel aesthetic. The staff gathered in corners to chat. This happened over and over again throughout the meal. This included a woman wearing a red coat which I assume to mean she is a manager of some sort. There was hugging and pulling masks down to chat (there's an active mask mandate in the area)-though not every employee did this. We were ignored through most of the meal. No one checked on us. And it took us pushing aside used dishes for someone to finally take it away. My first finished drink sat there for the entire meal. We had booked a dinner reservation but sat at the bar, so we literally had servers in front of us the entire time. It wasn't like we were hidden away in some corner. Our glasses were empty for quite a while before someone asked if we could use another round. The drinks were good I got two rounds of a tiki drink that comes in a Pineapple. The problem is they leave so much of the pineapple along with tons of ice, you barely get any drink, which is ridiculous because the cocktail was around $20. The plastic straws were so brittle they split over and over again, making it impossible to drink the cocktail (I could not lift the pineapple to my lips) so we had to get a handful of straws, which made us very uncomfortable given the fact that straws are so un-eco-friendly. We ordered the caviar, which was a hilariously small scoop of mostly unflavored caviar, but the chips and dip were decent. The entrees took FOREVER to come out. My husband said his pork chop was cooked to perfection, but the side was just really weird. My burger was really good, but after a while it was just too "over the top" given the amount of gravy, etc.. on it. It was incredibly messy to eat, gravy was running everywhere. I joked with how I was glad I was not on a first date with my husband, given how borderline gross it was to try to keep the burger and your face together. The bottom line is I doubt most folks have a lot of expectation when it comes to grabbing a meal at a hotel. But given the fact there's so many great restaurants to visit, I would recommend skipping this one.