Stephi's on Tremont

Had two eventful visits that were completely different. Met two friends at the bar one day and loved the drinks and the food. The bartenders were incredibly good (especially Brian or Ryan can’t remember which). He was wearing a kick ass bow tie that day. I had the Cuban sandwich and it was awesome. Next visit a couple of weeks later I sat in the restaurant. The food took forever, diners that arrived long after us got their food first. I ordered the Cuban again and it was terrible - cold and flavorless. I even sent it back. Clearly it was a kitchen problem not the servers. And the manager comped all the food even before we asked. So I’m willing to go back but was stunned how different my two visits were.

Nice neighborhood spot, often open during hours that nearby restaurants close (between lunch + dinner), which is nice. The bar is a fun place to sit, although it can fill up fast during popular times. The food is usually good, although my fried chicken sandwich was a little too well done on my last visit. They serve a solid tuna tartare, and the fries are tasty.

Food was only ok, service was pretty good. Bucket of Mimosas got us 5 mimosas for $40, which is decent. Skillet was not worth $19.

I really wanted to like Stephi's, but basically I'd only stick around for a street-side view and the build your own Bloody Mary's. Went for brunch and the drinks and sticky bun were awesome (order one before they sell out), but the food was a letdown. My Kentucky hot brown sandwich arrived lukewarm with chew bacon, a squishy tomato (I know they're out of season, but this hardly was seared), the bread was untoasted, and little gravy on top of the turkey--for $24, if I'm recalling correctly. My partner's eggs Benedict was similarly depressing like it had been sitting around. Nonetheless, I appreciated the exceptional service.

First and foremost, let me say that I used to work in the Food & Beverage industry and have since continued working in events, but outside of the Food & Beverage. I'm a very patient person, but I'm also very aware as to how the restaurant as a whole would operate. The experience as a whole was nowhere near the experience set by other restaurants. When we came into the restaurant, there was no one at the host stand. We just waited patiently. We waited almost ten minutes at the host stand. Once seated, we were brought water over by the host. We started looking over the menu, but I kept an eye on the clock because I knew this was going to be a subpar experience. The server took 12 minutes to get to the table. She did not introduce herself, she didn't ask whether or not we wanted anything to drink (I wanted a bourbon but refrained from ordering and increasing her tip percentage), she simply, politely asked if we knew what we wanted. We placed an order and that was the last time we saw her. Our food was delivered by a food runner. The Lobster Roll was okay, but nothing to call home about. My wife order Pan Seared Cod and it was delicious. Overall, the food was the best thing. There was no check back to ensure that we were enjoying our food. I finished my water an waited 7 minutes until it go refilled (by the busser). We finished our meals and waited another 10 minutes before the server finally came back and pre-bussed the plates and asked if we needed anything else. We said no and asked for the check. That was the fastest we saw her move all night. We paid and we left. The icing on the cake was that we were leaving and the host was leaning over the host stand with his phone in hand and didn't notice anything until I said, "Have a good night," to him. He quickly looked up and said, "You too." Overall, there were definitely steps of service that were missing throughout the experience. If it was a busy night, I'd completely and totally understand the lack of them. It's busy, you have to cut corners. But the fact of the matter is that it wasn't at all. It was poor service and there's no other way to say it. TL;DR: Bad, slow service. Okay food. Over priced, in my opinion.

Lovely food to be found here. Service was a little cold when I walked in asking for a table. Table server was friendlier.

Decent brunch, pancakes on the extra heavy extra rich side, you definitely don't want to overload on the sweet breakfast items.

The food was great, but my portion of gnocchi was small for the price I paid. The portion was more of an appetizer size. The people with me had salads which were good and sizable. We had dinner outside so when the weather is nice, I definitely suggest it! The staff was great and the food came in a reasonable amount of time.