75 Chestnut

A nice local hangout with average food and service. Potential is very much there but the food quality and service were nothing to write home about. As just a bar, I’d give it 4 stars.

Loved it. It is on the higher end of the $$ rating on Unilocal,but worth it. Nice menu (even for a vegetarian). Nice atmosphere. Make sure you make a reservation or the wait will be long!

I went to 75 Chestnut on NYE. We don’t really like the craziness but did want to go out and try somewhere new. We showed up 15 minutes early for our reservation but we were still sat promptly. We were given a wonderful table by the window. Also, I’d like to mention that they had the establishment at an actual bearable temperature. Some places have been BLASTING the heat lately and it’s impossible to enjoy your meal so kudos for knowing how to regulate a thermostat!
The woman who sat us was lovely, very pleasant and the server was attentive. It did take us a while to pay the check and order second round of drinks but she otherwise did a great job. The ambiance was cute and location was good.
The food was okay –not bad but not great. To start, my date had the chowder, which he enjoyed. I had an iceberg salad which was extremely over dressed with not much lettuce. He then had a creamy pasta which he enjoyed. I had the pumpkin ravioli it was good but nothing special. The drinks were a little too sweet for me, I like a bite of vodka.
Overall, we weren’t dissatisfied, just not blown away and the service and great spot by the window knocked our experience from 3 stars to 4.

Went here on a Friday night and it was packed, but after getting a drink at the bar, we were able to get two seats at the bar. I love the atmosphere in here — very cozy place for a cold winnter night! Although I’m sure it’s just as nice in the summer.
I loved that they have a huge pile of cheese and crackers by the door for anyone to grab while waiting for their food.
I got the steak tips, and my boyfriend had the pumpkin ravioli. Both were great! I would definitely recommend 75 Chesnut.

Dinner new years eve. Nice venue, food ok, nothing special. bartender had limited knowledge of specialty drinks. Waiter was good. Bathrooms had no toilet paper! Could have dealt with all that but restaurant was about 80°, so hot and uncomfortable. Couldn’t wait to get out to fresh air.

THE DEFINITION OF AVERAGE
An attractive, quaint space on a side street in Beacon Hill, 5 minutes walk from Boston Commons Garage. Not too loud on a moderately busy Christmas week Monday, and the service was pretty good. But overall, the food left me dissapointed. We had:
DRINKS: Uniformly disappointing. A glass of Viognier was a very small pour. A couple of cocktails were so forgettable that I’ve actually forgotten what they were. In desperation, I went for Guinness (on tap) with my burger, which was of course a good choice, but again a small glass for the price.
STEAMED PEI MUSSLES: With chorizo, roasted tomato, garlic, fresh herbs
~By far the best thing our table tried, it was a typical version of this dish, nothing unusual or creative, but nonetheless delicious
PUMPKIN RAVIOLI: Sautéed with native butternut squash, tomato vodka sauce, shaved parmesan cheese, they say this is «Beacon Hill’s favorite ravioli»
~OK, but uninspired, wouldn’t bother ordering again
75 ALL NATURAL BURGER: 8 oz grass-​fed chuck with cheddar, lettuce, tomato & onion on toasted brioche bun, and fries
~The burger was OK, but I would rank it in the bottom quartile of my «Best Burgers in Boston» list. Not much beef flavor, but at least it was cooked to a perfect medium rare. However, the French fries were perhaps the worst I’ve ever had in my life! Clearly frozen, limp and pasty, absolutely awful, McDonald’s would be better.
I may be generous giving 75 a rating of three stars. I guess I am impressed that they can actually cook a burger to temp, given how many much more famous Boston burgers that I’ve had recently seem unable to grasp that most basic of burger concepts.
I can only imagine the free cheese is why 75 has as high a rating as it does.

I ordered the lamb burger, with grilled onions, and goat cheese. It was seriously one of the best things I’ve ever eaten! Not to mention the fries that came with it were crispy and delicious! The atmosphere here was great and our service was wonderful as well. All together it was a lovely experience!

Great experience, great food. Recommend.
PROS:
great food
Cheese and crackers
Nice ambiance
Friendly server
CONS:
Service was a little slow
Came here to celebrate my fiancé finishing his master’s and it was such a great experience. The food was wonderful, good ambiance, and good service. I liked that there were cheese and crackers at the front that you help yourself to! We ordered the appetizer tower (had pumpkin ravioli, garlic cheese toast, and calamari). I very much enjoyed the toast and the ravioli (I don’t eat seafood). For dinner I had the filet mignon with chipotle butter. Wow! One of the best steaks I’ve had. Fiancé had the pumpkin ravioli with shrimp, he raved about it. Friend had the linguini and that was very delicious. Other friend had the mussels which she very much enjoyed. They were also nice enough to store a cake we brought with us and surprised my fiancé with it after dinner. The only negatives were that the service was a little slow and the booth wasn’t very deep and there were no coat hooks nearby so my things kept falling on the floor. All in all, highly recommend.

BRUNCH REVIEW
75 Chestnut is a beautiful, quaint restaurant tucked into Beacon Hill and has all the elements to be a great spot, but the food items and service just didn’t deliver.
We came on Saturday during brunch, and they had a special where if you ordered an appetizer and an entrée, your table could decorate their own gingerbread house! They gave you the gingerbread house assembled, and there was a separate bar of candy toppings available to decorate your house. This was ideal for children and groups of girls for brunch.
They also had a Bloody Mary bar at the bar, so that you could add your own garnishes.
They seem to have a lot of events like this going on, so if you plan on coming here you might want to see what the specials are.
However, the food just really wasn’t good.
75 PARFAIT: I was intrigued that the parfait would be served in a martini glass. But really, all it meant was that the portion would be much smaller. The yogurt was nothing special, the raisins were very chewy and dry, and it was like any parfait you could get at a grocery store.
FISH & CHIPS ($ 19.95): They don’t list prices on their menus, so let me start by saying this was $ 19.95. PLEASE DO NOT ORDER THIS. The fish looked like something you would take from the frozen section of a supermarket. The outside was not crispy at all, and almost stale. The coleslaw had no flavor and a little sour, so I didn’t even touch it. The french fries were good so I filled myself on fries for brunch, basically.
Service really lacked throughout our meal. They forgot to replace my friend’s home fries with side salad, didn’t bring tartar sauce with my fish&chips, and did not bring butter & jam for my friend’s toast. We had to ask on separately each time for these items to be added to our meal.

My husband and I came here on a Friday night to celebrate our 6 month wedding anniversary. We were not thrilled with the food or the experience.
The waiter seemed overwhelmed and we noticed that he messed up the order for the people sitting next to us before we ordered our food.
Then he messed our order up too. I ordered the lobster ravioli and they brought out the lobster sliders instead. When they finally brought out the lobster ravioli, it was unimpressive. The pasta seemed tough and undercooked (probably because they were rushing the order since they had messed up). I should have just eaten the lobster sliders… My husband said his pasta dish was flavorless also.
The one good thing I ordered and the reason this gets 2 stars rather than 1 is the gingerbread martini. It was delicious. And the graham cracker rim was the best part of that. So maybe I could recommend stopping in to have a drink here, but that’s about it.

So glad I finally tried this place! We went here for a birthday dinner and started with the complimentary cheese, crackers, and hit soft pretzels and mustard. Then we ordered clam chowder and a salad before entrees. We split a bottle of red wine with dinner too. Both ordered specials — beef strogonoff and rouladen. We loved both and can’t wait to come back again.
We joined the 75 chestnut rewards program and received two complimentary mugs as well as a free appetizer the next time we go. Looking forward to the seafood tower :)

«Excellent Boston restaurant»
This is an excellent restaurant which is walking distance from the John Jeffries Hotel in Beacon Hill. It is a small, popular restaurant with wonderful seafood and Italian food.

Came here for a quick bite to eat the other day. Not too bad a place but average on the taste scale. We started with the hummus platter which seemed to lack some seasoning as well as the crab cake which was fairly good. We then had the clam chowder soup which was very good and followed it up with the pumpkin ravioli which was also good.
The décor is nice and they have a fully stocked bar to wash all your worries away from the day. It really was a quick stop but I would try this place again to see if it improves from our last visit.

AHHHHH-​Mazing meal with my girlfriend. Stupendous wine selection and the grilled mahi mani served over lentils and fall vegetables was incredible. My friend ordered the pork chop which was a sizable portion and was just incredible.
Our waitress was very attentive and the ambiance in the restaurant was beautiful on a chilly fall evening. As for the dessert, it left a little to be desired. We did the crème brulée trio and the chocolate and traditional were great, the passion fruit was a little too runny and a little too sweet. Not terrible, but just a funny consistency.

One of my favorite local Beacon Hill spots! Perfect for brunch, lunch, dinner, or just drinks and apps at the bar! Family-​friendly during the day and more date-​night ambience in the evening. They have great weekly night specials too!
Favorite brunch item: Maine lobster omelette.

Love this place, it has a lot of special memories for me. We came here to celebrate getting engaged!
The place is small and cozy with a rich, comfortable (but nice) atmosphere.
I don’t know how else to explain it but that you could take most people here for most reasons. First date? Sit at the bar and it’ll go great. Celebrating your engagement? Reserve a window seat and order a nice bottle of wine and remember the meal for years to come. Just hungry and wanna have a good burger and unlimited cheese & crackers? Amen, I know the feeling. Come on down!
The food is good. Not the best I’ve ever had in my life, but really good. It’s well-​priced for what you get and the service is always really great.

Three stars: I know!!! I was disappointed! I had such great expectations for this place, I felt like a squirrel who had just found her nut, but the visit was sort of nutty. I had this as a bookmarked place to try for a while and the chance came up on a 90 degree night when I didn’t feel like cooking.
I had seen the reviews, they are true.
75 Chestnut has nice atmosphere, good solid a-​ok food (beef tenderloin, mashed with asparagus) and walking distance from the train. The food was good. I can’t say ‘do not go here’, give it a try. But let me give you a bit of advice and this is where the missing stars fell off the chart.
Do not sit at the bar at 5pm on a quiet night alone because you will hear the conversations between the staff. One was actually talking about a medical problem, a cyst that needed to be drained. I was dumb struck. Was I invisible, did they not realize and know I was eating. Gross! I also know that one of the other staff members is being dragged into court on child support and then my favorite, the f-​bomb was used not just once but enough so that I actually considered counting them, it was a lot.
I’m not saying don’t go, the staff members interactions with me were very nice but they need to realize customers can hear them talking to each other. Go to the back room please.
I ate and left, I could not wait to finish my meal and leave. I took half of it home, I couldn’t listen anymore. I couldn’t decide whether to call the manager or not. I hope the management does read this so they know. I have nothing against collegial conversations between staff but I do not think this has ever happened to me before in a restaurant semi-​upscale in Boston. I was dumbstruck.
If ‘the talking’ hadn’t happened and I had come with friends, sat away from the bar and not heard the conversations 75 Chestnut would have gotten 4 stars, very true. But all I wanted to do from the time I arrived (after they nicely said hello) to the time I left was to tell the man behind the bar who swears and has a cyst, please stop talking!
Jury is out a return visit but I don’t think so.

This place has a cool vibe and nice interior, but the food was actually disappointing. I was really looking forward to the food since they have a unique/​inviting menu, but when I tasted it, everything was just kind of «eh, this is okay.» I had the Bibb salad, a cocktail, and the German apple strudel for dessert. I was most displeased with the apple strudel. It had a lot of flaky dough and not enough apple filling. The cinnamon ice cream it came with was very good, though. The cocktail was good, but pricey ($ 13). They do not post the cocktail prices on their menu, so I did assume beforehand it would be up there in cost. The food prices are right on par with everything else in downtown Boston, ~$ 15 min for an entrée.
On Wednesdays, they do have a special called Wine Wednesdays. It is $ 32/​person for two glasses of wine (you choose two from a selection of four), either a soup or salad (it was lobster bisque or orange beet salad), and an entrée (choice out of three). For an extra $ 5 you can also choose a dessert, which are normally $ 10. If you like the choices they have, it’s an excellent deal.
Parking around the restaurant is resident only, so you’ll need to park elsewhere and walk.
They do offer free cheese and crackers that is serve yourself. It’s a nice accompaniment to start your meal.
They have a bar that seats about eight people and three TVs. They let you request specific sports if there’s something in particular you want to watch. They don’t play the sound from the TVs, though.
Other people mentioned service and waiting being an issue. I came around 8pm on a Wednesday and it was not crowded at all. Sat at the bar right away, so that wasn’t a big deal. The service at the bar was good and food came out at about regular intervals.

They’re more of a 3.5 borderline 4.
During our visit to Boston we stopped here for some brunch before heading out. I didn’t see reviews before hand and just went with the recommendation that this place is good.
While, my food was definitely delicious the cocktails were only decent. I mean at $ 13 a cocktail come correct. GIVE ME A DARN GREAT COCKTAIL. Sheesh. Service was good, our waitress was really nice and courtesy.
It definitely felt a bit stuffy in there and our table was so close to a table of 6 that I really couldn’t concentrate on what the beau was saying.
Overall a good place probably just wouldn’t visit on my next Boston visit.

We stopped in after a 5 hour car ride at 9:30PM on a Friday and were seated immediately. We were happy to find that it was Boston’s restaurant week and chose to dine from the select menu. He got a watermelon mojito and I got a Boston sunset which was delectable after being (sober) in the car for so long. Beware-​I didn’t see prices on the menu and the drinks are about $ 15 each.
I did the BLT ice berg salad which was delicious. My boyfriend was jonesing for some clam «chowda» and this place delivered! Then we did the chicken, mozzarella, basil, tomato pasta which was HUGE and very well executed. The portions were gigantic compared to our other restaurant week experiences in NYC.
Dessert was off the hook. The restaurant week menu only had their triple chocolate dessert on it but our waitress let us pick from the full menu. The boyfriend got the bittersweet brownie sundae which is served WARM! Doesn’t get much better. But it actually does at this restaurant. I did the berry cheesecake crème brûlée and I can honestly say it’s one of the best deserts I’ve ever had! So happy we found this place on Unilocal.Go give it a try!