Tory Row

I came here for brunch a couple months back and I had an enjoyable experience!
I got the steak and egg tacos and I really liked them! The steak was cooked reasonably well for tacos and the aioli added a really good flavor. The home fries were good as well. This was the right amount of food for brunch (for me anyway) and $ 9 isn’t too shabby either.
I also liked the atmosphere here. I was actually here with a group to work on a draft of an assignment so we must have been here for at least a couple hours. The place wasn’t crowded at all so we never felt pressured to leave even though our food came out reasonably quickly and we were probably done eating after 30 – 45 minutes. This place also has a decent amount of sunlight giving it a nice ambiance for brunch and working.
It didn’t knock my socks off but I did enjoy it enough to come back!

I hit up Tory Row on Sunday for brunch with a friend, and had a lovely time!
The Food: I ordered the Chicken Apple Sausage Breakfast Flatbread and my friend, the Steak Tacos. Both were reasonably priced ($ 9 for a nice portion) and were good. Not great, but plenty good. My flatbread could have used some stronger flavors — but an enjoyable brunch item.
The Experience: The staff was attentive and friendly, and we only had to wait a couple minutes at noon on Sunday! (I don’t know if this coincidental perk or a condemnation of Tory Row’s brunch…) Inside, the setting is comfortable, modern, and clean. We sat at the high-​top tables that, if full of people, could be a little too up in your neighbor’s space, but there was a setting between us and the next pair, which made it work well.
Overall, a solid experience. I would come back, but also not the most amazing brunch place Camberville has to offer.

Whenever I’m in the area, this is my go to spot. Situated in the perfect area, nestled in the midst of a lot of my favorite shops and bars, the atmosphere at Tory Row. They have a lot of fantastic plates, but the veggie burger is my favorite. They have this jalapeño aioli that is way too good. The service is honestly outstanding as well. Hayley, one of our favorite staff members, is honestly so delightful, and a huge part of the reason we keep coming back. The staff is friendly, the atmosphere is light, and it’s located in the perfect location. If you’re thinking of checking it out, I’d definitely recommend it!

I don’t know why, but the outside of this place screams «trendy restaurant» while once you get inside you see that it’s really a decent bar in a great location. The menu is tiny, but they serve a delicious burger with fried potatoes for $ 12 and they’re in the dead center of Harvard Square with giant windows facing out on all the action so what more do you need?
It took me a long time to try this place, because I expected it to be like Russell House Tavern — way overpriced for fancy schmancy takes on basic food. And there is a tiny bit of that at Tory Row — like they seem to make their own ketchup, and they serve breakfast style fried potatoes instead of french fries. But they also know not to screw with. My burger was a juicy, perfectly cooked patty on a toasted brioche roll.
Is it the best restaurant in Harvard Square? No way. But I’d be happy to meet up with friends here for a drink and a light bite to eat, or grab an after-​work beer.

Its just ok. Two long table with backless stools and a couple tables around. I tried thebflatbread which was just ok. The beet salad was pretty decent but nothing mindblowing.

Came in to warm up and have a light brunch. Great service; fast friendly. I’ll be back next time I’m in town.

Tory Row has an excellent, convenient location. I find the menu to be quite limited (which may be perfectly fine for some!) and a bit pricey for the quality of the food and service. Everything I’ve had here could be described as average. The best meal to come here for in my opinion would be brunch. although with many other great Harvard Square locations, it might be lower on my list of go-​tos.
Overall, I’d recommend giving it a try for brunch if you are in the area.

Decent food and nice to be at when the weather is warm. Service was normal — nothing too bad or remarkable. Food portion was huge — got the flatbread with meat and cheese and there was more than enough food. Good for quick meal.

Good brunch spot with indoor /​outdoor seat options. Food and service are good. Good location in a busy area.

It’s always great to find somewhere in Harvard square where you don’t have to wait for a table and where you can linger and enjoy a long lunch while people watching! The Unilocal menu doesn’t appear to be updated, as I picked a delicious flatbread with Serrano ham, fig jam and arugula– but can’t find it listed on the page. It’s a generous portion and I was excited about leftovers but it was so good my husband finished off my meal as well as his! My friend also got the bacon flatbread which I also thought was very tasty. Prices aren’t inexpensive, but you are also right on the square.

I stopped here with my bf on a weekend evening. I wasn’t terribly hungry, so I got a side of grilled asparagus, which was pretty good. He got a burger and I think that was fine as well. We also tried the new Not Your Father’s Root Beer, which was nice, if a little rich– I’d recommend it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Also, it was a bit nippy the evening we went, but all the (floor to ceiling) windows were open, and I was quite uncomfortable and we ate and left fairly quickly.
I don’t feel like I had a comprehensive experience, so if I go back, I’ll add to this review.

Third visit.
Chicken noodle soup not hearty today, hardly any veggies or chicken. Quite the opposite of the last visit.
Chili was decent and burger as well.
See photos and previous reviews.

Popped in for a quick lunch after checking into our hotel nearby. We ordered the hamburger, croque monsieur and quinoa salad. Everything was delicious and the salad was very light and refreshing. Some people next to us had the flatbreads and they looked very good as well! Great place for lunch.

Keeping this one short since I’ve only gone twice, for lunch, and got the same thing.
The kale salad!!! I really can’t believe I’m being *THAT* vegan writing about kale but I am. Just ask for no cheese. It’s a mixture of sauteed kale, fresh, with garlic and lemon and almonds and heaven. It’s so, so, so good. It’s also not cheap but it is filling. The service is decent. The location and décor are fine but that kale salad!
P. S. My lunch date got the quinoa bean salad with shrimp both times and she looooved it. Very generous portion.

Everything was just ok. Not great. Not terrible.
The food was fine. Quinoa salad was a little too bland, definitely needed more flavor and the bacon flatbread was good, because who doesn’t love bacon, but was way too greasy.
There’s a lot of outdoor seating options available in Harvard square. While Tory Row offers a few outdoor seats, it was a little too close to the busy foot traffic for my liking. I would probably sit more towards in the inside by close to the open windows.

Ways to identify that your run a bad restaurant:
— when someone asks for water without ice, you tell them «it’s gonna be a while»
— you apply your «no outside food» policy to infants that you accepted into your restaurant
— you then get into a heated argument with a patron that giving infant food to his infant will get you fired as a waiter
— you roll your eyes and laugh sarcastically when people want to split a bill with credit cards
On the bright side, the food was really good…

Great location near the heart of Harvard Sq. On a sunny, warm day you will have the whole front wall open to out door seating. I was craving a burger and Mr Bartley’s was closed. Stopped in here after spotting someone at the outdoor tables with a good looking burger.
I was really impressed with how good this burger was. It was just what I wanted as far as size and taste go. It was really flavorful and juicy, even though it was more on the medium well side than my requested medium. Still delicious.
Prices are a bit high, but that’s what you get in such a good location.
Service was fast and attentive. I would totally come back.

This is a good place for drinks with a friend or a more substantial breakfast.
In terms of the food, it’s decent quality though nothing special. For example, the hummus plate is something that I could put together at home pretty quickly and the beef chili is standard in flavor.
If there’s one thing that’s excellent, it would be the banana bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. The bread seemed to have completely melted with the bananas to produce a very thick texture. In addition, the pudding was caramelized to give a thick chewy/​crunchy outer crust. The scoop vanilla ice cream made the dessert awesome!

The menu at Tory Row tends to be a bit smaller than at many other places and it hasn’t changed as far as I know over the last year. The atmosphere here earns a 4 stars while the food gets a 3.5 stars. There are a good number of beers on tap and it tends to be the sort of place that fills up in evenings with lots of people catching up. Word of warning though: there are only high tables here, they don’t take reservations, and it can be quite busy at times.
The flat breads are done very well though the serrano ham and fig one errs on the oversalted side. The sun dried tomato flat bread is not too salty though it falls victim to being overly greasy. The kale kale salad is incredible — it has the right blend of kale and salad dressing, though it tends to be a bit too large for one person to finish. This salad is topped with nuts, which are sometimes less fresh than ideal. They only have two dessert offerings, which breaks my heart a little each time. I’ve tried the bread pudding and found it to be too dense and texturally homogeneous. I prefer a bread pudding that has some crunchiness on the outside, where you can see some gaps in the pudding itself, whereas the TR one has a rather meatloafy feel to it.
Overall, would recommend TR for drinks and snacks rather than for a meal. There are many instances of excesses in flavors or serving size or a lack of delicacy that greatly diminish the quality of the culinary experience.

Although I have little that is particularly witty to note abt TR, I’m deliciously close to my 500^th review, so write I must.
Inexplicably empty during what I think is standard datey/​social time… I guess «happy hour» in normal person English… there is absolutely nothing wrong with Tory Row — and actually, to me it was pretty pleasant, as I love a good exposed beam and anywhere that entitles one of its dishes «kale kale» — I found it fairly enjoyable to chat here over beers and watch the little undergrads traipse past in skirts that were too short and coats that were too long.
Booze menu is very drinkable and affordable — I think most beers clock in around $ 6 – 8 — and the nosh is reasonable too, ranging from burgers to bougie-​lite flatbreads to quinoa salad — it’s kind of a great place for reliably standard fare that is neither mind-​blowing nor offensive to the palate.
Expect to spend $ 20/​pp on drinks + food.
It’d be overkill to make a special trip here, as Russell House Tavern is across the street and is for sure the hot twin of these dueling Harvard Square eateries (read: at least 0.5 stars better all around) — but I wasn’t displeased to have my night start here, which, I guess is all that one can truly hope for, n’est pas?