Orleans

Went there for wing night. Can’t beat the prices or the beer selection. Was bummed they didn’t have my soccer game on, but I appreciated the manager trying to get it anyway.

Went there on a Thursday night. Several tables were empty. I asked what I could order from the waitress since I had a less than an hour. She said the hummus and nothing else. Even though I could go to any busy restaurant on their busiest night and get food even fried in a reasonable time. I asked for the manager who wasn’t there? on a supposed busy night. Ending up leaving to go to a busier restaurant where we were served food right away. I called her (Jess) the next night to let her know what happened. «Il’l call you back». Still waiting two weeks later.

I visited in a group of five on a Saturday night, and there were just so many holes in the experience that I can’t in good conscience give anything more than two stars. Even though we were more or less happy, that was because we were a group of old friends catching up, and it takes a lot to rain on that parade.
The biggest concern was how long everything took. We had been warned in the beginning the kitchen was backed up, but it was out of control. Even drinks seemed to take a long time. We were luckily not in a hurry, but the entire process from start to finish two over two hours.
In addition to being mind-​blowingly slow, the communication left much to be desired. They actually ran out of the item I had ordered, but they didn’t come to tell me until about 45 minutes after I ordered it. It was only after everyone else’s entrees arrived that they came to tell me they had run out of what I ordered. I ended up just sharing my husband’s entrée. They did take off one of our beers and the order of fries we had for an appetizer, but it still felt like a dud that I couldn’t even get a meal.
The food itself was average. The appetizer of truffle fries did not have any truffle flavor at all. They tasted more or less like average fries, and the garlic aioli tasted like plain mayo. The mushroom gnocchi dish was ok, but nothing to write home about.
It was nice to be able to sit outside, and the company made up for the deplorable service, but the experience now shows me why that was the only place with available reservations on that particular Saturday evening.

There’s something just off about this place. Nice enough waitress, but instead of her waiting on us, we were waiting on her… bang bang cauliflower sounded great, but was just eh. Wings were decent, but they just poured what tasted like bottled barbecue sauce across the top and called it bourbon molasses. No prices on the beer which is annoying. Wanted honey mustard for my sweet potato fries but I could never find the waitress to ask. $ 70 later and I wasn’t the least bit satisfied.

I met my wife here so it holds a special place for me. But their food is bad. It’s mostly flavorless. If they fix the food, this would be a great place to eat and drink. Otherwise it’s only good for drinks and watching games with friends.

Worst boneless wings I’ve ever had. Genuinely tasted like they came out of a frozen bag.
They’ve got a decent beer selection and free Trivia, I really wanted to give more than 2 stars, but no place should serve any food that’s as bad as the wings I just had.

There was just something wrong with the ambience there… Saturday early afternoon. It was dead. Lots of people walking around Somerville and found place to park so stopped in. The place is just too large and the bar doesn’t stand out. If the bar area had more of a presence, it would have felt different? Something is missing but I can’t quite figure it out. Ordered «Moscow Mules»… questionable and $ 9.00 pop, you know you’re not in Kansas anymore!
Observed menu and food items others were eating. Salads, nachos, etc. Nothing fabulous.
Wait staff was very friendly and attentive.

I’ve been back a couple times. They do dollar oysters on Mondays and 30 cent wings on Thursdays — both awesome deals. The grilled cheese is great, as are the fried pickles.
My one complaint is that service is typically quite slow even when it’s not busy. Still, I like enough of the food to want to return.

It’s spacious for a bar. It was a Monday night so it wasn’t crowded at all. It was a nice place to watch the Celtics game and play some cards. The service was good. I felt taken care of. There weren’t many people there but I was with a large group and groups can get some bad service at places.
I had the salmon and spinach salad. The salmon was cooked well. The spinach had a nice crispness. The oranges didn’t make sense. The texture was really different and it was an overwhelming flavor. There was also too much vinaigrette. I felt like the salad was doused in it. The tomatoes and almonds were fine.
Overall I would definitely recommend Orleans. My friends enjoyed their burgers. It’s a nice relaxing atmosphere. The service was good.

My favorite new digs for Karaōke on Saturday nights! I wish I had more free time to check it out on other occasions, but I’m glad karaōke is so happening here!

Can’t I do zero stars? This is based on the sat night karaōke experience… this was literally the worst karaōke we have ever been to. The Dj uses a horrific vocal effect/​auto-​tune/​fake backing vocals that made everyone want to take a bath with a goddam toaster. Also the mic was too low, and all the screen lyrics were laughably inaccurate. It made bad singers sound worse than humanly possible. I have been to bad karaōke and sometimes it is half the fun but there is no fun to be had for that here… stay away to prevent profuse ear bleeding.

Went for dinner on a quiet Thursday night. It’s pretty big, so it was easy to get a table, and I can imagine it’d be a good place to fit a large group. It’s worth it to go on Thursdays for the 30 cent wings. We had the honey hot wings, which were good, although by the end I was just wishing they were buffalo. The beer list is also pretty great– rotating list, good mix of craft beers, all reasonably priced.
I ordered a grilled cheese with sweet potato fries and my partner got a stuffed burger with regular fries. The food was all pretty meh. Neither the regular nor sweet fries had any real flavor, so they were mostly a vaguely crispy vessel for ketchup. My grilled cheese was not good. The cheese was clearly low quality, and the ratio of bread to cheese was way too bread-​heavy. My partner’s burger was cooked well, but was stuffed with way too much cheese, and then topped with even more. It was to the point where as we were walking out, we realized that we had forgotten our leftovers, but didn’t bother to walk back to our table to go get them.
The service was also really odd, either too quick or too slow. At one point, our server delivered our drinks, said he could take our food orders, and then turned around to clear the food from the table behind us and didn’t come back for us for another couple minutes.
For low key drinks and appetizers, I’d imagine this is a good place (I wouldn’t hate having the wings again), but for dinner, this is an easy place to skip with all the other options in Davis Square.

Slowest service. Jesus Christ. I never write reviews, only because I’m too lazy to comment on things. But this place, wow. Party of 9, nothing special for the food order. Took almost 2 hours get the actual food. We were consistently reminded that our ticket is next. 2 hours later, we were told that the food is coming out, but some plates will take few more minutes. It ended being another 20min.
We got free appetizer, but those came out in 5min. I don’t understand why the main stuff would take much, much longer than the appetizer.
After getting the food, no service what so ever. No water, no nothing. Took another 1hour to get the attention for check.
People, this is Boston. There are many other restaurants out there. Don’t even consider coming to this place.

First time at this place. Our service was amazing! Waitress was so sweet and recommended some great apps.
I got a the turkey burger with avocado and chipotle (replaced with a beef patty) and a side salad. We got the nachos and cauliflower apps.
Burger was fine– definitely not worth $ 14 but decent? The side salad was ALL spinach which I did not see specified on the menu. Maybe I’m weird I just usually assume a side salad at an American bar is going to be iceberg or something. Not a huge spinach fan so…
The cauliflower and nachos were delicious and my French 75 was great. Once again– just thought everything was WAY overpriced.
I’d go back to drink for sure, cool environment and good service.

Food was overpriced but fine. Not amazing and not bad — just fine. We had the bacon cheeseburger and the cob salad, and they were both perfectly acceptable. Nothing was wrong with any of it.
I think our server was new so I won’t judge, but he did try to tell us that each bowl of soup is made from scratch with the meal — so I couldn’t get my soup before my burger cause they had to make it. If this is true, they should advertise it because it’s awesome. I have a feeling that it’s already made and either is reheated or simply ladled out of the pot and he just didn’t understand.
As we were leaving an 80s cover band was getting ready to go on — I could see the entertainment being worth the $ 50/​dinner, but the food alone just wasn’t magical enough to bring me back.

My friend & I stopped in here and were offered a couple of seats at the bar by some other patrons who weren’t sitting, but just leaning on the stools.
We sat and were not acknowledged by the bar staff. They even stood around, leaning on the back of the bar, as if they were bored and didn’t have anybody to wait on. I finally leaned in and called one of them over and gave my order. Rather than attempt to take my friend’s order, the first thing the other bartender said was «Somebody’s sitting in that seat… you’ll need to move one over.» It was rather blunt and impolite. My friend explained that he didn’t know and he was offered the seat by someone else. My friend offered up his drink order since the bartender didn’t ask. These people clearly did not want our business.
My bartender asked if I was going to open a tab or close out. I knew I wouldn’t want another drink there, so I closed my tab out.
After our drink, the other bartender never gave my friend his bill or ask if he wanted anything else. We had to beckon the bartender and ASK for the bill, which apparently sounded strange to him because we had to repeat «He never got his bill» several times. Had we just got up to leave, then it would have been known he didn’t pay… but we waited, then had to ask for the bill so he could pay it. We got out of there.
They did have karaōke and I saw signs for a jazz brunch on Sundays.

Orleans is a waste of precious Davis Square real estate: the food is nondescript, the drink selection is meh, the service is poor, and the atmosphere reeks of bro. It’s a tragic miracle that it has survived for so long (over a decade) while so many more worthy Davis businesses have gone under, but Orleans is one of those large, unremarkable establishments like S&S in Inman Square that, by virtue of its sheer size and nonthreatening blandness, is assured of sufficient business to stick around. Nonetheless, there’s absolutely nothing to recommend it, other than the fact that its size means that one can usually get a seat there when all the better, smaller places in the vicinity are booked.
I considered giving Orleans a 2^nd star for the ease of finding a seat there… but then I thought, why in God’s name would you want a seat there? In this particular niche, you’re actually better off with the Joshua Tree (urk).
PS Notice the striking resemblance of the Orleans logo to the Comcast logo. That may be coincidence, but it’s a coincidence that nonetheless says something.

With a name like Orleans, you’d expect the food to have much more flavor. While the menu sounded impressive, the execution was subpar. We went for a birthday and we’re pretty disappointed with the food.
Wings are good, though– 50 cent wing night isn’t on the menu but they have both hot and dry rub. And a good beer selection.

I came here with friends for the Wednesday night trivia, and we did well, so I’m trying not to let that influence my overall opinion of Orleans. I like the atmosphere (cozy and upscale), I like the beer list (a nice variety, something for everyone), and I especially liked my poutine burger (cooked to order, reasonably poutine-​y toppings including a few fries, and a slab of applewood smoked bacon). Other food we ordered included the short ribs (tasty), and Brussels sprouts (slightly undercooked).
Orleans does, however, hold itself back with a few things that keep the experience from being more enjoyable. Service was slow. We were seated for quite a while before being contacted the first time for a drink order, which took a bit of time too (as the night went on, our server gave us better attention, perhaps sensing we were doing well in the trivia and hoping for a big tip). The water is horrible. I sent several glasses of ours back and the waiter admitted they were having a problem with «too much chlorination» in the dishwasher.
One person at our table ordered a specialty drink advertises as «topped with strawberry moscato.» The waiter informed us they were out of strawberry moscato. We said, «That’s all right,» thinking they’d just make the drink without the strawberry moscato. There was an awkward silence for about 10 seconds, and the waiter said, «Actually, there’s quite a lot of the moscato in the drink.» Does anyone else besides me think there’s a difference between «topped with» and «quite a lot?»
Hot water out of the tap in the bathroom sinks would be nice too.
The Wednesday night trivia is run by a local group that has similar trivia nights in other pubs in the Boston area, Pop Quiz Team Trivia. We like Mike and his trivia and hosts, and this influenced our decision to visit Orleans. Without the trivia, however, Orleans is just another decent pub with decent food and drink — not a bad place at all, but not special enough to make it a hangout.

Came for drinks and the Moscow Mule is served in a mason jar (so its a bigger drink, get it for that reason a lone) and was great. I guess they ran out of the jars later in the night, but my drink did cost less then too…
Service was fast.
Karaōke on Friday nights! This made the back of the restaurant seem really empty, so maybe they should make more room at the front for dancing and
singing. Or maybe it’s fine during the day/​early night.
One guy killed it with the song from The Breakfast Club. If he’s there every Friday night they’ll get a crowd going!