Bistro Eighy-Ates

This place was great. Got drinks, an appetizer plus entrees. Wait staff was very friendly and personable. Had the baby with us and when he was starting to stir and ready to go, we got our check and leftover boxes and were out the door. Delicious food. Lobster agnolotti … To die for. Save half for the next day because it’s so much lobster you won’t finish it!

Been a few times now and is consistently disappointing.
The last time we went we used a gift card received because we went last winter and it was absolutely freezing in there. Said something to management and they provided us with a $ 25 gift card to try them again.
Well we did and wish we hadn’t.
The server, although pleasant and friendly, seemed overwhelmed even though it was not that busy.
We wanted some bread as our young son really likes bread before our meals and asked for it. She said she would bring something over, and she never did until I asked again AFTER our entrees had arrived. And it wasn’t just bread, it was chewy balls of dough with Parmesan cheese on them. My son dislikes cheese so they were not eaten. Wish we had been told as we would have told her just some sliced bread would be preferred.
My entrée was fish with horseradish and panko bread crumbs. Portion was small and the only seasoning seamed to be the horseradish. I also wanted gravy with my mashed potatoes. I know I asked for it when ordering, but I had to ask three more times to actually receive it. By the time I got it the potatoes were cold. The third time I asked the waitress as she was wiping down the table next to us. Thought it strange that a restaurant at this price point had the waitress wiping down tables.
My vegetable was a squash of some kind that was super dry with no seasoning. I would have asked for some butter but was just so frustrated I didn’t feel like trying to track down the waitress yet again. The table next to us said she kept forgetting them as well.
We will most certainly never be back.

Once again a chain of disappointment. The place is noisy and lacks any type of atmosphere, service was super slow and the food is nothing special for the price. I think my vegtables were from a can on that day. Would actually consider going here again if I were starving and there was not another place for at least 100 miles.

I struggled with how I was going to rate 88s. Most of the time, it is worthy of 5 stars. The food is mostly terrific! However, sometimes I have gone and the food was mediocre or actually pretty bad (anything with steak in it is hit or miss there). I love the ambiance and they make great drinks and most of the time the service is great. I recommend 88s, I just wish it was a little more consistent

I went here with my wife for the first time, i had the stacked chicken excellent flavor and presentation! my wife had stufed hadock she loved it.
they serve little fresh bite sized fried dough with sauce excellent as well. we will definetly go back.

A friend suggested we meet and have dinner before going out for a few drinks. I arrived and sat at the bar. I was quickly greeted by the bartender who was friendly and quite knowledgeable about their menu.
Service was great, I had to wait for my friend and while waiting I spoke with several regular customers. It’s a nice comfortable place to go.
We ordered dinner and I can’t say enough about it. I wasn’t looking for a full meal so I ordered the buffalo tenders. They were excellent. I hope to try more dishes in the future. Can’t wait to go back.
To sum it all up, it’s well worth it. I’m a picky pain in the ass and I liked it, I’m sure you will.

Although in a strip mall, Bistro 88’s is one of the few GOOD restaraunts around Webster. Everything on the menu is reasonably priced. From what I have had off of said menu, everything was fantastic. great atmosphere, attentive servers, average service. I would recommend 88’s in Dudley too. Different menu more bar food.

Drink specials were really good. The service was spot on and the food was average. Had a gift card which is why we went, prob won’t return as a result of good quality

I am always out for new place to eat, we go out every weekend, heard about this place from couple of folks and then saw it on phantom gourmet. décor was good, drinks ok, salad came, plate was warm, really? had veal oscar, should be veal, asparagus, and lobster with holindaise sauce, comes to the table and the veal had this soggy coating, and there was no lobster meat, it was some sort of ground whatever that they were trying to pass off as lobster, $ 21.99 for this? will not be back, too bad, there are so many other places that have better food, just because you are on TV does not make it taste better…

Eighty Ates Bistro is a nice local option for Webster, however living in Thompson, there are better options the other direction in Putnam. 88’s has a TON of potential. What keeps them back from shining:
1) SLOW service. Extremely friendly servers, just very slow with coming around.
2) Food takes an eternity to come out, so definitely not the place if you are in a hurry
3) Inconsistent food. You can get the same thing multiple times and it’ll never taste the same.
Also, the one in Dudley is better.

Bistro Eighty-​Ates is by no means a 2-​star restaurant, but it is also slightly better than a one-​star: solid 1 ½. Unfortunately, Unilocal doesn’t allow 1 ½ star reviews, so I’m rounding this one up to 2 (perhaps tonight’s wine is making me extra generous).
Like it’s sister restaurant in Dudley, Bistro Eighty-​Ates aims at providing a big city atmosphere in a small town that is otherwise completely lacking in modern dining. Unfortunately, the décor and atmosphere in both the Webster and Dudley locations give off a sketchy date rape vibe that would make them perfect locations for Lifetime movies.
First impressions aside, I’ll move on to actual dining experiences.
After three visits, I think BEA has basically run out of second chances. On my first visit, I ordered a chicken Caesar salad. While not terrible, the salad was over-​priced. The service was average. I wouldn’t applaud it, but wouldn’t condemn it either.
I sat at the bar on my second visit. It took about fifteen minutes for the bartender to even acknowledge my presence. After she finally came over, I ordered a steak, medium-​rare. It came out a while later, well-​done.
On my third visit, I was accompanied by two friends. One friend ordered a wrap, another ordered a chicken Caesar salad, and I ordered a steak, medium-​rare. It was a week night, and the restaurant was mostly empty. So I was surprised that it took 30 minutes for our meals to be delivered. Both of my friend enjoyed their meals. My steak, however, was again over-​cooked.
The lesson learned here is Eighty-​Ates is an okay restaurant, so long as you don’t order anything that they actually have to cook. But if you’re looking for some place that can put lettuce in a bowl or make a sandwich, they’re not bad.

I’m torn with this restaurant. While very much enjoyed my meal (I had the lamb burger with feta), the overall meal was okay. I started with some clam chowder, a New England staple, but honestly, it tasted and appeared to be canned. As I said before the lamb burger (I had cook to medium) was juicy and delicious. I would order that again in a heartbeat! Then we split the white chocolate raspberry cheese brulee, Which was good, but didn’t live up the expectation of the name. It was a slice of pre-​made cheesecake that at some point someone bruleed (but not just before we got it), a small amount of whipped cream (on the side) and a puddle of raspberry and white chocolate sauce (again, on the side. It we presented well, however, the 20 minutes we waited from ordering it, until we got it, lessened the charm of it.
As others mentioned, while our server was nice enough, she wasn’t overly attentive, or overly friendly. She checked in with our main meal, while we were still chewing our first bite, and didn’t check back with s for quite a while. We had finished our meal, and set it aside to bring home the leftovers, and we waited 20 minutes to half-​hour before she came by to wrap things up for us. We never got drink refills, and we had to request a dessert.
Not sure I’d bother to drive out to Webster to go again, there are so many better, local places, to go. Save yourself the trouble and visit one of those!

While I would return, because it is the best option around, there are few SIMPLE things that need fixing. Our waitress had two tables. The restaurant was far from full. However, the service was friendly BUT not attentive. We were dining and dashing, but no dashing here — one hour to order and consume two appetizers. That is ridiculous. One app came out lukewarm. I swear the bartender was the cook and of course those drinking alcohol are the money makers and that’s where the attention must have gone.
I would return, I liked the variety of the menu and the place is nice and clean inside. However I would plan on 2 hours if you are going to have a 3-​course dinner. Really slow at pumping out the food.

Pretty much the best that webster has to offer… it is much better than the 3 or 4 competitors…

The first rule of any hospitality driven product/​service is «to under-​promise and over-​deliver». Unfortunately, 88 is mastering «over-​promise and under-​delivering».
I have eaten here on several occasions and have noticed a trend over the last year. This seemed to be a well-​tended effort by this small restaurant group in the beginning. My last couple of visits have been at a minimum, confusing, to the most recent, «what the #%@».
The mantra is «A big city experience… without leaving town». If that means «we will dazzle you with impressive sounding food descriptions and then deliver an uninspired, warmed-​over dish» they are right on target. If you offer anything «big city» at least have the nads to deliver something original. The 1985 brushed metal, flashdance design flashback is not exactly warm or cutting edge. The bar is stocked with the same homogeneous pub beer and back bar selections. In a modern world where there is no better time to be creative and original with your libations, why o why do all the «blank-​tini» drinks have enough sugar to to give Africa diabetes… like the entire country.
The entrée line says «Entrees are served with a choice of potato & vegetable du jour (unless otherwise noted) which means if there is a GARNISH of fried leeks or crispy onions… there are no vegetables served. Since when does a garnish replace an actual vegetable? Did crude oil spike a rise in the cost of squash or zucchini? I would rather pay $ 2 more for some julienne veg then to have my entrée show up with hash browns (the «asiago potato cakes») and not even get MY CRISPY LEEK GARNISH. This was an order to-​go (by the way) and there was also no inquiry or attempt to add napkins or the usual to-​go tools. I guess I can make do with my fingers and t-​shirt. The same luke warm closure that we started with.
The website is annoying. It is sooooooooooooooo easy to craft a solid, economical web presence nowadays. I cannot fathom why your corporate, MULTI-​UNIT web site looks like a myspace afterthought. If you are going to place an image of your menu online, please take a moment in Photoshop to make a clean, web friendly version of it. Is this representative of your overall efforts?
I was really wishing for these guys to succeed as living in Webster leaves MUCH to be desired for casual dining. For now, I will drive 20 minutes to Milbury or eat in Auburn before making the 5 minute trek to the bistro. I hope they pull out of the nose dive and focus on the details that currently escape them. You do not need to be a large, well financed restaurant group to deliver value and consistency, but you do have to care about it in the first place.

I like 88’s. They have really good food and drinks. I don’t feel too comfortable in the atmosphere because I prefer a more casual type of place but this would be a good first stop on a girls night out. It is a bit expensive for my budget so I don’t eat here often. If you go for lunch and don’t order any alcoholic beverages, it is perfectly affordable.

Ok drinks. Very expensive and crappy inconsistent food. Tried it 3 times (its really close and we just kept hoping it got better) and it was ok at best the first time and really bad the other two. Too bad. The menu sounded great but nothing is really executed well

My husband gets takeout from here and sometimes it can take him an hour or more to be able to eat his meal. Even reheated the lobster ravioli is fantastic. Tonight I ate takeout from there for the first time. I ordered the Asiago steak and potato cakes. It was wonderful. My cat actually jumped up and stole a piece of my steak while I was getting a napkin. He ate the entire steak. I still got to eat the other steak. We ordered desert. The apple crisp spring roll was good especially since I am an apple lover. My husband ordered the chocolate peanut butter thing and wanted another piece. We will eat here many more times.

In the words of Sainted Husband: This place equals the high standard set by the original. (Eighty-​Ates Bar and Grill in Dudley). Another choice, another menu, but more exceptional food for southern Worcester county. Trevor and company have come up with an inventive menu which offers enticing twists on traditional recipes. I mean, CREAMY French Onion Soup? C’est Magnifique! The «Big City Club» is for you if you can’t pick between a BLT or an Italian sub/hoagie/grinder…with twists. Himself said «yum». I had the Wild Mushroom Fontina (my fave cheese) Melt. To die for! For $ 1.88 extra you can swap out your fries (which are thick, uncoated! and yummy) for FF Onion Rings… yup, they were tasty too. Check for specials and deals… you can’t beat the Sunday-​Wednesday 3-​course special. Good food, good drinks, good service make for a very good experience.

Yum overall.
However, the nachos did not come with beans or chili.
I got a chicken salad. huge, delicious.
Tons of great dessert options.
Back patio with a waterfall on comfortable nights.
This place is a diamond in the rough as there is not much like it in the area.