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| - I had an opportunity to get here a few weeks ago and better-yet twice within that one week. My first visit was centered around the bar as the plan was to check out the atmosphere of what appeared to be the new hot spot restaurant in South End. Having just recently moved from Uptown to a South End I was anxious to see what the fellas from 5 Church had going on.
Snagging a spot at the corner of the bar offered a great view of a pretty busy restaurant for a weekday. The bar tenders were attentive and friendly even considering a full bar. After 30 minutes or so I I had to take a peak at the menu and decided that contrary to my initial plan of "drinks only" I was going to grab something small. Now, when a restaurant aims for what it appears Nan and Byron's is aiming for I like to give a good test of the menu and order something a bit atypical. That said, by offering a hot dog and mac and cheese a place like this I couldn't pass this opportunity up. It wasn't even on the kid's menu! Let's be honest, if you can nail a hot dog and mac and cheese at what appears to be a quality restaurant than more power to ya. Certainly I agree that with this order I couldn't have possibly expected much, but again, it is Nan and Byron's that offered it and so I had to take them up on it.
Unfortunately I was pretty disappointed. I can't complain much about the value as these were some of the less expensive items on the menu but I can certainly complain of the quality. Honestly, if you are going to go out on a limb by offering a hot dog at a place like this then I'd expect you would at least reward the customer daring enough to order it. The presentation itself was good but the flavor wasn't much greater than what you'd expect from your most basic hot dog. When I asked the bar tender what we were dealing with she admitted she thinks it is a Nathan's hot dog...boiled! Not grilled, but boiled. Who in their right mind boils a Nathan's frank! As for the mac and cheese I can't really speak much about it; not much to write home about and although creamy couldn't help but think "Velveeta". I'm sure it wasn't and maybe I'm more of a baked mac and cheese guy but this wasn't doing it for me.
Although I will admit this isn't the end of the world for food delivered to my bar stool but I don't think I would be happy if I placed this order from a table. However, this is the point of the experiment, no? Try something from the menu so atypical that likely very few people would order it in an attempt to test the integrity of the one who decided to place the item on the menu to begin with. It is that mindset that brought me back to Nan and Byron's for "round 2" less than a week later to try something more typically ordered.
On my second visit I decided to go for more or the full experience; grab a table and order something more typical. When my girlfriend and I arrived it was Friday around 9:30pm. Upon entering we were greeted by the hostess who was quick to ask us if we had a reservation. I thought it was strange to ask considering the number of tables available. Since we of course didn't have a reservation the hostess asked us to take a seat to wait for the next available table. Now, I'm not sure if this was a ploy to make them seem busier than they were or possibly an attempt to limit the workload on their staff. Either way it is always frustrating to wait for a table when 1) you are only a party of two and 2) you can see empty tables. At the end of the day it wasn't more than a 15 minute wait so not a huge deal.
Once we were seated I began to take in the atmosphere itself. The setup of the restaurant is great and the design is appealing. I can see this place being a good go-to for a casual date night. As per my previous experience I can attest to the friendliness of the bartenders and could see a drink or two first at the bar before grabbing a table for dinner being a great date experience. Additionally, who could say anything bad about the decision to serve fresh popcorn in place of the old standby bread? Who doesn't love popcorn?!? By the time the waiter took his second pass we were ready to order and I went with his recommendation which was the meatloaf while my girlfriend went with a standard cheese burger. The meatloaf was okay in that the consistency was good, not dry etc. Serving size was good and the roasted corn was very good thought maybe a bit "too roasted" with some bites. However, although I can understand the difficulty in getting the spices right in a meatloaf it truly had waaaay too much rosemary in it. Unfortunately the overwhelming flavor of the rosemary overpowered any other possible flavors and made for a less than perfect experience. The mashed potatoes had some pretty good flavor but were cold in both my order and my girlfriends.
I can't say I wont be back here but I'm certainly not going to rush back. I think this place is certainly worth a shot and with a few tweaks can easily bring my rating up to a 4-star.
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