Charles River Bistro

We had a Groupon for the Prix Fixe Sunset dinner. We were just in town for a couple of days, and called to make reservations. We took the only opening they had during our trip. The restaurant staff called the day prior to our reservation and said they were expecting bad weather and wanted to know if we were interested in rescheduling. In hindsight, this makes sense, but we had never been before and didn’t realize there was no indoor seating and no shelter.
When we arrived, it was raining, windy, and cold. They had set up a canopy tent for us with a lone table underneath. We were the only diners. We were in good spirits and saw humor in the situation, and our server was very kind. The food could not have been any better (gazpacho and clam chowder, Caesar and house greens, hangar steak and scallops, and crème brule and chocolate lava cake). We were even brought hot apple cider to help us warm up.
Fantastic service and amazing food. Too bad about the weather, but it won’t be a dining experience we will soon forget!

The groupon for the sunset prefix dinner was money well spent. We had a lovely evening alongside the Charles River and were treated like first class by the manager Corey and his staff. Corey really went above and beyond to accommodate us and meet all of our needs.
The chicken was moist and the salmon was flavorful. We left full and happy. It was an experience you could get no where else. I highly recommend the sunset prefix dinner.

Ordinary breakfast, nothing really exceptional.

The Esplanade is one of my absolute favorite parks in Boston, and I love stopping by the Charles River Bistro whenever I’m on the Esplanade for a quick bite to eat. The staff is always very friendly and accommodating, and the food is excellent. Whether you are in the mood for a sandwich, lobster roll or just an ice cream cone, the Bistro will not disappoint!

We had lunch there. It was a little busy but the food took over 45 minutes after we ordered. After waiting that long, the food was fair. The lettuce in the salad was wilted and the tomatoes were disgusting. The lemonade was so tart we dumped it and it was $ 5 a cup. There were six of us and we asked them to refund our money. They were very nice about it and they did but we would rather have gone someplace good to start.

After training around the Charles River, my husband and I were very happy to know that the Charles River Bistro is open for the season. We have bought drinks and food on many occasions for years there and it has always been TERRIFIC. The General Manager Corey was superb to deal with and the staff was friendly as well.
So, instead of carrying heavy lunch totes to the Esplanade and feeling exhausted from it, just check out the Bistro. You will not be disappointed.

I was walking on the esplanade today and noticed the Charles River Bistro was closed for the season. That’s too bad especially since the weather’s been so nice lately. It’s very conveniently located and has tons of food options, whether you’re in the mood for breakfast, lunch or dinner, sweet or savory, name it they probably have it. Looking forward to it reopening next year.

I’ve never been for the pre-​fixe dinner but I run in the Esplanade a lot and I always stopped here. Really yummy sandwiches and homemade lemonade, the staff was always nice, and I could always count on them for something good! Great place to stop for a quick bite and relax.

The Charles River Bistro is the perfect spot for a romantic sunset dinner or a quick snack and drink after a run in the park. I’m frequently in the Esplanade and have had many of the items on the Bistro’s menu. The sweet potato donuts are my favorite! I highly recommend ordering them the next time you’re in the park. The atmosphere at the Bistro allows you to sit back and enjoy the simple things in life.

This is my second time here. Great location for grabbing a snack and watching the sunset on the Charles.
Unfortunately the staff up front could do with a little training. The girl who took my order didn’t know how to use the till ‘I hate this machine’ or the iced-​drink machine (it won’t turn on if the lid isn’t attached). The other snooty chick serving the up front will just reach across you without having the courtesy to ask you to move.
25 minute wait for an order that came in dribs and drabs and was incomplete but I was too irritated to call them out. Also, they ran out of ketchup or mustard.
To be fair, the fries were awesome. Wish I could say the same about the rest.

Our server Tito was as good as he could be. We left a good tip for him because we knew it wasn’t his fault things are the way they are, and he was very attentive and polite. We were the last ones there and it got kind of awkward because once the sun sets you are eating in the pitch dark. The cook was yelling at the wait staff and it was a little awkward. My chicken was good but the friend calamari was sub par and my boyfriends scallops were borderline destroyed. Dessert was good, but that’s hard to mess up.

This was one of the most awkward dining experiences of my life. I purchased a gift certificate from Gilt City thinking this would be a nice romantic dinner fit for foodies. I could not have been more wrong!
This «restaurant» is a part of the little snack shop by the Hatch Memorial Shell. For appetizers we ordered gazpacho and calamari. What I got was cold minestrone soup from a can and frozen breaded calamari. It was beyond tacky and when I complained to the waitress all she responded with was, «oh I don’t know if its from a can I didn’t make it.» Not the most attentive or intelligent waitstaff.
The salads were normal but typical of what you can get at the salad bar at Stop & Shop. For our entrees we ordered the lamb and steak. Cheap quality, the lamb didn’t come with any sides. The steak came with instant mashed potatoes and broccoli rabe that was spoiled. Maybe it was frozen as well, just definitely not fresh.
The ambiance is probably gonna to vary. On the night and time I went, there was an open zumba class going on at the Hatch Shell and I was forced to listen to club music while trying to have a nice dinner conversation. There was also an awkward older gentleman poorly playing the piano which just added to the awkwardness of the evening.
If 16 and want to impress your girlfriend and not spend a lot of money this is for you. But if you want a delicious meal and great atmosphere, keep looking! I would never bother to go back to this place in a million years!!!

My husband and I came here with a Groupon deal for the sunset prix five meal. We booked a couple weeks in advance and the process was a mess. I tried to book early in June but they were booked up — completely fine. Our Groupon said it was expiring in a couple days though so I was worried. Apparently they put the wrong date on there and it was good for a few more months so we booked for July which took days of multiple emails back and forth. For some reason they kept sending me separate emails with information on how to make a reservation so it was confusing and almost as if I weren’t already doing that… Bad automation I assume. So anyway, we were told we were all set. Great.
Then, two days before our SATURDAY night reservation, I get a call telling me I never gave them our order (which I never did give them because nobody ever told me I had to and it doesn’t say that anywhere online) for TONIGHT (aka Thursday night). I told them our order and that it was for SATURDAY, not tonight. He sounded confused and said «…I was afraid you were going to say that. It’s not your fault but I know whose it is. …Ok, thank you» and hung up.
Then, on Friday, I get another call from Charles River Bistro telling us that since there was a mix up (someone put our reservation in wrong) they were booked during the time we wanted, 7pm, which is unfortunately the latest they offer. So we had to change it to 6pm since that is all they offered, much too early for our tastes. We would have cancelled altogether if we hadn’t planned well in advance and even booked a hotel nearby to celebrate our anniversary! Then he asked for our order… again! I can’t for the life of me understand why the first time I gave it to them it wasn’t taken note of. Ridiculous. At least he was nice about it and all apologies.
So the day comes. And I’m not feeling well. Great. We couldn’t cancel at that point so we just got seated and hoped for the best. I simply could not eat. ALL my fault and none of theirs. The waitress who seated and served us could not have been sweeter, more helpful, or accommodating about it. I asked about a bathroom and the only one in the area is behind the hatch shell I think, so a bit of a walk from where we were sitting. She let me use their bathroom in the back near the kitchen and walked me over there. So nice of her. She offered to wrap up all of my food and kept asking if I felt better. She even offered me some tea to help soothe my stomach, to which I agreed and it actually helped a lot. A lot of people would be irritated at a customer like me but she was just nice and didn’t show any irritation, only empathy. I wish I got her name so I could give her proper credit. Oneand a half of the two stars this review gets go straight to her.
The other half star goes to the location. Yeah, it’s nice. It’s by the water. But it’s nestled in between walking/​biking/​running paved trails and the park area near the hatch shell. So… it’s busy, especially on a nice summer evening. Not the very «romantic» sunset dinner they advertise it as when there are a bunch of sweaty gawkers and little kids running around. So yeah, it’s nice but I think they should stick to burgers and lobster rolls and leave the fine dining to the many other restaurants in the area.
This brings me to the food, which I barely touched. The calamari seemed pretty good. I had a couple pieces before I decided I couldn’t stomach anything. And I nibbled on a salad which was ok… nothing to write home about and pretty typical. The rest, I sadly didn’t touch. My husband though, ate everything. He said it really wasn’t that great. And he thought the chicken was kind of… gross. The desserts are made somewhere else and brought in. He said his was actually good but then once we left, HE started to feel under the weather and it wasn’t the same issue as mine. So he thinks it was the dessert he had. All in all though, it doesn’t seem to be worth either the regular price $ 150 you would spend OR the $ 75 we paid with the groupon.
I should also mention that they don’t serve alcohol here and despite what another reviewer said, you aren’t allowed to bring your own in. I double checked with them. There are open bottle laws that do not allow it anywhere on the Charles I guess. Not a deal breaker but kind of a bummer if you’re into having a cocktail or sharing a bottle of wine over a «romantic» dinner.
We definitely wouldn’t return for a sunset dinner. If we happened to be at the hatch shell and wanted a hot dog… well, maybe.

I’d actually give this place 3 stars probably, but I think the 1.5 rating it currently has is a bit outrageous.
I bought the subset dinner groupon to this place and when I read the Unilocal reviews, I was a little scared… but I had already ponied up for the groupon so I went.
The first thing that strikes you is the location — it’s right by the Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade and it’s GORGEOUS. There’s a public piano right by the seating area where people come and play and that’s also quite nice (well…until some kids come and just bash the keys… but most of the music was lovely). The bistro sets up 12ish tables (with tablecloths!) in a nice area. Ambience gets 4 stars from me.
The wait staff was quite attentive and, something I didn’t know, all drinks come with the deal! So we got some sodas, iced teas, coffee, etc. Service also gets 4 stars from me.
OK, the food. Now, is it worth the $ 150 market price? No. But a 4 course meal for 2 for $ 75? I challenge you to find a 4 course meal anywhere for less than $ 40, so that’s a good deal to me. For appetizers we got Calamari and Shrimp cocktail — the calamari was quite tasty, and the shrimp cocktail came with 4 very tasty shrimp. For salads we got the Apple salad and the Spinach salad with Craisins and fresh mozzarella balls — love the Spinach salad, the apple salad was OK, but I’m not a huge salad guy anyway. They give you many options for dressings which is cool I guess. For entrees we got the Lamb and the Scallops. The lamb was geniunely fantastic, I’d order that anywhere. The scallops were overcooked, but still tasty. For dessert we got the Chocolate Symphony cake, which was AWESOME, and the crème brûlée, which was heated up too much such that the stuff under the crispy part was soupy. But, again, still tasty. I’d give the food 2.5 stars.
When I went to pay the tip at the register, the chef came out and asked how the meal was. I was truthful with him about the food, but he cared about the feedback — this definitely isn’t their main thing, and they’re clearly trying. I assume this is their first summer doing this, and I trust they’ll improve for next summer, so I’d absolutely recommend it. It was a wonderful evening on the Charles.

If you bought or are thinking about a Gilt City deal or are just thinking about dinner here, think twice. After pre-​ordering our prix fixe dinner at reservation time, we arrived on a Saturday evening. Our server then reconfirmed our orders for the evening, and took our salad dressing order as well. We started off with the shrimp cocktail and the calamari, which was slightly over fried. Next, our salad came out with the wrong dressing for both salads, and both salads had rotted lettuce and spinach in them. At that point, we didn’t say anything, but were a little upset.
The real kicker was when the server came out with a salmon entrée and a lamb entrée instead of steak as we ordered. We sent the lamb back because we had ordered the steak. About 5 minutes later, the server came back with the lamb dish, and we were told the kitchen misunderstood, and there were no more steak entrees so they couldn’t give us steak. About 5 minutes later, the table next to us got a steak entrée served to them. The lamb dish at that time was cold and rubbery, and the brussels sprouts were under cooked, leaving that entire entrée inedible. Throughout the night, the service was slow, with about a 15 – 20 minute wait between each course. With only about 10 tables total and 3 servers, the lack of timely courses was a little unexpected.
After dessert, we requested that the server bring us a manager’s name and contact information. He didn’t bring us a business card or any information written down, but stood there awkwardly waiting for us to get our phones out to input the information in our phones. After that, he reminded us that gratuity wasn’t included and that we would be expected to pay that. Even though we had a very subpar experience, we wanted to leave the tip, but he stood there waiting for us to pull out some cash. When we asked if we could leave the tip on a credit card, he asked us to follow him to the concession stand counter to pay, instead of taking our card himself. When we got to the counter, they didn’t have any way of taking payment for gratuity, so the girl at the counter had to charge us $ 1 for an employee drink, then have us leave a tip on top of that. In addition, the receipt printer was not working, so we were not even able to get a receipt for the transaction.
At the end of the night, because we were extremely unsatisfied with the dining experience, we decided to contact the management of the restaurant. It took a very long time for him to respond, and he responded with a «thanks for letting us know». There was not any resolution provided to our detailed account of the evening. From beginning to end, not at all a good experience for the price paid.

We had a groupon for the sunset dinner. Even with the groupon, the food wasn’t worth what we paid. Both our entrees were cold and my scallops were overcooked and rubbery and came with some unrecognizable rice substance (another reviewer said it was risotto, so I guess that’s what it was). The worst part was my husband’s molten chocolate «cake.» It wasn’t cooked at all. It was literally a cold blob of raw cake batter filled with a chocolate sauce. If you want to enjoy dinner on the Charles, pack a picnic and sit on a bench. It will be cheaper and much tastier.

Pretty disappointing sunset dinner package. For $ 75 I thought we were getting a really deluxe meal but everything was pretty poorly put together and very bland. The risotto that came with the scallops was not edible. Not a very good food experience and it certainly is not too romantic eating this food but the wait staff was friendly and the location is relaxing and beautiful!

Booo. Just tried to order a quick dinner to enjoy on the Esplanade and the cook refused to make it. It’s a shame because they’re right down the street from our house. We won’t be back…

I’m not from here, but killer location on a sunny day. $ 22 for a lobster roll and soda and I’ve been waiting for my order for nearly 20 min. Wah wah. Food better be worth it.