Savin Bar & Kitchen

Just popped in for dinner, as we were in the area. Sat at the high tops in the bar, so we could enjoy some sports on the TV. The place was very quiet on this Father’s Day night, but staff were very friendly and welcoming. I had the grilled skirt steak and hubby had the pork chop dinner with pear. The food was cooked to perfection. Waitress brought over a steak knife and I didn’t even need it. Steak was amazingly tender. Hubs bone-​in chop was grilled to perfection, beautiful presentation and amazingly juicy and flavorful. Great cocktails and nice atmosphere. Very lovely meal all around. Definitely coming back.

I frequently visit SBK because it is near my house, convenient to the train and has a really comfortable and trendy atmosphere (esp for dorchester). Outside of comfort and convince though, just about everything about this place is average. The food is okay, the drinks are okay, the service is okay (I mean, I am a bit of a regular so it is nice to be recognized by the bar tender). To be fair though, I actually wish I could give SBK 3.5 stars (even with all the ‘okay-​ness’) because this place is special to me and to Savin Hill. They host weekly events like trivia, have happy hour on oysters once or twice a week, and just bring a great sense of community to the neighborhood. Long and short, I very frequently visit SBK and often bring friends. The food and drink is not bad, but mostly I visit because I love the comfort and community it offers.

This place is a hidden gem :) one of my favorite places to dine the food is delicious.

I’m happy McKenna’s was full or else we would have never gone across the street to Savin Bar & Kitchen. There was no wait for the 6 of us during prime brunch hours. I was surprised at the different types of toasts and bellinis cocktails on their menu. We ordered from the Plates menu but you can also customize your own plate from their Sides menu which includes brunch items like pancake, french toast, bacon/​sausage, eggs, etc.
Overall, it was a pleasant brunch with good food and friendly service.

Love this place! They have good drinks, good food, good service. Nothing amazing but it’s definitely a solid place to go!

Note: I don’t mean for this review to be scathing and I’ve put off writing one for a very long time in order to give the place an honest chance (I’m also a fan of parenthetical notes).
I have to give this place no more than two stars. On occasion the place deserves four but, on the vast and immeasurable whole, the average is about two. The food quality varies between okay and good and rarely ever hits great.
The best meal you can get there is going to be brunch — I’ve never had a bad brunch meal.
For the money, the best regular entrée you can order will be the fried chicken. It’s consistent and the portions are ridiculous — I agree that the biscuit is often bland (but at least it looks pretty?).
The food prices are, more or less, out of line with the area’s price point (even if the housing bubble has inflated the values of pretty much everything). There’s no rational basis behind a $ 15 burger in this area when you can get a better tasting patty from either Pantry Pizza or The Avenue at a far lower cost (including delivery).
If you’re going to drink, get a beer. The bar staff does not make a consistent drink — whether through lack of training or care, I cannot say.
Service garners no more stars than the food. Most of the college-​aged servers could care less about your personal satisfaction and you’re lucky if the host/​hostess does their job. Wrenching a greeting or farewell out of them shouldn’t even be a topic of discussion.
I’m not saying DON’T go here. I’m saying temper your expectations for what you are about to pay.

Good, easy, casual place for a group. Didn’t feel rushed. No vegetarian choices in the meat. So I selected sides. The fruit salad was good but unusually sweet, so sugar probably added. Eggs were eggs. Potatoes, too mushy, not crisp anywhere. The biscuits were just not good tasting but nicely browned. All in all, the brunch was disappointing.

Love love love the brunch! Came here last weekend for my birthday, and everything was perfect. We had 10 people, and 2 toddlers. The staff was very accommodating, and we got our drinks quick. Mimosas, spiked iced coffees, and bloody mary’s. I got the crab cake benedicts with a side of fruit. Yum!
Others got: egg sandwich, stuffed french toast, the burrito. everyone was very happy with their meals :)
*the décor is awesome as well

Downtown Boston chi-​chi in the Dot. Nice small bar on one side, hostess and full-​service restaurant on other side. I’m pretty much always at the bar when I’m here, and service there is usually good, but occasionally you end up having to wait while the bartenders fraternize with each other or the locals. I’ve also been to events in their downstairs room, which I recommend if you’re looking to book space for a private function. Service there can be a little slow at times, as they have to go upstairs to put in & get food and drink orders, but they are willing to work with you on food specials and drink selection to have prestocked downstairs.
The food and drinks are good, but pricy, and the quality can be hit or miss. Don’t get me wrong – they usually hit – but the prices are so that you expect consistency, and portion sizes are sometimes a bit small for what you’re paying. I like the Maple Manhattan cocktail and Pulled Pork Quesadillas, and numerous people I know have praised the Crab Cakes. Overall, worth checking out, even trekking to the Dot for if you don’t live here (Savin Hill T literally right across the street), but a little too expensive for me, someone who lives in Dorchester for its relative affordability, to come often.

Great atmosphere, food and service. here the night before my wedding with my family from out of town. We got the mussels, wedge salad, crab cake blt & burger. service was prompt and although the food we ordered was simple it was all made to perfection with hearty proportions. Also if you are looking for $ 1 oysters they have them here! I will be back!

A long wait at McKenna’s sent my feet walking across the street to the Savin Bar & Kitchen. Good thing too! The wait here was nil compared to the calamity next door. The interior of this restaurant was bright and sunny in the late morning, a respite from the cold, wintry air outside. My boyfriend and I were seated immediately, service quick and pleasant too.
Looking for a hearty breakfast… I found it in «The Works». This dish consisted of 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, 2 bacon strips, 2 sausages, 2 slices of toast (or an english muffin in my case), homefries, a small cup of fruit salad, and a grilled tomato topped with spinach. Interested in trying out their Corned Beef Hash, we ordered a side dish to share.
The Good: The meats were cooked to perfection. The bacon and sausage were the best part of the meal. The homefries were also quite tasty… seasoned well, crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside.
The Bad: The pancakes were disappointing. Very dry, burnt on both sides, and on the small side. My english muffin was so barely toasted that the butter didn’t even melt.
The Ugly: The corned beef hash was not good. Not good to the point where I’m not even sure that I would call what was served corned beef hash. The pieces of corned beef were so small and insignificant in number that you could barely taste them as part of the whole dish. I could not pinpoint what spices were used but whatever they were… they didn’t belong together as part of this plate. My boyfriend and I both agreed that we could have done without.
I left with a full stomach but was not completely satisfied overall. My meal had it’s high points and its low points and in the end… it was alright all-​around. Though «The Works» sounds like a ton of food… it was very manageable in size for what was delivered. I did not have to roll out of the restaurant or anything.

Came here as overflow from McKennas. Everyone was really nice, but the service was incredibly slow. Waited half an hour for food.
Corned beef hash was a weird onion, undercooked shredded potato, bell pepper combo with an orange tint. Edible with a lot of tabasco, but not what I was hoping for when ordering at all.
Pancake was actually really good. I’d order it again, but I don’t think it’s worth the wait.

Bartender Matt is very good and pleasant .
Walked right in on a Friday nite and got a table for 6.
Waiter was very attentive and pleasant .
Apps were ok. Calamari was so so. Not bad but not something that would make me come back.
Ordered steak tips that looks like they carved up a rump roast and grilled it. They were very tough. Waiter credited us the meal and brought out another order of tips that were a tad better.
Overall The food was Blah …
Service was A plus.
The restaurant was never full … Ownership should take note .
Improve the quality of food and this place would rock.

3 stars mainly for the service that was outstanding, our server was friendly and on the ball dealing with all our needs.
Egg rolls were really tasty, as was the calamari appetizers, couple of our group got steak tips, some of the tips were super chewy, but after a word with the server they were not only replaced with deliciously tender versions, they were also removed from our check, nice touch.
Another nice touch was 2 of our party wanted to split a meal which the server did in the kitchen and brought out on two plates.
Biscuits and sausage gravy was my favorite, comes as a side if you want it and it was one the best i’ve had in the Yankee north!
Easy to find parking and the place wasn’t that busy for a Saturday night which i found to be a little strange, so all in all an enjoyable night.

We finally got to try this place out and I’m so happy we did because we loved every bit.
We stopped in on a wintry, Saturday evening. It wasn’t that busy, so we sat right at the bar. The bartender was very attentive & had a great personality. He always on top of making sure we had full drinks and even took the time to answer all of our questions.
My boyfriend ordered the burger & fries. I ordered the crab cakes. We were both very happy with your meals. Cooked to perfection. They were delish!
I read that they had brunch and I’m looking forward trying that soon!

I’ve been here 2 times. Each time I enjoyed my favorite brunch steak tips. Added a blueberry pancake to the meal and it was delicious

Came here recently for a friend’s birthday outing. Our server was friendly and attentive, and my drinks were strong so it was overall a great night. The music was not too loud either so it was easy to chat with everyone there. There were about 20 of us in the group tonight and there was plenty of room for all of us.
Can’t beat the location either, it’s literally a 2 minute walk to the red line. I can’t wait to go back to try the food.

Wow! It’s surprising that an establishment with so much negative feedback on service still fails so badly!
There are so many great places to go spend my hard earned money on brunch — unless your food is a gift from Heaven, (it’s not btw. Good, certainly not great), there has to be more than average food to keep me going. This is where service comes in.
We came after the brunch rush, below are the service issues that stick out:
— waited 10 minutes for water after being seated
— waited another 5 minutes before a waitress showed up
— got our appetizer salad before the drinks we ordered
— had to continuously ask for water refills
— asked for a drink menu & received some real snotty attitude from the food runner girl
— the check was placed on the table before we were done with our meal
Again, with so many choices, a restaurant really needs to stand out — food & service are the backbone and what makes people come back. I’m all set, and will not spend my money here again.

I go frequently and the food is pretty consistent. I rarely am disappointed. The one thing that isn’t always consistent though is the service. Sometimes it’s stellar and sometimes it can be completely empty but no one will come and take my order.
If you’re looking for bar food it’s definitely a solid place to go.

Mckenna’s had some god awful wait so we decided to try this place for bunch instead! Initial impressions was that it was actually a really nice place with a sort of hip look to it.
I ordered the crab cake benedict and my gf got the chicken and biscuits with sausage gravy and an over medium egg.
Crab cake benedict came with home fries which were delicious. The crab cake itself could have benefitted from a few more minutes to sear cause I would have liked to have a little bit of a crust to it but over all it had a nice crabby taste to it. I felt like the meal overall was alright. My gf’s chicken and biscuit was pretty tasty. Nice crust to the fried chicken and the biscuit was fluffy and delicious. The egg was requested over medium and they did a pretty good job on the cook.
Here’s where the meal went wrong. We got there around 1 pm so the place was starting to die down for the brunch shift. So maybe at ¹⁄₃^rd capacity. After we had gotten our menus we literally sat there for 15 minutes before somebody even came by to ask if we wanted something other than water to drink. I made it painfully obvious that we were ready too, the whole pack up all the menus and put them in a corner bit. I’m all for waiting for food, I never have a problem with that but not when the restaurant barely has anybody in it. My water was never refilled, which is a pet peeve of mine. Once again when collecting the check, I was stuck there twiddling my thumbs for like 15 minutes waiting for somebody to pick up the check. Real obvious that was ready to be picked up with the check folded up and the credit card sticking out.
What annoyed me the most is what happened with my gf’s meal. For some reason the egg didn’t come out with the rest of her meal. We naturally assumed that they probably forgot it so no big deal, but then they brought it out separately 10 minutes after she had started eating. THEN they charged her for it. Bad form in my opinion.
I want to give this place a 2.5 but I’ll round up to 3. The food was perfectly capable and pretty good. I usually try not to let service negatively affect a score but this place just rubbed me the wrong way. I actually gave a 0 dollar tip which in retrospect I feel bad over but that’s how annoyed I was at the time.