99 Restaurant & Pub

Unfortuantly my husband and I went last Thursday 11÷05÷15 before a concert and met another couple who came after us. When we sat down the bartender asked us if we were eating and what our drinks would be and told us about the appetizer special 5.00 before 6:00 so we jumped on that. I am not sure it she was unhappy at her job but I had to ask her for some free popcorn. I asked her for more sour cream and we watied 10 minutes till i asked again. They were not busy. We waited for ever for our second drinks. The Potatoe skins had to much potatoe filling in them. The other couple had arrived order their entrees and bartender had to apologize she had cashed out their bill to another couple leaving and asked if they would pay for that other couples dinner which was only .20 off. Again she wasnt paying attention. No problem but then my girlfriends salad came and as she was eating it a huge honking black hair was pulled out which was none of ours. They took her entrees off but not until I said they should do that. I realize things can happen but the last time I was there with my daughter I got a complete raw burger which I sent back they forgot to turn on the stove to cook it, told to me. I gave it a second chance. Drinks were good however but unfortuantly Ninety Nine you should really have your bartenders more friendly and your cooks on top of alittle things when it comes to preparing food. Two strikes I will never go there and i can guarantee the other couple wont either. I have been told that Danvers Ninty Nine is much better so I guess we will try there.

The remodel was a huge success if you ask me. The place is gorgeous! I can’t believe how much work they did in such a short time frame the changes were far more than I anticipated and it is very warm and inviting as well as relaxing and friendly. I already spend too much time there and I can see it increasing in the future.

This is my go to place for excellence. I play Questionary on wednesday nights and it is a blast. The bartenders, waitstaff, and hosts are always friendly and professional. I can honestly say that I have tried mostly everything on the menu and have only been dissapointed with one dish (I am a seafood stickler from growing up with generations of fishermen). The fish is always awesome, however I stay clear of anything with shrimp in it. That being said, my dish was promptly and curteously replaced.

Delish!
Stopped in late after traveling all day and truly appreciated the good food and great service! It’s a chain, yes so don’t expect originality (hence 4-​stars). However, the food was significantly better than many other chains and trust me, I’ve been to them all. Prices were competitive too!

Giving the bar at this 99 in Salem, Ma a great rating for their bartender Ryann. Friendly with a great personality, she really is the reason so many customers go back. Their lobster roll (seasonal) is very good (I prefer the cold style). The burgers and onion soup (I am told) are excellent. Prices are fair, it is clean and there is plenty of parking. Wednesday and Thursdays are Trivia nights at the bar…(it is competitive and fun but tough questions) Would recommend to family and friends. Good value, good food., great staff person!

I come here every week because my friends enjoy the Trivia Thursdays and Questionary on Wednesdays. I come here to be with my friends but I have tried some food and drinks.
I’ve ordered the 49 cent bone-​in wings in hot with bleu cheese. I’ve ordered the rustic chicken sandwich which I was really surprised that I didn’t like it since I like all of the ingredients. Not enough chicken and too much confusion with the seasoning. I’ve ordered the Bruschetta Chicken and it was okay but the rice was not. I really like the chicken fingers and chicken parmesan.
The bartenders are great especially Ryann Kelcie and Becca.
My friend recommended the Towering Midnight Fudge Cake dessert and it was good – for the first 3 bites. Then it was too much. They should make a smaller version. Too overwhelming, definitely not for just one person.
Now for Stump! Trivia, it’s difficult because it’s very clique-​y, and the same people win all the time. The DJ that runs it is nice but has weird music choices, says he takes requests. His personality is okay. Archie who runs the Questionnary is laid back and has a much better attitude. I like that he includes the bartenders in this game and sits at the bar so it’s more inclusive. This game is more like Family Feud. He’s very engaging.

Poor Management.
My son and I had dinner here this evening. He was half way through his dinner before mine came out which is always so aggravating… especially when you are hungry! I ordered a salad with grilled chicken on it and specifically asked for the dressing on the side as I don’t like a lot of dressing. It came out with the dressing on the side and the chicken was totally burnt on one side. My server did not offer to take it back for a new one… and frankly I didn’t care to wait. I asked if the management would help and adjust our bill. An emphatic no. Cannot imagine running a business this way. Manager could have cared less.

I have to say, I’ve been dragged to this restaurant pretty close to every week for years before a meeting we go to, with 3 – 5 people every week. I have, first, never had anything above a fair experience here. The food is… meh, at best. Same goes for the service.
I got the sirloin tips usually and this is pretty much the only thing that you stand a chance of getting cooked the way you want it. I like things really rare. I get that they are liable if you get sick, but do the best you can that you are allowed to do. Meaning if I ask for a burger, which you’d think is hard to screw up, I shouldn’t get a hockey puck that I could beat someone over the head with. Turkey tips are always burned as well. And even pasta, is dripping with oil and still pretty tasteless.
Last night however, was the final straw! I ordered the shoreline combo, and the second I took the tartar sauce off the plate to place it beside me, I see a huge black hair wrapped around my fries. Not from the waitress, I mean, this thing was fried with the fries! Disgusting! My first reaction was to walk out but my father said, just order what I got, Chicken Broccoli Mac & Cheese. The waitress, who it took me forever to ever ask for anything because she walks around with her head down and darts away from tables at epic speeds, remarked that it would be longer for a new meal. I said I’d wait. Sorry, not taking the chance that you’re gonna remove the hair, mix some stuff around, and bring it back to me in 5 minutes. So, the manager brings over my new meal and apologizes after everyone else is done. Says the waitress will offer me a free dessert and took the meal off my bill. Ok. I’m still pretty grossed out and now were running late so I eat some of my meal and throw the rest in a box. Never offered the dessert, but I didn’t have time for it anyways. Bill comes and my new meal is on it, when I say something to her she says, yeah, we took your old meal off, not the new one! Like HELLO, was I supposed to pay for both? So I paid the same amount, got grossed out, didn’t get to eat with the people I came with! Awesome! I’m done. Our group is done. That’s a whole weekly group that will go elsewhere from now on. Do the math as to how much money we’ve given that place over the years and won’t again! I was the mayor of this place on Foursquare, that’s how many times we went.

I ordered potato skins and was charged extra for sour cream. (which it should come with) They were over cooked and sad slivers of potatoes. Very pricey and worst than Dennys and that is saying something.

Pretty average chain restaurant. Burgers were good, I’d figure you couldn’t go wrong ordering a good old standard item for late lunch. Party’s were cooked to desire temp.
Staff were very friendly and professional.

Stumbled in here for a quick bite while on the road and was surprised at how good it was. My mother, daughter and I all had great meals at a really reasonable price. Great service as well!

Meh, meh and more meh. The first «meh» is for the cookie-​cutter feel of the 99. Everything about it looks and feels like a big chain. The corporate HQ probably calls its restaurants «stores» because that’s how they look at it. Their «stores» are just for pushing «product,» and not to evoke any sense of a dining experience for the customers.
The second «meh» is for the food itself, which is bland, cookie-​cutter (again with the cookie cutters), and «portion-​controled» (God forbid they should give you one more quarter-​ounce of meat or one more string bean in that perfectly measured out serving… after all, it all adds up and cuts into profits).
The seasonal stuff looks like it was thought up in a corporate laboratory by a committee, or perhaps a corporate staff of overworked institutional chefs. Even old New England favories like the traditional lobster roll, offered in the summer, is rubbery and bland because it’s probably made from frozen lobster from the corporate freezers somewhere in Genericville, USA instead of fresh from the boats of our own local lobstermen. Maybe the lobster does come from them originally, but gets frozen and shipped to the corporate HQ freezers until it’s time to dole out to all of its «stores.» Whatever. It’s still rubbery and bland. I’ll go to Farnham’s or one of a zillion other great lobstah places, thankyou.
Even the mini desserts taste either bland or weird, and some I sampled had gluey textures that hinted at their being perhaps more than a couple days old, or else mixed from some pre-​fab substance.
The third «meh» is for service. Though there are some truly good, professional servers at this particular 99, and the overall service when my boyfriend and I have gone (he used to love to go for the burgers) was good and cheerful, that was only when I dined there with my boyfriend. One evening when I came in alone, I was virtually ignored though the place was quiet, then eventually got led by the hostess to this little dead-​end corner off to the right of the entrance, and seated waaaaaay in the last booth before the server station door even though there were empty booths all over the restaurant. And, a couple that was seated 10 minutes after me (in one of those better located empty booths) was waited on first (albeit by another server) while I sat yet another 10 minutes with no sign of my server. I got up and left.
I did go back with my bf on another evening — I wouldn’t have gone back on my own — and service was okay and the food was as meh as always. Now that my bf has had to move overseas for a while, I have not ever gone back to the 99.
The best tidbit of advice I can give, if it’s a done deal that you’re going to the 99, is that you stick with burgers and beer. Burgers are a generic thing anyway, and you can smother them in cheese, onions, ketchup and other stuff to give them flavor. And beer, if you drink enough, makes even the meh-​iest food taste better after you’ve had a couple.

i had a party and someone brought boneless buffalo and honey mustard wings from the 99 (this specific location, not that location makes a difference). they were super good and didn’t make me sick.
i went recently with a gift certificate and got the buffalo wings. again, no sickness. i think my buffalo chicken sandwich debacle was a fluke, and i honestly think it was at the 99 near liberty tree mall but i don’t remember because it was about a decade ago.
the service was fine and the salad was colorful and the mango mai tai made me happy.

I have been here once and it was alright. Nothing to write home about. The food was eh. Service was good. Courteous Staff. I only went here because it was a neutral place for a friend I was meeting– with that said this is a chain place (obvious) and I figured I should stick with something «safe» aka burger or salad. SO I went with a burger. It was decent. not great and not horrible. I may go back. I may not. I have lived in Salem for 6 years now and only went once– about 3 years ago.
A friend brought wings from there to a game night and they were good. Random side note.

I will start off by saying that I am friend’s with the bartender and that is the reason I go there whenever I am in the area. This location is not close to me but whenever I work at Endicott College I go see Sara.
I’ve always liked the 99 restaurant especially the Somerville location because my picture is up on the wall. lol… Regarding the food I think they do a good job. This isn’t the Ritz so you have to be realistic with your expectations. That doesn’t mean you should eat crappy food but just remember this place uses paper napkins and serves popcorn (which I love).
I got one of their 9.99 steak specials. It was somewhat small but again it was 9.99. Cooked medium rare the way I like it. Clean plate club for that meal especially with a Tall Boy of Sam Summer.
Will go back to say hello to my friend who is also a great bartender!

I would never choose to go here. I mean, it’s basically Applebee’s or Chili’s or whatever. But when your agenda is to watch hockey, drink beer, and eat cheap wings (in that order), this is not a bad place to go. The bar has a bunch of huge TVs and huge beers. And there is 39 cent wing night on Thursdays. The buffalo wings are good, and so are the «Golden something or other» wings.
The low rating for this place is a little weird, I mean, what were you guys expecting?

The 99 in Salem is simply a decent chain restaurant. Just what you’d expect. If you want a burger or something fried, this will do just fine. The only complaints I’ve heard from people is that they order some fruity, Mediterranean salad or other and got let down. What I say is that if you see some combination of ingredients you’ve never encountered before and you’re at a chain restaurant, it’s probably gross. K.I.S.S. method all the way at places like this.
Also, I can’t speak for the people who have complained about food safety issues, but I have never even suspected the 99 of making me ill. Because my wife is a plain eater and likes this place I have eaten here dozens of times. I have never gotten sick and never been served anything spoiled. I don’t care how good (or mediocre) the food is somewhere, I would never eat at a place that seemed risky. I have no fear about the 99’s food safety.

I can summarize the 99 in one word: CRAP! Overpriced food ($ 10.49 for a chicken tender platter? No thank you!), terrible music that gets piped through the speakers, and pathetic food all add up to a big, fat zero. The chicken tenders are just barely above the quality of frozen supermarket chicken, but that’s like saying you’d rather watch a Chevy Chase movie festival than a Will Ferrell movie marathon. Like the Huey Lewis song goes, bad is bad.
The 99’s hot fudge sundaes are too generic and cookie-​cutter to even be judged against superior places like Puleo’s and Richardson’s. 99 also serves Pepsi products, which is a no-​no for this Coca-​Cola drinker. The 99 is really no different from equally bland restaurants chains like Applebee’s and Bugaboo Creek. If you want good meals for low prices, go to Hooters (my #1), Fuddruckers, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, or Chilis.

My husband and I went here last night… The food was TERRIBLE… My Caesar salad had rotten lettuce in it, my husbands Seafood Chowder was served to him cold, so they then took it back and just nuked it… To top off the night my husband ordered a HOT fudge sundae… The HOT fudge was cold hard fudge… Crappy waitress… Asked for mustard and that never came… Really disappointed with the food… We just wanted simple dinner and drinks… Not crap

The staff was warm and friendly, very accommodating and polite. — That is why they got one star.
Unfortunately we all got sick and the food was like leftovers at a Motel 6 buffet. Gordon Ramsey would have gone back there with a flame thrower and a machete.
They ran a great prime rib special, which is what drew us in, yet upon being seated and ordering the special was gone at 6pm on a Friday.
We know it was Winter but it was so freaking hot in there we all wanted to strip down to our skivvies.
By the way, the cocktails are outrageously priced.