I'm a long-time fan of the John Harvard Brewpub in Harvard Square, but until recently, hadn't been to the one in Framingham. Located in a strip-mall saturated area of Route 9, the interior is surprisingly warm and comforting, reminiscent of the original in Cambridge. I walked in with my "Hophead" t-shirt on from BeerAdvocate.com, looking forward to a nice IPA. I sat down to see that they had an extra hoppy version of their IPA available, but my hopes and dreams were dashed by the bartender who came over and said "Hi folks, just wanted to let you know that we're out of both IPAs tonight." He went on to explain why, but I didn't hear anything as I found myself lost in a cloud of disappointment.
After that blow, I was determined to have buffalo wings, which I was looking forward to, as the last time I had them at the Harvard Square restaurant they were cooked to perfection and very hot and spicy - bordering on too hot. I had them long before I started this blog, so I was looking forward to revisiting them.
Unfortunately, they turned out to be slightly disappointing. Not that they were bad - they were just average. The wings were cooked well, and the sauce had a kick - but wasn't anything great and they certainly weren't generous with it either. The chicken was actually a little tough - possibly cooked before fully thawing - and I think the bartender may have let them sit for a bit on the service window, as you could tell they WERE crispy, but weren't starting to get saturated in their own spicy sauce.
They wouldn't have been really disappointing if I had no expectations, but I did, so they were.
RATING: 2.0 out of 5 stars
I'm surprised you rated them that high. Decent beer, lousy food.
In the MetroWest area, try Chicken Bone Saloon on route 135 in Framingham. Used to be really good and have gone downhill of late, but a huge step up from John Harvard's.
Posted by: Pigtrip | August 22, 2007 at 05:28 AM