Meritage Restaurant

My husband and I were here on Saturday, with reservations for 5pm. We were the first table to arrive, and we were seated in the best spot — right in the middle of the window facing the harbor.
The service: it was excellent. Our waiter was Jean… so friendly, kind, helpful without being overbearing. Also awesome: the sommelier; the lovely lady who brought the bread and refilled water (she gave us seconds on the bread… loved her); and the man who delivered our food. They all made the experience truly a pleasure.
The wine: We ordered a 2012 bottle of Jack Larkin cabernet. It was literally the most expensive bottle of our lives. We enjoy wine, but we’re not too sensitive to bouquet, etc. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I don’t think I can tell the difference between a $ 15 bottle and a $ 110 bottle of wine. However — we were celebrating, and we enjoyed our Larkin bottle and the beautiful decanter!
The food: The rolls. Amazing. The butter, with smoked sea salt? OMG. For an amuse bouche, we received a gulp of French Onion Soup. Literally the best we’ve ever had and my husband is a FOS snob. It had a side of… maybe moscato? Super yummy. I started with the corn chowder, and my husband had the foie gras. The corn chowder was probably the one item that didn’t blow me away. It was delicious — don’t get me wrong — but it’s tough to follow on the heels of the French Onion Soup. My husband enjoyed the foie gras, but thought it needed a little bit of salt. For an entrée, I ordered the short ribs. They tasted very homestyle, and I mean that as a compliment. Really tender, full-​flavored and comforting. My husband ordered the lamb chop — it was perfect!
For dessert, we ordered the Chef’s tasting — I believe it came with the chocolate cremeaux, the berry crumble, and the spice cake. All three were amazing and I would love to have more spice cake right now! One note about the crumble (in case you’re considering ordering it) — it’s not a crumble in the traditional sense… it’s more gelatin like, with a sprinkle of crumble. We also ordered the 60 years of Port. YUM. The 10-​year was fruity, and then the other two became progressively less-​fruity. All perfect. Also, we received chocolate truffles and macarons. I never understand the macaron craze… they always seem waxy and bland… until I had these little tasty bites!
We were celebrating our fifth anniversary… Meritage made it truly special! It was the most expensive dinner that we’ve ever had… but every aspect was on point and completely worth the money!

Time and time again I return to this surreal place. The thing is, their warm professional demeanor, delicious food, and ocean view subtlety lures me into feeling like Meritage is my special little spot that I can go to and not be surrounded by snobs — snobs lurking in ‘bougie’ places like L’espalier, ahem. Excellent selection of wine as well, and as a wine lover and connoisseur, you’ll be happy to know that the menu is derived from various kinds of wine.
Thank you Meritage for all the wonderful memories.

We had the chef’s five course with wine pairing. It was one of the best meals, if not the best, we have ever had. The wine pairings were spot on. The food tastes fresh and delicious, presented beautifully. The staff were friendly, professional and attentive. Our server, Geronimo, was exceptional. We will go again!

If there was the option of negative stars I would give them that. I took my mother for a Mother’s Day brunch and they had maxed out the space. Putting us in the back of a conference room on a rented table where I couldn’t even put my legs under the table. The food was terrible and always seemed to be out. Children were running between tables and the waiter never even told us to go up to the buffet. They had the nerve to charge $ 90+ a person for this mess of service and food. I was embarrassed to take my family here and never again will I be going back.

The setting was beautiful with a lovely view of the harbor. The food was good but the portion sizes were small. The wine seemed quite overpriced. The service was abysmal. The slowest we have seen in good restaurants in Boston. not recommended.

I went to the restaurant this past weekend for my birthday and I absolutely loved it. The food was amazing, the service was top notch plus the view was breath taking. It’s definitely a place to go to celebrate a special occasion bc it can be pricey but you get what you pay for. Though it is an upscale restaurant you never fell uncomfortable or like you didn’t belong. I would absolutely recommend this restaurant but save up your coins before you go, lol.

Best customer service experience ever topped with an excellent steak. I made reservations the day of and asked for them to make something special for my girlfriend who had just gotten accepted to medical school. I kid you not, everyone we interacted with, from the hostess to the bus boy to the waiter, knew we were there celebrating the acceptance and even congratulated her for it. They made her feel incredibly special and happy. The filet mignon I had there was also EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT. The Chef’s congratulatory dessert was beautifully decorated with in-​house edible arrangements. absolutely FANTASTIC.

This was our first time at Meritage and we were sat at a booth next to the window which had a lovely view of the harbor. Service was as expected for an establishment of this caliber. We went with the five course tasting menu with wine pairing. Each wine was excellent and paired well with the dish.
Cauliflower soup with salmon tartare — soup itself was delicious but salmon could have been better.
Lobster ravioli — flavor was good but not good enough to order it. Could do without.
Filet mignon — the highlight of the meal. Probably one of the best filet mignons I’ve had. Soft, flavorful and just cooked to perfection.
Cheese platter — selection of three cheese. The goat cheese was definitely the winner. Dried grapes on the vine that accompanied it was good.
Chocolate torte w/​raspberry sorbet — barely touched this as by the time we got to it, we were both completely stuffed. It was okay.
All in all, it was a good experience and something new but would I recommend it as a MUST GO in Boston? Probably not.

Event: saturday dinner
Atmosphere: formal, classy, romantic with harbour view. Complimentary garage parking is a plus!
Food: prix fixe 5 course menu
— califlower soup with salmon tartar: creamy soup, salmon could be more fresh
— lobster ravioli: generous lobster portion, ravioli itself was just ok
— filet mignon: done perfectly, the most creamy and soft filet, the best item of the night
— 3 cheese selection: impressed by the house dried raisin
— chocolate torte with sorbet: torte is too dense and rich for my taste, only ate ¹⁄₃

Went here for valentine’s day and had a great time. Our server Geronimo was super knowledgeable and friendly, making for a great dining experience, highly recommend him. To top it off the food was fantastic as well. Make sure to try the Amaro drinks with your dessert.

My mom and I came here on Christmas Day. When I called the restaurant, I was told there was a Christmas menu and proceeded to make reservations on OpenTable; however, we were a bit surprised to walk into a buffet Christmas afternoon. Although our reservation was at 3pm, we were not seated until 3:50pm. Usually, I wait no loner than 15mins after the reservation time but it was Christmas and I didn’t want the hassle of finding a restaurant last minute and make my mom walk around downtown Boston. Food was pretty cold and bland. For a $ 99 buffet, I expected more flavor in the food. The wine, however, was good. Service was good too.

We had dinner January 9^th and brunch on January 10^th. We had a babysitter last minute and decided to find a hotel to stay at overnight with a good restaurant. The reviews for Meritage were fantastic and the pictures of the filet looked fantastic, so we decided to stay at the Boston Harbor hotel.
For dinner I got a filet that was supposed to be medium and it was well done, no pink at all. I ate all of my other food and some of my wife’s but left the steak cut in half on my plate hoping the waitress would notice because I’m one to avoid making a scene. She didn’t notice so I ended up cutting it into smaller pieces and utilizing the delicious sauce to eat most of the filet. I don’t know what happened but it had a lot of deep char marks on one side of it instead of having the nice diamond shape with the char marks like on the other side. My wife got the corn soup and a lobster dish and she thought they were very good.
The food at brunch was very good, highlighted by the sticky buns and hash but the service was bizarre. We were the first ones seated for brunch and half of the restaurant was blocked off for a group. We ended up having 5 – 7 other tables seated, ordered and wrapping up or gone before we even got our food. Our waitress was also going back and forth to the side that was blocked off. After being there for about 30 minutes and not having anything except our drinks a gentleman came over and asked if the waitress ever took our order, we said no and he grabbed a notepad to take our order. I don’t think he was normally a waiter but he did his best to help us. The waitress came out a few times to other tables but never even looked at our table. There was a couple at the table next to us who were also very frustrated who had the same thing happen to them. We ended up being there for nearly two hours but only spent maybe 30 minutes eating. It was very frustrating but it gave me more time to pick at those delicious sticky buns.
I’m going to chalk up the mishaps to an off weekend as I trust the reviewers on Unilocal.The Boston Harbor hotel is amazing so we will probably end up back at the hotel in the future. Due to the convenience of the restaurant being on property we may try it again but will probably stick to the fish.

Definitely go with the tasting menu… Wonderful all the way through
Highlights were the beautiful Pinot and smoked sauce pork belly, gorgeous cheeses selection, amazing breads and a red snapper starter that I think was the most perfect bit of fish I ever had. Tender, juicy, fully but not overlooked.

This is the perfect restaurant for fine dining in Boston. The staff was attentive and the food exceptional. The bread was warm and fresh, the seafood was delicious.

It was an amazing experience. I made a reservation online but the place was fairly empty as it was a week day. I requested for a Harbor view window table and they did reserve a table as per my request. We ordered a Salad and a Corn Soup as our 1^st course they were amazing. For our main course we ordered Summer Savory Roasted Vermont Pheasant and Red Kuri Squash Mash both were very delicious. We went there for our Anniversary which I had already mentioned in the reservation so they gave a desert plate and desert wine on the house which made us felt special. The staff was courteous and friendly. I would highly recommend this place for a romantic date or any special occasion.

Note: This is my first time ever posting a complaint. Yes, it was that BAD!
We selected this hotel for Christmas dinner. We made the reservation through Open Table. They were 15 minutes late seating us and then it was a horrible table in the middle of the main traffic. We requested to wait for a better table. After waiting another 45 minutes, we were seated. We noticed it was buffet. We asked if we could order off the menu and we were told «No». Prior to making the reservation, we checked out the menu to get an idea of what we might order. There was no mention of a buffet. We debated about leaving, but realized that it would not be likely we’d find an open reservation.
When I looked at the silver ware, I noticed the fork had dry food on it. I had to ask two different people for clean silver ware.
Food — the beef was raw, the ham was tough, there were very few vegetable choices.
When we got the bill, the price was outrageous. After paying the bill –we did leave a tip, put in the total and signed the check — we checked our account later and noticed they’d added to the charge! This is complete FRAUD!

We chose Meritage to celebrate our anniversary. Being from Houston, this choice was based strongly on reviews, menu, reservation availability and website.
When I made the reservation they asked if we were celebrating anything and I told her yes, we were celebrating our anniversary. Usually when this is noted, an establishments recognizes that you are there to celebrate something and makes a few standard concessions. This is where they lost me.
1. They sat us in what was probably the worst booth, with ZERO view of the harbor. They were not full and had plenty of tables near a window available throughout the duration of our time there. We made a choice to spend our 1 night of romantic celebration at your establishment and you seat us at a booth near a curtain hangar, awkward part of the wall between 2 windows sticking out and with our only «view» being the kitchen door and the large loud party nearest us.
2. While I wasn’t looking for any freebies, I have been in the service industry for years and know the little extras can mean so much and cost so little. Especially in this digital age where I can, as I am, going online to share my experience here. While we got the same sample dessert bites as every other table at the end of our meal, it would have been nice for a «Happy Anniversary» in chocolate writing on the plate, at minimum to make our evening memorable. But nothing,
The food, though, was fantastic. They brought out bread that was fresh and warm, a soup sample that was paired perfectly and delicious.
I ordered the scallops and my boyfriend got the filet. Both were perfectly cooked and filling. I was impressed with the kitchen for the sauce paired with the scallops and the fact that they did it sparingly to accentuate the flavor of the scallops and not just drown them in sauce like most places do.
The robust wine flight that we had was great but lacked variety in notes for a flight. I’d have certainly changed one out for something more of a dark and earthy note.

We had a wonderful experience here the other night! I had the aged gouda pasta with wild boar and the cabernet braised short ribs. My boyfriend had the striped bass and the filet mignon. I had the apple dessert, and he had the éclair. All of the food was excellent, but I have to mention the short ribs in particular. They were outstanding — melt in your mouth, and the truffle sauce was unreal. Our waiter, Jean, recommended a particular wine for my entrée that was delicious. He was very knowledgable about the wine and food and obviously took pride in what he was doing, which we appreciated greatly. The timing of everything was perfect, we didn’t feel rushed at all. Overall we had a great evening.

Clean restaurant with nice view. Horrible service. Food is mediocre at best, in some cases stale. For the price and expectation of a top hotel, very disappointed.

Fantastic menu. Remarkably average food. Atrocious service. When you have to ask for multiple things several times and still do not get them, there is a problem. Perfectly nice staff, but completely undertrained and managed.

This review has been long overdue. Whether it’s the Meritage, Wine Festival dinners or the Atlantic Room holiday dining experiences, this hotel headed by Chef Daniel Bruce’s creative culinary dishes, oozes delectable food and top notch service on a consistent basis.
Service is always very attentive, harbor views are terrific from almost every angle and food has always pleased the palette. On this particular visit, it was all about the brunch before strutting back outside and enjoying a nice fall day.
APPETIZER:
Warm Sugared Beignets — Loved this! Reminds me (and it probably really is) of freshly fried donuts with caramel dipping sauce. I don’t care how much time I need to make up for this in the gym because it was worth every morsel, I swear.
ENTREES:
Poached Egg, Smoke Salmon Tartar — Equivalent to an Eggs Benny with Smoked Salmon minus the English muffin underneath. Eggs were perfectly runny and oozing into the salmon tartar for a nice even forkful in each bite.
Veggie Omelet — I am somewhat biased since I had a veggie omelet the day before and this was leaps and bounds better than the day before. Another winner.
Brioche French Toast — Perhaps the only dish out of the 3 entrees that I thought was just «okay». I think it’s mostly because I expected the bread to be a lighter and fluffier as opposed to a denser bread variety.
Terrific service, fresh mimosas, awesome views, and pretty good food makes this a great option whenever you’re in the city and want to be pampered. It never gets old!

Very tasty spot, with exquisite service, and a great view. This is a real life 4.5 star.
We did the tasting menu, which was executed quite well. The mushroom soup starter might have been the star of the night. The 2^nd course was poached cod in a broth, which was delicate and delectable (usually I don’t eat cooked fish). The steak was cooked to perfection, maybe it could’ve used a touch of salt (and I wish there was a bit more of it). The cheese course had quite the selection, but I’d personally rather another «real food» course over cheese. I’m blanking on the dessert, but I remember enjoying it and it having multiple textures.
The clientele was a bit of an older/​stuffy crowd, and the place was pretty formal. Our server could not have been nicer or more helpful; I apologize for forgetting his name. I also should have tipped him much more — I’ll have to stop back in.

I tried the maple salmon tartar with poached eggs and spiced pumpkin cake. I liked the salmon tartar dish, even though I didn’t taste maple. It was good, but the dessert didn’t even have an extinct pumpkin flavor and the cranberry sorbet wasn’t so good. I was satisfied with my experience, but nothing wow. I received great customer service from a guy, but the girl who announced the dessert dish’s title was kind of sloppy and had a poor attitude.

Best meal ever! It’s so hard to describe how incredibly enjoyable this experience was. Everything from ambience, to service, to food and wine were excellent. Plus they validate parking! The view of the harbor is stunning. Will definitely return!

A perfect place for my college graduation dinner! My entire family enjoyed the wine pairings and delicious food, not to mention the friendly service. The restaurant has a much nicer ambiance than the rest of the hotel it is housed in. I ordered the Thai curry leaf cod loin with the trio of Sauvignon blanc tastings, and it was amazing! For appetizers, my sister had the seared ahi and my mom ordered the duck ravioli. All the food was very memorable, we loved it all! Another gem in Boston’s seaport

Hands down my favorite restaurant in Boston! I’ve now been here twice for restaurant week and loved it both times. Once I have an income again (poor grad student), I’ll definitely come back for a full-​priced meal because it’s totally worth it!
The restaurant itself is nice. It has a modern feel to it. The view of the water and hotel gazebo is killer! Try to get a window table if you can.
The seafood here is great! The last time I came, I had the jumbo shrimp as my starter. They were probably the largest shrimp I have ever eaten, and they were served atop bok choy in a spicy coconut sauce which was tasty. Both times I have been here, I ordered a fish entrée, and it is always cooked perfectly and comes with delicious sides. I took a leap of faith for dessert and had the cake that came with buttered popcorn ice cream. I was skeptical, but that ice cream ended up being so delicious!
I don’t think you can go wrong with anything you order here. Everything is great. I will definitely be back either for restaurant week or as a fully-​paying guest sometime in the near future.

Fantastic food. Meet the chef. Wonder personality and bought his cookbook.
Also saw Bill Bellecheck!

Where in the world is Meritage! You’d think it would be at the fancy corner of the Boston Harbor Hotel with the huge sign «Meritage» over it. Nope. Tried the door, which remained as locked as it did when I was in middle school and came back home only to have realized I forgot my keys in my bedroom. Fiddlesticks.
Well, it’s okay. I’m always up for an adventure — and after some help from a hotel staff, we made our way UP the stairs (yes, it’s on the second floor) within the Boston Harbor Hotel to a brightly lit, rectangular room with floor windows facing the harbor. Great view!
Service was great — very friendly wait-​staff that do their best to make you feel at home and accommodated. As for food, we had the 3-​course prix-​fixe brunch menu for $ 36. Came with a pleasant, personal pot of tea (or coffee if that’s what you wish) and an assorted basket of delicious (although very sugar coated) of pastries. As for our meal, it was only moderately delicious. I say this because my appetizer, five absolutely mouth-​watering half-​shell oysters, outshone the rest of my meal. I also ordered the crabcakes, which were too salty for me (same opinion for the other comrade that ordered the same dish). The others who ordered the «maine lobster» were slightly disappointed when they received the tiniest red pot, filled with lobster casserole instead. They were expecting a whole lobster — although the stew tasted amazing, the actual lobster meat was severely lacking. Lastly, the dessert was fairly tasty (pumpkin cake befitting for the season) with agreements on the other desserts around the table as well (panna cotta).
All in all, an enjoyable venue for brunch with a great view, amazing service, and decent food!

I absolutely love this place, especially the wine pairings. The bf and I went for my birthday, and the service was attentive yet unobtrusive.
The food… was…glorious! As you will see from my pictures, we tried every dish on the prix fixe menu plus the duck entrée (we couldn’t help ourselves). Every dish was beautifully executed and plated. Regardless of what you choose, you will enjoy it. I seriously can’t decide on my favorite dish because they were all perfect! Do yourself a favor and try this place!

I came to Meritage for Restaurant Week and had the most lovely experience. Service was absolutely impeccable — when I arrived, the host acted like she was expecting me and led me to my table, which I could tell was specially reserved for me (I was eating alone). My servers were very prompt with filling my glass, taking away my dishes/​utensils, and making sure that I was pleased with everything. I felt like a princess!
For dinner, I had the Poached Jumbo Shrimp with Mushrooms, Bok Choy, and Passion Fruit Ginger; the Pan-​Roasted Striped Bass with Black Rice, Tomatoes, Capers, and Olives; and the Green Tea Sponge Cake with Mandarin Orange Sorbet and Sesame Lace Cookie. I also received a small Honeydew Juice with Roasted Blueberries, complimentary of the chef that night.
The appetizer was amazing — the sauce was the true winner. It was so good that I used my bread roll to soak it all up. My fish was cooked perfectly and it tasted delicious with the tomatoes especially. And the dessert was everything I wanted — light, moist, tangy, and the sesame cookie gave it a nice crunch at the end.
But what I appreciated most about Meritage was that I left feeling full and satisfied, but not stuffed. I thought, finally a restaurant that understands portions! One of my biggest concerns about restaurants is their entrée sizes — leaving a fine dining establishment completely bloated somewhat ruins the experience for me.
Anyways, this was quite the enjoyable dinner for me, and I really do hope that I get to come back someday!

Booked a reservation a month in advance for valentine’s day so you KNOW I was excited.
Our hostess was very friendly. Though our table was ten minutes late, she did keep us updated. We were seated down the middle line of tables – which in hindsight I’m very disappointed about, having read all the reviews about great views.
We waited for a considerable length of time for menus, and a waiter at that. Manfriend ordered dessert wine for me to start since he could tell I was getting pissy: X. Bread was fantastic – particularly the potato roll and the raisin. Neither of us cared for the pumpernickel thing – yes, thing. Amuse bouche was a delicious and flavorful shot of tomato soup.
They pair food here with wine instead of wine with food, which is a very unique concept. They also give you the option of making every plate large ($ 34) or small ($ 17). We went with 3 small plates, 1 large, and 6 glasses of wine (teehee!). The sweetbread was good. Nice crust, flavorful, but light. The foie gras itself was good, but the usual accompaniment of a thicker tangy sauce was watery here, and not tangy enough to cut the fat of the foie gras. It unfortunately started to become too much of a good thing. The rabbit was delicious and expertly seasoned. It was topped with an amazing gouda filled canolinni. The kobe surprisingly was not the star of the show for us. It was good, but there was really nothing that stood out about it.
All in all, the food is good (not the foie gras dish). Service leaves much to be desired. I felt ignored for the most part. Water was only filled once. My sangria took 15 minutes, and there was no pinot noir by the glass.
Very nice touch with the rose at the end of the meal, but I had such high hopes coming here, especially on valentine’s day.

So for my sole Restaurant Week dinner for March 2013, we decided to grace the doors of Meritage in the Boston Harbor Hotel, just a tad south of the Aquarium. This year, the price for the 3 course dinner had gone up to $ 38 and change from the previous couple of years’ $ 33 plus, which was already a step up from the original $ 30 and coin.
Realizing that parking could be validated (and thus FREE) when dining after 5pm at the Meritage, my dining companion parked at the Parking Garage which is located in the same structure directly after Rotunda, right before the awning marked «The Residences» and brought the parking ticket to the restaurant to be stamped.
With a reservation at 6pm, we unfortunately were too late to obtain one of the prized tables along the window as they were already filled, but our table one row in was just fine. Service by our server was fine as well, but I was more impressed by the service from our bus boy (or whatever his correct job label is) as he was at hand whenever I needed an additional plate or to have something removed from the table.
We were started off with a selection of three breads served from a wired basket and its white cloth napkin blanket. It was a slice of some sort of multigrain, a molasses bread, and a light bun with a crisp crust and a tender center — my favorite being the last.
For the first course, we went with the pasta and the fish:
. Butternut Squash Filled Pasta Dumplings, Sautéed Swiss Chard and Shallots (two to the order)
. Pan Seared Cod Loin, Count Neck Clams, Chorizo and Spinach
I very much preferred the sweet squash and its al dente pasta sheets over the moist fish.
For the main course, we went with the land and sea option of:
. Grilled Block Island Swordfish, Maine Lobster and Lemon Risotto
. Wood Grilled Filet Mignon with Soft Whipped Potatoes, Horseradish Onion Cream Meritage Syrup
It is funny how the beef entrees are always just so much larger than the fish dish. My DC felt bad for me and encouraged me to take a larger portion of the steak than I was wont to, and accepted a smaller portion of fish in return. Both were okay, yet nothing special. Oddly, the highlight of either plate was the small cylinder of dense, richly buttered potato, although the risotto was pretty good as well.
For desserts, I noticed that the tastings had downsized from 3 items per plate from Restaurant Weeks of the past down to 2 of this visit. We selected the two fruity options and received a dainty Citrus Tasting Plate of Orange Buttermilk Pudding Cake & Lemon Cream Tart with Coconut Tuile in respect to the more hearty looking Red Fruit Tasting Plate of Candied Cranberry Meringue Pie & Raspberry Mascarpone Phyllo Napoleon. My rankings in taste and all around experience (textures and such) would be Lemon cream tart, the phyllo napoleon (which was light and crisp), the orange cake (although it was more what I imagine Turkish Delight might be like), and then the too tart for me cranberry pie.
All in all, I’d probably bypass the Meritage for future RWs.