Oldrids & Downtown

Very much one of the more dominant stores in Boston. Long established department store, that always has something unique whether you are browsing for kitchen ware, cosmetics, fashion and even kitchen condiments.
However this choice is reflected in the price, unless you come during sale periods then you are very likely to pick a bargain up. But for day to day items, they can be extremely overpriced.
Unfortunately, the restaurant has changed a lot over the years. Once it served great warm home style cooking, however recently: prices have increased, portion sizes have decreased, ingredients are not as fresh, service so-​so and food dries out very quickly under the warmer.
Overall, store is worth a browse, but skip the restaurant.

I tend to find this shop different on many levels, if you go there dressed in the correct attire no body bats an eyelid, oh apart from the pestering can I help you, can I help you I must add this is not Harrods by a long shot, I did come in here when it was warm and had shorts and a tshirt on, not expensive brands just the usual run of the mill type clothing and I was treated with a great deal of disrespect by the staff especially the young girls who no doubt are on about 5.00 per hr, where as I am retired with a very healthy private pension. This stereo typing needs to be stopped, and unless they make it a private members club/​shop then they need to replce staff with respectful ones and staff who know what they are talking about and where stock is kept.

Seems I am not the only one who thinks the same about the restaurant at Downtown.

Great, spacious department store, with a lot of choice & a fantastic toy department.
I haven’t tried the restaurant, so can’t comment on what has been written before! ;-)
Very pricey for certain items, but well worth a visit (just make sure you check the price tag carefully before purchasing!)

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the department store when I visited last week — it’s bigger and better than the Oldrids I remember as a nine-​year old (that’s more than 30 years ago) and the sale was ace — sadly I wasn’t buying, just browsing. But PLEASE don’t be tempted to go up to the café. The staff are grumpy, the trays sticky, and the food, served from dishes under heat lamps, poor. It reminded me of a motorway service restaurant. The server even turned the top layer of peas in the dish over with the spoon to prove to me there were some ‘fresh’ ones when I pointed out they looked a bit tired and sunburnt. I declined peas. I should have put the tray down and walked away at that point.
You could take comfort in the fact that Oldrid’s café has the traditional ‘Spills More Than It Pours’ stainless steel individual-​serving catering teapot, beloved of beverage vendors the length and breadth of this country, and hated by any tea drinker who’s subsequently put their sleeve or their elbow in the tea puddle that these teapots are guaranteed to leave on the table. And then they wonder why the café gets through so many napkins
Come on Oldrids. Put some effort into the café, give it a good clean, appoint a decent manager and staff who know what they’re doing and might even enjoy working there a bit. Then maybe it would be worth parting with our hard-​earned cash to eat and drink there.

Oldrids has been in Boston FOREVER. I can remember going to the café upstairs with my mum when I was little and having a ham roll and a glass of milk before spending my birthday money in the AMAZING toy department.
Nowadays I’m not so much for the toys, more for the kitchen bit downstairs, which is excellent, and the perfume department.
I went in a couple of weeks ago and had a look at some fancy shoes but the two women at the till there looked at me as though I was a bag lady and needed ejecting. I felt very, very uncomfortable. I think it was because I was wearing linen trousers and flip flops and my hair was a bit messy, but whatever it was, it was like that bit in Pretty Woman where the shoplady is mean to the prozzie.
Anyway, Oldrids is a well stocked, well laid out department store, which on the whole is deserving of a visit if you’re on a shopping trip and need some knickers or tights or makeup or perfume or a griddlepan, and don’t mind paying a bit more for it, or if you just want a cup of coffee in a place where you can peek out over the main pedestrian bit and laugh at the chavs, but beware the grumpy staff is all I’ll say.
Just to clarify, I’m not a prostitute.