Alewife – A Cold Black Cup of Coffee Experience

I strongly dislike restaurants that use fancy ingredients to charge higher prices for mediocre food. I came to Alewife on a weeknight expecting to be wowed. Boy was I wrong. This restaurant has a great vibe filled with young professionals in an awesome historic building. But gosh the food is not delicious and way overpriced.

We ordered the “truffled mac & cheese” based on the server’s recommendation as one of the best appetizers. Truffles are tricky. If not used properly, they can overpower the dish in a terrible way. Not only was the truffle flavor too much (there was literally a truffle peel on top of the mac and cheese), but all the other flavors laid flat. Additionally, the mac and cheese was not creamy nor rich. Nope. The mac and cheese was more like a noodle soup mixed with a horrible fungi flavor. Needless to say, this dish was incredibly disappointing to the point of being inedible.  

For our entrees, I ordered the “smoke burger” and my husband ordered the “airliner chicken breast”. If you read this restaurant’s menu, the burger has a disclaimer noting that it takes more time to prepare and no substitutions are allowed for large parties. When a menu has this type of disclaimer, I find it to be a bit pretentious which is fine if the burger knocks it out of the park. Let’s just say that I’m still hanging out around 1^st base.

The sandwich itself only had one texture, mush. Neither the bread nor the bacon had a nice crisp to it. The “smoke” burger did not taste smoky at all; in fact, it didn’t taste like anything. Also, what is the rage with duck fat fries? I just do not get it. To me, it seems like an excuse for nicer restaurants to serve cheap fried food. This is my opinion on duck fat fries until a restaurant proves me otherwise. In conclusion, fancy titles, fancy expectations, mediocre flavor, mediocre dish. This burger was like expecting a grande caramel macchiato but getting a cold black cup of coffee instead. Unfortunately, I paid the grande caramel macchiato price tag.

My husband’s dish did not do much better. I am all about using local ingredients and paying accordingly but please do these awesome ingredients justice! The locally raised chicken breast was delicious but was destroyed by the extremely salty tomato pan sauce. Did anyone stop to taste this before it was served?

Top off the food with second-rate service and you have an all around tragic experience. It just goes to show, you can have a great space, great marketing, and great drinks, but if the food does not shine, the whole restaurant suffers. Come here for a unique beer but eat your dinner elsewhere.