Park Your Car in the Dang Lot, Not the Harvard Yard

Weekends bring dining companions and great times, but also stupid drivers and even stupider traffic.

Of course on the day I make dinner plans for right after work, work gets crazy. That's just how it is, isn't it - Murphy's Law and all that. So we battle our way into Harvard Square, don't even bother with street parking and go right into the lot, and show up fifteen minutes late. Oops, sorry Rosa and Wei.

But on to the restaurant, because Park is totally the kind of place I could see myself frequenting. Hip and trendy, but laid-back and not at all pretentious. With a bar area that looks like it's part coffee-shop, part pub. And chalk-board art that made us all a bit envious of the awesome penmanship on the board. 

The drink menu has the now standard old-made-new cocktails, you know the ones with elderflower and rye and all. 

My drink - the Delgado. Kind of like a berry lemonade with a slight hint of black licorice.

Tai and Wei each got the honey wine flight. The left was dry, my favorite of the three. The middle to me tasted like cough syrup. The right was blueberry - I didn't taste blueberry, but it was ok.

Rosa's punch. My drink looked more like a punch, but who knows.


















I'm not sure we even got a good look at the entree menu, but the appetizers all looked delicious and different from what we usually see/eat, so we ordered a bunch and called that our dinner. 

Instead of bread and butter/oil, Park serves cheese and crackers (actually pita chips), which are both right up my alley.

Bacon 3 way - the french toast with bacon bite was my favorite of this dish; the crispy poached egg was good, but was more egg than bacon; the blt bite was decent, but not memorable after the french toast. So maybe save the french toast bite for last.

Duck spring rolls - I'm not usually a huge fan of duck but I really liked this. Warm and soft and subtle. That dipping sauce was also fantastic.

Baby kale salad - the perfect fall salad with apple, blue cheese and walnuts. The dressing was sweet and light.

Cider steamed mussels - meh. I really wanted to like this dish, but it was not tender enough, not flavorful enough, not much of anything but mediocre.

Lobster and crab dip - amazing. Definitely the star of the night. Cheesy and with huge chunks of lobster, but not heavy, as you would expect that combination to be.

Salt and pepper shrimp - here's the thing. You say salt and pepper shrimp to Asians and we're going to expect something battered and fried. And this wasn't. The shrimp was delicious, had great flavors, was cooked well, and the peppers were a great addition - we were just expecting something different. 

NE clam chowder - what a disappointment. Just no. Watery. I had no idea how I was supposed to eat that "cracker." Did not have enough meat, potatoes, etc. This was left mostly untouched.

Confit chicken wings - hellooooo, salt. What a pleasure to see you in all your glory. Sadly, these wings had a great flavor and a really good kick to them, and would have been so good minus about 2 pounds of salt. 






I'd definitely love to come back. For that lobster and crab dip alone probably, but I also want to try the brisket entree. Parking is free in the parking lot Sunday through Wednesday with validation from the restaurant, so there's that. And of course, there's the great atmosphere and vibe. The company didn't hurt either ;).