I'm from Boston. I give the Parker Bar an extra star for historic value, as the place that invented Boston Cream Pie, Parker House Rolls, and apparently, Boston Scrod.
If you value culinary history, the restaurant and/or bar are "must visit." If food quality rates higher, remove that extra star.
Service was prompt and Boston's take on friendly. I started with a Cosmopolitan 25, celebrating the drink's 25th anniversary with the addition of sparkling rose. The rather expensive cocktail had a slightly too-bitter taste but was festive for the winter holiday season and pretty.
After considering fish and chips (huge portion), I ordered the Chicken Parmesan Sliders because they feature the infamous Parker House Rolls. My mini-sandwiches had almost no sauce or cheese. The little portions of chicken were heavily fried and dry. It took a few minutes to get the server's attention, then I resorted to requesting a dish of sauce for dipping.
I then ordered, of course, the Boston Cream Pie. As pictured, it's an individual round, a reasonable size, not too much (unless maybe you weren't too hungry and ate all the fish and chips). The chocolate was creamy and delicious. The light yellow cake wasn't overly sweet.
The yellow cream filling...if it's authentic, then as the Parker Houae invented the dessert, no one could claim they do it wrong, but it's not the yellow cream that I'm used to--not the flavorful, clearly yellow Mike's or Modern Pastry yellow cream. It's more like a yellow cream that's been mixed with whipped cream, which is fine, just not my personal preference. All in all, though, the historic dessert is expensive but delicious and a culinary "must try."
Having seen the dry sliders, the server was kind enough not to charge me for the dessert.
I would say that the bar was slightly understaffed for the busy holiday-season Saturday night, but our server did an excellent job making up for it.
After admiring the hotel-lobby Christmas tree, I sat at a high-top by a window with a festive view of holiday lights. Conversation at the community table was impossible to ignore, but the bar has a warm, cozy, historic vibe -- a worthy place to visit for the history -- although consider avoiding the chicken sliders and the "special" Cosmo -- and not sharing the cake but...for history'sake, order one all for yourself!
I came here for the famous Boston creamy pie. It was closed on Monday and Tuesday, so I got the pie from Starbucks next to the bar. And I think the pie is okay. Maybe I should dine in someday and see!
Since this was the birthplace of the Boston Cream Pie, we felt we had to come here to judge for ourselves. Although other had told us to go to another bakery, we wanted to at least try it. After the very pleasant and professional concierge in the lobby directed us into Parker's, we grabbed a high-top table.
After several minutes, a waitress delivered some drink menus but never returned. Seeing that we were looking around and waiting for her return, the bartender came to our table and took our orders. We ordered two cream pies.
As we waited for our cream pies to be delivered, we noticed other tables had ordered some as well. They were as wide as a hockey puck , but slightly taller. For $10, we were hoping that it better be worth it.
After 15 minutes of waiting, being ignored by the waitress, and evidently the bartender after taking our order, we left to go to Mike's Pastries in the North End. I'm glad we did. There pie was awesome and only $3.
We spent 3 days days in Boston. The city and the people were great; however, I wouldn't recommend setting foot in this Hotel, restaurant, or this bar.
Service was very good. Attentive and just the right amount of conversation. Full service bar with decent food. Furnishings were comfortable but the seating just outside the bar in the hotel lobby.
BOSTON CREAM PIE review - this is the original Boston Cream Pie so don't get your hopes up. I'm sure it was amazing back when it was invented, but it by today's standards it's just kind of "meh". It tastes exactly like it looks, two pieces of cake sandwiching custard with a chocolate fondant top and almond sliver dusted sides. It's not overly sweet and well prepared, which was nice, but very basic by today's standards. Again, this is the original that sets the standard, I don't expect to be amazed.
Also, it's a cake, not a pie.
We had the Boston Cream Pie, which was recommend as something special from Boston, but were very unsatisfied. Obviously the chocolate pattern on top looks cool, but the taste was really quite boring. We also tried the Fruit and Berry Tart, which was a lot better and contained a lot of tasty vanilla cream, of which the pie only had a tiny layer, as well as elderberries, raspberries, strawberries and kiwifruit.
The Boston Cream pie was amazing! Staff were wonderful even though that is all we ordered. Rich but not overly sweet. I'm going to have one delivered to Wisconsin for sure. The nicest touch ever was when they gave us the bill was a vintage photo / postcard of the Omni! So cool??
Ordered the clam chowder and it was awful. No flavor at all needed salt and it was more like an extremely thick potato soup I didn’t even taste any clams. The boost cream pie was a cake and very nutty with almonds and flavorless not very sweet at all I wouldnt bother ordering food from here. Go to Mike’s Pastry for a cannoli it’s great
