Highland Kitchen Take 2

I meant to write about this sooner, but forgot to. We went back to Highland Kitchen over the past weekend and it was still packed. Seems like every time we drive by this place it's packed too - which is nice to see in the neighborhood.

The first time we had gone to Highland Kitchen the hostess screwed up our seating somehow - making us wait about 45 minutes after she told us 15-20, then when we asked she realized she had sat someone else (or something not really sure what happened). However the nice bartender, great drinks, and good food made us consider a second visit.

I'm glad we did. The second time around the hostess was fantastic. She sat us promptly - only about a 15 minute wait. Bartender was excellent again and so were the cocktails. We tried some different foot and it was quite tasty. I would like to see the specials change up more frequently (it was the same specials as they had the last time), but the menu seems like pretty decent comfort food and the dishes we've tried so far have been good.

Highland Kitchen in Somerville

I have been wanting to check this place out. We had been to the restaurant that was at this location previously and it had been horrible. So we figured this place had to be an improvement.

We decided to go out for an early dinner at 6:30 - much to our surprise the place was packed! There was already a 25 minute wait, so we sat at the bar to wait. The bartender was great. He made fantastic drinks (pretty inventive ones too) and was really nice. Some kind of lime blackberry drink - made with fresh muddled fruit made at the bar. I got a hot buttered rum - never had one before so I figured I would check it out - very tasty - wished I had gotten it for dessert instead though - because it was a perfect end to a meal, but since it was so cold out it was really warming.

After 35 minutes or so we decided to see what the holdup was about our seats. Turns out the hostess screwed up and sat other people or something. First she says to me: "oh I think I sat someone else instead of you guys, it will just be another 20 minutes"... um if you screwed up - say sorry and seat us right away - don't make us wait another 20 minutes!! So my bf was not happy with the answer I returned with - and he went up to her and she said "I thought you guys left so I sat other people". Um no we sat right at the bar in front of her - and she never called our name, and what's up with the totally different story!!?? So bf says we never left, we sat right here in front of you, you've seated people that came in after us, and you never called out name I've been listening. She is like fine after this party I will seat you - so she sat another party of 2, then sat us. Not sure what went wrong there, but they found us a seat fairly quickly after that, but WTF the hostess should have just said sorry and sat us next in the first place. We almost left and didn't get to enjoy the food.

Our waitress was very nice and the food was solid. The beef short ribs and mashed potatoes were tasty. The cheeseburger was also good and the fries were super tasty. As we ate there the place only got busier. I would definitely eat here again - I just hope we don't have to wait so long for a seat next time. HUGE HUGE improvement over the previous restaurant at this location. Great local place.