Rack Billiards Club

Closed 1/07 -- Haven for young professionals and athletes who like pop music, microbrews, martinis and pool.. The Scene
With two full-service bars and a consistent scene, this upscale pool hall (22 tables) is a logical hot spot even for those who can't sink the eight ball. Local pro athletes come here to unwind, while unattached fans drool over them. The interior is about soft wood and even softer lighting, all the better to frame the beautiful people. In warmer months, 20 outdoor dining tables provide a nice view of Faneuil Hall.

The Draw
The club features live music seven nights a week, including rock, pop, blues and reggae. The Rack also has food, but don't expect four-star dining. Coconut-crusted shrimp are tender inside, but notably greasy outside. A starter of bruschetta is decent, loaded with diced tomato and fresh, fragrant basil. As for entrees, the simpler the better. A minimalist grilled tuna topped with scallion butter beats a more-ambitious sauteed chicken breast in an overly acidic marsala sauce.…

Horrible dining service! Decent bar scene.. I made reservations for a large party for dinner. Our table was ready on time, but otherwise the service was the worst I have ever received. The server was nowhere to be found and did not come to greet us for a full 20minutes. The food was very slow in arriving and tasted mediocre at best. The staff essentially paid us no attention whatsoever. One member of our party actually had to physically track down our server to get the check. I realize that we were there on a Friday night but it was still relatively early. Once it turned over to the "bar scene" it seemed like it was a pretty decent place to drink, dance and play pool. But don't go there to eat!!!…

Worst restaurant experience EVER!!!. We arrived while the restaurant was holding a casting call for a movie. It is understandable that it would be busy in a situation like this, so as a manager wouldn't you have a little more staff working than usual?? We arrived and there was only one waitress on the entire floor (if you haven't been there the place is pretty huge somewhere around 3000 sq feet). The waitress was serving the inside and outside, along with cocktailing behind the bar. It took 20 minutes for her to finally take our order (this happened only after asking the bus boy if he could find her, since we hadn't seen her for 15 minutes. I knew this because we were watching the clock due to the garage parking next door which was $10 an hour). On the plus side our food was delivered fairly quickly however it was far from appetizing. Half way through the meal I asked to talk to a manager. When he finally came over to us I realized it was a guy who'd been standing around doing nothing at the bar (his name is Glen by the way). I told him there was nothing wrong with our waitress but that perhaps there should be some other people on the floor helping since she could hardly help everyone. He said sorry someone called in sick. I then said thats understandable however maybe since he was the manager he could maybe check up on the customers and help the server out. He said he had better things to do and that if we wanted fast food we should go to McDonalds and then just walked away. I was completely shocked and asked him for his business card and he said I don't have one, my name is Glen. I then asked what is you last name? He replied, "thats all you need to know" and then again kept walking. Needless to say I won't be going back.…

It's All Been Said Before.... But if this helps accurately balance the overall rating for The Rack, then I thought I'd add a review. The adjectives that have already been used are accurate: depressing, dank, overpriced, elitist, rude, bad staff, bad doorpeople, bad clientele. Uggh.…