Icarus

07/15/2008 Posted by Bayview298

My fiance took me here for my birthday and the experience was neither good or bad. We were there for the 30th anniversary menu. For the first course I had the Salad of Salt Cod, the cod was bland and rather tasteless. For the second course, I had the bluefish which was good but the portion was tiny. The desert was great, the chocolate cake. My fiance had the field salad and the sole and had the same reaction that I did to my meal. Overall, the dinner was blah.

08/14/2007 Posted by msiw80

Perhaps it's the equivalent of a New Yorker's "Bridge & Tunnel" sentiment....but I will never understand why some restaraunteurs seem to thumb their noses at the folks who come out to dine during restaurant week. In this case, the food was sublime (Corn Polenta with Veal, Blue Fish Tacos and Buttermilk Pannacotta) but the service left something to be desired. While waiting for our table (30 mins after our reserved time) we witnessed a young server having a minor hissy when the sommelier told him they had ran out of one of the paired wines. This is something that should occur behind the scenes if at all. We opted for the additional wine pairing and were served each glass 10-15 minutes BEFORE the related course even arrived. It seems as if all the servers couldn't be bothered to provide timely and conscientious service. Icarus does deserve credit for not skimping on portion sizes as so many others are guilty of when it comes to restautant week. If your restaurant is so successful and could not use the monetary boost or added customer base than please do us all a favor and opt out of restaurant week next year. We'll save it for those special occassions when, hopefully, better service is the norm.

Pros: Wine List

Cons: Parking

08/10/2007 Posted by brian_h

For the price, the food was mediocre. For example, if you go to Grotto, for the same money or less you get much better food. Starters weren't bad, corn chowder with scallops tasted fresh. As for the main course, the lamb dish was ok but quite salty and the pork dish was bland. Desserts, chocolate cake and cobler, were fine. Portions were small, service were average. The dining room was very nice though.

Pros: great dining room

Cons: food was just ok

08/10/2007 Posted by southendjen

My husband and I originally took my mother in law to Icarus last fall and received terrible service. We had heard that other people had great experiences there, so we decided to give it another chance last night for restaurant week. Unfortunately, it was even worse than the first time. We waited at least half an hour between each course, with empty water glasses. We had to put our bread basket on a shelf next to our table because no one ever collected it when it was empty. Our courses were supposed to be paired with wines; however, the waitress brought me the wrong wine and it took me 15 minutes to track her down and get her to bring me the correct wine. When I told her that she brought me the wrong wine, she looked at me like I had two heads. Then she finally brought me the correct wine and mentioned that I was right. What is the point of pairing wine with food if the waitress doesn't know which wine goes with which dish? Dessert was even more of a disaster because by the time we got it (two hours into the meal), we were so exhausted that we just wanted to go home. Our paired wines never came with the dessert so we had to track down our waitress again and remind her. No matter how good the food here is, it's impossible to enjoy it because the service is so bad. For a restaurant this expensive, the service should be excellent--or at least average!

Pros: Tasty food

Cons: Terrible service

05/13/2007 Posted by stodgers

Having been to several restaurants during this discount week, I can say that none even compared to Icarus. Though some of these restaurants skimp on either food or service during Restaurant Week, Icarus did neither, offering a terrific dining experience even though the bill would not be as high as usual. And to to top it off, the meal was amazing. Highly recommended, and a very romantic setting as well.

Pros: Great service, romantic ambience

Cons: Parking

04/29/2007 Posted by kfb82

Came here once a year ago and had a fantastic experience. Great food and great service. Came here again over restaurant week and food was still good, but service was not so great. We felt very rushed and finished our meal in about 40 minutes! Not what you would expect when having a fine dining experience. We also had to wait 30 minutes to be seated, which was annoying. Overall, great food and certainly would return again....just not over Restaurant Week!

Pros: good food

Cons: spotty service

04/07/2007 Posted by mbalentine

I went here with my family last spring and had a wonderful experience. The food, ambiance, and service was definitely some of the best in Boston! As others have said, it is a bit pricey, but worth it on a special occasion.

Pros: food, ambiance, service

Cons: price

01/28/2007 Posted by bbybear

Icarus is the creme de la creme. The best South End dining experience I've ever had. It's located in a nice area, beautifully decorated, intimate and quiet setting. The live jazz is great. I really enjoyed my dinner there. Our waiter was very friendly, approachable and very welcoming and accomodating. For starters, I recommend the grilled shrimp, then a very tasty dish of crab ravioli, a nice grilled chicken with rice and salad for sides and to top it all off a nice coffee with cheese cake. The food is unbelivable and for the price we paid, it wasn't very much at all.

11/04/2006 Posted by bubbypoker

The food here is unbelievable. My wife and I loved the ambience, as well as the service. It was just an overall great experience.

10/22/2006 Posted by kjandersen98

Arrived early for a drink. Hostess, bartenders and valet's very friendly and accomidating. We were seated and waited almost 15 minutes before we saw our server, who brough water and didn't take a drink order. When she returned almost 5-minutes later she told us the specials, which were unclear, and took our drink order. We finally ordered our meals after about 45 minutes. We had read all about how Icarus was one of the most romantic restaurants in Boston, but we did not agree. The main dining area was extremely loud. It was difficult to tune out others conversations and focus on each other. My wife, who is vegetarian, was very happy with her meal, claiming that is was among the best vegetarian meals she'd ever had, including her salad. It was a butternut squash bowl with assorted vegetables and cheese. I wasn't so lucky. My wife got the farm greens with bleu cheese, which I tried and was very good. I got a fall salad with pears and hazlenuts nuts. The entire salad was too sweet. The dressing was almost like maple syrup. For my meal I got pork. The meat was extremely tough, with veins in it that I was unable to chew. The accompanying sauce was very good and I think the pork was cooked appropriately, it was just a lousy cut. For dessert we shared the signature chocolate soufflet, which was very good, but nothing to come back for. The service was unattentive. I think this might have just been our particular server. I noticed at other tables that the servers were constantly refreshing drinks and replacing silverware. Our plates sat for about 15 minutes before being cleared. All and all, I would be willing to try Icarus again due to my wife's excellent meal and the chance of being seated with another server. This was a birthday meal for my wife who was very happy, and that's all that mattered.

Pros: Excellent drink menu, excellent vegetarian meal

Cons: Poor service, tough meat, overpriced dessert