Jillians

11/19/09

Horrible food and beer. Horrible service.

by RKNeeb at Citysearch

Want Guinness? It'll come out of a can. Not so bad, you say. But the cans are always ancient, i.e. OLD, so it's always a very bad Guinness.

Want something on tap? Warm.

Want food with their homemade chips? They are soggy and stale! I'd prefer a bag of Cape Cod chips anyday.

Want to play pool, ping pong or foosball? Don't go there on a Thursday night. It's possible that private parties have reserved EVERY SINGLE ONE in the place, so really the only thing you can do is eat bad food and drink bad beer.

• Pros: It's in Boston
• Cons: Bad food, beer and service.

03/05/09

Disappointed

by calibos at Citysearch

I don?t understand how this place stays in business. There is nothing decent I can say. Service, bad. Staff, horrible. Food, overpriced. To top it off, their TV ?policies? basically sum up to ?shut up and spend more money while we ignore you and feed you over priced bar food?. Don't let the big screen TVs fool you. Bowling should be in a fun environment. I?d rather go get a pap smear than return. I know the postings on this and other sites are biased because the angry ones are more likely to post, but keep in mind, it?s also biased in the other direction, in that all of the ?terrific? postings are by the staff. Pretty sorry.

• Pros: lots of room
• Cons: service

09/26/08

What the hell happened?

by 52365 at Citysearch

We use to go to this establishment for private parties - all the time. However, after our last visit, that might change. We asked for minimal accommodations, and we barely received those. Our private party staff was very friendly, as were the bartenders. And then the trouble began. We asked if some of the tv's could be changed - we were told they could. And they were - nearly 90 minutes after we initially asked (we were told that the managers were "busy"). When our party was done, we went to the bar to ask for beers, only to find out that 4 of the 6 beers on tap were out. When we asked for bottled beers , we were told of the bottled beers... and then had them served warm. The bartender asked us if we wanted anything else and was very apologetic - you could tell he was frustrated with the situation as well and was very sympathetic to our needs. However, some of our guests wanted Guinness and Magners specifically (these were clients of ours: IMPORTANT CLIENTS) and though they generally have these beers available, they were "not in service" according to the manager. We asked if we could speak to a manager - however, none of the managers were "answering the radio calls" according to the bartender. He acted like it wasn't the first time, which was enough for us to realize that it was time to go. He apologized and asked if there was anything else he could do, but sometimes, the damage has already been done. Our boss wanted to leave, so we decided to head over to Bleacher Bar. We'd come back for the bartender and the girls - they did an awesome time while we were there. But no one else seemed to care around the joint, which is a pretty good indication that a place is about to shut down. Or that something is severely wrong.

A warning: be careful before you book you're next party here - and be specific in what you want. Make them deliver, or else they will attempt to take advantage of you.

• Pros: Bartenders, wait staff for the parties, booth hostesses
• Cons: Managers were always told to be "busy"

08/06/08

Great Place, HORRIBLE Attention!

by TheNewtonian at Citysearch

The place is great! but Attention is "HORRIBLE" please do something about it!

7/31/08 7:00pm - 10:30pm It wasn't crowded and we were chasing our waitress for attention!

• Pros: Great place, Location
• Cons: Horrible attention

06/04/08

Ilittle critters (m!ce), bad service, rude staff. long wait . I will never return and tell anyone looking ofr a good time not to either.

by Ebony29 at Citysearch

I recently decided go to Jillians it was on a Wednesday night, barley anyone there, My husband and I walked in pick a table close to the bar and we waited for over 1/2 hr. waitresses walked back & fourth and no one stopped to ask us if we needed help. Finally I walked over to the bar and ask if there will be a waitress to attend to the table and within 10 mins someone showed up, took our orders. My cheese burger bun was burnt beyond edible. it was black and hard. I showed this too the waitress and she laughed. I also ordered my burger well done and i came to the table, medium rare. rather than reheating the burger I requested buffalo tips and she told me they will not take the buger off the bill. We are sitting there watching the celtics game and do we see a m*use running around. I mention this to the waitress and she said "Welcome to Boston" as if M!ce and food are supposed to be acceptable. I will never again go there with the rude staff , bad service and discusting m!ce who run the place.

• Pros: Location
• Cons: everything else

12/03/07

Jillian's Boston - We tried to spend our money but couldn't

by dugmar at Citysearch

A party of 10 of us waited 3 hours for pool tables, meanwhile only 50% of them were being used while we sat at the couches and waited. The girl paged the same people for tables 4-5 times over the span of 30-40 min each, most of which never showed up, so the tables sat unused. By 1:00AM we finally gave up and left. Instead of paging people, they should take a deposit and hand out the flashing pagers that restaurants use when you're waiting for a table. No brainer.

We tried to spend money, but couldn?t. Jillians is literally leaving money on the table with all these unused tables just sitting.

Also, why did they get rid of all the video games and pinball? While waiting for a table we could have dumped our money into those machines, but they are all gone. Too bad.

We had fun but I think most of us will probably go elsewhere next time we're out in Boston. King's Back Bay is a great place for Billiards / Bowling and is much more relaxed and the night-clubb-ish cheesiness level is much lower.

• Pros: Nice building, bar, facility
• Cons: Wait times

09/07/07

The worst sports bar on planet earth

by miasma13 at Citysearch

The service is terrible...the staff incompetent and pretentious. If you want to see any game, GO somewhere else. They refused to switch over to a game and we paid to watch commericals on poor quality screens.

• Pros: none
• Cons: staff

09/01/07

Terrible

by strykerjackson at Citysearch

Jillians has the worst service ever. They take way too long for food and drinks, but if you try and complain watch out because you will be treated like a criminal and surrounded by "security". Terrible.

• Pros: tv
• Cons: everything else, go anywhere else

01/30/07

A cross section of social scenes converges at the city's premier adult playground.

by Eric Grossman at Citysearch

The Scene
A varied crowd descends upon Jillian's three levels to experience all kinds of sensory overload. The scene usually includes ollege students and middle-aged managers shooting pool and trendy 20-somethings surveying the scene at the bar. Black-clad cocktail waitresses, many of whom moonlight as models, do their best not to interfere with anyone's shot while delivering drinks to all corners of the establishment. When the Sox are playing across the street, expect larger crowds.

The Draw
Patrons looking for a full meal can duck into Tequila Rain, which is located on the ground floor. Fun, expensive entertainment options are spread out over three floors, including billiards (there are 55 tournament-quality pool tables) and bowling (in the futuristic Lucky Strike Lanes).

10/29/06

Crowded but worth it

by tiglesia at Citysearch

I have always had a great time at Jillians! It's a hang out for singles and also for those going in their own group of friends. Not one bad thing I can say.

• Pros: Always a fun time
• Cons: sometimes it takes awhile for a tech to fix machines on weekends