Boston: Durgin Park question
 

When I went to Durgin Park many years ago, you could always get ahead of the line outside by having a drink in the bar downstairs - they'd send you up the back stairs to the restaurant.

My question - is this still the casee?

If not - what is a good time to go to try to avoid the long lines?

Alas, Durgin Park is not as popular as it once was, so I doubt you will find those long lines, except maybe on a Saturday night. Many of its former patrons are in the Durgin Park in the Sky, and its fare doesn't quite excite the trendy set. I remember that gimmick about getting a drink to jump the line. I'm not sure if it still is in existence.

That said, it is still one of my favorites. Great New England food! Huge portions of tasty roast beef, falling off the plate - fresh fish, especially scrod, baked beans and Indian Pudding with vanilla ice cream. Yum! Most of the old waitresses are gone too, but there are a few that will be funny and rude (just as a joke), as is the custom. Get a table on the main floor. Ask for Gina or Judy! Have a great meal.

Kingajh, We are going to Boston in a few weeks and are planning a meal at Durgin Park.... Do you think this is one of the best places to try Clam Chowder? I keep hearing about Durgin Park and Legal Seafood both having great clam chowder. I would appreciate your take, if you have one. Many thanks Vacationmom

Durgin Park has excellent clam chowder and fish chowder. It is the classic recipe, mainly milk or cream, potatoes, clam, and I think some onion and spices. The broth is thinner than you may be used to. Legal's is excellent, but has a thicker base, and more spices. Chowder makers debate whether you may add flour to the base. These two would be your best bets. Union Oyster House has excellent chowder, and is another historic restaurant. Other good fish places are Skipjack's, Naked Fish, McCormick & Schmick (a chain), Turner Fisheries (expensive) and Anthony's Pier 4, touristy, but still has good food and view.

I'll chime in here. I've always preferred the "chowdah" at Union Oyster House across from Fanueil Hall. Haven't been in a while, though.

It bills itself as the oldest, continuously open restaurant in the US.

Just another opinion, but I like the chowder at Turner's and Legal's more than the other places mentioned; I really like the chowder when they have it at East Coast Grill in Cambridge. And please do not go to Pier 4; the food is no longer what it used to be.

Thank you all for the wonderful replies and suggestions!! I will just have to try some everywhere we go. My son and I both adore chowder, and I'm sure that the chowder we get here in Texas just FAILS in comparison to what we will have in Boston. Last year we went to San Francisco and it just wet our appetites for the "good" stuff...... Can't Wait!!!!! Thanks again, Vacationmom

HI vacationmom--hope you love Boston when you come!! Just one personal observation--altho Turner Fisheries is a very nice place w/good food, there is nothing there to make you know you are in Boston. It is just a slick hotel restaurant w/lots of glass and you could be in Chicago, LA NY, your own TX or a myriad of other locales!! I would stick w/all or any of the other mentioned spots since you will probably not have time to go to all of them anyway.

Thanks Socialworker for your comment and thoughts. We are SO excited about our trip. This is our first time there are anxiously awaiting it. I know we will have an amazing time. Some friends of ours, who have traveled to, and loved, many of the same places our family has been, have taken two trips to Boston and just had a great time. Can't wait! Vacationmom

Thanks for Durgin Park info. And for reminding me about Indian pudding. I am advising a friend going to Boston for the first time.

I hope Durgin Park's star ascends again. I'll get myself there sometime soon to do my part.

I ate at Durgin Park about 2 years ago. Unless it has drastically improved, it has nothing to recommend it. The food was just awful, service not good, restaurant not clean, no A/C, and bathrooms that always smell like sewers. It is very sad, but I think almost any other place would be better.

Peggy may be right--it is *many* years since I have eaten at Durgin Park, but I don't think a visitor to Boston goes there so much for the food as for the history and the experience. When the whole Faneuil Hall Market area was all just abandoned warehouses, Durgin Park was still there with a wooden plank serving as a "sidewalk" up to the door. Then in the mid-70s when the whole market area was rehabbed, Durgin Park found itself right in the middle of the action, so to speak. However, one must always put into context that it was a place where the workers and others ate back in the 1800s when all those bldgs really *were* markets and warehouses and so the experience of going there is multi-faceted. Of course there are better places to eat, but the history is another story.....

PS--re: the sewer smell in the bathrooms, *all* the lower level bathrooms in the whole area smell, as do some of the grates in the street. So that is not probably Durgin Park's fault.

I used to work just steps away from Durgin Park in the Old Custom House when it was a Federal building. I've been to Durgin Park and hung around Faneuil Hall daily. When visitors from out of state came to visit our office they would be taken there for dinners and they loved it and raved about the food. However, when sitting around Faneuil during lunch I would speak with customers from other nations who were disgusted by the the fake rudeness. The food was not palatable to them and they sought to flee the Hall as soon as possible. I found the food good. I liked the clam chowder and the Hasty Pudding was dynamite. I make Indian Pudding myself and I can't do better. At the time Durgin Park was very crowded, but it's not as popular as it once was. Union Oyster House is more upscale and will let you sit in John Kennedy's booth where he used to read the papers.