Union Oyster House

Place was very old and cool on the inside. Some of the tables in certain areas had very weird and dark lighting, but it did add to the oldness of the building

One of my favorite Boston landmarks. Cozy, historic and great seafood.

Worst experience EVER! Made a reservation for 430p. Arrived at the restaurant at 420p only to be told we couldn't be seated until 5p and I shouldn't have been able to even make a reservation for that time. I showed my reservation confirmation and they still acted confused and didn't understand why it allowed me to make it. Ok so we proceed to wait and sit at the bar. We place our drink orders only to have the bartender drop the shot measuring thing into my drink, fish it out with her fingers and to continue on as if nothing occurred. Needless to say I declined the drink. After about 20 mins, my boyfriend calls the hostess that we spoke to upon arrival over and asks were we going to be seated (it was almost 5p) She says they have 10 5p reservations and she's not sure if there would be any sests available! What?! I say we had a reservation also and it wasn't our fault that their system obviously malfunctioned and allowed me to book an earlier time but we should be seated at 5p also. After some going back in forth, I ended the conversation and decided to just leave. The hostess was rude and not understanding or helpful at all. And to top it off, we were still charged for 2 drinks even though I declined mine! Horrible experience!

This is an iconic Boston restaurant. The ambience is great and the service/hospitality excellent. The food was great. Would recommend for a nice cozy evening.

The bartenders were awesome, don’t recall their names, but entertaining and knew their oysters! Kate, our server was awesome, asked our names and called us by name all night. Impressive! A great time was had by all!

They quick take us to the table and everyone in the restaurant was so kind and served us perfectly. Waiting for long time before the foods come to the table is very stressful but this restaurant gave us no stress on a waiting time. We would definitely recommend this restaurant to others.

Good food and great service. Expensive for seafood but on par with the setting.

Our waitress was very good. The food was mediocre. The chowder tasted industrial and the grilled oysters were non plus. And $40 for a small steamed lobster was ridiculous. Overall the meal was below average.

Restaurant history is amazing, very good ambiance and decor . Only thing I was not satisfied was that I order a Seafood Newburg and only came with one tiny piece of lobster on it , besides being a small plate overall. For the price at believe it should been a better plate!

My family and I had a wonderful experience here, the staff were ever so helpful and after a short wait we were directed to our table. Megan was our waitress for the evening, she was very attentive to our needs throughout the night. The food was exquisite, my oysters were prepared beautifully as was my lobster, my daughter had the lobster scampi which she really enjoyed right down to the last morsel, my wife’s shrimp ravioli was flavoursome and she soon finished hers with licked lips. A wonderful celebration for our annual trip to Boston was highlighted by a great food de force at the Union Oyster House.

Food was okay wateres was slow but we wanted to try it

The oysters were shrivelled up little things that looked and tasted awful. They did recover by bringing slightly better ones and didn't charge us. The crab cake was pretty good. Chowder was okay. Generally, a factory feel where there is a churn them in and churn them out philosophy. Overall, a meh experience.

The server Stephanie was amazing and the food was outstanding. We were seated right away and was able to relax and enjoy our dinner.

Bruins game

I had dinner in other restaurants included in the list of best 18 restaurant in Boston, and Union Oyster is just famous but cannot be compared with others, bad welcome, bad service and also clam chowder not at the level of the fame

Union Oyster House never disappoints!!

Food was ok, nothing special. The clam chowder was only decent, nothing spectacular and definitely not worth the money. The best thing was the corn bread and our server who was very sweet.
Avoid the chocolate lava cake.
Nice ambiance.

Excellent food and service.

The food was only average and not a good value. I would call the place a tourist trap, trading on its name and reputation, but not offering really good food.

Food and service was outstanding! Will be back!

Wonderful waiting staff. Fun place to bring out-of-town guests!

Delicious chowder. Excellent wait staff.

So much history to take in and enjoy. Easy to see JFK sitting in the next booth.

They had the best Boston clam chowder !!! We will be back

I went with my family to have lunch but I have a low sodium diet restriction. I’m understanding most mis en Place are already prepared with salt so when ordering at a restaurant I always ask about their flexibility preparing dishes without salt. As I wanted a boiled lobster I asked if they had unsalted butter. The answer was no. Having ordered a broiled scrod I asked if they could make me some French fries without salt. The answer was that salt already had been added and they could Not fry a small batch for me without added salt....go figure.... first time I experience suave lack of interest in working with a client limitations.

Go figure

Very disappointing. My haddock was dry and fishy tasting. The potatoes and veggies were boring.

Such an interesting place and so full of history. Everyone should go there at least once. Our waiter was accommodating and very attentive. I don't eat seafood but they made me a ceasar salad with grilled chicken for dinner which is usually just a lunch item. It was excellent. My husband and daughter thoroughly enjoyed their seafood entrees.

Great food historic environment

Our server Megan was awesome! Food was delicious! Can’t beat the atmosphere. We loved it!

Beautiful, historical, American! But service is somewhat poor and spotty.

The last time we were at Union Oyster House was in 1978. My husband and I were in the city on personal business and decided to revisit this iconic Boston eatery. The Clams Casino, fresh cornbread, Seafood Medley, and Baked Haddock were all excellent. The ambience is authentic, historic, lively, and fun. The servers were friendly and attentive. My only complaint is that even though the restaurant was practically empty when we arrived, we were seated at a table right next to the server station, which was very, very noisy and distracting. (The two waitresses serving our section had naturally loud voices.) So while seating large groups near the serving area is fine, couples probably want a quieter spot.

Great experience as always. Only knock is failure of the restaurant to check us in on the reservation - creating the appearance of a no-show - which has resulted in additional effort to get credit on opentable for the booking

The service was phenomenal at Union oyster house! Everyone was very friendly and went out of their way to make our dinning experience a wonderful one. Also they gave us a piece of Boston Cream pie for our anniversary and that was to die for! Would definitely go back.

Wonderful place, full of history, It makes us feel back in 1800s.

We think the waitress was not really polite and impatient. For instance, she put the cup strongly on our table which kind of frightened us. There bread is good, but other foods are not amazing as we thought. Those are not value enough for their price. They have so many people, hence, the ambiance is not really ideal.

Union Oyster House is a must any time we visit Boston.
Felt very special to sit in JFK’s favourite booth whenever he would dine there.

We used to live in Boston, and would take out of town family members to this restaurant as a special treat. It's charming, historic, a bit touristy, but always has amazing food! Their Colonial Ale is my favorite Sam Adams, by far, and I definitely recommend going!

We were in Boston for the weekend and wanted to try Union Oyster House. Even with reservations, we waited almost a half hour. We ordered the Onion Soup and Clam c
Chowder. They were served with warm cornbread, all of which were very good. We ordered the Grilled Salmon for our entree. It was prepared with a tangy orange glaze with fried potatoes and baby green beans. This is where the problem started. The potatoes were chewy with little flavor and were barely warm. The green beans tasted like the water they were cooked in. They were undercooked and tasteless. The salmon had no flavor of the "tangy orange" it was supposed to have and was also pretty tasteless. I had higher hopes for this meal with this place being a "seafood" restaurant and l thought they would actually know how to cook seafood. The waitress we had was very good and we had no complaints about her at all. I would NOT waste my money eating at this restaurant again!!!

I took out of town guests here because we were exploring the area and it is an historic site. I wasn't sure whether the food would be decent because it is touristy but it was. After we waited a long time for menus and service, we enjoyed a tasty seafood lunch.

Just ok...seemed popular for lunch...seafood was ok...a disappointment! We had fried oysters and fried clams--should have been wonderful!! Local parking garage (7th parcel...) on Blackstone St. was totally blocked off due to construction, I believe. Staff was totally unaware of this fact, and I'm sure the fences and blockades did not appear that morning....so no parking validation at all! In addition to the restaurant tab, you got to pay a lot for parking! Have not been for a few years--hoped to eat upstairs--will not return!