Kings

 

Kings

Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts

Kings Boston

Last night I went out with my family for my cousin Casey's 21st birthday party, I was rather excited to go, because we were going to place I'd only heard of recently, and thought would be a great place to try, after all I do love all in one locations, where you can eat your food and then have all your entertainment right there in one spot, places like this are starting to pop up all over the food landscape here in the United States, and though by design that can be, for lack of a better term, Chuck E. Cheese for adults, thankfully, Kings is no such place. Also, if you are from outside of the United States, or from somewhere other then the east coast, and don't get the Chuck E. Cheese reference, please, be grateful, you're not missing anything other then terrifying foam rubber mice and a history of even more terror inducing early animatronic anthropomorphic animals singing country jamboree songs that will haunt your nightmares for decades to come.

The Main Dining Room, if you look all the way to the back on the left, that is where we sat

The Main Dining Room from the opposite end of the room.

Located in the Back Bay area of Boston, down the street from both The Berkley College of Music, and the often buzzed about Dillon's Pub, and attached to a parking garage for easy parking, infact, Kings is technically under the parking garage, which allows them a tremendous about of space for a location in Boston where everything is compact and ontop of everything else. From the moment you open the front door and see that giant disco ball that shines about as you descend the kind of steep stairs into the main seating area, you find yourself noticing two things, first, that the look of this place is sort Retro-1950s/Rockabilly meets modern Pub/Sports Bar, and that you kind of wish they would turn the lights up, because its very cave like, maybe they kept the lights low because the restaurant wasn't busy the night we went, apparently were were the only people in the area not going to see country singer Jason Aldean at Fenway Park, but i didn't mind that, I like to check places out when they aren't that busy, it allows you more time to relax and look around and truly think about what you want, instead of the order, eat, pay, tip and leave mentality so many busy restaurants give you, i am sure they have nights like that, but thankfully, for us, this wasn't one of those nights. The staff was very polite and friendly, and went out of their way to make us happy, which truly was impressive, normally i wouldn't mention such thing, but, two of our servers were in training, and one of them accidentally dropped two of the entrees, and though we didn't make a big deal out of it, because mistakes happen, they not only deducted the price of the two dinners off our bill, as well as knocked off afew of the appetizers as well, they continued to ask if there was anything they could do to make things better for us, as if we were the most important people in the place, infact, after finding out it was my cousin's birthday, they gave her a free slice of their triple chocolate cake free with a candle on it, and sang her happy birthday. I'm not sure if thats how they handle every single mistake, but their constant making sure we were ok after the incident and going above and beyond with the bill was very impressive, I've never seen a restaurant go that far out of their way to please visitors after that sort of accident. Truly a class act if there ever was one.

Mini Cheeseburger Empanadas

The last of the Buffalo Wontons

As for the food, oh my god! I wasn't expecting the food to be as good as it was, because again, lets be honest, this is a bowling alley/pool hall with a pub attached, you sort of expect pub level food, even though they want you to think they're high end. I started with a large order of mini cheeseburger empanadas, in a large you get six of them and what they call "fancy sauce" which is basically the big mac sauce with out the hot dog relish in it, they were abit to small for my liking and were mostly dough instead of cheeseburger filling, and you'd think you'd get more for the price, but, they are "mini" after all, so i guess i should have expected what I got. Don't get me wrong, they were excellent, I just wish there was more of them for the $12.oo price tag. My mother and one of my aunts split a small order of Buffalo Wontons, which is buffalo chicken and a creamy cheese sauce lightly fried inside of a wonton wrapper, served with a dill ranch dip, they both rather enjoyed them and happily gave me the last one for tasting reasons, I can tell you, i would much rather order those again then my empanadas, though i would order a large instead of a small, given their size, but for $8.oo for a small they were pretty nice sized and very tasty, i would go back just for them infact. For dinner itself, I had what is called a Texas Burger, which consisted of two 4oz. beef patties served on a bun and covered with bacon, a very large helping of pulled pork, a very large helping of coleslaw, pepperjack cheese, half and half pickles, and covered in a texas style barbecue sauce, OH. MY. GOD. was this a dish made in heaven, I am a burger guy, I always have been and always will be, but I must tell you, this might be, with out a doubt, the greatest non-fast food/national chain burger, I have ever had. Seriously, it was so flavorful and juicy, like a burger should be, and all the stuff piled ontop of it, was just so many excellent flavors ontop of other amazing flavors, I almost didn't mind that I had to pay an extra three dollars for fries to go with it, and though i would have liked a bit bigger of a burger for almost $9.oo, the taste truly makes up for the very few short comings for this, I was seriously in heaven, and can not wait to go back for another one as soon as I can. My mother had a meat pizza, which was a light thin crust style pizza with bacon, pepperoni, hamburger, sausage and mozzarella and romano cheese, to say my mother enjoyed her pizza would be an understatement, when she was full and slid the plate my way to try it, she did so very regretfully, because she truly loved this pizza, though everything was properly cooked and tasted amazing together, I wish it had just alittle more sauce, in bites you barely had any at all, and in a pizza, you need your sauce, that aside though, it was still very excellent for what is almost twice the size of a pizza hut personal pan pizza, and alot more flavor packed inside. 

My Texas Burger with crispy double fried french fries

The Meat Pizza, a thin crusted bit of Italian goodness

We seriously enjoyed our meal here, and are already talking about going back again as soon as we can get a group together to do so. Which, really is the best sign of just how good this place is, and how good the food really is as well. And if you're ever in Boston's Back Bay, and need a place to eat, please, make your way to Kings, you'll truly enjoy your time, plus, they've got bowling, skeeball, pool and shuffleboard too, you can't go wrong with that. My only complaint, if there is one at all, is that there is a very strict dress code, no work boots or steel toe shoes, no overly baggy cloths, nothing to trampy for the girls, and afew other things, i get the point of it, but, I always feel abit sad about dress codes in general.

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Chris