Money Magazine ranks Milton, Massachusetts as the fifth best town in the USA to live in. The town is located just outside of Boston, has good schools, ample parks, hiking trails, and is the hometown of the husband. The prices of homes and real estate listings tout this statistic from Money Magazine. However, until recently, Milton was missing something. That something was a good restaurant. Milton has been known as a “dry town”, not allowing restaurateurs a liquor license. However, this changed with the recent addition of Abby Park in East Milton Square.
Abbey Park represents something that the citizens of Milton and nearby communities have desired for quite some time. It is a restaurant with a Boston caliber menu without the hassles of driving into Boston and finding parking. Its location in East Milton Square allows some diners to walk to this establishment from home without having to worry about parking at all.
The husband and I were spontaneous last Saturday night and opted to try the eatery. We were not sure what the situation would be, as we did not have reservations, lucky for us, we were going on the early side of a Saturday night dinner. Despite the fact that Abby Park was packed, we managed to get a table by the front window where the husband could look out on to the streets that he once “ruled” (his words not mine) as a youth.
Immediately, we were impressed with the menu selections. This was not going to be any other dining experience in the suburbs. We started the meal off with the “Park Board”. It was a nice assortment of small flatbreads, olives, blue cheese with fig jam, a white bean rosemary dip, proscuitto, and almonds. The board was good to split between two and could be split with a party of up to four. The husband chose to go with the panko-crusted halibut special. I opted to go with the Kobe Flank Steak with truffle macaroni and cheese and parmesan herb frites. The steak did not disappoint, it was tender and had just the right flavors. The mac’n cheese was ok. It did not pack the flavor punch I was hoping for. The herb frites were delicious with the right amount of salt. I could not stop picking at them.
Of course, we went for dessert. Abby Park has a fantastic dessert menu and offers “small bites” in addition to the full size dessert. The small bites are great, as they do not make you feel guilty for getting something sweet after dinner. The small bites can also be shared with your dinner date. We chose the chocolate pecan pie, chocolate truffles, and banana cream pie. The pairing of chocolate and banana worked nicely together. The chocolate was so rich, that a full size portion would have been far too much.
I highly recommend that diners try Abby Park. The service was great, the menu had a nice variety and they are changing it this week, and you cannot beat the small bites for dessert. If you go, I would absolutely make a reservation. As word of mouth spreads about this jewel in Milton, it will be more difficult to just walk in and get a table.
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I was really looking forward to having dinner at Abbey Park - many rave reviews...I will never go back. I agree it is a beautiful space with an upscale Boston style menu. Our experience was one of my worst dinner experiences ever. The wait for a table was well over the 45 minutes quoted. We were seated (party of 4) downstairs in the small intimate dining room - very nice room - with 3 or 4 other small parties and one very large loud party. These people were having a great time and would have blended quite nicely upstairs in the large open dining room. I was mortified at how they were treated by both the staff and other diners. Several times the wait staff made unkind comments refering to this large party...this just seemed to add fuel to the fire to a couple that seemed to blame this group for the miss management of the tables. Back to our dinner, we were served lovely rolls - but only 3 (for a party of 4??). My husband ordered a veal chop, medium. It could have walked to the table itself - totally undercooked. The waitress never came to inquire about our meal - we asked another waitress t take the veal chop back. In the mean time the large group was leaving and one of the diners had words with them - totally out of line yelled at them to f -off and called one of the men out. It was beyond belief. The floor manager came to his table and profusely apoligized and offered them desert on the house!!! This diner was more disruptive that the large group. Our dinner was totally ruined (it was mediocre at best anyway). After I spoke with the manager she was very kind and asked what she could do to make it better for us. We declined dessert (we could not wait to leave). I would have assumed the waitress would have atleast taken the $34.00 unedible veal chop off the bill - I would never ask them to do that - they just should have. At the end we gave the waitress a very measly $10.00 tip - because she knew how upset we were and must have felt the night was beyond repair. She still should have gone to here manager to atleast had the veal chop removed. So in the end we waited too long, had a not so great meal, mismanaged dining tables, and a wait staff that was not at all attentive.
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