John Harvard’s Brewery & Ale House

Came here during dinner hours (@6pm) waited at the hostess area in the main entrance for 10min. 6 wait staff saw us and just walked by. No greeting or anything. The restaurant was not busy and all the staff just looked to be sitting around-​lazy actually. It was my first time here willing to try it despite the shady appearance and I will NOT be going back.

I received a $ 5 off 20 coupon for checking in with Unilocal!But our waitress didn’t subtract it for our order after she redeemed it buy clicking on it. Loved the beer! Super long wait time for middle of the day but food was okay. Restaurant was dirty even wiped the ledge of our booth it was so gross. Love it here but disappointed.

I always love the beer, some brew pubs don’t make the best beer but John harvards is spot on. The food isn’t anything amazing but it’s good enough and the great beer goes a long way towards making up for it.

Excellent pesto chicken sandwich. Hubbie had the pastrami panini with jus. Also excellent.

Packed for a Saturday Dinner. Beer, Whisky, and Menu were awesome. This is definitely run better than the JH in Harvard Sq. Food was amazing. Every entrée that came out around us looked picture perfect.

Food and service were average. You could do worse, but you could also do much better.

Very good atmosphere with a great bar and the craft brews here are delicious. The food is great as well me and wife got the kettle chips that are unreal. Also for dinner I got the buffalo chicken mac n cheese and the smoke burger and both very delicious great place to grab a bite and some drinks!

Even though it’s busy on Friday night but the servers are still very patient and friendly. The food is amazing!

Corner location that is very difficult to find unless you are a local. The bartender is very knowledgable and nice. The drinks were delicious and not expensive. The food on the other hand was subpar and needs to be improved especially the meatloaf.

Great service, great beer. I got chicken wings (not fully cooked), but my pulled pork bacon pizza was amazing. Had the blueberry cheesecake dessert special, also amazing even though the whipped cream was melted. John Harvards gets one star because the men’s room was the most disgusting pit of a bathroom I’ve seen in a very.long.time. Makes me wonder how clean the kitchen is, if you let a place that customers can see be that unacceptable what about what the customers don’t see? Even with the undercooked wings I would have given five stars. Based on public sanitation I went out of my way to write a review; something I seldom do. It was that disgusting.

My husband and I love this place for a few reasons and we have been here several times. (Sorry for the delay in Unilocaling)
First, the beer
Second, the food
Third, great bartenders
And last but not least a nice outdoor seating area
My husband and I have a favorite beer, it’s the May gold. But each beer we have had we have enjoyed.
The food has never been disappointing. Great apps to goose from and a nice selection of entrees. My standard favorite app is the hummus with outa platter. Something so easy to make but I find it hard to find a good hummus. You have to have the perfect ratio of lemon to garlic to tahini and the texture has to be spot on. This place does it!
Love hanging out here on a sunny day on the back side of the place outside or even on a below zero day with a pint o brew and some hot snacks for my belly!
There is also a John Harvard’s back in my old stomping grounds in The Berkshires, Jimminy Peak ski resort. I have yet to try that location out but maybe I will next visit home.

Good food and Beer brewed on location which is fantastic. The Kurley Q beer is in support of the Framingham Firefighters! Smokehouse pizza was great, the bread was also addicting.

Ample parking, and the staff is laid back and nice. The food is consistent to most pubs and does not disappoint. It’s located in Shopper’s World area and there is a back area so you can avoid the whole parking lot craziness if you wanted to.
It’s a good place to catch the game as they have ample tvs and spots to view from any table.
I had a turkey burger and friends had fish and chips. They all seemed to enjoy it, and I did enjoy my turkey burger as well. The spinach dip was good as well. It was cheesy and spinachy.
This location won’t disappoint if you’re looking for good ol food and atmosphere.

We came here for dinner. It is a standard brewery/​bar food restaurant. You can usually get a table without making a reservation, I don’t ever expect this restaurant to be too crowded. Nothing too fancy on the menu, and they don’t have the healthiest options. Everything is just fine.
They have their own selection of beers which is fine. We got the fried fish which was good and enormous. The fries were nothing special. We also got the buff chick mac and cheese which was just ok.
Nothing to write home about, but it is reliable in a pinch.

I’ve eaten here 6 times. The Specials are always great. Just had the beef stew with seasoned vegetables in an ale sauce. Complimented with a Cold Fusion American Stout with Coffee. Great combo for a rainy day in January.

Just went to John Harvard’s this week. This place is good, not great, but good.
They have got a good selection of craft beer and (for a brewery) that’s really all that matters. I went on a slow Monday night and the service was good. I was impressed with the menu but the food did not blow my socks off. Here’s the positive & negative breakdowns.
Positives: Good selection of craft beer, lots of space in the restaurant, very clean, quick friendly service, good apps and bar food selections.
Negatives: Location sort of sucks (being located in a strip mall area), price-​point was a little high, it’s in a very busy part of town for driving.

Incomparably superior to its sibling location in Harvard Square, this location stands out.
Get the ranch steak tips. Usually a rare meat guy, I’ve learned that for these middle-​level restaurants, medium-​well brings out the flavor best, and this is no exception.
Best fries in the area.
Beer is very decent, but go hoppy.
Staff is fine, though every time I’m there I wait too-​long for check-​ins, refills, and the tab. Food’s always timely. Looks like service is best at the bar, but you have to find a seat.
It’s our go-​to place when we have to schlep from Concord to Framingham for whatever reason. Consistently good with a nice, cheery atmosphere.
Parking lot is a nightmare, but that’s hardly JH’s fault. I guess I should just be grateful there is one.

Walked in and was promptly seated by the hostess… however we waited 25 minutes before our waitress came to take our drink orders. When she did arrive, she apologized for the wait but also told us it was her bathroom break… We nearly lost our appetite after hearing about a bathroom break that took 25 minutes.
Our waitress was overall pleasant? She didn’t quite know how to reach over the table and put drinks on the table, we ended up with her elbow in our face a few times unexpectedly.
The beer was good and the food was ok.
Also it seems they may have charged our card twice.

This was our first time here. It was a guys night out and we wanted a place to sit drink and have apps.
One of the guys could not drive so far to boston so we decided to meet him in the natick area and narrowed it down to john harvards. This place is tucked in the corn of a strip mall and lil hard to find.
We were sit down quickly and ordered the beers. I ordered the ginger beer which was really awesome as i am not much of drinker. For starters they give bread and olive oil. The bread was nice and warm anf soft and really really good and tasty.
We then ordered the potato chips nachos, regular nachos, fried pickles and buffalo chicken tenders. Everything was really good except the buffalo chicken tenders which were just ok hence only 4 stars.
Potato chips nacho came witj sour cream, jalapenos and bacon but we decided to do it no bacon and extra jalapenos. Nachos were really good witj black beans and all the works minus the beef since we were all only chicken eaters. Fried pickles stole the show. Really well fried, tasty and vame with good aioli.
We would def go there again. The service was good and prices were ok too. Next time we would def love to try the entrees

We’ve been coming to John Harvard’s quite often over the past year. The past few times though have been reason to think that we’re not going to come back again. It’s not the food, honest. It’s the wait staff. The past two times we’ve been to Harvard’s we’ve had a certain redheaded skinny waiter (who’s name I don’t remember). He seems like a nice enough guy but it appears that his goal is to avoid his tables and see them as few times as possible. It’s funny, my table and the table next to us were bonding as we waited for this guy to come around.
Both times have been on a Sunday early afternoon and both times the restaurant had as many staff as patrons. The guy was just lazy. It took about 10 minutes for us to even see the waiter the first time, about that long to get water/​coffee and once the food was served, that was it. We did not see him until we flagged him down to get our check.
I’m not saying I won’t come back to John Harvard’s but if I do get this guy again, I’m going to ask for another server. Very disappointed.