Scarlet Oak Tavern - HINGHAM

The place was chaotic, the food was awful, and my mother got very,very sick from the scallops she ordered after she couldn't eat the filet mignon. The food was not as described on the menu at all.

Great tavern atmosphere in an upscale restaurant. Excellent food from a menu with both a solid steak selection and very contemporary entre'/sandwich list. The menu is a la carte. The wine list includes not just a wide selection of bottles but also half bottles and by the glass.

The front of house staff is ???????. We had a great meal the first time… but the second time the kitchen badly overcooked both things we ordered. Did they relegate our relatively easy meals to an apprentice chef? This is a picture of what was supposed to be a medium ???? angus blue cheese burger with caramelized onions. The other blue cheese angus burger with mushrooms was ordered medium and it was crispy crunchy overdone. We would have sent them back, but we were starving and on our way to a show in Boston with no time for a “redo.” For the price, this was inexcusable.

I was there with 4 family members for Mother 's Day. The place was chaotic and the food was poor. I ordered the watermelon salad with greens and a cheese that was grilled. There were or 4 very small cubes of watermelon and 2 big slabs of rubbery cheese buried under the greens. Then I order miso glazed salmon with black beans, mushrooms, bok choy, and udon noodles. There were no black beans and a few specks of green that I assume was the bok choy. It was in a bowl on top of the noodles and covered with a lot of some type of oriental sauce. My 88 year old mother ordered filet mignon which she couldn 't cut (even I struggled) or chew (yes she can usually chew that). The waitress offered to bring her something else, so she ordered scallops. Well, she told me she was very, very sick to her stomach Sunday night, probably from the scallops. The waitress took the watermelon salad and filet mignon off the bill. It turns out the scallops should have also been at no charge. I don 't know if the problems were due to how busy they were, but it was very disappointing. It looked like such a nice restaurant, and we looked forward to a nice meal.

Had a special celebration with family. Good food and service, made for an enjoyable time.