Backstage Bistro

Very good. Interesting challenge getting everyone seated and fed and happy before the curtain call at nsmt. It's a limited menu but worthy of their other locations.  The presentations were great. The best bite was the poblano pepper served with the pork. I'd order it by itself.

The one thing this place has going for it is that it is attached to North Shore Music Theatre which makes it convenient to go to when you go to see a show ... but even with that, we might not be back.

The room is fun - I really like that it has props/scenery from popular shows on display all around the room.  It was pretty cool as we scanned the venue to see what we might recognize.

It goes downhill from here ... while the decorations are great, the layout is unfortunate.  It is a large room and the climate is hugely impacted by the entrance.  Hopefully you don't have to sit near the door although sadly the majority of the tables are impacted by the door.  We sat in the middle of the room and spent the evening with our coats on.

The waitstaff was very friendly but the service is slow - Be sure to give yourself plenty of time if you plan to go to a show - our reservation was for 6:15pm and we barely made it down in time for the 8pm show.

The food was ok but totally overpriced!  They are taking advantage of the fact that you are probably there because you plan to see a show and hopefully won't mind paying $20+ for a filet.  There is a kid's menu but I will say that paying $12 for what looked like Campbell Chicken Noodle Soup was frustrating.  

We were surprised because we are big fans of Jeff Cala's other restaurants but this one does not make the grade.

This restaurant was given a three rating due to the ambiance. This was our first time back since NSMT has reopened. We were annual subscribers but now a little tentative, so we pick and choose our shows.

The evening began with no issues. Decent pours of wine and a very respectable Martini. We were seated at 5:50p. I jokingly told the waitress that we had theater tickets and asked that the service stay in line with the time to get to our seats. We all laughed. That was the last time we laughed until we went in to see the show.

The figs were wrapped in bacon and could have been much better. The bacon was extremely overdone and not much feta cheese as described on the menu.

My short rib, not ribs, as described on the menu, was very good but sad to say portion size was extremely small. Same held true for my wife's baked cod. Pricing is moderate but should go down due to the portion sizes.

Waiting for the bill, with five minutes to get into the theater, I felt my little joke at the beginning of the evening was more of a prediction of the time needed to dine at this restaurant.

Adequate food and very slow service, this restaurant is much better than its buffet predecessor, but has a way to go before we give it another try.