Seeing as I've been on Yelp for quite some time & have never written a review I figured why not start with my all-time, hands doooooown, favorite favorite place to go..EVER.
I cannot say enough good things about this establishment! Â Let's start with the beers.
Mmmmm..my boyfriend is HUGE on beer. Â He is the one that introduced me to Lord Hobo. Â (He actually loves this place so much he has a crown tattoo on his shoulder!) Â The selection is always fresh and rotating. Â There's been so many visits where he would freak out saying, "I NEVER SEE THIS!!" Â We just went last night & experienced the w00tstout by Stone Brewing on draught. Â The 13% abv gave me a nice buzz and the wheat, rye pecans & vanilla made it a nice after dinner treat. Â Bottom line, if you are a beer geek/ beer enthusiast you HAVE to visit Lord Hobo.
Not only are the beers amazing but the mixed drinks are too something to rave about. Â I bartend at a martini bar in Downtown Lowell & have pretty high standards when it comes to a mixed drink. Â The bartenders here know the perfect equation needed for a good one! Â All of the cocktails are strong, well balanced between booze & flavor, and there's a beautiful variety of types of alcohol concoctions so everyone's happy :]
The food!!!! Â Oh my. Â I WOULD KILL FOR THEIR TRUFFLE FRIES! Â No, but seriously. Â The chef, Nick Gardner, is one extremely talented man. Â The menu has appetizers that are all drool worthy. Â We tried the BBQ Shrimp last night with olive oil bread and tabasco cherries..I was so blown away. Â I mean, shrimp & cherries?! Â I never would have thought. Â
Also, two words- PORK. BELLY.
Main courses are generally crafted and perfected. Â We threw a birthday dinner here and I remember every single person out of our party of 10+ was more than happy with their dishes. Â I don't know how they cook their steak but it is like no other. Â I highly recommend the steak!
Service has always been on point. Â Servers look like they're actually having fun and enjoying 'work'! Â That's a major thing- Â happy servers mean happy customers. Â Everyone is very knowledgeable of the entire menu and there's never a long wait to get help. Â
I need to do brunch here. Â That's our next to-do! Â I really hope this review reaches all potential 'foodies' & 'beer snobs' that are looking for their next jewel. Â Lord Hobo is everything you've always hoped for. Â Thanks for reading my review!
I've been here a couple of times and I thought it was excellent for what it was. First of all, the beer list is excellent and curated by passionate, knowledgeable beer drinkers. The beer list is also very interesting, and often they will have things on draft that you can't have anywhere else in the city, or you can't buy in a bottle/can. The prices are not expensive given what they are selling. To make things better, the times I've been here, it hasn't been very loud. I don't like loud bars. I want to have a conversation, not shout over obnoxious music. Not an issue when I've been here. Thumbs up, and I don't usually like bars.
Review Source:Came to meet a group of friends for a few drinks after work one day. Â Parking is awful in this area FYI.
Good drink selection and tons of beers on draft. Â The bartender was really nice and attentive. I had the Simple Chicken Sango.. and that's just what it was.. simple. Â I traded the regular fries for truffle fries of course. Yum
Will come back but probably won't go out of my way to come back.
First time here. Great staff - really knew their drinks. I got, for the first time, a gin based drink (London 77) and I loved it - ended up having two!
Also got the truffled fries - yummy!
My wife got a glass of wine - pretty small pour to us. Next glass (after we commented and they said it was a measured poor) was a bit bigger.
Casual, fun and again, great drinks!
Another real good  Cambridge bar in a mostly residential stretch without another bar for a number of blocks radius.  The somewhat aggressive graffiti type sign is maybe slightly unfortunate but the place has a number of key things going for it.  Service is friendly and helpful and the frequently changing beer selection is excellent well chosen and the descriptions on the menu extremely helpful.  Food is solidly decent and considerably better than the average beer bar food, which we all know is generally lousy.  That being said Im drawing a blank to think of anything that I ever ate here that was in any way really memorable or exceptional.  The thing that put this place over the top for me, and this is surely a oddball perk to value so high when rating a bar but for me it was staggeringly important during my time working up here; the house wifi was staggeringly fast.  As I often had to upload large photos and video files for work and both my office and hotel I was staying at had painfully slow wifi, this became my go to spot to get said work done and more often than not get drunk in the process. Â
 Caveats; as others have noticed the acoustics as the place seemingly cause a very loud sound level, making quiet conversation pretty much impossible, which can just as often be a good thing as bad one.  What is pretty much always a bad thing however is the parking situation around the bar, as you are basically completely out of luck without one of those 'resident parking" permits, one of the many scourges of Greater Boston.
Very nice beer selection with great gastropub style food, sometimes with interesting ingredients (gnocchi with beef heart was awesomely tasty!). Meats, fish, and apps are all solid and the atmosphere is great- not too loud, pleasant service and nice locals. Great for a first date or hanging out with friends!
Review Source:Can't ask for much more from a craft beer bar.
Beer selection is quite varied and includes a number of MA breweries. Prices are on par with most Boston establishments ($6-$7 pints).
Food selection is actually pretty impressive and we were happy with the execution on everything we ordered. Burrata was creamy and delicious, the lamb breast was a little fatty but cooked to perfection, and the beef heart gnocchi was very flavorful. My hands down favorite was the duck confit fritters, of which I could have eaten many, many more. Finally, we also enjoyed an order of the truffle fries while watching the Bruins game on one of their big screen TVs.
I'd like to try their actual entrees (especially the duck and sirloin) to see how those compare to the smaller plates we ordered. I'm glad we had a gift card though, because I did think the portions were a little on the small side for some of the dishes (i.e. only two fritters for $8).
All in all, I would definitely go back for a nice dinner and a few quality beers.
This is a non-review... Â As in, I wanted to go there, but couldn't/didn't.
Early Thursday evening, I was looking forward to the beer list and a conversation with a friend I hadn't seen for a while. Â We walked in, and were greeted by a supersonic wall of noise. Â We found a place to sit, and realized that if we stayed, we'd be spending the evening looking at each other, because it would have been like sitting at a table on the runway at Logan. Â We left.
I don't get it--how are you supposed to enjoy a place like this, where the noise level is beyond measurable?
Lord Hobo boasts one of the best draft lists in Boston, and service that's refreshingly polite and unpretentious. Â I can't speak to the cocktails, but my fiancee had 92 Siestas--a ginger margarita--and loved it. Â I had the hamburger for lunch, which was pretty tasty. Â
The bartender we had was great, and showed a lot of genuine excitement about the beer he was serving. Â All in all, a great experience. Â We'll be back.
This review is purely off my experience I had there on a Thursday night.....drinks only.....beer to be exact.....I did not eat....though the food looked delightful........It looks like their specialty is Frites
This is one of the best craft beer bars in America.....I dig the vibe, the rare selection....and the music......
Bartenders are great......knowledgable.....they're more than willing to hook you up with samples if you'd like to try something, which to me is just normal but no place actually does this....
I'll be back soon....!
Half Acre brews on tap? Â Check.
DELICIOUS Truffle Fries reminiscent of Duckfat's sticks of joy? Â Double check.
Walking in, the red velvet curtain opens up to a spacious dining area to the right with a nicely tapped up bar to the left. Â Being a bit more off the beaten path, brunch time was very pleasantly laid back. Â My friend's Duck Twice wasn't bad - skilleted duck eggs and a small side of sweet potato duck hash. Â Totally overshadowed though by the Big Hugs RIS we each nabbed a goblet of after tasting just one sip.
More details on the food will have to wait until another visit, but Lord Hobo rocks one of the best draft lists in Boston & Cambridge that deserves mad props for pouring up Half Acre's brews without having to be in Chi-town.
This is based almost entirely on my dealings with the poser who acts as the "gate keeper" on Friday night. Is this guy for real? He behaves as though he holds the key to the "hottest night club" in town. He also seems not to be able to answer simple questions or address anybody in a manner other than an 18 year old who has discovered irony and dark clothing. Get over yourself: You're a doorman. Where does that condescension come from? It seems that he confuses his wretched disposition and dearth of self-actualization with what he perceives as erudite edginess. What makes it worse, is that apparently management encourages this behavior.
My 2 friends were already had 4-top table and ordered a drink for me. As I approached the door from down Windsor Street --I parked the car several blocks away-- I didn't see a short cue that went around the opposite side of the building, down Cambridge. The doorman chastised me for trying to enter. It wasn't enough just point out that there was a line, it had to be embellished by his snide tone and "what do you think all these people are doing": the people whom I could not see because a little thing like a building blocked them from my sight.
The other problem is that I couldn't just leave because my friends were inside at a table with two empty seats and a drink that had been ordered for me. Â I explained this to the doorman and he sarcastically congratulated me for having friends and that the others in line had friends too. Every response had this embellished patronizing tone. All the while he's talking-himself-up in a bloviating tirade to another patron. What an interesting doorman... we are blessed to be in such company.
If we'd known that the seats at our table weren't actually our seats, then we wouldn't have even entered in the first place. Pretty simple and straight forward, but not at Lord Hobo. It's not like we've never gone to a crowded restaurant/bar before, but they've established their own uniquely ridiculous protocol which is infuriatingly unclear and stupid and approaches the insulting when enforced the moody man child.
I don't really care about entry itself. Only, I wanted to collect my friends who were inside. That's why I found this guy so pathetic in his demeanor. Like I'm making some "excuse" up to sneak inside his hot little club into which he alone controls entry. As though I'd go to any length and lie to get inside. All I wanted to do was either retrieve my friends and leave or sit in one of the two empty seats at the table... but I couldn't even be trusted to do that nor have a straight adult-like answer or explanation.
There are many places in Cambridge without door attendants who take out their real-life inadequacies on patrons waiting to enter. I'll go to those places. We just need a few seats (spots to stand), decent drinks and professionally courteous and competent service. Pretty simple actually. I reluctantly went to Lord Hobo to see what the B-Side had become on an invitation from my friends: not a good transformation. Why patronize a place that propagates this type of behavior.
This was a great little find. I read about this place in a newspaper while looking for great beer spots in Boston/Cambridge.
Beer selection is top-notch. Service is excellent. Fish and chips were as good as the best I had in London. Couldn't ask for a better place to spend an evening of my vacation.
Good things to say about Lord Hobo. Went here for dinner after arriving in Boston with a coworker.
Cheese board was good (wish it came with more bread though) and the fish and chips were delicious. I should say the fish was delicious. The fries were so-so. The food menu was limited, few entrees to choose from, but I figured fish was a good kickoff meal for my trip to Beantown. Â
Environment is pretty hipster (I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately), but with good food and drink so we'll forgive them. Â
Most importantly, the beer selection was great. LOTS of taps (40, maybe?) with Beglians and West Coast IPAs aplenty. I'll go back when I'm in the area again.
Our favorite pub in all of Boston! Â If you're a serious (or not so serious) craft beer lover, Lord Hobo's rotating selection is UNSURPASSED in the Boston area. Â Friendly service, excellent gastro pub fair, great neighborhood feeling craft beer bar/restaurant (casual, not pretentious in any way). Â Can't speak to any of their other drinks, because the amazing beer list is what you'd come here for. Â Check out their Sunday brunch, too! Â If you're taking public transportation, you will have to walk a little bit from Kendall or Central Square t-stops. Â But the beer is worth it. Â Trust me.
Review Source:I am always happy here. I will die like a pig in slop, happy, in the Mac'n'cheese... There's an AMAZINGGGG beer selection, and the truffle fries, and polenta fries (mmm fried things) are awesome.. I also like their signature cocktails.
PLEASE! Bring back the mushroom pizza with a fried egg on it. I die now that it's gone.
I finally had brunch there a few weekends ago and it was also dreamy. I didn't like the grits, but the yogurt thang is banging.. So is the Norwegian pancake! I got an enchilada special of some sort, vegetarian, and it was PERFECT.
They also have a mug club!
So many plaid shirts. Good music. Â Good atmosphere. Â Attentive waiter.
Had two glasses of Spanish red wine- decent taste and an okay price ($8) and a delicious cheese plate with some greens, apple butter, and pecans, though the scant portions definitely did not match the price ($13).
Lord Hobo is one of my favorite places in Cambridge.
Food's pretty great (slightly pricey in that gastropubby way), mac and cheese is one of my favorite things to order anywhere and Lord Hobo's is my favorite. Truffle fries are also amazing. I don't think I've had anything bad here, though I've had some dishes that were disappointing (hard to experiment at these prices.)
I always try stupid beers like I'm someone who likes beers. Who am I fooling? The cocktails are always pretty fantastic as well, and I do like cocktails. There are also specials sometimes (including special burgers!) but the boards can be hard to read.
Service is usually great at the bar, friendly but not too responsive at tables depending on how crowded it is, and...okay, if I didn't love Lord Hobo, the process of actually getting a table would put me off. I don't know whether it was because I look young for my age or because I look queer, but either way, this one time one of the bouncer/ID people almost wouldn't take my MA liquor ID. I don't know what his deal was but it was Some Bullshit and that shit makes it way more awkward to wander in and look around futilely, waiting for someone to acknowledge you, wondering if a) if there's a bouncer this time, b) if I am a ghost, c) if there are tables and can I have one please?
Bottom line: Excellent beer menu chock full of craft brews from around the country lends itself to fairly good bar bites and a hipster craft brew vibe that, if your thing, is sure to please.
This place is super busy. Â I will admit that I was joining the thirsty thursday crowd here, so this should not have been a surprise. Â But all in all it was still a good experience.
After waiting for a table for about 30 minutes we finally made our way over to a corner table to grab some food (of course we were a few beers deep by then, thank you friendly bartender!) Â I was in a Saison mood, of which they had plenty on the menu, so it made for a lighter evening. Â Once seated we got a couple (quite good) recommendations on food and additional beers, and set about our idle chit chat.
Food came out fairly quickly, warm, so that's always nice, and our beers were much faster then that. Â Since beer is their hallmark they make sure to get it to you. Â My simple chicken sandwich was exactly what i wanted (not too heavy, but substantial) and the burger my mate had was also delicious (according to him). Â Thumbs up.
Great service here, so that's always a plus. Â I wouldn't give critical acclaim to the food, but it's certainly not bad. Â And beers? Â Oh give me some more. Â You'll see me checking in here more from now on.
This place is OK. It can get pretty packed and extremely loud so the annoyance factor is there. They have tons of different beers which is awesome while the food is pretty decent.
Even though this is a cool area in Cambridge, it tends to attract the worst type of hipster-snobs so prepared to have some skinny tool in girl jeans judge you and your friends the entire night.
Lord Hobo is probably more famous for the beer than their food, but the food is nothing to sneeze at. Â
The polenta fries had come highly recommended and did not disappoint. Â The garlic mayonnaise was the perfect compliment to the crispy, cornlike flavor. Â
Our Hobo Burgers were also very tasty served on fresh buns and cooked medium rare like we asked (something you cannot always count on.) Â
I was also able to try a few beers that I'd never tasted and stumbled upon the Ballast Point Brewing Sculpin IPA, which I'm going to have to compare taste-test style to the Lagunitas IPA to decide which one I like better.
Are you a GenX type (preferably male) who wants to party like its 1995? Look no further. Massive microbrew selection on tap, saucy vittles, square plates, and some creative mixology.
Service is hit or miss and the menu too. Probably take more than 4 visits to figure out when to go and what to order. Noise level can be totally overwhelming in the eve.
Honestly, I've got my own plaid-shirted, stuck in the grunge-era bf at home, so I don't feel the need to visit the Hobo very often. But if I lived in that 'hood and I wanted to pick up a dude with a large vinyl collection, well, I'd know where to go.
I almost don't want to review this place, because it's already getting crowded. But it really deserves the good review, so here it is:
Drinks: excellent cocktails, excellent beer, sometimes has special events with limited beers. A++
Food: great. A
Service: hit or miss. sometimes excellent, sometimes not so great. B
Vegetarian options: the menu is pretty limited. i get them to make the mac & cheese vegetarian. it's wonderful. there's a great local burrata app. but they definitely need more for vegetarians. C
Overall: A-
ZWANZE day this past weekend was beyond amazing!
Besides the special events this bar is just hands down the best bar in Boston and beyond! Dynamite staff, the best beers a bar could ever compile within 40 drafts, constant rotation for the freshest hops, newest released beers, quality brewing companies. Â The food never dissapoints, if anything impresses more so with each visit. Â Though I come back here weekly for the Beer...I do return for the best owner Daniel, and the best staff! Sam, Jackie, Kenan, Erin, John and Co!! Love you guys!
The beer list at Lord Hobo was basically like entering a beer Nirvana. Both a wide range of draft and bottle offerings ranging from low ABV session beers to some pretty intense imperials and barleywines. If you like beer then this is a place you must check out.
The veggie burger was pretty lackluster and was dry beyond belief. A little hot sauce kicked it up some but the roll the burger came on was the real winner. I asked for the truffle fries to mix it up a bit with the side and they were warm and flavorful and were quite dynamic.
My better half had the chicken sandwich which she absolutely raved about and was a rather impressive portion.
The atmosphere is definitely a relaxing sort of setting where friends can kick back, have a couple of really good drinks and enjoy some time.
I almost don't want to tell you how good the brunch is here so I can keep the place to myself, but it was WAY too delicious not to share.
+ good service and no wait - a MAJOR novelty on a Saturday morning in this part of town
+ good coffee and beer, if you're ready for it this early
+ super lemony and delicious hollandaise sauce on the eggs benny
+ a wide range of super heavy dishes (the waiter said he'd only seen one person finish the "Ron Swanson") and lighter ones, like the mini-waffles my friend and I shared, all delicious
+ Best. Hash. Ever. Â It featured turnips and other root veggies that made it sweet and hearty without overwhelming everything else on the plate.
You might come for the bar scene, but stay for the brunch. Â Your stomach will thank you.
This place sucks. I am sitting at the bar right now for the third or forth time. I have never once had a remotely nice bartender and more often than not they have been straight beastly.
Listen... A large beer selection doesn't mean a good beer selection. If you want to go to a bar with good beer go a half mile down the street to bukowskis.
Place is very dark and packed with hipsters. With that said, the prime rib sandwich is really good but they took it off the menu. Figures
I had been meaning to go to lord hobo for a while as I had heard good things. Â This bar did not disappoint. Â Came around 9 or so on a Tues. Great selection of beers, lively atmosphere, great burger... a baby in a stroller... I think the baby just speaks to the neighborhoody/relaxed atmosphere. Â
I thought the prices were reasonable and there were def. some other menu items I'd try although I would be hard pressed to not order the burger every time.
Will certainly stop by again.
Not sure how my friends and I ended up at Lord Hobo for dinner and drinks. Â It was recommended by someone and so we thought when we ventured over the river we'd give it a shot. Â I am sure people may have been able to tell we weren't in our normal neck of the woods, but I love hipsters and secretly want to be one sometimes.
Anyways, Lord Hobo was great for some good beers and fantastic comfort food. Â The list of beers goes on and on. Â For food we split some appetizers that were all a really generous size. Â We ordered truffle fries, chicken lolipops, pork belly, calamari, and corn and lobster fritters....all were delicious.
Dear Lord Hobo,
If brunch is wrong, I don't ever want to be right. Â Your arepa with pulled pork and plantain was amazing, and I could barely finish it. Â The corned beef hash (with french fries) was delectable as well. Â And the drinks? Â The perfect Bloody Mary with just the right amount of spice, garnished with an olive and a house-made pickle. Â Wow. Â The Grapefruit mimosa and the sweet tea julep got rave reviews as well. Â If I lived in the neighborhood, I would be here every Sunday waiting for you to open.
And the service? Â Ken was outstanding, friendly, funny, and made fantastic recommendations. Â
Awesome place for brunch, hands down. Â Cannot wait to go back
xoxo
Sara
One of the best selections of craft beer in Cambridge.
Pros: Extensive, high quality craft beer selection on tap and in bottles. Very good service and bartending.
Cons: Food quality recovering.
Lord Hobo is a fantastic craft beer restaurant nestled half way between Inman and Kendall Squares. Their craft beer selection rivals that of Mead Hall in Kendall Square and while not as extensive in quantity, their selections are diverse and carefully chosen to represent the best beers from around the world for even the pickiest craft beer fans.
Getting there can be a bit tricky, but it is a short 15 minute walk from Kendall Square or Central Square T stations.
The service at Lord Hobo is among the most friendly in Cambridge and the staff take care to know their products and offer intelligent recommendations. They don;t take reservations, but groups of 6 or more getting there before 6-7pm shouldn't have much of a problem being seated. There are many tables for 2-4 each, and two booth table areas that can fit larger groups. Waiting time after ordering is usually reasonable, and they are very responsive with drink orders.
The food menu is relatively small, but the quality in the past has been very good. Some of the entree standouts are their Grilled Kobe Steak Tips, Shaved Prime Rib Sandwich, and their Mac and Cheese. Notable appetizers are their Corn and Lobster Fritters and Calamari.
After a several month decline in food quality, Lord Hobo is on the mend and they may have resolved their instability in the kitchen.
Lord Hobo is a contender for the best craft beer restaurant in Cambridge. Lord Hobo's craft beer selection is as strong as ever and every serious craft beer lover and their friends should check it out at least once.
Lord Hobo occasionally has some really nice beers on their list, and that's when I go in. (They're good enough to advertise new beers on their sandwich board outside the door.) But after I've tried that one beer, I get kind of lost looking for a second, and remember why I don't come here often.
The food is also overly trendy, unimpressive, and expensive.
I'm surprised this place doesn't have a higher rating.
I thought it was one of the coolest bars I've been to in Boston. Â It has a great craft beer selection on draft at reasonable prices.
I originally came here during the wait for a coveted table at Oleana (sidenote: YUM!) a few blocks away. To mitigate our hunger, we ordered some truffle fries and they were delicious. We also split a bottle of wine for the reasonable price of 25 bucks.
Definitely worth a visit, especially for a pre or post dinner drink!
Came here with some friends after some late night partying... We were hungry and thank goodness for Lord Hobo's late night menu. We ordered the truffle fries, which were amazing! It's just the right amount of truffle and parmesan. Writing a Yelp review about those fries makes me smile. In addition to fries, my friends also ordered some drinks, which I tried and all were great. There's an extensive drink menu, so it's a good place to go for parties of people with different drink preferences.
Anyway, I'd definitely recommend this place for some late night eats and drinks. I mean, after all, wouldn't you want to check out a place called "Lord Hobo" just for its namesake?
The way you can distinguish a decent beer bar from a great beer bar is not actually the beer.
It's the people you meet there.
There are plenty of watering holes around town now that offer cool craft brews to any Sox-capped bro-dude who comes wandering through. But Lord Hobo's got some of the weirdest beers (and patrons) around, and they've fueled some wonderful stories.
The first time I went to Lord Hobo, when it first opened, my friend and I ended up getting into an hour-long argument with a guy at the bar about the proper way to backpack through Germany. He accused us of being "boring," we made fun of his hair, and we all ended the night totally furious. Yet somehow, he ended up getting my friend's number and convincing her to go on a date. I blame the fact that we were drinking a lot of Pretty Things' Baby Tree beers that year.
Another time, I ended up at Lord Hobo around 1am on a Tuesday with a writer friend, a guy who's built his career on looking like Russell Brand and traveling the world, writing about music. Here again, a ridiculous argument erupted, fueled by delicious Left Hand Milk Stout: WAS Karen O's soundtrack for "Where the Wild Things Are" good, or not? No one won this argument, which went on for about an hour, and again, everyone went to sleep angry. But a year later, this writer friend showed up on my doorstep in Asia, telling me how much he'd missed our great conversations. Â
The last time I visited, we'd just polished off some 21st Amendment and paid the bill when we looked up to see a giant tattooed man arranging himself and his bulldog at the bar. While he tucked into a rare steak salad, his dog curled up on his coat beneath, waiting for the scraps. Of course, we had to make our way over and say hello to the pup. According to his owner, he'd registered his dog as a service animal in order to bring him into bars. The dog's alleged service function? Early seizure detection. Â Could the dog truly detect seizures? The guy just shrugged and smiled.
As I said: weird and wonderful beers attract weird and wonderful people. And though it has its flaws, Lord Hobo has won me over this way, ale by ale, over the years.
First off, let me say, excellent beer selection. Which is really very sad.......
Last year, Lord Hobo started a Mug Club. My husband and I thought it would be fun, so we signed up. Seemed like a good way for us to try new beers and expand our horizons a bit. We'd been here several times before that, and liked it, so this seemed like a no-brainer.  Anyway, we stopped in a couple weeks later, and asked the waitress for our Mug Club list thingys. She had a bit of an attitude about it and then proceeded to make fun of  the Mug Club (and us) with another person at the bar. WE COULD HEAR HER. Apparently, we weren't hipster enough or whatever. I was annoyed but said nothing.
We have not been back since, and I doubt we will. I'm so sorry we weren't cool enough for your bar.