CLINK. and The Liberty Bar 215 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114

"Clink is an upscale bar and restaurant located on the second floor of “The Liberty Hotel”. The hotel is a former jail and they incorporate many of those former elements into the design and architecture. We decided to stop by Clink’s Liberty Bar for some drinks and charcuterie. We chose to be seated out in the main “lounge” area, near the front desk. Our server was incredibly kind but it was clear, he was the only man running around getting people taken care of. The service could be heavily improved. Our server isn’t at fault for a lack of proper staffing by management. We decided to order a few specialty cocktails. Unfortunately, we were told a 4-Diamond hotel was out of all those ingredients to make said drinks. I was totally astonished and expect more for the price. If you have craft cocktails on the menu, have what is needed to concoct the drinks! We settled on the Red Sangria over one of the specialty cocktails. Their “Liberty Bar” menu is huge and there is something for every taste. They have a vast selection of appetizers, seafood, local artisan cheese pizzas, sandwiches, tacos, dumplings, and dessert. We ordered the “Chef’s Tasting Board”. The board was filled with Italian cured meats, sausages, crackers, crisps, and multiple artisan cheeses. There wasn’t an item on the board that we did not enjoy. It was phenomenal and a solid portion for the money. Plenty for two to share! Lastly, we decided to order the Sautéed PEI Mussels. The Mussels are sautéed in a tomato-saffron broth with Portuguese-Chorizo, Herb Butter, Fennel, and Wine. It is served with Toast/Crostini. The mussels were very clean and VERY large. They were some of the best I’ve had in the area! The portion was size-able, plenty for two to share. Service could certainly be improved. Our server was phenomenal, despite doing everyone’s job. He was literally the only server available on the floor. That naturally led to lengthy wait times. I would strongly advise booking reservations, as the main restaurant and bar is typically packed. They offer multiple menus as well for Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, Dinner, Dessert, & The Liberty Bar Menu. Atmosphere is upscale and classy. I’d leave the kids at home, it isn’t really a venue or destination cut out for children. I’d highly recommend The Liberty Bar/Clink. However, there needs to be a major overhaul in terms of service. Furthermore, the person responsible for procurement should never let a bar run out of ingredients needed to make many of their drinks."

"YIKES! The Liberty hotel has always been a Boston holiday staple, but this year was a complete disaster. We made our reservation over a month ago and they were understaffed and not prepared for a busy night the week before Christmas. The lobby is beautiful but it was packed and the manager was atrocious. We had a party of 6 and at first only had one menu because they did not have enough. (They also told us we couldn't order martinis because they had an event upstairs and they didn't have enough martini glasses.) We had to ask several times for extra chairs so we didn't have to jam four people on one side of the table. While trying to order after waiting an hour, the manager asked our server to bus the table next to us instead, while she herself was empty-handed. THEN asked us if we would be leaving soon since they had another reservation. (At that point we didn't even have dinner menus.) We tried to explain that we only had one late night menu and needed dinner menus and not everyone even ordered drinks yet. She argued with us saying it looked like we did. (One of our friends was a few minutes late so she missed out on the first round but had been waiting at least 30 minutes for the server to come back over and take her drink order.) We've all been in the service industry so we understand being busy. We left after 2 hours and only 2 rounds of drinks and one appetizer. So our server lost out on what should have been a giant tab with several drinks, apps and dinner because of the poor management that night. (We were looking forward to the Bolognese but went across the street for dinner!)"

"Who doesn’t wanna visit a restaurant located in a jail turned hotel? This restaurant is located in the 2nd floor of liberty hotel . When we went there, we were able to experience the live band and rub shoulders with the upper echelons in suits. The service here was fast and pleasant, our server had such a great energy I thought he had just found Jesus. The bread was fresh out of the oven, it was so soft and chewy inside and crispy outside. The appetizer we got was tuna tartare $29 with prawn chips. It was so fresh, seasoned in the sour citrusy ponzu sauce, sitting on a bed of avocado. The blood orange glazed duck $44 had a good amount of duck leg, the orange and foie gras sauce gave it an umami flavor. The skin could be crispier though. The sauce was not seasoned well, some parts were more salty than others. The bolognese $38 was wayyy too salty, omg, even the burrata could not save how botched this dish was."

"Great atmosphere (prefer this to Alibi). As expected the cocktails are themed to incarceration. Great service, we were sitting in the lobby areas (great for people watching). Had a couple of drinks so ordered some appetizers, sweet potato fries (which was much larger than we expected)."

"Overall, I had a good meal here. It’s pretty expensive because it’s at a hotel but the quality of the food is 4/5. The ambience is cool because the hotel used to be a jail. I ordered the smoked salmon, which was excellent! They definitely did not skimp out. We did not love the French toast, however. I’d give a 3.5 if I could—I probably won’t come back, but it’s a classic hotel breakfast."