Sweet and Sour in Boston

If you follow this blog, you know I've been dying for a good burger and beer joint in the South End to come and be a place I can go to once a week when I'm not feeling like cooking. To be honest I wanted the famous Spotted Pig to come and open up right down the street from me. I knew that wasn't going to happen, but The Gallows sure comes close.

First, let's give a moment of silence to Sage who gave it's restaurant life for The Gallows. Maybe it's just because JP the bartender at Sage was always so nice and friendly to us any time we came in that made us really love Sage, but the food was really good too. Such a shame it had to go...

But, if it had to be replaced by any restaurant, I'm glad it was The Gallows. A gastropub that serves many different beers ranging from Natty Light to Bud Heavy was just what the doctor ordered. Neither of us ordered such high class drinks that night, but we did stick with the other items on draught. We sat at the bar, which is the best seat in the house in my opinion, and had two great bartenders take care of us while we were there. (We also met a couple waiting for their friends that talked to us when they saw me take pictures of the food. They were food blog readers, so I hope you guys remembered what our blog was and read this review.)

The menu has a lot of interesting items, with most items $25 or less. We started off with the Scotch Egg, which I thought was just a soft boiled egg. What comes out is a soft boiled egg that is wrapped in sausage! Good lord that was some good eating. The sausage had just enough salt that went perfectly with the runny yolk of the egg. I want this for breakfast every freaking day. I want it for lunch and dinner too. Hell, I want it when I'm completely bombed on a Friday night to help me with my drunkeness. Basically, if you come to The Gallows and don't order the Scotch Egg, I hate you and your family.



In all seriousness though, the one menu item I had the most hope for was the $9 burger. It comes with lettuce, onions and pickles and cheese and you don't have any other options. I love that. I don't need to be able to order 500 different toppings for my burger. The burger itself is a "California Flat Patty" whatever that is. It is served with fries and homemade ketchup (you can ask for Heinz if you like, but we didn't.) The burger comes out and there's a nice little layer of grease already on the plate. Before I pick it up I knew this burger was going to be incredible, and it was. Sadly, I also knew I would probably never order anything else on this menu whenever I come in after my first bite. The burger went down perfectly with my nice cold beer.



The menu has poutine, which I know tons of people love...but to me it's a bit un-American. I mean, I love gravy and cheese, but I can't put it over my fries. Maybe one day I'll get the foie gras poutine, but I'll stick to good old American style French Fries any day.

If there was one small complaint I had, it was that I only got a small handfull of fries with my burger. Luckily Abby didn't eat too many of her own, so I could munch on her leftovers but maybe next time I'll order an extra side of fries for myself. I don't know if they allow changing the burger at all, but I'd love to see if they could put a fried egg on top of it just for me. Next time I go, I'll ask and see what happens. I give The Gallows a 4 and 1/2 out of 5.



***UPDATE -

Went back in last night and asked for an egg on my burger and they obliged. Asked to see if they would name the burger after me, but no dice. Abby went for the lobster salad, which looked small, but filled her up. Got dessert, the fluffernutter banana foster thingy, and it was good, albeit very sweet and rich. For adding the egg on my burger, it's enough to push The Gallows to a 5 out of 5.