John Harvards Brewhouse - Framingham

Massachusetts chain that doesn’t really have much going on for it, but they did somehow get me to visit 2 of their locations. Mediocre bar food, but the portions are huge so if you want quantity over quality this is a good food spot for you. I got a 5 beer sampler, 3 were horrendous, 1 was passable and they had a very solid coffee stout. I’ve now been twice, and I can’t imagine every going again, you should skip as well.

Went there just to try the beer. They had 8 of there own plus 4 guest taps. I had 5 samples, decent brewhouse beer nothing special. But I will return.

Located in the famous "Shopper’s World" on the Framingham/Natick line. The staff is very professional and friendly here. The food is decend pub fare. Like all John Harvard’s, the beer selection and quality can be very hit-or-miss. Sometimes I leave happy, sometimes I don’t. Good to check out if you are in the area shopping. Not worth going out of your way for.

This place brews their own beers and has a variety of styles on tap. I think they have some other non-house beers there but I’ve never ordered one. The food is a mix- some things are excellent, others are only OK. They used to have a lamb burger special every once in awhile that was one of the best burgers I have ever had. Most recently I had their Dunkelweizen which was excellent and has me experimenting with that style for homebrew. They serve some very good bread while you wait for your food. The inside can be a little dark if you are towards the back and it takes awhile for your eyes to adjust. They have a small patio that is nice for lunch.

Decent pub atmosphere and cheery service. The brews are not particularly enthralling, but they do occasionally introduce some interesting brews-the staple menu is fairly pedestrian for craft brew standards, but good compared to the average bar. The food is pretty solid. Prices are reasonable and its a nice place for a pint in the area. I feel that the menu of this place in both beer and food improves as the weather gets colder(ex. clam chowder); its a place where the environment is enhanced by the fact that its lousy outside, whereas int he summer it always seems a little less impressive....

Both the beer and the food are good though nothing spectacular. Compared to all the other chain restaurants in this area this is one of the better dining choices. They also have some good seasonals from time to time.

Nice place, had the Pats on TV. We could see the brew kettles from our seats. Friendly service and food was very good. Price was a little high but not terrible. Beer was so-so. A couple were terrible-the Pale ale and Kolsch, yikes.

My second John Harvards, man are these places similar looking. BIG COMPLAINT, this place is in a shopping mall except nowhere does it say so, not on the site or anything. So you kind of figure it out when you get there and malls everywhere as well as chain food places. But this place happens to be in an area of this mall thats separated from all the food places. And its in a corner so unless you go right to that corner you wont see it. I looked for this place for 30 minutes. Some points off the overall for that. look for SHOPPERS WORLD. This one is bigger and a bit more opened up. Got lucky with about 8 beers on tap. As usual they ranged from sub par to good. Again, similar to the other JH I visit. The brewer here (Maria?) seems to excel and traditional styles (read: not a good hoppy brewer). I liked her pale which is really crappy at my JH. The Espresso stout was awesome. Food was ok, the sides of my swordfish were great but the fish itself nothing special. It was a rainy Sunday so the service was fine but should have been better IMO.

Beer was ok at best. food sounded good but then wasnt what was imagined. it wasnt bad, just wasnt all that. the place is beautiful though. all solid wood and quite large.

This place gets packed. And I mean PACKED. Expect over an hour wait on weekends. When I was there, there were 8 beers on tap. The four I had were fairly good. The food is excellent. I had the chicken pot pie and it was great. Service was a little slow but again, the place was packed.