Coach Grill

Reviews

• CO

  Chris de la O

  3 days ago
  3.0
  Fascinating to watch the gradual enshitification of this beloved hallmark. Since its opening, and even in its prior life as the Red Coach Grill, this has been a family favorite. The first decade after reopening as the Coach Grill was like a Weston / Wayland version of the renaissance: a better reimagining of the past. But slowly and steadily, especially over the last 5 years, the deterioration has eroded this neighborhood beauty. It’s fine but no longer special. Is it rock solid? Who knows given the limited competition but it is no gem. No more starched napkins placed elegantly in front of you at the bar. No wise and charming bartenders who’ve seen it all, and yet handle the busiest nights with aplomb, making every customer feel special and coaxing a congeniality and warmth out of them that on their way home they discuss with a growing sense of surprise. We are New Englanders and we live in W towns and it’s cold (or hot) outside! But we talked and laughed with the strangers next to us! What madness is this? Or is it a magic spell created by the Coach Grill? Well, we no longer need to ponder that question. That conversation on the way home? Gone. We are New Englanders after all, we do live in W towns, and it is cold (or hot) outside. The Coach Grill is just a place we go for some drinks and some food. Nothing magical here. Bartenders don’t need to help us feel a bit friendlier to our neighbors. Good fences make good neighbors. No more imported tiny Italian mints at the exit. The old world cart delivering your meal no longer has the starched white tablecloth draped over it and is now just an aging and noisy trolley making things easier for the servers. The bar is littered with crumbs, as is the floor - akin to your favorite dive bar near Fenway but not nearly as charming. And yet no one makes a move to clean up unless asked, and then only with a tired sense of duty rather than an apologetic sense of embarrassment diminishing the usual pride. The steak is no longer solidly among the best; now it’s a gristly and mealy piece of below par flesh that has been in the sous vide too long and on the grill not enough; a few brown spots do little to adorn the boiled and chewy meat. Martinis shaken with flair and a personal ice bucket carefully placed in front of you with that little lagniappe of intoxicating goodness? Gone too. A delight of mixed fresh breads with special little sculpture of butter? No more. The astounding cauliflower mornay? Gone. It’s slightly inferior replacement, the broccoli mornay? Gone too. Available by special request as it was for a time? No longer for the cauliflower delight at first, and then no longer for the broccoli except as a result of a special effort by an enterprising bartender showing a spark of the former spirit of the place. And yet that, too, is a disappointment: gone is the cheesy, thick creamy delight of Mephistophelian goodness. It is replaced with a watery purgatory reminding one of the sins of the past yet invoking little of the naughty joy. And the lighting that was dim enough to be intriguing yet not so dark as to diminish one’s respectability with the neighbors? Gone. Lighting is just there to make sure you can see your food and no one trips. Functional is an aesthetic, right? It’s difficult to add joy to the lives of cynical customers who’ve seen it all, but the Coach Grill did it for many years. So many little surprising yet comforting moments of goodness it gave us on every visit. And yet, we could save a bit here and who would notice? If we cut back there no one will care. Do we really need this other thing? We can get away without it. Our customers keep coming back. They don’t need magic in their lives. They don’t need sparks of happiness. They don’t need a kind of comfort that also inspires. That stuff is all a bit of a waste. It’s just a restaurant. It’s nothing special. Maybe that’s the message the owners are conveying to us all. There’s no need for magic and inspiration. It’s just a business. We’re just customers. It’s just a life. Nothing special.
• KJ

  Katie Johnson

  Aug 24, 2026
  1.0
  The woman they hired to answer the phones doesn’t know how to do her job. They really need to be stricter with the employees because all they do is give false statements and doom scroll. I’m disgusted with this place and wasted over $100 on food that had allergy issues I specified which were ignored. For the quality of the food it should be cheaper. They sure as hell don’t care about customers.
• EE

  Eddy

  Aug 16, 2026
  5.0
  The servers are excellent, top dining. I had the lamb shank, which was an excellent choice. Some red wine and large, good quality asparagus. We do wonder if the menu has changed as the steak and lamb were expected. Top tier dinning waiter are dress and speak the language..
• SP

  Sevin7 Pagan

  Aug 12, 2026
  5.0
  Words cant describe the amazing experience we had, Sam was truly amazing as our waiter and I hate to even call him that. Highly recommend oh yeah almost forgot to mention the food 10/10!!!!!
• GW

  Greg Whitehead

  Jul 31, 2026
  4.0
  We were able to dine here thanks to a gift card, which gave us a great excuse to finally give it a try. The daily special was the skirt steak, and in hindsight I wish I'd ordered that instead. I decided to try the Westholme Wagyu NY Strip, expecting a rich, flavorful steak. It was cooked perfectly, but I found the flavor a bit underwhelming for the price and reputation - I was glad I'd gotten the horseradish sauce to go with it. To start, we shared the bacon-wrapped scallops, which were excellent and definitely one of the highlights of the meal. The French onion soup was also delicious and full of flavor. For my sides, I ordered the fries and the lobster mac and cheese. The fries were very good, and the lobster itself was tasty, but the mac and cheese was drier than expected and lacked the creamy texture I was hoping for. My wife ordered the crab-encrusted haddock, and she really enjoyed it - which says a lot, since that's not something she normally orders. The only disappointing part of the experience came at checkout. I tried to use the $40 bonus gift card that had come with our original purchase, only to find out it had expired. It was a bit embarrassing in the moment, and the expiration felt less like a genuine bonus and more like a way to nudge customers back in during slower periods. Overall, the service was good, several dishes were enjoyable, and the meal was pleasant. I just expected a bit more from the Wagyu steak and the lobster mac and cheese given the restaurant's reputation. It seems like things have slipped a bit since the change in ownership.