John Harvard's in Boston

I'm not sure how I feel about this place--I was REALLY excited to go there, since I've heard a ton of great stuff about it. The place looked great, but of the 5 beers (kolsch, APA, IPA, nut brown ale, stout) on tap, they were out of the brown ale and the stout. Fine, I asked what they had on cask tonight (as advertised on their menu). Conversation follows:

Me: What's on cask tonight?
Waitress: Oh, nothing's on cask, sorry.
Me: Oh, that sucks, let me see...
Waitress: It's from a firkin, not a cask, and it's [insert beer name here].
Me: Uh...ho-kay, what's that like?
Waitress: It's kinda fruity, sorta.

Now, I don't mean to be rude, but first, come on! What the hell? A firkin IS a cask, just a small one. What kind of pedantic crap is that? Then after giving me crap about the firkin, she describes the beer as 'kinda fruity'? What does that even mean? A lambic? A Belgian wit? A cherry stout? (It turned out to be something like a grapefruit wheat, as far as I could tell). I tried everything else on the menu and frankly was less than impressed. The APA was okay, but the IPA had almost no hop aroma and really didn't have much to it at all. The kolsch was mediocre and, as I said, they were out of the other two beers on the menu. It's not like I was really pissed, and the food was awesome, but frankly, I was disappointed--both by the beer and by the waitress. Anyone else been there?

I've been to the John Harvards in Manchester, CT. It was very good right after it opened but quickly went downhill in both the beer and food dept. I haven't been back in about 6 years...

I was at the one in Boston last week. Disappointing, I must say. The Nut Brown was okay, but most of the others were less than good... I thought they were bland and watery. They were also out of cask ale when I was there.

As a side note, the best of the brew pubs I went to in Boston was the Beer Works. Good beers good staff.

Been to the Philly location... Less than impressed also. I sampled 5 of their beers including a rasberry beer that was pretty horrific (I didn't even pick up on raspberry)... the nut brown was probably my favorite. The IPA was average. The APA and kolsch subpar to me as well...

And they were out of cask and two others...

The burger I had was good, as were the appetizer of nachos, but... I can name at least half dozen (and thats being nice) other PA brewpubs I'd rather hit up first...