L'andana

We go out to eat several times a month at comparable restaurants. Some of our favorites: Turner's in Melrose, Dali in Somerville, East Coast Grill in Cambridge. I had high hopes for L'Andana, but in the end was left disappointed with the quality of the food and the management. Food: The truffle fries are fries. There was nothing special or amazing about them. The Caesar salad, crab tortellini, rigatoni bolognese, creme brulee, chocolate mousse, and chocolate cake were also nothing special. The calamari was greasy, as was the doughnut dessert (with the ever unpleasant greasy aftertaste). Certainly not worth the price. My husband had the seasonal duck which was very good, but that's as far as my praise goes. Service: I asked for a club soda, and got a tonic water (thank god quinine doesn't kill me!). We also had an unfortunate service incident that was brushed off by management in the end. If the prices were ratcheted down, and the management improved, I would have given this a mediocre rating. Taken together, it was certainly NOT worth the price, and not a great experience, hence my one star rating. P.S. It seemingly requires valet parking (at least it did on the evening we went), which seems absurd and pretentious for Burlington, particularly given that they were valeting to the parking lot that you drive into and that is at the steps of the restaurant. Pros: The duck was good, the atmosphere was nice Cons: Food mediocre given the $$$, experience with mgmt terrible more

Living far north of Boston. I don't mid making the trip for a sox game. Other than that I love that this is close to home. My first time, we decided to stay close to home because it was raining cats and dogs. I was thrilled that a valet greeted us with an umbrella and ushered my wife to the door. At first I was nervous because he didn't give me a slip.... But once inside it was warm and dry and we ate at the bar. The bartender was perfect. He recommended the tuna and a steak. Steak was probably the best I had ever had. I was pleased to learn the couple seated next to us eats there almost every week! I decided to the take the rest of the steak home. The manager introduced himself on the way out and when we walked outside by some miracle the valet had our car parked out front and he ushered wifey to her seat with an umbrella again.\r \r two weeks later when we went back and the valet and the bartender greeted me by my first name and were excited to see us again!!! I will gladly make regular trips to this closer than boston establishment. \r \r Glad to have valet in the heavy rain, felt bad for the poor guy he was soaked :( Pros: Helpful, friendly staff, excellent steak, close to NH more

My wife took me to this place for our anniversary. I was blown away from the time we entered the restaurant to the time we left. I had the filet right off the wood grilled and it was perfectly cooked and delicious, my wife had the chicken milanese and loved it! It was a Saturday evening and the place was packed, great energy, great food and great service. What else could we have asked for? Thank you L'Andana! Pros: Excellent service Cons: Valet service with a huge parking lot more

We eat out at least twice a week and not Mcdonalds or Dominos. This place was nice but not great,not worth the money. First of all I made reservations requesting birthday cakes for two in our party who were celebrating parties. The cakes came out after we had ordered and eaten dessert. Then when we first walked in there were 4 hostessess just staring at us and looking confused, not as if the restaurant was busy. \r The food was good not great, the Lobster pasta was very mediocre. It was drenched in truffle oil. Would not recommend to any one. The Halibut and Veal were terrific. Its great to try but would certainly not go back. Mistral you still have me won over. Pros: Interior is beautiful Cons: Staff, food and $$ more

\r I have been to L'Andana about 3 times and I have enjoyed the experience every time. The building is slightly odd, as is the location, but I love the decor, and the food and the service were great every time. The first time I visited was with some friends for Restaurant Week and the food was delicious. Gotta love eating at a place during restaurant week to try out a place for less money. I liked it so much that I suggested we go there for my wedding anniversary. We were lucky enough to be sat in one of the cozier tables (most of the restaurant is a big open space which I am not a fan of), and we had a very romantice meal. The wine list is great, and again, the food was delicious. Definitely nice to have a Boston-quality restaurant out in the Suburbs.\r Pros: Food, Decor Cons: Open Spaced Tables more

This weekend we had dinner for 6 there. Our friends had been there once before a year ago. They recommended it despite the ""kinks"" that were being worked out. They said it was because the place was new. Fine... But I found L'Andana to be a disappointment. First, the place is on RT3A in Burlington. The Burlington House of Pizza and Building 19 are up the street. There's no reason for Valet parking. Not only is it unnecessary, in today's economy, it lets ""pretentiousness"" become the first impression. The bar was nice. Good people, great drinks, lots of buzz. By the time we got to our table, we found the service was abysmal. It took 10 mins to get drinks. We weren't asked for our order until 40 mins after being seated. The place was never full, despite being a Saturday. I had soup for an appetizer and it took almost 5 mins to get a spoon. We ordered red wine for our main dish and it didn't arrive until we were nearly finished. Most of us ordered steak. My wife and I had just had it the night before, so I had the duck; she had the chicken. The duck was dry (precooked?) and drenched in a berry sauce. The chicken was bizarre. It was a flattened, breaded and unoriginal. To be fair, I after I complained about the wine, they comped our desserts. The food at L'Andana is decent (not great), but for what we paid, we could have headed into Boston for a less ""pedestrian"" menu and a lot better service. Pros: Nice bar Cons: Terrible service more

My husband and I went to L'Andana for our wedding annivesary. We arrived on time for a 6:00pm reservation and the place was not yet busy, yet they insisted we valet our car despite the fact that the parking lot was empty. After we paid our check and gave the ticket to the valet to retrieve our car we waited in the freezing cold 5 minutes, 10 minutes and then they came to tell us it would be ""just a little while longer as the car was stuck on a patch of ice..."" The patch of ice turned out to be our car parked in a snowbank between a building and another car. Other patrons of the restaurant had to yell at the valet and the restaurant ""manager"" to stop trying to get the car out before they did real damage. After 45 minutes we insisted they call a tow truck and we waited another 20 minutes, without ONE acknowledgement from the manager. The tow truck was never called and no one ever said a word. After nearly an hour and a half after we finished our meal, our car was freed and the rest of our evening completely ruined. We missed the show were heading to after dinner and ended up going home early with frost bite and stress induced indigestion. We complained to the owners and received a phone call from the General Manager who was just as unconcerned as the unattentive and unprofessional people on staff at the restaurant that night. In a tough economy if you are looking to spend a hefty amount on a nice dinner - do yourself a favor and go someplace where the service is top notch and you get your money's worth! more

we recently went here to celebrate a graduation- the location was very convenient, the decor lovely and the service was top notch, but i have to say i was a little disappointed with the food. before going to the restaurant i had looked at the menu online and had my heart set on the pork chop and sweet potatoes- so i was very sad when it turned out that it wasn't on the menu when we got to the restaurant! none of the other options really caught my eye- perhaps because so many of them had either gorgonzola which i don't like, or tree nuts which i am deathly allergic to. clearly- i am being very self centered with this review, but this is MY opinion, right? anyway- i ended up ordering the chicken which was okay but really needed more lemon juice (which the amazing staff brought right away), and was bigger than anyone could have reasonably eaten- i shared mine with most everyone else at the table and still had 1/2 to take home. given my nut allergy, the desert options were also pretty limited, so i had the chocolate cake- it was okay but the ice cream that came with it didn't really have enough flavor to stand with the cake.\r \r so this place was okay- but for the cost i was really hoping to be blown away- which, sadly, i wasn't.\r Pros: incredible service, easy location, easy parking, yummy sides Cons: food was just ""okay"" more

Went on Saturday night. Had 8:00 reservation. Got there 7:45 (there is no recession here) We were seated right on time at a very comfortable table. Waiter showed up right a way. Everything was excellent . Good drinks. Very good bread. The PEI mussels are taken out of the shells. The swordfish was very good. Never had to ask for water. The tables are far enough apart to give you privacy and you can hear everyone at the table. \r A real find for us. Pros: everything more