Great food, great ambiance. Can’t wait for Banyan to come back !
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
V
Banyan has a beautiful, cozy atmosphere with warm wood-toned décor and a clean, modern feel. Although it was surprisingly quiet during our visit, reservations seemed limited, so I’d recommend booking ahead just in case. Definitely a cute spot for a lowkey lunch or dinner date.
🍽️ Food & Drinks We started with the Bento Box, which was a great deal at $15. It came with a nice variety: crispy spring rolls, pan-fried dumplings, scallion pancakes, a small cucumber salad, and more — all with bold flavors and great texture. The crunchy elements were a perfect intro to the meal. For my main, I ordered a noodle dish that had a beautiful presentation and a great chewy texture. However, the saltiness was a bit overpowering for my taste. Still, it’s clear they take pride in plating and ingredients.
👨🍳 Service & Hospitality Service was a bit all over the place — we were checked on by multiple servers, which made it feel slightly disorganized. That said, they got our order right and were attentive overall.
💡 Unique Selling Point The fusion bento box is a fantastic starter option for first-timers or sharers. It’s flavorful, well-portioned, and a solid way to sample a bit of everything without breaking the bank.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4
Ed Carberry
Love Banyan for so many reasons but very disappointed that they took the salt and pepper shrimp off the menu! It was one of the best dishes in Boston!
Food: 4
Steve Ganem
Banyan is one of my wife and my favorite spots in the South End. The service is always top tier with amazing food, especially the lobster rolls/bao buns, crab rangoon, and Dan Dan noodles. Definitely recommend.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
joanna
Loved it! Great service, food, and decor/vibe! We had a bunch of small plates and enjoyed it all.
Elizabeth
I went to banyan bar in april and it was excellent, They have since changed their whole menu and it is far less delicious. Prices stayed the same, but quality decreased. Has a PF changs vibe now and it used to be much more creative and delicious. Great cocktails though
Zoe
One of my favorite restaurants in Boston! Whenever I have visitors, I take them here for a few bites and cocktails. It's always good and you can't go wrong with anything on the menu.
William
Fantastic food and service. Lots of fish, veg, and GF options and the cocktails were just as good as the food. Will be back!
Drew Spartz
I liked the food but the 2.5% “hospitality fee” is just a pure scam. It doesn’t even go to the servers! Just raise the prices.
If they remove this policy I’ll delete this review - but this is completely unacceptable.
Edit: The owner responded to this, and happy to hear that this is all out in the open. Raising prices is the fair thing to do, because it's straightforwardly there that the customer can see, not buried in the fine print way down at the bottom of the menu that no one is going to look at.
There's a reason why everywhere else in the world just pays their staff fairly by including that in the price, instead of trying to trick the customers into doing it without them knowing. Those other restaurants shouldn't be doing it either.
Anna-Magdalena Hadenfeldt
Exceptionally accommodating staff, even gave me a keepsake(!), and the atmosphere is beautiful. Our favorite in Boston.
Food was amazing along with service. We were seated tightly between 2 other parties which was not the most comfortable but other than that the restaurant is nice. The portions are pretty small so you may have to order more than expected.
Danielle Male
Vibes inside are good. However, the food is just okay / comes in very small servings but is extremelyyy overpriced.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 4
Anders Jepson
As a former cook & bartender I dont usually leave negative reviews but this place is just using the social media popularity of some beloved chinese dishes to squeeze money out of people that have never had the real thing.
Waaayyyy overpriced, laughably small portions, and the food was meh at best. Most dishes were too sweet with nothing to balance and uninteresting in flavor. Cocktails were boring. Worst offenders:
18 dollars for, not exaggerating here, less than 1 ounce of floppy, thin salmon on the sashimi dish
Char siu bao was bad american pulled pork in soggy white bread and pales in comparison to what you could get at any dim sum spot/chinese bakery in boston, or even the freezer isle at Hmart, for a fraction of the price
Half of a carrot, shaved and mixed with gochujang and sugar, for 8 dollars? Come on
The sauce was straight up missing on the mushroom dish, which happens occasionally during a busy service, but it was one of only 3 components in the dish
Both Sichuan 'inspired' dishes were super whitewashed and lacked even a hint of chili, which is a pretty important element in both mapo tofu and dan dan noodles
A quick note on service: if you're in a large party like I was I wouldn't expect much while the patio is open; huge space and autograt for 6+. Otherwise standard.
If you want to come here because of the location or you like the tree theme or whatever then okay, but if you care about food I would definitely go support your local chinese restaurant instead.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 2
Ankita N
The Dan Dan Noodles with chicken were amazing!! We also had the Korean Sticky Chicken, which was del too! The white sauce paired perfectly with it. fried bao bun felt pretty mediocre. We didn’t try any drinks this time, but the cocktail and mocktail menu was huge. We’re definitely coming back for that. The ambiance was summery and had a fairytale vibe. A must-try spot for the summer!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 4
charles
Great, imaginative Chinese cuisine. Excellent, friendly service. Enjoyed everything. Emphasis on small dishes. Chicken congee was especially good!
Great food, great ambiance. Can’t wait for Banyan to come back !
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Banyan has a beautiful, cozy atmosphere with warm wood-toned décor and a clean, modern feel. Although it was surprisingly quiet during our visit, reservations seemed limited, so I’d recommend booking ahead just in case. Definitely a cute spot for a lowkey lunch or dinner date.
🍽️ Food & Drinks
We started with the Bento Box, which was a great deal at $15. It came with a nice variety: crispy spring rolls, pan-fried dumplings, scallion pancakes, a small cucumber salad, and more — all with bold flavors and great texture. The crunchy elements were a perfect intro to the meal.
For my main, I ordered a noodle dish that had a beautiful presentation and a great chewy texture. However, the saltiness was a bit overpowering for my taste. Still, it’s clear they take pride in plating and ingredients.
👨🍳 Service & Hospitality
Service was a bit all over the place — we were checked on by multiple servers, which made it feel slightly disorganized. That said, they got our order right and were attentive overall.
💡 Unique Selling Point
The fusion bento box is a fantastic starter option for first-timers or sharers. It’s flavorful, well-portioned, and a solid way to sample a bit of everything without breaking the bank.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4
Love Banyan for so many reasons but very disappointed that they took the salt and pepper shrimp off the menu! It was one of the best dishes in
Boston!
Food: 4
Banyan is one of my wife and my favorite spots in the South End. The service is always top tier with amazing food, especially the lobster rolls/bao buns, crab rangoon, and Dan Dan noodles. Definitely recommend.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Loved it! Great service, food, and decor/vibe! We had a bunch of small plates and enjoyed it all.
I went to banyan bar in april and it was excellent, They have since changed their whole menu and it is far less delicious. Prices stayed the same, but quality decreased. Has a PF changs vibe now and it used to be much more creative and delicious. Great cocktails though
One of my favorite restaurants in Boston! Whenever I have visitors, I take them here for a few bites and cocktails. It's always good and you can't go wrong with anything on the menu.
Fantastic food and service. Lots of fish, veg, and GF options and the cocktails were just as good as the food. Will be back!
I liked the food but the 2.5% “hospitality fee” is just a pure scam. It doesn’t even go to the servers! Just raise the prices.
If they remove this policy I’ll delete this review - but this is completely unacceptable.
Edit: The owner responded to this, and happy to hear that this is all out in the open. Raising prices is the fair thing to do, because it's straightforwardly there that the customer can see, not buried in the fine print way down at the bottom of the menu that no one is going to look at.
There's a reason why everywhere else in the world just pays their staff fairly by including that in the price, instead of trying to trick the customers into doing it without them knowing. Those other restaurants shouldn't be doing it either.
Exceptionally accommodating staff, even gave me a keepsake(!), and the atmosphere is beautiful. Our favorite in Boston.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
Food was amazing along with service. We were seated tightly between 2 other parties which was not the most comfortable but other than that the restaurant is nice. The portions are pretty small so you may have to order more than expected.
Vibes inside are good. However, the food is just okay / comes in very small servings but is extremelyyy overpriced.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 4
As a former cook & bartender I dont usually leave negative reviews but this place is just using the social media popularity of some beloved chinese dishes to squeeze money out of people that have never had the real thing.
Waaayyyy overpriced, laughably small portions, and the food was meh at best. Most dishes were too sweet with nothing to balance and uninteresting in flavor. Cocktails were boring. Worst offenders:
18 dollars for, not exaggerating here, less than 1 ounce of floppy, thin salmon on the sashimi dish
Char siu bao was bad american pulled pork in soggy white bread and pales in comparison to what you could get at any dim sum spot/chinese bakery in boston, or even the freezer isle at Hmart, for a fraction of the price
Half of a carrot, shaved and mixed with gochujang and sugar, for 8 dollars? Come on
The sauce was straight up missing on the mushroom dish, which happens occasionally during a busy service, but it was one of only 3 components in the dish
Both Sichuan 'inspired' dishes were super whitewashed and lacked even a hint of chili, which is a pretty important element in both mapo tofu and dan dan noodles
A quick note on service: if you're in a large party like I was I wouldn't expect much while the patio is open; huge space and autograt for 6+. Otherwise standard.
If you want to come here because of the location or you like the tree theme or whatever then okay, but if you care about food I would definitely go support your local chinese restaurant instead.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 2
The Dan Dan Noodles with chicken were amazing!! We also had the Korean Sticky Chicken, which was del too! The white sauce paired perfectly with it. fried bao bun felt pretty mediocre.
We didn’t try any drinks this time, but the cocktail and mocktail menu was huge. We’re definitely coming back for that.
The ambiance was summery and had a fairytale vibe.
A must-try spot for the summer!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 4
Great, imaginative Chinese cuisine. Excellent, friendly service. Enjoyed everything. Emphasis on small dishes. Chicken congee was especially good!
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