Joshua Tree

Great spot, decent cost for drinks, crowd was so cool. I met J Cole here, and It was awesome…

Is closed and appears to have been sold. It’s a shame — it was a privilege to compete against such a poorly run establishment.

This review is based on New Years Eve.
I paid $ 30 to get in to an empty bar and was not even given my «Free Glass of Champagne!» … Ha… hahaha! No. Then the downstairs was at «full capacity» but when several groups of people came upstairs, we were still not allowed to go downstairs… we were first in line. I paid $ 30 to stand around listening to shitty music and it was like 15% full. Yikes.

Joshua Tree is a sports bar without style. The beer selection is nothing to write home about, and the food is mediocre at best. They certainly have a lot of big TV screens, if that’s your only goal, but I wouldn’t taste your time. One other positive is the open windows in the summer.
With so many bars and restaurants to choose from in Allston, please do yourself a favor and don’t go to Joshua Tree. Their recent attempts to draw customers in with advertisements for cheap drinks have drawn me instead to write this review and save you the time and money. If you want chap drinks, go someplace like Silhouette which also has several TV screens for games.

Came here once for a Bruins game and it was perfect for what we were looking for! The bar was a little crowded so it was hard to find a place to stand that wasn’t in everyone’s way (but what do you expect at a sports bar during game 6 of the Stanley Cup playoff?). Aside from that though, there isn’t a bad spot in the house. There are TVs everywhere so you’ll have a great view no matter where you end up.
Once a table opened up we got three appetizers. I didn’t try the wings but I tried the Rattlers (grilled chicken, cheese and habanero sauce in a tortilla) and the calamari. The Rattlers just tasted like a chicken quesadilla with WAYYY too much cheese — which normally I wouldn’t complain about since I love cheese — but it was to the point where I got a few bites of chicken and the rest was just eating an overstuffed cheese taco. The bites of chicken I did get were awesome though.
The calamari was really great, and I love when restaurants serve it with marinara sauce (which they do) rather than a creamy sauce. I also loved that they mix in red and green peppers BUT be warned that it’s like 60% peppers. When the manager, Bob, came over to ask how everything was, my boyfriend said something and without a question he put in a new order for us. Not even ten minutes later we had a brand new plate that was even better than the first with the perfect calamari-​to-​pepper ratio. Bob is awesome.
After the game we went downstairs to the club side. Decent place, I guess but kind of small and not a lot of people. I wouldn’t come here for the club scene but I would absolutely recommend this place for watching a game.

Still waiting for our food for about a hour… And our drinks came about 30 mins after …
The waitress we had wasn’t that attentive =/​
The manager did his best to make it up to us with a round of free drinks, but the beginning wasn’t that good.

We have started coming here again, and even ventured to their brunch in a blizzard because it was close by. They are adding some really cool things to their menu, and the service has definitely improved!
There always seem to be gnats hanging out around our table, which is a bit irritating, but not a deal breaker, until I get one in my food! We’ll be back. Can’t wait for summer when they open the windows!

Drinks were normally priced ($ 4-​$ 5). Service was attentive. Good laughs were had at the expense of the ‘reserved 18+ party’ going on Thursday night downstairs with some blue blazer sporting Harvard frosh bros who were trashed off their 18+ faces and barfing all over in the bathroom.
All in all a good messy divey time but a huge –1 star to the upstairs DJ spinning the KISS108/​evolution playlist and not accepting requests as though he was an artiste or something. I mean really– if you are playing Gangnam Style to a mostly empty bar at midnight and you aren’t accepting requests there is something wrong with your overall development as a DJ.

Went for a Friday night. Place was sorta packed, decent crowd of college + kids. Food was fine. Music was pretty good and had videos — which I liked. Also a dance club downstairs which we originally wanted to go to, but ended up just going home and having relations instead. Probably the right decision. THough the music was cool

This place was terrible. I’ve heard ads for it on the radio but it didn’t live up to the expectations. I only went because it was walking distance from my friend’s house.
It’s a bar OK… but there’s dancing downstairs. I went down to take a peek. I had just got off a double shift so i wasn’t in the mood for dancing, I just wanted to see what it was like. Some guy told me a needed a ticket to go in. I told him I was just taking a look. I wasn’t drunk, only had one beer, But he made leave the area. I didn’t even put up a fight. I am too old to be treated like that. He gave me the impression he was on a power trip.
I went to the restrooms right after this. It was so disgusting. I took photos they are posted here. Broken glasses, no TP… would it hurt to pay someone to tend to the restrooms on busy nights? If this was a dive bar it would be one thing but if you are going out of your way to play radio ads then make some effort.
I had a male bartender that was a delight.

No. No no no no. No. Let me break it down for you:
Joshua Tree is a sports bar which, admittedly, has a pretty cool atmosphere but is super crowded during a game. But then there is this mysterious little room in the basement… the «club» part. This room is what I base my review on. It consists of 1 bar and a dance floor and a few tables with barstools. The only redeeming quality is that there was no cover, because no one in their right mind would pay to come dance here. The music was too quiet, the red lights were too bright, the crowd was too empty and the combo made for a very awkward (and lame) dance floor. (I’ve been 3 times and it was like this all 3 times – Friday and Saturday nights)
Ladies, most of the guys looked about 26 and were at best 3^rd tier frat guys in their heyday. Most were rude, pushy, immature and sloppy drunk. I witnessed a guy making out with a girl on the dance floor, and the girl looked literally unconscious. She could barely move and was standing still and leaning, eyes closed, against this guy as he mouthed her face off. Talk about taking advantage. Actual pickup lines used there include: «I have stomach ulcers, dance with me?» and «I met my dealers at this place! They’re really cool!» Really. The room is so small that if you’re trying to move on from talking to or dancing with a certain guy, you pretty much have to leave the club because there is no tactful way of scooting 9 feet away to the other side of the floor and pretending like you can’t see him anymore.
The only thing I wanted from J. Tree was a good dance partner for the night, but unfortunately these skeeves didn’t even have style or skill, making for consistent dance floor disappointment. Though, to their credit, it might have been because the music was so terribly mixed.
Most of the girls looked under 21 and my suspicions were even more provoked when around 1am they were filling the stalls of the bathroom, taking turns puking their guts out.
All in all, shame on me for going 3 times. Each time was more incredulously disappointing than the time before and I will not be back. This place isn’t even worth it for a night of no-​cover, grimy dance floor fun.

What struck the most is the décor and the table settings, particularly the bar. I love the bar area. A++ in this respect.
Now for the food: I had the California burger, with a side salad. I was nicely accommodated when I requested they leave the bun out. As far as burgers go, it was just above decent. Not earth-​shattering but still a solid burger nonetheless. I did have a drink, called the Sex Machine. It was pretty good, sort of like a piña colada with the right amount of liquor.
The waitress was super nice and friendly. Great experience!

I LIKE this place. Though keep in mind I think of Allston as a beautiful community and am proud to say I live here — so I’m not sure I have the best taste in things. I own a backstreet boys cd too.
But what’s not to like? Skanky girls on a Thursday night? Who cares? I’ll put on my finest forever 21 and join in.
Only thing is the kitchen closes at 10pm which is annoying on a Tuesday night when you want to have a beer and appetizer somewhere that’s not your apt.
But otherwise the bartenders are friendly, the foods decent, tons of tvs, Dance floor downstairs that’s never too crowded… Not too bad.

Joshua Tree deserves one star, if not less. Despite being barfully responsible ($ 9 pitchers of coors lite, but i’ll get to this later), and overlooking their food which gave others food poisoning, and their pushy up-​selling wait staff, I give them such a low rating because they robbed me. Literally, they robbed me.
In telling my story I will preface by saying that this is a culmination review of the old Joshua Tree, the brief period of Barley Hall, and the new Joshua Tree. There has been little change during these periods, and if I am not mistaken I believe ownership (the investment group that also owns the Taverns in the Square, Union Street, and City Side), and the management has remained more or less consistent the whole time.
Now for the robbery. I was there with a friend and the way we decided to split the bill he put the entire tip (roughly 20−25% of the whole bill) on his credit card. I crossed out the tip line on mine. Well, low and behold they decided to charge the tip my friend put on his slip on both of the cards (which was $ 11), so they got $ 22, or a 40−50% tip. I did not find out about this until I checked my credit card statement and noticed the discrepancy. The waitress (who was the bartender, we sat at the bar) I’m sure was hoping I wouldn’t notice/wouldn’t care?
Upon finding that I had been charged without my authorization I wrote a very polite email to the manager to try and resolve the issue. The response from management at Joshua Tree? — NONE. The management did not respond, or seem to care, and completely ignored my complaint. I guess their attitude is «we will rob you but it’s okay because if you discover what we did we will completely ignore you.»
Aside from the robbery, moving on. Joshua Tree has $ 2 pints of Coors Lite, which is barfully responsible as every bar should have at least one cheap beer on tap. However, their «23oz» (always has too much head, more like 18−20oz) Coors Lites are $ 3.50, and the pitchers are $ 9. It is actually cheaper to get the pints all night than get the larger increments. This doesn’t make much sense to me as every other place discounts larger increments. In any event, every time you order a pint, or just a Coors Lite, the wait staff always tries to upsell you. This can get very annoying, but is consistent with their practice of robbing their patrons.
In furthering the managements practice of ignoring complaints, some of which are criminal offenses, they also ignore customers who come in groups and get food poisoning. Look back to the reviews for Barley Hall (again nothing has changed, including the management), there was a group who ate here and all got food poisoning. When they complained the response was, much like my complaint for being robbed, completely ignored.
Joshua Tree has an attitude that they are doing you a favor by allowing you to be there, and will stop at nothing to upsell you (which is less of the same beer for more money). If you resist it doesn’t matter much to them, they will just rob you later if you use a credit card (always check your receipts if you ever go here, something I advise against anyway).
Oh, and if you ever catch them robbing you (or you get food poisoning, or have anything else to say), you will be completely ignored. Old Joshua Tree/​Barley Hall/​New Joshua Tree — why not just go out of business for real and let a decent place take your spot? — it would be better for everyone.

This is a strange place kind of away from some of the other places in the area. The basement has a full service bar and a dancefloor. Sometimes it’s pretty sparse down there, but it’s always easy to have a great time.
Can’t say anything about the food though, but it seems like a bunch of these kids got food poisoning?

Came here for an event and got food poisoning along with 30 other people.
The worst part (aside from the nausea and vomiting)? The management refused to respond about the widespread food poisoning. Not even a «sorry, we’ll look into it and make sure this doesn’t happen again». They refused to discuss it and to this day have not acknowledged that they were responsible for making their customers sick.

The place was fine, not much different then anything else that’s ever been there. I went for my work holiday party. The staff did a nice job. But it turns out over 30 people from my office got mild to severe food poisoning. Our office has tried multiple times to contact the management, but they refuse to call us back.
STAY AWAY!!!

Barley Hall seems like a jack of all trades type place. From Dinner to late night to Sunday brunch they have it all.
There beer selection I find to be quite satisfactory. They have a good selection of beer as well as seasonal beers.
For food there dessert for 2 is pretty decent. You get these little chocolate filled empanadas along with a few other flaky things that are a little dry and ice-​cream. Brunch is amazing though. They have about 10 – 14 catering stations with various trays of food. Some highlights were butter pecan waffles and mango blackberry French toast. They also had an omelet station and they covered the pool table and piled up loads of deserts. The whole thing is 13.99 amazing. Can’t beat it imo.
If I lived locally I might come here every Sunday morning for brunch. Just saying.

3 stars is for the burger and waffle fries only. I can easily see how this place cold turn into douchey Mcdouche popped collar central during popular nights and/​or sports events (there literally is a TV everywhere you look), but after a 7 hour (ish) trip thanks to ridiculous Boston traffic, I didn’t care where we went as long as it had food. I ordered the burger medium, and while good, it was a little overdone for me. Waffle fries were delish though and I could eat an entire bucket of these and be just happy. We also ordered a Sam Winter for me and the specialty (a Black IPA) for Margot. Margot didn’t need any dinner, so our two beers and my burger and fries came out to a little under $ 20.
Margot G. and I joined a table of her friends from law school who had been there for a while. The staff didn’t care that we pulled up two more chairs to an already overflowing table, and while not terribly fast, the service was fine. When the check arrived the server offered to split our small portion of the check off from the rest of the table’s. That quickly turned into everyone wanting their own individual check, and the server seemed to handle it pretty well.

I had a great time at Joshua Tree on Tuesday night. A group of 6 of us stopped by to play Stump Trivia at 8 PM.
All food from 6 – 9 PM was half off with a purchase of a beverage (including soda). This was music to the ears of all of us (poor young professionals) in the group. The food is a mix of pub fare, and some classier options.
There was no problem seating the 6 of us in a table in the back.
For my entrée, I had a «Tomato Mozzarella Melt» (which also has eggplant and zucchini). It was delicious, and I’d highly recommend it.
My group ended up winning trivia that night, so we have a gift certificate to use, and will be back. Even if we hadn’t won, we enjoyed the experience so much, that we were discussing making this our regular trivia night and location.
Also, the deserts looked absolutely delicious. I was too stuffed to partake but members of our party had the ice cream cookie and fried Reese’s peanut butter cups.