Chatterbox

Upon reading reviews, I was excited to finally dine at chatterbox. Upon walking in, I was presently surprised with the atmosphere and décor of the restaurant. It has a very nice relaxing vibe. The mood was set for an enjoyable experience. However, this all changed when as soon as we ordered. I never thought that bar with 15 people in it, it would take 20 minutes to finally get served. But, nevertheless I was excited for the food. We ordered oysters and mussels. The oysters were positively the worst I have ever had in my life. Absolutely inedible. So I thought, maybe they had a bad night, the mussels will be better right? False. They were not only under seasoned, but were cold and dried out. This was the last straw. Between the horrendous service and the inedible food, I would recommend no one to visit this establishment.

Restaurant week disappointment here.
I was so pumped to finally give Chatterbox a try. I’ve been following them on Facebook since they opened and always drool over the pictures of mussels and wine they post on Thursdays (Mussels and Music Night).
Myself and three coworkers decided to finally give the place a try during Binghamton’s spring Restaurant Week. None of us left impressed.
Their Restaurant Week deal was a three course meal for $ 25. I chose to start with the broiled mussels, NY strip steak and Guinness cake for dessert.
Each course was disappointment after disappointment. My muscles tasted fishy and were more difficult to remove from their shell than I expected. They just didn’t seem fresh and the fishy flavor overpowered the pesto, Parmesan and panko «crust». I use quotation marks because it wasn’t really a crust. There also seemed to be a ton of garlic in the pesto. I love garlic — the more the better honestly — but to have the fishy flavor of the mussels overpower garlic? Eek!
I asked for my NY strip steak to be done medium. It came out more medium well. There was also a TON of fat left on the steak. I think I spent more time pulling the fat away from the meat with my knife than actually eating steak. The steak did come with mashed potatoes, which were meh. Not super flavorful or unique. I could have whipped up potatoes like that at home.
By time dessert came I had hoped the Guinness cake would be a redeeming factor. It was more spongy than moist. There seemed to be a bit of a filling in it — I assume the Irish cream? The menu stated Guinness cake with Irish cream and whiskey. I failed to find the whiskey anywhere in there. Actually the Guinness flavor was hard to detect too. Honestly, it tasted like something that came out of a box.
For the $ 25 I spent on food, I felt it was a waste. I didn’t enjoy anything I ate. The one and only positive was the portion sizes. For Restaurant Week it seems many places offer smaller portions, but these portions were very generous.
Service was slow and our waiter seemed confused at times — fumbling with menus, unsure of which beers were available and which they were out of, checks came before dessert arrived, one of my coworkers asked for his dessert to go, but everyone’s desserts came packed to go, etc. We weren’t too bothered considering it was Restaurant Week and he was a nice enough guy. Not to mention, while the restaurant was slow upon our arrival, it filled up pretty quickly.
The atmosphere is cool. I might consider going back to enjoy a glass of wine or a few beers, but I likely wouldn’t eat there again for fear of disappointment.

We went for restaurant week. I’m still not sure if the menu items offered for the restaurant week dinner menu are on the regular menu.
We ordered the plum salad (⁴⁄₅)
The shrimp chorizo thing (⁵⁄₅)
The NY strip steak (⁴⁄₅)
The Lemon butter chicken (⁵⁄₅)
The choco hazelnut cheesecake (⁵⁄₅)
The Guinness cake (⁵⁄₅)
And the mashed potatoes that came with both the main dishes (⁶⁄₅)!!!
The service was great and attentive. The food was exceptional. And the place was clean. Besides the baseball playing on screens, everything was great. If the regular menu is anything like the restaurant week menu, we will be back again.

The food? PHENOMENAL. The service? TERRIBLE. If you’re going to have a grand reopening and Bogo beers on a Friday night maybe you should have more than 2 wait staff? And a dedicated bartender for that matter as opposed to the waiters jumping behind the bar.
That being said the ambience is nice and it’s one of the more well lit bars I’ve ever been in.

My boyfriend and I love this place. The atmosphere is very classic and comfortable with a great beer selection. We love the waitstaff, and they’ve redone their menu with some seriously tasty items! The Reubens are to die for!

The food is okay, the service can be much better and the décor… umm, probably the worst part of it all. Just cheap looking.
To the places credit: at least it is better than its previous use of the building.

I’m trying to like this place as I’m a fan and supporter of new unique places in the area. But my few trips here have been mostly miss than hit. Especially on the service side.
First trip here was during restaurant week for lunch. It wasn’t busy but service was extremely slow, took forever just to get our waters. There were two servers, one server was cleaning and wiping tables that were already cleaned and set up while server number two handled all the tables and couldn’t keep up. Guess which server we had. Food was forgettable and took even longer to come out. My Fruit cocktail dessert literally was fruit out of a can dumped into a bowl…
I decided to give this place another try. This time with slightly better results, again service was slow and inattentive despite a lack of patrons. I was a bit hopeful when the food came out as it looked nice and appetizing. However, even though presentation and everything was good, it lacked flavor. My soft shelled crab sandwich tasted like it could have been fried anything. The oysters were very good and everything else was just good but not great. Again, the dishes lacked character and flavor.
There are definitely better restaurants around, but I may give this place another try due to their unique menu and offerings.

We have, a group of 5 to 7 people that go to a resturant that at least 2 people haven’t been to. So tonite it was 9, took along time to order not to mention receive our orders, food great presentation, but taste wasn’t there. Friend ordered shrimp tacos they were suppose to be 3 different flavors, they weren’t none of our group was really happy even though the waiter would say no worries, yes worry, high prices, warm beer cocktails, slow service oh there were 2 at the bar and a table of 3 there before us. not impressed. Cannot and will not recommend

Good addition to the growing downtown restaurant scene. I’m not a huge tapas fan but the selections I tried were very good and definitely fresh and flavorful. Had a ½ dozen oysters and they were excellent. Will be heading back.

Was here for the first time today and I will definitely be back. Had raw oysters which were fantastic. The bulgogi wings had great flavor. For dinner I had the soft shell crab sandwich. It was fantastic. If you’re looking for something a little different with a good atmosphere and an immense beer selection this is your place.

My crab cake sandwich and wine were both great, the atmosphere was warm and inviting. And The staff were really friendly. We’ll be going back soon.

I went here for lunch with a co-​worker during Restaurant Week. I had a burger and fries. I can’t be certain but I believe it was a pre-​packaged patty. In any case, it was over cooked and dry. The fries were good and although I can’t say I officially counted them, both my co-​worker and I laughed out loud at the fact that it appeared there were about 10 on the plate.
($ 10 for a burger and fries is a fine price for lunch but I did expect a bit more)
Service was average. For a new place I totally understand they have growing pains. I’d still give them another chance.

I was here the third week they had opened. Service was soooooooo slow on a Sunday for brunch. There were maybe 6 tables, including an 8 top, with one waiter. He pretty much ignored you. Once they finally took our order, it took another 45 mins for it to come out. I felt really bad for the table next to me, almost everything they brought out for them was wrong!
Our dishes were mostly right but they forgot my side of bacon. The stuffed french toast was actually really good, but not worth the wait. The home fries were bland and too hard. That all being said, the owner came out and apologized for everything and said there was a broken griddle they were dealing with, and our meal was free. That was much appreciated!
The space itself is really nice, and I hope they work out the kinks. I want to go back but I’m a little hesitant. Maybe if you’re not planning on going anywhere in a hurry afterwards it’d be worth it. I’m curious about their seafood so I will try it again and update!

I’d actually give Chatterbox 3 stars for the food (good but not truly great), 5 stars for the friendly service (the waitress was alone and handling the tables and the bar efficiently by herself and with a smile) and 5 for the nice atmosphere. I’m hoping the menu is expanded as time goes by and that choices of additional toppings and sauces are added for burgers and sandwiches. Although this may have just been a restaurant week special – 86 the jarred fruit as a dessert. I could eat that at home if I wanted to – and I don’t want to.

Some great potential but needs improvement in some areas.
BEER: A few drafts, including some crafts on draft, but the bottle selection is where they shine. Fairly large selection for this area including Ommegang and other Belgian choices, which is a rarity. Wish they has more taps, though.
FOOD: Needs improvement. I ordered the Montréal Chicken (one of their full entrees at a higher price than the tapas choices). I got a small piece of slightly dry chicken breast on a piece of lettuce with little flavor or panache. It came with some very tasty potato salad, however. My wife ordered the special, which was some kind of breaded crab sandwich on a roll with a featured sauce. She enjoyed her sandwich, but only after we requested they bring out the special sauce since it was omitted by mistake.
SERVICE: Nothing special. The restaurant is sometimes understaffed, and the waitstaff is not always the most attentive. Get the feeling the owners are not as hands on in the front of the house as they should be.
ATMOSPHERE: Really nice. Beautiful room with white walls in some areas and brick walls elsewhere, very high tin ceilings, long bar in the back and plenty tables make for flexible sized groups. The biggest (and easily fixable) drawbacks are the extremely bright pendants hanging over and along the bar. Dim them a little and you have a very nice room.
OVERALL: Nice to see another new place make a go of it in the now burgeoning downtown Binghamton area. Raise up the bar on the food and tweak the lighting and service a bit and should make the Chatterbox a nice choice for casual, unique dining.

So when we first walked in we were told that we had to sit at bar because kitchen was too busy to have another table, no problem, we took seats at the bar. The guy behind bar was very knowledgeable about the beer selection so that was great. The ambiance is great, but the food left a lot to be desired. We had the cheese plate, which was cubes of cheese like you can buy from supermarket with some strawberries, grapes, slivered almonds, and lettuce – very strange and not very good. We also had the potatoes with sausage and the wings, both of which were not great. Overall I would say that this place needs to figure out a better menu or risk losing a good amount of people who are looking for a true «tapas bar» which is not what you will find at Chatterbox. If I could rate it a 2.5 I would. Hopefully they will fix the menu or change their aesthetic… only time will tell

I must say that to be newly opened I had a fantastic meal there last Saturday night. I highly recommend the Potatoes and Chirizo Sausage dish. The selection of beers was very impressive as well. And I cannot forget the affordability of the place. I highly recommend

only giving a 3 for now because there’s room for improvement, but they just opened so i’m sure i will be able to give them at least a 4 after my next few visits. my only gripe i guess would be the service. the 2 people at the bar were friendly and really nice, but the food was a little slow coming out of the kitchen (which they apologized for, no big deal), but they didn’t seem to know the menu too well yet. there also didn’t seem to be any table service, which kept one friend i was with from ordering food. aside from that, the place looks great on the inside, it’s clean and has a really old feel to it, they put up some cool stuff on the walls that are ads for businesses that used to be in the same building. the beer selection is great! i could definitely see myself drinking here a lot. the food we got was pretty good too. my friend and i shared the beer meatballs and an order of wings. the texture on both was perfect, the meatballs were nice and moist and the wings were nice and crisp. the sauce on the wings was citrusy and soy sauce based. not my favorite flavors but i’d try them again. my friend didn’t think the meatballs were very flavorful but i thought they had a decent flavor. the rest of their menu looks pretty good, my only issue is that the breakfast and lunch menu is only available monday through friday. seeing as how i work out of the area it’s going to be very hard for me to try their breakfast and lunch food. i guess they are going to do brunch on the weekends but there isn’t a menu for that yet. so all in all, this place has a lot of potential and i look forward to checking them out again

A newest restaurant on the Main Street. Checked out their beer collection, unbeatable! The foods are delicious.