The Gaff

Great beer selection. 24 taps with a wide spectrum of craft and international beers. Some I have not seen elsewhere. Good hearty pub fare, with a few twists. Wish this bar was closer to wear I live.

Great mixed drinks, great snacks and sandwiches. It’s a great small bar. Great place to hang out.

This is a trendy little bar in downtown Waltham. We came on a weeknight and they only had one table available, so I don’t know how it would be on a weekend.
They have a good selection of drinks; they offer beers from around the country. Their cocktails are poured strong. They have a decent selection of food given the size of the bar. We had the Gaff Dog (pineapple, bacon, caramelized onions) and Gaff Salad (gorgonzola & walnuts on greens). The Gaff Dog was very good and the pineapple was a nice compliment. The salad was okay, but nothing too spectacular. I probably would get something more hearty next time… I doubt they focus on salad.
The service was excellent. Our waitress was very nice and helpful. They also have a couple TVs playing sports above the bar, but just music playing in the background. Oh, and can’t forget to mention, they start you off with some free popcorn. (= yum

Food was pretty good and the bartender was so so nice. It’s a small place and they can get crowded, so the food can take a little while to come out but they have an extensive beer menu to hold you over. Not a place to take someone on a date but good for a sandwich or burger.

This place rocks! Always good beer to choose from. I recommend the boneless chicken wings — they are more like homemade chicken fingers, the veggie burger, the steak sandwich, and the French fries :)
Update: I’ve gotten the Veggie burger like 3 times, it’s delicious. And the fries are perrrrfect

Positives: Beer selection. It’s fabulous. Quite a variety, all good choices.
The food: Small menu, due to a small kitchen, but I dig it. They don’t do much, but what they do, they do right. I recommend the Irish BLT. Better than your average pub grub, and goes well with your beer.
Negatives: The service is consistently mediocre, bordering on not-​so-​great. I will refer to my last visit’s conversation with the very unenthusiastic bartender.
Bartender: «What can I get you to drink?»
Me: «Do you have any particular recommendations?»
Bartender: «What do you like?»
Me: «Everything. I am a beer drinker.»
Bartender: *eye roll* «Welllllll do you like ciders? Light beers? Dark beers?»
Me: «Never mind. I will just take an Old Chub, please.»
Maybe she was hungover (this was a Sunday afternoon), but kind of killed the gastropub vibe for me.
Also a negative is the size. But it’s cozy! If you are already in Waltham and looking for a place to go, it will do, but I certainly don’t go out of my way to go here.

Not too bad. Had the chicken parmesan sandwich from there, was pretty good.

One day taking a motorcycle ride we stopped here. I love a good dive bar and wasn’t expecting a lot but was I wrong. My sangria wasn’t the best (too much sweetness) but we ordered the frickles and rueben fritters… amazing! Fried pickles aren’t great every where but they nailed it here! The rueben fritters were so good! We will definitely be going back!

My favorite Waltham spot!
The gaffe is a cozy, laid back bar with incredibly friendly staff. My favorite bites are the steak sandwich or the burger, but the hot dogs are also delicious. They also have a great beer selection, but are also known to make a high quality cocktail as well. This place goes above and beyond the usual customer service — they remember me and my husband even though we’ve only gotten to hang out here a handful of times. I would choose to go here over many of the more well-​known Boston hangouts. Check this place out ASAP!

Super friendly service (Julie). The sandwiches we shared were dynamite !!
My ribeye steak sand which was the best I’ve ever had :).
This will be a «go to «spot when we visit locally.

I love this place.
Great beer, great food, great ambience. The service is also really good — Kristen (who I believe is the manager) is super friendly and likes to chat with the regulars. Service can also be slow, however, mostly due to the fact that this place can get crazy busy. Also, this is weird, but I totally love their hummus plate. Such a weird thing to love at a bar, but I honestly can’t get enough of it.
Just go here already.

As a Somerville resident whose local bar options these days mainly consist of overpriced and overproduced soulless mediocrities, it’s awesome to find a cozy little pub like the Gaff that keeps it real. Their beer selection (both draught and bottled) is amazing, the food selection is small but solid (the seasonal pineapple+bacon+onion hot dog is to die for), and the staff are super friendly. Bonus: free popcorn!
This review comes with the caveat that both of my visits there have been on Saturday early afternoons, so I don’t know what it gets like at busier times in the later afternoon and evening, but certainly I’ve found nothing to complain about in my experience.

Diverse assortment of beer and cocktail items– also pretty decent lunch menu.
Definitely get a bowl of the lightly salted popcorn, they do it right.

The best selection of bourbon and beer in all of Waltham. I’m not a beer guy but everyone I bring there is supremely impressed by the drafts and bottle selections. One friend said: «it’s the best selection in Boston and around great Boston.» They have bourbons I’ve never heard of and vintages I’ve never knew existed.
The food is great too! I recommend the moody street tacos and of course, the gaff burger! The Reuben fritters are amazing as well!
The staff is extremely friendly and knowledgeable. The manager, Kristin, is awesome. She is the heart and soul of the place. Whether you are brand new here or its your 100^th time here, she will treat you like her most loyal customer. A very rare trait.
If you want a bar with amazing booze and people, make sure you stop by here. Tell them the unofficial mayor of Waltham sent you.

The Gaff could use a lesson in flavor. The popcorn is served with no butter or salt. Then the signature Gaff Burger, although looked amazing, was one of the worst burgers I have ever eaten. At first all I could taste was the burnt bun. So I removed that and gave the burger a try on it’s own. I tasted nothing. NOTHING!
After retuning home the owner contacted me and apologized for the experience. He even sent me a refund check for the price of my meal. That is the mark of a true professional, and I really appreciated the effort. I will give the Gaff another try on my next trip to the area. I suggest you do the same.

A cozy little place, my friend and I came here for dinner after hearing about the great restaurants on Moody Streeet.
Gaff Dog quarter pound beef frank topped w/​grilled pineapple, candied bacon and caramelized onion. It was aboslutely fantastic and a nice take on a more «typical» offering.
I also ordered a Downeast Cider, which was a perfect compliment to the dog.
The Gaff is a great place to go after work or late at night, and I will be coming back very soon!

Two words: WICKED AWESOME.
I went to The Gaff a couple days ago, the experience was amazing. It was my first time there didn’t know what to expect. I just walked in then went straight to the bar. As soon as I sat down that young lady (very energetic young lady) behind the Bar already had drink and food menu at the ready. They also gave you popcorn if you are drinking alcohol which is great in my book.
The Food: Ihad the hummus plate, oh, boy. the best I have ever had in the U.S. The last time I had one that good was in Cairo, Egypt. The Pita bread that comes with it, was «Good Lord’» I dont even have a word to describe it. I made sure to tell the other gentleman that was behind the bar to tell the cook that the food was great. It surely was.
The drink: I think they have 50 plus different beer over half of them on Tap. Local IPA and foreign beer from Belgium, Ireland and Britain and a couple o the countries. I tried 4 different I left the rest for another time haha.
I am definitely going back to finish sampling the rest of the beer, 50+ will take a while, but I will get there one day obviously.

Any good bar must have a feel that draws you in from entrance to drink to bar tender to food to ambience. Check!
Fairly small, no very small only about 15 bar stools and 6 high 4 tops. Sitting on a street with a whole lot of competition. So how you gonna stand out you may ask? Perhaps it’s the 20 plus craft beers on tap or the dimly lit bar or always 80’s & 90’s jams playing or local artist photos upon the walls or the chill educated in the school of hop & barley bar tenders or the comforting fresh well priced menu or the friendly patrons or ease of access or the live music including open mic night or the complimentary pop corn.
Yep all of the above. Felt at home the moment I entered. You will too. Nuff said.

Food: 4 stars
Service: 2 stars
I kid you not it took AN HOUR for a hot dog and steak sandwich. It was one of the best hot dogs I’ve ever had… but an hour is unacceptable. We were greeted with delicious salty popcorn. We ordered their Sangria which was strong and yummy. It was difficult to order our second round. The bartender was friendly but hard to make eye contact with. We ordered their Frickles (fried pickles) that took damn near 30 minutes! She kept saying «it’s a small kitchen, it sometimes takes longer than commercial kitchens». I suppose that can be an excuse (their kitchen was the size of most bathrooms) but food trucks certainly crank out tons of food in a small space. If you can’t do it … don’t. There were literally 10 people in the bar (I wouldn’t call it a restaurant) at the most. I can’t imagine how long things take when they are busy. I saw the chef taking his time, had no sense of urgency.
We devoured the Frickles as we were hungry and they were perfect. Another 30 minutes later we got our entrée. I got their hot dog which had caramelized onions, grilled pineapple and candied bacon — like all of my favorite things — amazing. My mom got the steak sandwich, also very good. The fries left more to be desired — comprable to McDonalds.
While everything was tasty it just took far too long. Unreasonably long. I don’t think we’ll be back.

A bar that features 24 beers on draught, with nary an Anheuser-​Busch InBev nor MillerCoors brew in sight, can’t have incredibly cordial bartenders who ask (and remember) your name, can it?
It can’t serve a quarter pound Pearl hot dog slathered with candied bacon, grilled pineapple and caramelized onions on an Iggy’s bun, right?
There’s no way this bar can crank out 90’s throwback jams while you sip a Bruery Hottenroth sour, and your golf buddy waxes collegiate over a $ 3 Lionshead tallboy.
And it’s absolutely impossible that their step-​up cocktail menu (all of which are under $ 10) includes a secret recipe called the Mothra.
The Gaff laughs, because it’s all these things. Find my face smiling here whenever I’m in a Moody mood. Total win.