Hungry in Franklin? Check out the Union Street Grill
Written: May 17 '06
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Pros: Good food, Reasonably priced, Decent service, Wide variety
Cons: Parking can be tough, Crowded dining rooms
The Bottom Line: If you’re looking for a good, basic, Mom and Pop kind of restaurant in the Metrowest area, then you should stop at The Union Street Grill
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| jps246's Full Review: Union Street Grill |
The Union Street Grill is located in Franklin, Massachusetts and while it won’t blow anyone away, the restaurant does provide solidly good food in large portions at reasonable prices in a fairly friendly atmosphere.
Where is the Union Street Grill?
Franklin is located about 20 miles west of Boston and the restaurant is located right on Union Street, which is about 2 miles or so from the Route 140 / Interstate 495 interchange in Franklin.
It’s located just past the railroad tracks and an old mill, which has been converted into apartments. The building itself has been home to several other restaurants and while parking is free, it can be tough to find somewhere to park, especially on busier nights. The parking lot is quite small (and not laid out that well) and the on-street parking is limited since this is a fairly built-up portion of Franklin.
When can I go?
The Union Street Grill is open for both lunch and dinner seven days a week. It opens at roughly 11 in the morning and closes either at midnight or 1am, depending upon the season. At night, the kitchen does close earlier than the bar and only a limited menu of appetizers are available after the kitchen closes (usually that’s about 10).
Union Street doesn’t accept reservations and it’s rare, except for Friday and Saturday nights that there will be a wait for tables. However in those instances, there is a large enough waiting room and you can get a drink at the bar while you are waiting for your table.
What can I eat at Union Street?
There’s an extensive menu that offers choices for just about every taste at Union Street Grill. You’ll find chicken dishes, fish, steak and various pasta dishes. Plus each day they run specials that aren’t available on the regular menu.
The menu is the same throughout the day, with no lunch menu. The only change that occurs is that after ten at night, you can only order appetizers off of the menu since the main part of the kitchen closes. The menu is broken down into two major sections, the appetizers and sandwiches and then the entrees. In addition, there are also salad choices and soup choices.
The Appetizers and Soups
If you get an appetizer, expect to get a lot of food and make sure you save some room for dinner. The average appetizer easily feeds 4 people and is almost a meal by itself for 2 people.
The appetizer choices are all pretty basic, but they do taste good. They offer everything from garlic bread to crab cakes. My favorite has to be the basic nacho appetizer they offer. It’s a large platter of chips covered in cheese, along with lettuce, tomato and sour cream. The pile of nachos is so big that if my partner and I order it as our meal, we never can finish it. Another favorite of ours are the buffalo wings and the buffalo chicken fingers. They're both spicy, but not extra hot and you do get enough chicken to comfortably feed four people without someone feeling slighted. There are also onion rings, regular chicken fingers, popcorn shrimp, shrimp cocktail and a combination plate that includes the chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks and potato skins.
The chicken noodle soup here is one of the best items on the menu and one of the best chicken noodle soups I’ve had in the area. However, they tend to run out of it later in the evening on busy nights so get there early if you want chicken noodle!
In addition to the chicken noodle, Union Street serves New England Clam Chowder and they have a ‘soup of the day’ that changes each day. I’m not a fan of clam chowder, but just about everyone that I’ve been with who has had it, has enjoyed it.
The prices on the appetizers run from about $3 for garlic bread up to $8 for the shrimp. The great majority though are about $6 each. There’s only one size available for soups, which is a large bowl (a single serving of soup makes an excellent appetizer by itself) and the soups are all about $2 to $3 each.
Salads
There’s the basic house salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomato, croutons and olives) or caesar salad that comes with most of the entrees, but is also available separately if you want a salad with your sandwich. For bigger, meal sized salads there are chef, tuna, lobster and antipasto salads available and for those who like some meat on their salad, there is both a grilled chicken house salad and a grilled chicken caesar salad.
If the salads don’t come with your entrees, they run anywhere from about $2 for the house salad to about $8 for the chicken caesar salad.
Sandwiches
There are a bunch of different sandwiches to choose from at Union Street. They have both hot and cold sandwiches and all the sandwiches are served with your choice of fries, coleslaw or potato salad.
The cold sandwiches include a tuna and a chicken salad sandwich and a lobster roll. The hot sandwiches offer a bigger selection with several different kinds of chicken sandwiches, beef and seafood sandwiches.
My favorite sandwich has to be the open-face teriyaki steak sandwich. On the sandwich, you get a small, six-ounce sirloin steak that has been cooked in teriyaki sauce and served on top of french bread. The grilled chicken sandwich with bbq sauce, cheese and bacon is also very good.
The sandwiches start at just over $5 and run up to just over $7.
Pizza
You can get a wide variety of pizza at the Union Street Grill, from a regular cheese pizza, to one with all the toppings on it. The pizza is more of a thin-crust styled pizza and is good, though not one of my more favorite items on the menu so I don’t tend to have any unless others get it.
The Entrees
If you’ve got the appetite and the desire, there is probably an entrée that is waiting for you at The Union Street Grill. They offer an extensive selection of beef, seafood, chicken and pasta dishes in addition to the nightly specials that are available.
All of the entrees come with bread and butter, your choice of salad or soup and your choice of potato and vegetable (except for the pasta dishes – they don’t come with potato or vegetable, just the salad or the soup). Honestly if you have a regular appetite, the entrée with its salad and bread is more than enough food for the average person. If I have an appetizer, there’s no way I can come close to finishing my dinner (that’s not to say I don’t normally take food home anyway).
There’s a full selection of steaks including filet mignon and prime rib. My favorite dish is the Sirloin Tips. They offer two different versions of this dish, either the steak tips as is or covered in teriyaki sauce. Either way is excellent, but I tend to get the original ones
The steaks are the most expensive items on the menu – starting with the tips around $12 and going up to the filet mignon and the specialty steaks around $16.
I’m not a seafood person so beyond a few tastes here and there, I have never eaten a whole seafood meal here. However both my partner and friends have had these dishes and have enjoyed them. They offer baked, broiled and fried seafood dishes including baked haddock, broiled scallops, baked stuffed shrimp, fish and chips, and fried clams. If you can’t decide on exactly what you want when it comes to seafood, there’s both a fisherman’s platter with haddock, scallops, clams and shrimp and a combo platter that gives you a chance to pick two of any of the seafood items on the menu and have them together.
Prices on the fish dishes run from about $10 to around $15.
There are at least seven different chicken dishes (depending on specials) that include basics like chicken fingers and more creative dishes like chicken marsala or smothered chicken. The chicken parmigiana platter is a huge plate full of pasta and covered almost completely with chicken.
The chicken dishes average around $10.
Finally if you’ve got a hankering for some pasta, there are several different selections available. You can get linguini or ziti either plain or with marinara sauce, lasagna, shrimp scampi, or chicken and broccoli alfredo.
My best friend swears the shrimp scampi is one of the best she’s ever had – she gets it just about every time we go and my partner says that the lasagna is quite good. The chicken and broccoli alfredo appears to be hit or miss – I’ve gotten it a few times and it’s been good, while others that have gotten it and the alfredo sauce wasn’t that good.
The pasta dishes are the least expensive dinner entrees and run from about $8 up to $12.
More Menu Stuff
There is a kids menu (actually a ‘section’ on the main menu) that offers a choice between a hamburger, chicken fingers, fish and chips or linguini. The portion sizes are smaller than the average entrees and are served only with French fries, no soup or salad.
There are some desserts available, but they are not that remarkable. They have several different kinds of pies and ice cream available.
Experiences
It’s not the closest or most convenient restaurant for us, but my partner and I do enjoy taking trips over to Union Street.
It turns out that it’s actually owned by the same people who had a restaurant near us at one point that we really liked, so going to Union Street is like visiting old friends – since a lot of the staff went with the owners when they decided to try a new restaurant. We didn’t realize it until our first visit when everyone was like “you found us,” and we were shocked since we had thought they had just closed their old place.
We both enjoy the restaurant and the wide selection of food available. Usually I have trouble narrowing down the choices, not finding something that I want. Service has been okay – nothing bad, but during busier times, the service does tend to suffer and it all depends on whether or not you get a seasoned server or someone new.
The dining room is broken into two distinct areas – both of which are fairly open so they can get quite noisy when the restaurant is busy. That’s probably my biggest complaint, I hate feeling like I’m in a huge crowd and I hate having to speak up and strain to hear when I’m talking with others at my own table. That’s the reason we really don’t go on a Friday or a Saturday night. That and the parking situation does get kind of messy on those busier nights.
I don’t go to Union Street expecting the best food in the area, instead I go expecting something that I know I will like. With the Union Street Grill I know what I am going to get and I know I’m going to have a good time when I’m there eating.
And if I have a craving for steak tips…Union Street is right near the top of my list of places to go.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a good, basic, Mom and Pop kind of restaurant in the Metrowest area, then you should stop at The Union Street Grill. Located in Franklin, Massachusetts, it offers something for everyone.
Plus it’s almost impossible to leave hungry since the portions are so generous and you get so many different things with your entrée. Expect to leave with a doggie bag.
If you’re nearby, consider a stop at the Union Street Grill, I’m pretty sure you’ll think it’s worth it.
Recommended:
Yes
Kid Friendliness: Yes
Vegetarian Friendly: Yes
Notes, Tips or Menu Recommendations Get there early or late so you don''t have to worry about parking
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