Best Speakeasies in Lowell

What a vibe!! Mad Monarch is a must experience. Drinks are fun and desserts are delicious!!

Love this restaurant! We have never had a bad meal. Last night was particularly amazing for everyone in our party. The short ribs were incredible. The swordfish was perfect in flavor and texture with a magnificent sauce. As usual, the scallops were amazing.

I went with my boyfriend for his birthday dinner and we had such a lovely meal. Great place for a special occasion. Food was excellent and great portions. For sure recommend the bread board and the Brussel sprouts. Our drinks were also delicious! Our server was also so lovely, we will for sure be coming back! Also such a cute speakeasy vibe!

So this seems like a really good concept that perhaps hasn’t quite decided what it wants to be bIs this a laid back lounge or a loud club? The positives: great music, the food is limited but very good, ambience is swanky and interesting inside, the speakeasy concept…asking for a password, secret entrance, all that’s fun. The drinks are also very good by the way. What wasn’t quite as good was the volume at which music was played tonight. There was a band with the lead singer from Colombia, who had a very nice voice and a lot of energy, but you couldn’t actually hear her vs the sound system. I have a Decibel Meter on my iPhone and I measured that they were consistently playing for about the first hour we were there at 92 to 95 dB which is incredibly loud and hard on your ears. That is earplug level to the point where you it’s hard to talk to the person next to you and virtually impossible to the person across from you. It does not help that The floor is stone and there’s a lot of bright reflected surfaces so it just became a bit harsh at those volume levels. Maybe add some carpets and some sound absorptive wall treatments if it’s a music venue? The band tonight was great by the way and they took a request or two and were super fun and interactive with the tables. After their second set, I mentioned it to her and they toned it down volumes in the high 70s to low 80 decibels and suddenly you could hear yourself talking in there. If it was a lounge and kind of chill and laid-back, could hear glasses clinking, then would be more with the speakeasy theme we felt. Overall, it’s nice to have a music venue at Alewife with good food. We’d come back for sure to have good music played a bit less loudly than it was tonight in this small and intimate venue. One important note: prior reviews have mentioned a $20 cover charge per person. This was not charged to us tonight. The final bill came to $87.50 a person which was not unreasonable for what we eat and drank.