I drove by the construction site for Legacy Place in Dedham, MA just about everyday on my way to work. It felt like they built this huge plaza overnight. I remember the farewell sign up on the old movie theater that formerly inhabited the lot and then…BAM!
They knocked that sucker down, cleared out this huge chunk of land and erected this massive shopping plaza in the blink of an eye. I have to say that, regardless of how long it took, Dedham’s Legacy Place is a beautiful piece of architecture and a great hub for entertainment. The fact that they were able to construct this so quickly makes it even more impressive.
So off we go now to explore Legacy Place in Dedham for shopping and fine dining…
Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way first.
Getting to Legacy Place in Dedham, MA
Legacy Place is located just off of exit 15A on I-95. It’s official address is: 680 Legacy Place, Dedham, MA 02026.
The shops at Legacy Place illuminated at night create a welcoming atmosphere.
There are a few ways to enter the plaza after getting off of I-95:
At the first light, you can take a right down Elm Street. Take the first left off of Elm Street and you can scoot around the back way towards the parking garage. This is a good way to avoid all of the traffic, but it’s also the entrance that’s farthest away from the shops.
You can go through the heart of the plaza by going straight through the first set of lights and taking that first right. It’s important that you get into the far right lane before the light; this entrance is just after the light.
There’s one more way to enter Legacy Place, head straight through the first set of lights. At the second set of lights, take a right down Legacy Boulevard. This is another back way that takes you away from most of the traffic.
Parking at Legacy Place in Dedham
There are lots of places to park at Legacy Place. As with most newer malls, most of the space is set aside for parking.
You’ve got the two main parking lots in the center, a big parking garage along one side and many smaller parking lots spread throughout the rest of the plaza.
The parking lots in the center of Legacy Place. Parking in these lots during the weekend can be a huge hassle.
Parking is free in all lots; there is valet parking as well just as you enter (if you use entrance #2 above), but this is not free.
Take a look at this map, this will give you an idea of the parking lots with respect to the entrances and proximity to the shops.
During the week, there is usually many free spots in the big center parking lots. On the weekends or during the Christmas shopping season, it’ll be a struggle to find a spot.
Pro Tip: If you’re like me and hate to deal with traffic and fighting with people for parking spots, then you should park in the Whole Foods parking lot.
Take entrance #3 (from the section above) and take the third right off of Legacy Boulevard. This will bring you directly to the Whole Foods parking lot. The spots farthest from Whole Foods are always empty, grab one of those and walk out to the main plaza area.
This parking lot near Whole Foods is usually the most hassle-free of all the parking lots.
When you’re ready to leave, this back entrance/exit is a godsend since most people don’t even know about this back way. No hassle, no fuss!
I took a video showing how the shops and the parking is arranged at Legacy Place:
Legacy Place Hours of Operation
Sun: 11am-6pm Mon-Sat: 10am-9pm
The restaurants, movie theater (Showcase Cinema de Lux) and bowling alley (Kings) are open later, most places are open until at least midnight.
Now that the basic info is out of the way, let’s dig into my latest venture to Legacy Place in Dedham, MA.
Our Trip To Legacy Place
Matt and I had made plans with some friends to meet at The Met Bar & Grill for dinner at 7:30. Since Matt and I work close by, we decided it would be a lot easier to head over early instead of going home and driving all the way back up.
We used the Pro Tip above and parked in the Whole Foods parking lot. On a Friday night, this plaza gets crazy! Hardly any parking and it’s a constant battle not to get into a car accident driving around the parking lots.
It’s a lot of fun walking around the shops at Legacy Place in Dedham.
If you scoot in the back way and park in the far corner, you can easily avoid this hassle.
Visiting the Shops
They get an early start at Legacy Place in Dedham on decorating for Christmas; to our surprise, Legacy had already placed their Christmas lighting on the trees and in between the shops (it was early November when we went).
Christmas lights stretched from shop to shop at Legacy Place.
Maybe it’s because Christmas lights remind me of my childhood excitement for a visit from Santa, but I was happy to be in this little Christmas wonderland.
Anyways, with some time to kill before we needed to head to The Met Bar & Grill, we hit up Urban Outfitters across from Whole Foods.
The outside of Urban Outfitters just across from Whole Foods
Urban Outfitters is one of those trendy, hipster clothing and random goods store, similar to Newbury Comics. Sometimes their clearance rack has great deals; a few years back I managed to snag a really nice winter coat for under $50.
The second floor at Urban Outfitters has men’s clothing and shoes.
UO is also great for birthday and holiday gifts, they have a wide assortment of some pretty random, hilarious gifts. The target audience for this store is college-aged kids and post graduate twenty-somethings.
You can sometimes score some great bargain deals if you check out the clearance racks in the back.
As for other stores, Legacy Place has a lot of clothing shops for both men and women and, one of the biggest attractions to this plaza, an Apple Store.
And of course, no visit to Legacy Place in Dedham is complete without visiting the fake cow sitting outside of J.P. Licks.
My only friend…the fake cow in front of J.P. Licks. To be fair, he never complains or argues.
Snacking at Au Bon Pain before Dinner
Matt and I are kind of fatties; we eat a lot.
We’re really into working out and exercising so we’ve made meal plans for ourselves. We eat smaller meals about every 2 hours and by the time we arrived at Legacy Place, our bellies were screaming at us for food. We couldn’t wait for dinner so we headed over to Au Bon Pain.
The Au Bon Pain at Legacy Place serves excellent, huge pastries. Their soups are also delicious.
Au Bon Pain is an American take on a French boulangerie. They serve all kinds of pastries as well as soups, sandwiches and coffees.
The dining area is comfortable and fairly large.
Au Bon Pain has a large, comfortable seating area. It’s a great place to take a quick break and recharge.
We wanted something quick to warm us up, so we grabbed a large cup of harvest mushroom and wheatberries soup and a small coffee and took a seat.
The soup was really good, it had a faint smell of curry with interesting subtle flavors. I tasted hints of cinnamon and coriander. Matt felt it was a little too greasy, I did not agree and actually really enjoyed the soup. It was inexpensive too, the total came to about $6.
Our coffee and the harvest mushroom and wheatberries soup from Au Bon Pain. Looks good, doesn’t it?
We took our time and hung out in the dining area and eventually left as it got closer to our reservation time.
Off to Dinner at The Met in Legacy Place
If you enter Legacy via entrance #2 from above, The Met Bar & Grill is the first building on the right hand side.
Look to your right as you enter, you should see the Met Bar and Grill in the first building.
The Met serves American food: burgers, steaks and seafood. They are well known for their burger menu featuring pre-built burgers – like their Tokyo burger featuring avocado, muenster cheese, pickled onion, soy, daikon sprouts and wasabi mayo – as well as a big built-it-yourself selection.
The interior is decorated elegantly with wall-sized, black and white photos of famous cities across the world. The lighting is subdued and the decor featured a lot of brown and deep yellow hues. They have both a bar area and a dining area.
The interior of The Met Bar and Grill is decorated in subdued browns and yellows. It creates a warm, relaxing experience for the diners.
Make reservations ahead of time, especially for a weekend meal, this place gets busy.
Getting Appetizers at The Met
For appetizers, our table ordered calamari and a plate of hummus.
The presentation of all the food that night was stellar: beautiful and clean. The hummus plate featured deep fried pita chips, they were crispy and a great introduction to a meal.
The calamari was light and crispy and the hummus was smooth on fried pita at The Met in Dedham.
The calamari was light, crispy and didn’t have that rubbery texture that sometimes happens with calamari. They were slightly over-salted though.
The Entrees
For dinner, I ordered the Tokyo burger on a sesame bun, cooked medium rare with onion strings. Again, the burger was presented beautifully.
The Tokyo Burger from the Met in Dedham was excellent. Try it on a sesame bun to make it even better.
The burger was excellent, I think I cleared my plate in under a minute. The onion strings, like the calamari, were over-salted. Matt ordered french fries with his burger and his fries were also over-salted.
It seemed like all the deep fried foods were salted with a heavy hand, next time I will be specifying “light on the salt.”
Drinks at The Met
For drinks, they had a decent selection with some interesting microbrew choices. I ordered a dirty martini (my favorite drink) and it came with 3 huge olives. The martinis were about $10 which is standard pricing for the area.
Prices and Costs
The Met Bar & Grill can be really expensive if you’re not careful. Some of the entree plates are $30+, but there are a few things you can do to get a fine-dining experience on the cheap.
The burger selection is pretty reasonably priced ~$12, but they will ask if you want to upgrade to Kobe beef (that delicious, expensive meat imported from Japan). If you get the upgrade, this will put the burger in the $16+ range, I’m not sure the upgrade is worth it.
Beer runs about $6 and is a cheaper alternative to a mixed drink. If you keep the drinking to a minimum, you can come out with a dinner that’s under $25.
Yea or Nae?
I highly recommend checking out The Met Bar & Grill while you’re at Legacy Place, they’ve managed to combine a great atmosphere with expertly prepared food.
The Met in Dedham is also a great place to grab a few drinks and watch the game
Some Other Things to Do at Legacy Place in Dedham, MA
There are many, many other establishments at this plaza. While a good portion of them revolve around clothing, there are a few others that provide entertainment.
Kings is both a bowling alley and a bar. It’s got high-tech lanes and has managed to make bowling cool again. On the weekends, it’s usually full of mid-twenty year olds dressed up for a night out. The technology used in these lanes puts places like Timber Lanes to shame.
Showcase Cinema de Lux, like Kings, is a brand new establishment. They also made sure to use the latest and greatest technology and high end seating.
For food options, there is a ton to choose from. Genki – an organic sushi joint, Aquitaine – fine French dining, and Yard House – an upscale pub house – are a just a few of the dining establishments at Legacy Place.
For a complete listing of their shops and restaurants, you can head over to the Legacy Place directory.
Conclusion
Legacy Place in Dedham, MA is a great place for a night out. While shopping is always a viable option at Legacy, the dining institutions are top notch and the entertainment venues can successfully round out a night of fun and relaxation. It’s worth checking out!
What’s your favorite thing to do at Legacy Place in Dedham?
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