As someone who gets rather overwhelmed by too many choices, I was a bit anxious browsing the menu at Lock 50. Not because there were multiple pages and every dish imaginable, but because the menu was divided into two sections: small plates and shareable plates. Can we still share small plates? How small are small plates? Are shareable plates only for sharing? Can I eat a whole shareable plate myself? PANIC! Luckily, I was sitting with people of a similar mind. Why don’t we just order everything that looks good to us? We ended up with a solid 3/4 of the menu for a group of 5. Absolutely no regrets. Some small plates are smaller than others, so I would recommend getting more than one even if you are part of a table for two on date night. The shareable plates are bigger, and can be eaten by one person, but Lock 50 is all about sharing so share!
I chose the gnocchi with bleu cheese, crispy sweet potato, and fresh scallion. This is one of the larger shareable plates (the shaved compressed octopus being an obvious tiny one). The gnocchi arrived in a bowl topped with crispy sweet potato. Crispy sweet potato is now my favorite topping. The sweet potato was extremely thin, thinner than a toothpick, but crunchy. I would add it to all my salads if I could. The gnocchi felt almost light, but full of flavor. I would not usually call gnocchi a light dish, but there really was a light, refreshing feeling to it and I could not stop eating. The bleu cheese added a savory element that a basic potato, flour, egg gnocchi can lack, and the scallions added to the presentation as well as the fresh taste of the gnocchi. Luckily, they brought an additional one to the table due to some kind of miscommunication so I was free to eat as much as I liked.
The service was excellent beginning with the menu clarifications. Recommendations from the waitress for drinks and dishes were solid.
It was frequently a little difficult to hear each other at our table of five. We were in the upstairs section, in the middle of the room, and the room can get quite loud with a full restaurant. Some sort of sound dampening foam may be a good investment. The dishes came out in a good time frame, two dishes at once with enough time before the next to enjoy. I recommend going to Lock 50 with a small group and doing what we did-order all the plates that catch your eye. The downside is that the bill can end up rather high as the prices are near the top of the range for Worcester, but it is an experience worth having.