Bondir Cambridge

Had an amazing experience at Bondir. The service was fantastic. The host and our waiter were both great, and the food was amazing. I am not usually one to drop this much money on a dinner, but this was definitely the perfect place to go for a special occasion. The 5-​course prix fixe menu was $ 75 and the wine was $ 10 – 15 a glass. They also had beer (we didn’t try the beer but it looked like a good selection). Almost all, if not all, the food was local and tasted amazing. The first three courses were vegetables, fourth course was fish, and fifth course was dessert (dessert was sweet potato ice cream with sweet potato purée, chocolate shortbread, and a thin marshmallow crisp). The second course, roasted carrots with maitake mushrooms was our favorite. A great place for a special occasion. I will definitely be back.

Great tasting menu experience. I very much enjoyed it!

I’ve only been here once, but I had the best meal of my life here for my birthday. There are very few dishes that I will remember for years to come (lol), but I had the scallops crudo with green strawberry and I’m pretty sure it’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted. The restaurant is small so go early, but it is also very intimate and adorable. I love the décor and the flowers at the front. The other dish that stood out was the lamb neck fusilli, but everything was great!

The service and ambiance were excellent, but that’s really the only strong positive about our experience. I didn’t mind that the dishes in the five course prix fixe menu (all that was available, which is fine) were small; however, rather than an intricate balance of interesting flavors, each dish was more of a hodgepodge of flavors that just didn’t quite work. At least three dishes were over-​salted as well. Our server did seem genuinely distressed that we weren’t enjoying our meal, and we do appreciate that the bill reflected that. But overall Bondir was disappointing.

Super disappointed, twice! First time we ordered pretty much the whole menu as we were a party of four, nothing stood out. We thought maybe the kitchen had a bad night, so we decided to give it a second chance, no different outcome. If you want to spend that kind of $$$$, go to Craigie on Main.

Had brunch yesterday and. It. Was. Amazing.
Pierce Kelley was the chef, and we were completely blown away by every dish (in my case, Sprouted Rye Porridge, Charred Little Gem, Ange Food Cake). The freshness and balance of flavors removed all preconceived notions of whether I’ve «liked» a particular ingredient or not. The dishes were such a delicate work-​of-​art and everything in it was clearly there for a reason. The Charred Little Gem lists porcini, lily shoots and chili as its ingredients. I can’t take too much spice so I was l afraid of the chili. Ha, silly me. The dish was so nailed down, I wouldn’t have known chili was in it, if I didn’t read it on the menu. I asked for a spoon so I could get every remnant of juices and sauce. It was incredibly tasty and although the portions were very small (size of my fist?) it managed to fill me up 80% — more than I imagined. And I felt wonderful afterwards.

We went there Friday night and had 5 course meal. Thinking its a friday night, you would assume that they would probably having a good selection of dishes but we were super disappointed by the dishes. The flavors were very basic and nothing special which will excite the taste buds. 3 out of 4 dishes were vegetarian and the main entrée was fish. The portion size was small and this is the first time I was hungry after a 5 course meal (and I eat very little!). The dessert was hugely disappointing! All in all its NOT worth the money! The only good part was nice ambience and good service. Don’t waste your money on this one, there are better restaurants in town for the same price point

Six Stars! This was an outstanding meal. I hadn’t been to Bondir for awhile, and this was the first time I tried their Prix Fixe menu. It was $ 75 per person, for 5 courses plus an amuse bouche. Every course was outstanding: inventive and delicious. i think this is the best meal I’ve had in Cambridge for American Cuisine (better than Harvest, Arden and Harlow, Parsnip, Craigie, 10 Tables, Shepherd etc.). If you want a snazzy, splurge of a dinner in an intimate setting, try Bondir.
To note: the restaurant was almost empty on the night we went, so I hope the foodies find this place and it stays in business.

We’ve lived near this restaurant for some time and never tried it. This week, we had a few special occasions to celebrate and decided to check it out, knowing it is pretty pricey. The food was good, but it was WAY too expensive for what we got. Even planning for an expensive meal, we were a bit shocked. The first problem was that I had looked at the restaurant’s menu on a Monday, when they serve a three-​course rather than five-​course menu. There was no indication on the menu page that the three-​course option is only available on Monday (besides the title «Monday dinner» at the top — but they change their menu regularly, so I just thought it was a daily menu). I assumed we would be getting a $ 45 pre-​fixe three-​course menu for our Thursday reservation. However, when we arrived, we learned that we would be paying an extra $ 23 each for a 5-​course menu. This was ok, but unexpected.
We had also contacted the restaurant asking if they could do a vegetarian menu, as we are both vegetarian. We were told they could — which is true, however the «vegetarian menu» is just the regular menu with the meat removed, offered for the SAME PRICE. The portions are already tiny, so it really felt like kind of a ripoff to have the most expensive component of the meal removed and still pay full price. The «main» course, which was a fish, was replaced by a mild-​flavored squash and mushroom dish, but it was probably my least favorite part of the meal.
Overall, the food was pretty tasty. There was sort of a kohlrabi salad (meat removed) to start, which was fresh but not amazing, then a very good parsnip dish followed by a very good pasta dish (meat removed), followed by the not-​so-​good, bland squash and mushroom dish. The dessert was probably my favorite part — it was an amazing semifreddo that just melted in your mouth. Overall, though, I would certainly not return to pay over $ 100 per person for such a small and relatively mediocre meal.

So sad to see what happened to this place! Best space in Cambridge… Jason Bond left to open another space. Food is now okay. Service is good, but I had a poor experience. Someone left bathroom door open and I embarrassed myself by walking into that bathroom. So I made a joke about it (stupid small penis joke) and was scolded by one of the servers, yet all night she seemed to be hiding behind plates making fun of customers herself.
This place had the potential to be the best restaurant in Boston with one of the premier chefs in Boston. Now it’s just another place to eat dinner. And yes I Unilocal

Felt this was worth my first review, given the price tag. We came here as part of the $ ⁵⁵⁄₅ course Gilt City.
Service: Our reservation was at 9 PM, but we didn’t get seated until 9:45. Understand it’s a small restaurant, but after being seated, we waited another 10 minutes until the waitress came to our table, and another 10 before we had bread at the table.
Food: I was ready to forgive the initial service when delighted with the rumored spectacular food. Unfortunately, each course was *maybe* three bites. I’m okay forgiving portion size for taste, but the food really was not something to remember. I’ve never, ever uttered the words «this is too salty,» but I found myself saying this after every course.
All being said, it’s possible we caught the restaurant on an off night and were overly colored by the unpleasant start.

Not bad, but only three stars as:
— The food was significantly oversalted.
— It was overall quite heavy and strong-​tasting. There wasn’t a lot of variation in the weight of the dishes.
— By the same token, the proportions could have been better balanced between veggies/​garnishes and the centerpiece of each dish.
So, clearly not to my taste. But I think the menu would be better, and the strong-​tasting dishes more impactful, if there was more variation in between. Oversalting is an issue all over the place, not just here, but it’s more disappointing at a restaurant with a focus on food quality.

I liked the bread plate. Very romantic. Kids of expensive.

We had a great anniversary dinner here. They change the menu constantly and that night everything was delicious. The place is super cozy and romantic. They only have a couple of tables.

Recently had a fantastic meal at Bondir. It was my first time there, obviously had the new prix fixe tasting menu and don’t have anything to compare it to but I thought it was fantastic.
For the first course I had a diver scallop with almond milk sauce. This was probably my least favorite of the five courses, but that’s simply because I’m not a huge scallop fan. My boyfriend has a bivalve allergy so they made him the same dish but with beets instead.
Next course was hen of the woods mushrooms with shaved kohlrabi — this was excellent. The flavors and textures were just incredible.
Third we had the squash canneloni with some sort of cheese purée. Definitely my favorite of the five courses. The portion was quite small (just two small stuffed pastas) and I could have eaten twelve more plates of this, but alas, that’s not how it works.
My boyfriend ordered the foie gras supplement. He said it was just okay. It came with figs and cocoa brioche and he found the combination a little weird.
The main course was a beef dish, not usually what I choose to order on menus but it was perfectly cooked. Two decent size pieces of beef, great flavor and tender.
Dessert was a white chocolate cremeaux with some sort of devil’s food cake, a buckwheat tuile and huckleberry compote. I loved this. The chocolate devil’s food part was kind of dry, but the other flavors were really great together.
The homemade carraway bread and salted butter was also wonderful. The two of us ate all 6 slices.
I found the service and atmosphere to be great a well. The only major complaint I’d share is that they do not have a single reasonably priced glass of wine on the menu. The cheapest red was $ 15, which seems quite steep to me. However, the waitress spilled a bit of my wine when pouring and as a result gave me almost an entire second glass for free, so I don’t feel like I got ripped off paying $ 15 for the quantity of wine I consumed.

Had a great meal at Bondir for my 30^th birthday! Took me a long time to figure out where I wanted to go but was glad I settled on Bondir. The service was excellent and the pacing of the meal was perfect, not too fast, not too slow. Bad pacing is something that drives me crazy, especially with a tasting menu. I really like the new prix-​fix menu option; a nice mix of seasonal ingredients, vegetarian, and meat dishes. The best things we had were the Matsutake mushroom dish, and the main bavette of beef course. The beef was rare and delicious! The optional fois gras course was also great. Three of us split one serving and it was the perfect little bite!

Bondir is so hyped and seemed so promising. Even upon entrance, it looked like a really charming place to eat. I came with a small group and we ordered (perhaps controversially) family-​style, so I basically had some of every item on the menu.
And it was a real let-​down. I remark that the menu changes very frequently, so my impressions may not fully reflect the current state. By and large, plates were very small, though made with fine ingredients and clearly with good technique — but there was something lacking. For some dishes, the portion size was simply unsatisfying. Others just lacked flavor. I was surprised to have a slice of porkbelly so utterly bland. I recall one plate of truffled chicken that simply didn’t taste like much at all, and was unimpressive in texture, too. The chefs at Bondir failed to push their dishes to excellence, or really to anything actually remarkable.
On a whole, based on my trip, I conclude that Bondir is massively underperforming. Considering that it markets (and prices) itself as a top-​tier restaurant, that’s very disappointing. There’s a certain ambition that they’re simply not realizing.

Portions have shrunk. Seasoning has nearly disappeared. After our fifth visit, each of which disappointed progressively more than the prior, we will not be back.
Maybe if Bond comes back to Bondir, it will regain what it once had.

We simply adore Bondir and we come as often as possible. This is the best restaurant in Concord/​Sudbury/​Acton. The food is always flawless and interesting. I love the changing menu, and the innovative American cuisine, which relies heavily on locally-​sourced ingredients. The service is ALWAYS perfect. The servers are incredibly knowledgable and friendly, but never intrusive. The wine list is fantastic and the prices are reasonable.
The ambiance is quiet and romantic, and it’s wonderful in winter when the fire is going.
We have tried so many different meals here, and we always have the same thought: can’t wait to return again.

Atmosphere seemed nice for a date. Low lighting, ambient/​chillout music, interesting décor. The food was good in that all the ingredients were fresh and tasted great, but unfortunately their combination was rather uninspiring and didn’t leave an impression of anything unique. This impression was compounded by the fact that the menu is prix fixe (not giving much choice) and that the prix is rather haute.

Based on the reviews, Bondir seemed like a sure thing. We are foodies and were really looking forward to going.
They take a credit card to hold the reservation, which is the culture in Boston so that part was okay. They called 3 times and sent two emails before the dinner to make sure that we would be there. That feels excessive and thus irritating.
The reservation was for a Saturday night and I had checked out their website before going, so I was shocked to see that it was prix fixe for $ 75 a person. The food was okay, but not remarkable. The servings were about 5 bites. The service was intense. The flowers in the waiting area were half dead. $ 235 later we left feeling underwhelmed.

I had a perfect dining experience here. The service was warm and personable, but not overbearing. Our server was great for recommendations on the menu– which changes daily. They timed the courses very well and the quality of the food is unparalleled! It feels very rustic, intimate, romantic but not too formal. Bondir would be an ideal restaurant for any celebratory meal or for a break from typical fine-​dining establishments. The menu is creative, nostalgic, indulgent, unpretentious and local. This is my favorite restaurant in the Boston/​Cambridge area.

Oh I wanted to like this place so much more than I did! The service was fantastic — amazingly attentive and accommodating. But the food was an overall disappointment. The dishes didn’t feel cohesive or well layered with both texture and flavor. Of the multiple dishes we tried (8 overall) only one was something I’d want to eat again. I can’t say I would recommend this place to a friend or ever go back.

Delicious food, innovative recipes where staff were very courteous and helpful. It is a tiny place with 9 tables so reservations are a must.
Looking forward to next visit.

I loved this place!!! I came here for a romantic date night and had a wonderful time! The food was delectable!!!
A trio of bread options arrived first, and in particular the currant and spruce sourdough was mouthwatering.
For the first course, I ordered the Burrata. I found it to be delicate and tasty. This dish had a lovely balance of being both salty and a little sweet. My date had the Scarlet Turnip. I thought the ST was a great mix of contrasting flavors and textures: the lamb tartar was savory and full in contrast to the light airiness of the slivered turnip. The spicy Harissa sauce was a nice juxtaposition to the sweetness of the green strawberry.
My favorite of all the courses was round 2 in which both myself and my date ordered a pasta dish. I could’ve eaten several bowls of this stuff!

I celebrated my birthday at Bondir last night and it was fabulous!
Such a sweet romantic date spot. Wait staff was friendly and knowledgeable and went out of their way to make sure we had an enjoyable experience.
The food was fantastic. For the first course I highly recommend the burrata. It came with a lovely mix of fresh english peas and black snap peas. It was unbelievable. The fish croquettes were a bit dry to be honest but still tasted good.
For the second course, the almond angolotti and the lamb cannelloni were both out of control good, though the lamb was a bit more filling.
For the 3^rd course we both chose the striped sea bass that was reportedly delivered fresh that morning. It was fantastic and the grilled vegetables that accompanied it were incredible.
We ended with the beignets, which were just plain delicious.
Yes, it is fairly pricey but you’re paying for ultra fresh (mostly local) ingredients, expertly prepared. Well worth it, at least for a special occasion.

Bondir is a cute little restaurant with a very nice laid-​back ambience and friendly waitstaff. The service was prompt but unintrusive, and our server took time to explain everything that showed up at our tables, including a couple of small treats to tide us over while we wait. $ 72 prize fixe. We went for a birthday, and it really was a fun place to go to for this.
However, there were problems. Some were a bad experiences, and one was absurd price gouging that was quite off-​putting.
First, I found ½ a wishbone in my English Hen Ravioli (Luckily I spotted it early and didn’t choke on it). This is a $ 250+ restaurant for two diners (including modest drink orders — not even a bottle of wine), so it’s pretty shocking that I would find a bone in my dish. I pointed it out to my server, and while he fleetingly apologized, nothing came of it. I didn’t want the chef to come out and apologize, but I do expect something more than «omigosh thanks for telling me» that the server offered. Finding a bone in such a high end restaurant must be pretty embarrassing for the chef, or, at least, it should be.
Secondly, like Nasser R below, I got the raw lamb appetizer also, and have been having some stomach issues all day today (actually I’m quite sick now, but I can’t confirm that the two might be related).
Finally, my pork roast dish was entirely too dry and the sauce was not enough to make up for it. I couldn’t finish it. I suspect they didn’t let the meat rest, but hey, what do I know?
In price-​gouging related news, the restaurant charges $ 8 for sparkling water. So $ 8 of our check of 200+ was just water. If Clover, a cheap local chain down the street can offer sparkling water for free, Bondir should too. Or, they should suck it up and say it out loud «Do you want still, sparkling or tap water? Oh, and by the way, we charge for our still and sparkling waters; they are priced more than our beers.»
These things marred our otherwise great experience. The ambience really is very nice, and it can be as romantic or friendly or business-​meeting-​like as you want it to be.
I will, I guess, continue to wait for a real apology from the chef.
Verdict: try to go on a work tab.

Bondir is a confused and subpar establishment. I have dined at many establishments that have served excellent food. This was certainly not one of them.
The food strives to be sophisticated in its flavours, but falls completely flat on all levels at every single course. There was no hint, no slight suggestion of the «carefully thought out» flavours that I have read about anywhere in my dinner. I shudder to think that this place has been called one of the best restaurants in Cambridge. This is certainly not the establishment of a famed chef. My family and I went on a Friday night thinking that this would be a great place to celebrate my family’s last night in town and also my graduation. Oh, how wrong we were!
At $ 72 for a four course prix fixe menu, the food was extremely forgettable so much so I am struggling to recall what I ate (thankfully, I have the horrible habit of taking pictures of everything I eat). For starters, I had ordered chicken-​stuffed morels and red treviso. Neither of the starters whet my appetite in the slightest. Then, for the entrée, I had the chewiest beef I have ever eaten. I could have cut the beef with a chainsaw and it still wouldn’t have sufficed. I did not finish my entrée.
Towards the end of the evening, my optimistic, naïve side held out and I hoped against hope that the dessert would redeem the evening. It didn’t. I ordered the chocolate olive sorbet with cherry cake that sounded quite interesting on paper. In reality, all I remember eating was a bizarre concoction of grassy bitter ice cream. The ice cream melted quite quickly into a brown gooey liquid that resembled something rather unpleasant. I did not finish my dessert.
Further, the service was completely unenthusiastic. Our waitress barely said 3 words to us the entire night save for the occasional «how are we all doing?». It seemed as though we were intruding upon her Friday night. She barely introduced herself or the menu to us. For a highly rated restaurant, this kind of service is absolutely unacceptable.
I could say some nice things about the restaurant’s décor and ambience, but at this stage, there’s really no point.
Needless to say, I will not be returning. Take your $ 72++ and go elsewhere, please.

Extremely disappointed in the food. For the price I was expecting much more complex flavors. Apart from the nice presentation, the food was extremely monotonous. No marriage of nice flavors, no contrast. The duck was tough, the accompaniments did not compliment the duck. Maybe the chef was having a bad day. Would not recommend it to anyone.
PS: the desert was also horrible!!! Olive chocolate, yuck. Super salty beignets! Who does that. Go back to culinary school.

Incredible. Simply incredible. It’s expensive, the place is a little difficult to get to but GO. BECAUSE IT IS SO WORTH IT. We had a wonderful night at Bondir, and even though the plates were small every single dish was a journey into wonderland and the fact that they change their menu every single day and do it out of a kitchen with THREE CHEFS — it’s so small, you can go ask them to see it! — is incredible. The service is impeccable, china is flawless and overall a wonderful dining experience.
What to get (this wont be as relevant because the menu changes every day, so i’ll try to make it a little more general):
— Pasta: it was the ricotta agnolotti with lamb the night we were there that was the true stunner. Absolutely incredible.
— Bread: it truly is a course in itself, and it comes for the table but IT IS SO EXCITING — there was sea salt and nori infused bread, cinnamon and coffee bread etc.
— Anything that strikes your fancy AT ALL because you really can’t go wrong.
What to miss:
— Perhaps it was because the entire meal was so wonderful, but I found the dessert to be a little less so — not to say the dessert wasn’t AMAZING, it just wasn’t as life changing as the other plates. Which is not a bad thing.

Cozy environment with tasty and beautifully arranged food. We have also enjoyed the various small courses that were served throughout the meal. The seaweed bread was definitely an unique addition.
Our Chardonnay had an interesting taste, but it was good