Bantam Grill

Had a wonderful dinner here last night for Valentine’s Day. They had created a special menu for the occasion which included three courses, cocktails, and wine for a very reasonable price. Their prices are, overall, entirely appropriate for the quality of their food. They had live music, too!
Every time we’ve gone we’ve appreciated top quality food. The ambiance could be improved a bit– it’s a bit brighter than it might be and the ceiling could use an upgrade. This has no impact on the dining experience, however. The cocktail menu is of especial note– there are classics as well as some really innovative drinks. The molten cookie dessert is a must.

Terrible experience again. I don’t understand what the problem is with this restaurant. Our favorite restaurant in Peterborough is Pearl, owned by the same person, but Bantam is a disaster. Worst service, awful drinks, and very poor timing. Skip it, go someplace else. If you can’t get into Pearl you are better off with McDonalds.

Efficient service, great apps, and entrée selection, wines by glass that are offered pair well. Funky wall seems to create feeling of isolation for diners in rear of the restaurant. Beer menu and cocktails AA.

A world class restaurant right here in Peterborough.
Excellent menu choices and everything you want in service and comfort.
Staff is friendly and know the menu inside and out.
I am really glad the owner has started to make changes to the interior at his other restaurant in town. Visually I wish that he’d make changes @Bantam, but this has nothing to do with the amazing food and superb service.
Kill the chickens.

One of our favorite places for lunch. The menu is not huge, but is reasonably diverse and often includes a tempting special.
What stands out though is the quality of everything they serve. Fresh, fresh, FRESH. And prepared with care.
Friendly and informal, but caring service.
Oh, and a nice selection of beers on tap, often at half price during lunch.

Very good pasta. Both the lamb sauce and sausage pasta was good. Beer list looked good. Nice salad

The lamb ragú with fresh pasta was so delicious! My husband had the French onion soup and the fish and chips,
(which was flounder!) and loved both. Atmosphere was very nice, not expected in a strip mall. The menu is small, but full of items that I would like to try!

Delicious food, great service, customer focused! The sweet pea pasta and bantam chicken dishes — yummy!

Great prices! Lunch should always be under $ 10 per person, and this place fits the bill. First time coming but definitely not the last. Ambiance is nice enough to take the wife but casual enough for a bite with the guys. Overall staff was fast and cheerful and water refills were always prompt.

This summer I have eaten my way through NYC, Seattle, and Palo Alto. And now I am home and just back from the Bantam. This place is as good as it gets for us. It starts with the very skillfully preferred drinks. I had a Negroni, prepared with Uncle Val’s gin and an artisanal vermouth. Perfect combination of bitter, herb, and citrus. The bartender was kind enough to provide a small sample of each ingredient.
We nibbled our way down the menu, starting with a summery salad of local beets served with mixed greens and a light pesto. We also had an appetizer of fried flounder over a great crunchy slaw. The flounder was perfectly cooked, moist and crispy. We split a Bantam burger, a loosely pattied, perfectly cooked local treat. (And served with some great Wisconsin bacon.)
The Bantam shares ownership with the Pearl. The menu couldn’t be more different but the skill behind the bar and the attention to details and flavors showcase this lineage. This is a great place to eat or just have a cocktail.

Have come for another dinner and many more lunches since I wrote the first review. It’s definitely grown on me! The servers are always attentive and friendly, lunches are pretty decently priced and yummy.

I would recommend this excellent restaurant to anyone looking to take your significant other out to a small but, gourmet dinner. They offer a great gluten free menu!

We are visiting from California. The food and beverages are wonderful. I would come back in a heartbeat.

I would first like to let other customers know a reservation is highly recommended here. Now onto the service and food… service was very good. Bar tender waited on our table. We had both the beet salad and the Wedge. Delicious! For our main the husband and I both enjoyed the flounder filet. Perfect. I would certainly visit this restaurant again if I am in the area.

Went with my wife and her friend when I first moved to town. My burger was RAW when they brought it to me. TWICE… The bartender was immediately condescending and rude for no reason. I will never go back. Marzano’s is now my favorite.

We dined Friday night at Bantam Grille and it was excellent. The tomato bisque soup was amazing. We also tried the beet salad, brussel sprouts and fried flounder. The brussel sprouts needed salt, but were cooked well. The salad had a complex mix of flavors and the flounder was crunchy and tasty.
Our dinners were all good, but a couple of them stood out as outstanding. The filet dinner was perfection. Butternut squash risotto, balsamic reduction and onion strings with a filet cooked exactly as I ordered it. The lamb ragu was equally exceptional. The salmon dish had a cold cucumber salad served with it and was well executed. The one dish that fell a little flat with flavor was the short rib. It was lacking the flavor of the other dishes.
Dessert was ok. The chocolate tiramisu was homemade but needed more than lady fingers, chocolate mousse and the marscapone cheese.
I didn’t give it five stars for a few reasons. The service was good, but lacking the finesse we expected from a restaurant like that. One dessert came out made wrong and all dinners were in need of salt and pepper.

This was my second trip to Bantam. I am still just as impressed as the first time. I’ve had the Flounder Fritto, duck fat roasted broccoli, lamb stragozza, duck confit drumettes, spicy sausage farfalle, and the molten lava cake. I have not had anything that I didn’t like. The pasta for the lamb was a little bit thick for my personal liking, but the handmade pastas are awesome! Very good flavor and cooked perfectly. I love this restaurant, I just wish it was closer to my house on the seacoast!

This place made me happy over two dinners. And, yes, I ate the lamb ragu, and it was a real treat.
The deets!
French onion soup, 7.5 — good
Short rib, 23 — very nice
BONUS — super-​friendly staff and bar

The Bantam Grill has casual elegance, New Hampshire style, with delicious food and outstanding service. The blackboard listing the farms and other food sources is a good tip of what’s to come. It is 70 minutes from our home in Londonderry (figure 50 minutes from Nashua or Manchester), and well worth the drive. We shall return!
They do a great job of working with seasonal, locally sourced food. Every dish had a superb balance of flavors and textures: bruschetta, martini, vegetable soup, mixed seafood in saffron sauce, mixed vegetables, and homemade tagliatelle in lamb ragu. Our desserts were a fresh-​tasting, delicate, summery lemon custard wtih blackberries and pistachios, and a yummy chocolate cookie concoction with vanilla ice cream.

I was very impressed during a recent trip to New Hampshire when my local friends brought me to Bantam Grill. I mean, I understand the décor is a little ehhh (photos of chickens on the wall although funny doesn’t really complete the look if you get my drift). Looks aside, if I lived in the area or visited again I would happily return. I know my friends frequent the joint quite regularly.
The bread was hot and served with oil and balsamic. A good way to hold off hunger until dinner arrived. The menu features a lot of really enticing items. Portions are quite large and prices are pretty low (I guess I’m used to big city prices so I could definitely get used to this!). I really love that the pasta is homemade.
Speaking of pasta, the dish I tried was called Lamb Strangozzi. This is a pasta shape I am unfamiliar with. I was told it was a thick fettuccine and that’s exactly what it was. The lamb ragu was rich and decadent. Along with the chewy pasta, it created a dish that was comforting on a cool night when I was craving carbs (and apparently stewed meat as well).
My friends enjoyed the scallops and bbq brisket, and both looked fantastic and featured large portions (the scallop dish included 6 hearty scallops, which is very generous for a scallop dish by usual standards).
I can happily say that Bantam Grill impressed me with its food. If it were located in my local area, I might not run there, but I’d happily walk to try the food again. In an area with less options than Providence, I would definitely run there. I think it’s a great spot overall!