Bistro du Midi — Restaurant in Boston

I wrote this review after attempting to resolve an overcharge bill issue with the restaurant over 2 weeks.

My friends booked a table of 4 with my girlfriend and I on 2/26/22 for 5pm. All of us got the tasting menu, while 2 included the wine pairing

First the positives: 1.The $135 for the 7 course tasting menu was reasonably priced My girlfriend was doing a vegetarian phase and they were able to accommodate her with a very good vegetarian tasting. The beat gnocchi was quite fantastic, and better than some of the meat options. The Mousse we had for dessert was also fantastic, they added a bottom layer that was crunchy and the added texture really brought out the finale.

Underwelming The wagyu course was actually american wagyu (disappointing but okay) and turned out to be 3 ounces of stringy tendon. The other two people with the wagyu got slightly better cuts. I would have expected more selective cuts with given the 3 oz serving size Was charged full price for the vegetarian tasting (Could be understandable for the accommodation and the well thought out meal, but the normal tasting had significantly more expensive ingredients) Got charged for a wine top off for my friend's wine pairing. The server's language made it seem like it was on the house. (understandable but a bit annoying)

The Bad We had dinner on 2/26. We were in a hurry to an event so I paid the bill in a rush and was going to follow up on some charges with my friend. On 2/27 I looked at my bill and discussed it with my friends about an extra charge to see if it was something they ordered. But realized we got charged roughly $85 ($64 + 30% for tax and tip) extra for the dessert course for a tasting menu, an error that seems inconceivable to me, since the server was diligent enough to charged our table for a wine top off for my friends even though his offer at the time made it seem like he was offering it on the house. I called them back and reached the GM, Juan who confirmed the error and promised to help resolve the issue. The GM promised to call me back on 2/28 with next steps which he did not do. I called in around 10pm after not hearing anything and he reassured me he would call me back once he sorted the matter out. Even if they were working on it, a courtesy update on the date that was stated, for an error on the restaurant's part is not unreasonable to expect. He finally called me back on 3/2 and offered me a $100 giftcard for the $85 overcharge. Alright fine, and I emailed him my address. He said I could pick it up or have it mailed to me. I chose mail and he said it would get sent out on Friday 3/4 with all the mail. I did not get a followup after that. It is now 3/11 a week after the mail should have gone out, and a full 2 weeks since this issue occurred. It should not take 7 days to deliver mail within 5 miles. This remains unresolved

This list of events is to give a clear picture on what has happened and that this level of service for an error on the restaurant's part feels extremely disappointing.

Also attached my bill which clearly shows a charge on the 7th course of a tasting menu.

Edit: I sent them an email the night of 3/11 and received a call back the following day. The GM said he sent another giftcard, this time with a tracking number for 3/14 delivery. I told them I hope this would be our final conversation and if I did not receive any mail, I would deal with my credit card company. This prompted them to agree to speak to their accounting team to also reverse the charge. I did receive the followup mail on 3/14 and my credit card reflects the charge reversal. While its a mystery why the first gift card never arrived, I do consider this matter resolved, in spite...

Good food but service needs improvement. I am a vegeterian and have a shellfish allergy and made this clear to the server and asked what she reocmmended. She recommended a pasta dish that ordinailty comes with mussels and uni but she said she could have it prepared vegetarian. When the food arrived, I took a huge bite out of a mussel and realized it hadn't been prepared as vegetarian. A different waiter came and told me that it wasn't meant to be a vegetarian dish and seemed reluctant to rectify the problem. I had to re-explain in front of our large dinner party that I had an allergy and it kinda felt like I had to prove that they had made a mistake. He begrudgingly removed the dish and about 7 mins. later, returned with the very same plate! He said he "removed all the mussels" and put it back in front of me. It was shocking that he was just put the plate back in front of me and was pretty humiliating. I then had to dig through the dish and identified more mussels. On top of this, I reiterated AGAIN that I have a shellfish allergy (and am vegetarian) and couldn't eat this dish because it had been prepared with shellfish (it was so obvious that this was a seafood dish! I had no idea why they are being so resistant to just preparing it vegetarian as I had ordered it and why they were so insistent that I eat something that I am allergic to. He seemed annoyed and picked the plate up again and left. Apparently, they had to make the dish from scratch including the actual tortellini which is time and labor intensive so I think the reason they were so reluctant to just correct the problem in the first place was because the kitchen didn't want to have to do this.

To the restaurant's credit, they gave me a complimentary pasta dish to eat while they prepared the dish I ordered and they compt. both for me. This was kind of them and both dishes were good. My issue though is that the mistake shouldn't have happened in the first place (fortunately my shellfish allergy isn't severe) and I didn't appreciate the servers embarrassing me by pressuring me to eat a dish that I'm allergic to and causing an embarrassing scene at the table in front of the entire group. Next time, they should actually listen to the customer, understand the problem, and quickly rectify it. They didn't need to cause such a scene at the table.

Overall, the food is good and I appreciated their willingness to comp the dished. I just hope the staff learn how to better resolve these kinds of problems to avoid embarrassing their customers. My experience was negative enough that I won't...

On Sunday, (September 17, 2017) I decided to go out for brunch because it was a gorgeous summer day. Unfortunately, my brunch was less than satisfactory. I left that establishment and headed to Bistro Du Midi.

The last time I was there, I had the quiche, which was simply delectable. This time, I did not order the quiche, but someone in my party did. I had a taste of it, and it was very disappointing. The texture of the crust was gritty and hard, not melt in your mouth as a great crust should. The filling consisted of some kind of cheese that I didn't bother to check, asparagus and the usual quiche ingredients: Unfortunately, it was completely uninspired.

This unsavory quiche is not what one expects at a restaurant that calls itself a French restaurant. And not for the price that one pays at Bistro Du Midi. The unappetizing quiche is what I would expect at a run of the mill wayside diner.

Now, I ordered the Salade Niçoise, which was also mediocre. Nothing like the Salade Niçoise that I'm accustomed to, and it certainly didn't remotely remind me of the ones I had in France. The seared tuna had no flavor, they could have put a little seasoning on it. The boiled eggs were ok, but it's hard to mess up boiled eggs. They also didn't use the best quality olives. I buy better olives than that at Wholefoods all the time. The salad itself was fresh, and it had a bit of a pleasant surprise for me, which were the anchovies. I do believe they can improve on the bland seared tuna, however.

After dinner, our server convinced us to order dessert and so we did. I wasn't too eager to try the dessert after the milk-and-water dinner we had just experienced. We ordered the Pineapple Genoise, which is a very small piece of "hard pound cake" on a bed of brown sugar streusel, topped with some crème fraîche ice cream and garnished with small morsels of pineapple and some cherries. I do want to compliment the tasty ice cream, that was one of the commendable aspects of this dessert. The presentation was pleasing, but the hard pound cake wasn't what I expected. I imagined a fluffier cake and not something that resembled a mini disk they use at the Olympics. It was just too hard: I'm not a fan of this dessert!

Will I go back to Bistro Du Midi? It all depends: There are so many exciting restaurants in the Boston area I want to experience, so we'll just...