Forage — Restaurant in Cambridge

I looked forward to coming this restaurant, hoping they could carry the renowned "Craigie" flair established by the original Craigie Street Bistrot. It would've been a great experience had the chefs put a bit more thought into the construction of the meals. I consider this an opportunity missed.

We did the the vegetarian & the omnivore testing menus as part of my wife's birthday celebration. I've learned that the tasting menu was 4 courses, fewer than usual (5-7 courses are common), but the price point validated it, so I wasn't too surprised.

First off, our server Nathan was great. He was knowledgeable, took time to think and offer advice, and informed us about the source of the food and the drinks. I can't say the same thing for the food runners. I found it unpleasant to have our plates dropped off without having a word about what's inside the dish, where it is coming from, and how it is prepared.

The first course was a simple shepherd's salad with smoked pecans and we enjoyed it. It didn't blow the covers off but it was a fine start.

The real problem started with the zucchini, the second course. Both the omnivore and the vegetarian got this one, which was surprising. This was an incredibly basic dish (note the word selection - not "simple" but "basic") where a good amount of raw zucchini were sliced, 3-5 hazelnuts were thrown in haphazardly, with a "musk melon vinaigrette" on top, which honestly tasted like water. No complexity and no flavor whatsoever led to a bland experience. This looked like a "chef's whim" dish that wasn't on the menu but prepared with repurposed ingredients. This is fine, but many "chef's whim" dishes that I've personally prepared, served, and eaten over the years at French bistrots offering tasting menus would seriously outclass this dish.

The third dish was bluefish and hanger steak, both on the menu, both cuts of meat that aren't necessarily of highest quality. The food was prepared well, however, and had some flavor. We liked both.

We enjoyed the cocktails. I liked the fact that they used underappreciated liquors such as mezcal and aquavit.

The dessert was a simple cream with berries. It was not bad but not worthy of an upscale restaurant offering tasting menus. I would've liked to see some sort of an added complexity to it. The Forage staff was nice enough to complement the dinner with a small gift of oyster mushroom ice-cream from the chef's brother's creamery, which we very much appreciated. It was a thoughtful gesture.

I think the top experience of the dinner was the coffee from Barrington Roasters. Nathan was very knowledgeable about this and we talked about common acquaintances we've worked with in the past.

Overall, an OK experience, but not...

Came for Tuesday Wine menu. Booked through OpenTable which advertised a $90 each 3-course meal. When i arrived, I was surprised with a $95 per meal and a "covid recovery fee" at the end.

Three courses: heiwa tofu, potato spinach papusa, mushroom sweet potato phyllo, blondie dessert

I'll share my thoughts about each.

One. Heiwa tofu was basic as hell. I'm vegan. I eat plain tofu with micro greens for breakfast. (I really do. My actual breakfast). They added rose water and cara cara oranges and dropped some micro greens on it ... Not impressed. The combination of rose water did not add to the greens or tofu. The Greek wine was pleasant but bright and overpowering. Nice concept to pair plain tofu with bright wine, but this was not the right wine to warm up my pallet. I speak for vegans when I say that this course is not worth $30. See photo of tofu 👇.

Two. Potato spinach papusa was nice. I liked the spinach an potato filling but the dough in the papusa was powdery in some parts. The charring added a nice bitter complexity to the papusa. Ghost pepper tomato foam and pickled cabbage was memorable. I would like this dish better if it were not for the powdery parts of the papusa, the papusa : pickle ratio needed more pickle. the plating was poorly executed which challenged the meal. Again, the italian wine pairing was an interesting wine, flat but tart. It did not pair well with powdery doughy bitter papusa.

Three. Mushroom sweet potato phyllo. This was actually a bad dish. The plating was tasteless and looked like a poorly home-cooked meal. The dish, overall, was stale, poorly cooked/baked, with poor flavor/taste balance. The texture was off. Phyllo is supposed to be airy with a delicate crunch. This phyllo was under-baked on the bottom and not fully cooked in the middle. It was soggy and doughy in some parts. The sweet potato chunks (basically just halved and wrapper) contributed to a bad filling ratio. The mushroom was tasty but unfortunately there was nothing else redeeming this dish. Not worth $30.

Four. Dessert. The Blondie was too sweet, (again) stale, poorly baked (evident scooping of the dough; high crust, flattened scooped center). Clearly an amateur bake. This is not something I would serve my friends, much less in a restaurant.

I did not appreciate being seated next to large 10-person party during a pandemic when the rest of the room was empty.

Aside from the main waiter Stanley, the remaining staff were unknowledgeable and not representative of $300 meal service.

Overall: overpriced, stale, amateur home-cooking. questionable choice of wine pairing. bad service (except Stanley). Not...

On a Saturday night in November, I took my partner to Forage in Cambridge, hoping for a memorable birthday dinner. The evening began with a disappointing note: tucked away in the basement of a condo building, Forage is a cramped, noisy space, packed with tables and buzzing with a din that makes conversation an exercise in patience. Despite noting the birthday in our reservation, the occasion went unacknowledged by the staff—a minor detail, but one that foreshadowed the overall lackluster experience.

We went with the vegan tasting menu at $70 per person, anticipating a thoughtful, plant-focused journey. Instead, we were served a series of dishes that felt cobbled together by amateurs. The first course—a simple plate of pickles—was curiously bland, almost aggressively unseasoned. This set the stage for what followed: a sliced radish dish with cashew cream and a scatter of what was called “roasted cranberry.” The cranberry added nothing but a slight confusion, while the cashew cream was flat, lacking any tang or complexity.

The next course was a study in chaos. Broccolini arrived with squash and a side of celeriac slaw, the latter dressed in that same cashew cream. The plate was dotted with three random raspberries, which felt more like a desperate attempt to add color than a considered flavor addition. The squash was irregularly cut, some pieces still raw, and the broccolini was untrimmed, lending the whole dish an unfinished, chaotic quality. It was as though no one in the kitchen had ever heard of cohesive flavors.

Then came the risotto, which was possibly the most perplexing course. Over-salted and tasting faintly of artificial chicken powder, it included yet another round of undercooked squash. By the time dessert arrived—a near-transparent sliver of vegan cheesecake with a few scattered berries—we’d abandoned hope. The cheesecake was just okay — salty, insubstantial, and a poor note to end on.

Forage seems to have set out to be a rustic, vegetable-driven experience, but it misses the mark by a wide margin. The amateurish execution, mismatched flavors, and inattentive service make it unsuitable for celebrations—or any evening, really. Forage is the kind of place you visit once, only to find yourself in no...