Talulla — Restaurant in Cambridge

It’s your girl’s last year in her 40s, so we decided to celebrate with a fancy dinner at Talulla in Cambridge!

I had a lot of spare time to write this review, so I gave my opinion for every plate. But if you only have a few seconds, then here’s my bottom line: Hands down, highly, highly recommend Talulla, and I can’t wait to return!

For a more detailed review, keep reading…

We started with the housemade sourdough and focaccia with herb butter. The sourdough was good, but my favorite was the focaccia! Since there were only two pieces of focaccia, I made sure to savor every nibble. And that melt-in-your mouth herb butter…perfection.

We shared two starters, the Crunch Salad and the Local Burrata. The flavors in the Crunch Salad were exquisite, but the game changer was the whey sorbet that was placed in the center of the salad. I never want to eat another salad again unless there’s a scoop of sorbet with it. The Local Burrata was so smooth and creamy and it paired well with the sweetness of the stone fruits. The croutons were crunchy and a flavorful addition to the appetizer. There was a small slice of duck prosciutto with this plate, and since I was the birthday girl, I selfishly ate the whole thing in one bite.

For our pasta, we ordered the Spaghetti which included littleneck clams and yuzu kosho (citrus and chili paste) which gave it a nice kick! For our main meal, we delighted in the Bavette Steak, which was perfectly seared and incredibly satisfying.

During our meal, I sipped on a sweet mocktail while my husband opted for a glass of wine. For dessert, I ordered an Espresso Martini which paired well with the complimentary birthday dessert of coconut gelato. (Aw…what a thoughtful and refreshing birthday treat!)

We were pleased to meet Danielle, of Talulla’s husband and wife team. She was so sweet and very kind.

When we received our receipt, we also received a small card explaining that a 23% Admin Fee had been added to our bill in lieu of asking for a tip. This fee goes towards paying the salaries of all of their employees. After enjoying such a scrumdiddlyumptious meal, we felt that the 23% admin fee was reasonable and well-deserved.

All in all, we highly recommend Talulla and are looking forward to our next reason to celebrate at this charming...

I would give them 3 1/2 stars if I could. As a fellow business owner, I hate doing "bad reviews" but I am an avid user of reviews in making my restaurant decisions, so feel it is important to share.

We have eaten at Talulla twice before and really enjoyed our meal both times. Unfortunately this meal left me dissatisfied...and it ultimately centers around the cost and what we got in return for what we were charged.

We eat out regularly. We also just returned from a trip to Europe where we ate in many great restaurants, including several Michelin rated restaurants. We also love tasting menus with wine pairings, since they are an expression of the chef's true abilities.

I had looked at the menus (a la carte & tasting menu) in advance and had decided to skip the tasting menu. In my opinion the tasting menu posted online did not rationalize the cost. At $125 for a 4-course meal, that come to $32 per course. Rather steep.

When we got there, the tasting menu was different...a menu of "game meats". My wife was interested so we went with the $125 tasting menu and $65 wine pairing.

Well...the dishes were OK, but they were not great. The only real standout was the venison, which was excellent. The rabbit, squab and pheasant dishes were OK, they weren't great and really didn't justify the price.

The wine pairings were also good, but at $16 for a half glass they were also rather expensive for what we got.

The final shock came when we got our bill...the waitress proudly told us that they are now "a tip free restaurant" which I was confused by until I saw my bill and realized that they added "23% Admin fee" to my bill.

The total bill for us to have a 4-course tasting menu with 4 wine pairs came to over $500, which I found shockingly expensive. I am happy to pay high prices if I get correspondingly high value. We have had 7 and 9 course tasting menus that I thought were some of the best meals I ever eaten.

In the end, the 23% markup was slap in the face. If you are truly going to be a tip-free restaurant, then build your costs into the menu cost like they do in Europe.

In the end, our dinner was good, but at $250 per person, I expect very good to exceptional, and this was...

I had been looking forward to dining at Tallula for awhile. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype and at the end, was priced like a Michelin-starred experience without the menu or experience of one.

Food: I came with a friend and we both got the tasting menu with the bread basket to start. The bread and butter was actually excellent and the best part of the meal. The opening appetizer was raw scallops, and that was actually quite nice, as it had a floral and peppery taste to it. The 2nd course was fois gras with (more) bread. Perhaps this is where I wish we didn’t start with the bread basket, as the bread with the foie gras seemed like cheap white toast in comparison. The foie gras itself, I felt was ruined. Perhaps I am a purist, but whatever gelatin and berry mix they made with the foie gras taste overly acidic and fruity and took away from the rich, earthy, buttery-ness that one would expect. Next up was the pasta - I had squid ink cavatelli and my friend had the lobster pasta. Both portions were laughably small and the lobster dish was bland; overall nothing special and we both felt we would get a much better dish at any other restaurant. The protein was a short rib, which was too salty, and again, felt like it lacked novelty. Finally was desert, which again was very bread forward with 2 dense brownies for each serving - again, nothing novel, and we could barely swallow it after what felt like such a bready meal as is.

Service was okay, I believe our server could tell that we didn’t like the food (we didn’t finish most dishes) and ended up avoiding us in favor of other tables, and it was quite clear we weren’t getting serviced as kindly as other patrons. It also didn’t help they put us at a table right by the door that was constantly open/closing on a 20-degree evening.

After a 4-course tasting menu, 1 drink, tax/tip, the meal ended up being $132 just for myself. It was a bit upsetting because I have had truly exquisite Michelin experiences at that price point. Overall, glad I experienced it, but likely will not be returning or...