Zuzu's Petals — Restaurant in Cambridge

I went here with my girlfriend and had a great time; I dislike most alcohol but actually really liked the white wine I got, and my gf also really liked hers. We got the infinite brownies and I was so impressed with how good they were!! And it was overall such a cute place with very nice staff and good vibes.

I think Zuzu's Petals deserves 5 stars for how good the offerings were, plus it is one of the only device-free establishments in the area which makes it a place I would go out of my way to revisit. But there are some definite qualifiers on my positive experience which I feel the need to include as hopefully useful feedback. First of all is I wish there was at least one solid non-alcoholic option; I realize this might come off pointless to ask of a place you go specifically to drink alcohol, but I don't think it would be a difficult change or something that would negatively impact anyone, while making it so much easier to enjoy for people that don't drink alcohol but have friends who do. Plus you might want to stay and have a drink with your brownie but not get absolutely smashed in the process since you can only drink alcohol. Secondly, I really wished there was a somewhat filling savory snack option that had a snack-sized cost. It's hard on your stomach to only have desserts, but usually you want to have something solid to go with alcohol, and it's hard to justify spending $18 on a snack when you're already spending a lot on wine. Just plain bread or something would add a lot of value to the menu. Third of all, although the staff were great whenever we talked to them, they were confusingly absent for long periods of time. As in nobody was in the room at all! We waited for 15+ minutes for someone to come back out so we could ask for the check, and in the end had to go back into the kitchen area so we could leave (!). I have only gone once (last year) so maybe this was a one-off but it was still pretty unusual. Relatedly, I did see people go on their phones a few times, perhaps because they weren't aware of the no-device policy, but no staff were around to let them know about it. I recall there being 2 employees at the time and feel it would have been prudent to ensure at least one of them was always present.

If it weren't for the above issues, I think this would be an easy "recommend to everyone I know for a cute and fancy night out" place. In any case though I am still looking forward to going...

Went here for the first time a couple days ago. We enjoyed the food/drinks and atmosphere. Unfortunately, the service we received soured our overall experience.

I arrived promptly for a 7pm reservation and my partner arrived several minutes later. I was quickly seated and offered water, which was appreciated. When asked if I’d like to order, I let the server know I would wait for my partner. Once he arrived, however, we waited over 30 minutes for a server to return to our table, despite our efforts to make eye contact with several staff members. During that time, servers were actively attending to tables around us, which made the lack of attention to ours especially noticeable.

We eventually placed an order for wine and a cheese board, but the cheese board didn’t arrive for another 35–40 minutes—and only after we asked about it a second time. Later, when we asked about dessert, we were told, “It should be okay, but this table is reserved at 9.” After spending so much time waiting, it really felt like a slap in the face to be told that we would need to expedite our dessert consumption & payment due to an incoming reservation.

I’d really like to see steps taken to ensure that tables don’t fall through the cracks in this way. Perhaps a brief note on the reservation page regarding the two-hour seating limit would help set expectations. Or, consider adjusting the number of reservations you accept to allow for instances of slower service and/or customer lingering. I understand and appreciate your goal of cultivating a laid-back, European-inspired vibe where guests are encouraged to linger, but in our case, it felt more like we were being overlooked and...

Disclaimer: I went on the first night of their soft opening so I anticipate a higher rating upon another visit.

I really want to like this place. Having a wine bar nearby is a dream come true… the part that saddens me is that the prices are a bit out of control. I love the concept but the execution doesn’t seem sustainable.

Glasses of white wine ranged from $15 to $64 with only 3 options. I suppose this would be fine if you’ve always wanted to try a glass of an expensive bottle but would normally have to buy the whole bottle to do that. I question some of the prices though. The orange Slovenian wine they offered for $19/glass you can buy for around $40 a bottle or less depending on where you buy it.

It’s certainly not a place for first time wine drinkers or even regularly cheap wine drinkers. It’s definitely more geared towards the refined wine palate, or otherwise people who don’t care to spend a lot just for a cute date place. I’m not convinced that the population they are catering to exists in the area, but only time will tell.

I would go back to try the tiramisu ($16 serves 2) but not sure if it will be on the menu daily because the menu we got was printed with today’s date on it. (Sad day to be a tree)

I will probably go back in a few weeks to see if they expanded the menu or made it more reasonable. Unfortunately I feel like the current offering isn’t sustainable to keep the place open, but I really hope they can...