Cafe Adam, Bar and Restaurant — Restaurant in Great Barrington

Because they never responded to my email, and people keep suggesting this place every time I visit for the holidays, and I have to say no.... below is my email, to which they have never responded. Oh, and I didn't even mention in my email the mesh mask that our server was wearing. Might as well not wear one because we get it, you don't believe in covid. Needless to say, we've never been back. If you're racist, be less obvious about it.

I am writing to share our experience at your establishment with the hope that it does not happen again to us or anyone else. Before I share our experience, I would like to first acknowledge your staff for braving the current pandemic to provide service and food to patrons. There is a certain level of risk associated with what they do and we would like to thank them because if not for them, we would not have had a "night out."

I had previously dined at your restaurant with my fiance and we really enjoyed our time there. I did not hesitate to pick Cafe Adam when my sister and I had an opportunity to get together. We dined with you on December 30th and was promptly seated for our 8:15 p.m. reservation. When our server first took our order, we hadn't decided on drinks yet because our beverages depended on what we were ordering for our meal. However, we were ready to order our food and did so keeping in mind the time your establishment had to close. We ordered one appetizer, two salads, and the bone-in ribeye to share. We let our server know that we needed a couple more minutes to decide on beverages. Our server seemed disappointed in our limited order and did not fail to show her disappointment. While we waited to put in our beverage order, she entered the dining room three times and each time, she serviced the two other tables while ignoring ours. It was only during her third entrance, after she serviced the two other tables, that she came to our table and took our order of two cocktails and a bottle of cabernet. We made sure to remain polite and ordered dessert and another two cocktails by 9:30 p.m. My fiance joined us shortly after to enjoy his cocktail and share dessert with us. It very was clear our server treated us according to her premature judgement, whether warranted or not, of our economic status and ability to pay/tip.

We understand that the attitude and conduct of one person isn't necessarily the reflection of the entire establishment. However, our experience would have been magnitudes better if she was as warm and attentive to us as she were to other guests. The icing on the cake was when my sister found she was overcharged $25 on her bill (see attached screenshot of her CC charge). We had asked our server to put $75 on my sister's card and the remaining on mine. I covered the tip and made sure my sister's signed slip remained at $75 (see attached slips your manager Sylvia texted to my sister). As you can see, my sister's slip clearly stated $0 in tip, with a total of $75. The $36 tip I left was sufficient to cover the entire bill's recommended 18% tip. Though our server was cold to us for most of our time there, we commend her for her work during this pandemic.

We would like to visit your establishment again and hope to have a better experience, especially since we thoroughly enjoyed the food and my fiance kept raving about dessert! I hope that next time my future in-laws ask about our experience at Cafe Adam, I am able to tell them about our all-around...

Have now visited Café Adam on three occasions. The first two nudged right up against five stars. The most recent, last night, made me glad I didn't give in to the temptation, though the evening was still solid on all levels.

Something about the ingredients was lacking last night. The vegetables in the Verdi Verdi pasta dish -- and there are many -- didn't make me want to swear off meat as I'd been prepared to during my summer visits. Perhaps local sourcing is to blame -- or to credit. In the dead of winter the peas, artichockes, sundried tomatoes and cauliflower lacked the liveliness that I recall from similar concoctions during prior visits.

Another recipe, though ambitious, didn't quite amaze as anticipated. This was the basic winter staple of butternut squash soup, in bisque form. Added to the conventional presentation were pomegranates and pecans. While the textural change was intriguing, the effect on the palate was far less so. The pecans were fine, but the pomegranate bursts seemed to rival the soup's smoothness rather than complement it. All-in-all still pleasurable, but fascinating more on paper than in the crock.

One dish which out-and-out didn't work for me were fried chickpeas. My companion got there first and ordered them, so I felt no obligation to pop more than a handful before declaring them beyond my culinary comprehension. I mean -- and not to get too Roseanne Rosanneadanna about it -- but those think little skins that you can squeeze off in your hand when eating them raw were now crunchy. Crunchy chicken skin? Yes. Crunchy chickpea skin? Bring on the soup.

Happily the final entrée was magnficient. Caramelized sea scallops in some rich sauce or another (with scallops everything else is beside the point if they're large and fresh) did wonders to restore what was descending rapidly toward an unexpectedly mediocre meal.

Wines by the glass cover all the bases, but they are expensive.

Place was packed and that's a good thing, because Saturday nights in January in the heart of the Berkshires is not an automatic from a restaurateur's standpoint. Service was as professional as you'd expect but lacked warmth.

The dining rooms -- and there are several -- however, did exude warmth, as the lighting was subdued but not nocturnal and the decibel level remained unobtrusive.

Will try again in spring when the menu turns over. Perhaps an appointment to coincide with asparagus season will bring the five-star scenario...

We were very much anticipating our meal at Cafe Adam. We managed to get a last minute friday reservation the night before and felt like we won the lottery.

Seating was prompt and we had an awesome nook within the indoor patio section. We were bothered by mosquitoes for the entire evening (wish their were ceiling fans in that park of the nook, with the brown tufted leather couch)- { mid oct 5pm dining }

The menu is really unique and seems like there is something for everyone. Our waitress was great; she fielded our many questions about foods, ingredients, recommendations, etc.

Our appetizers: a bread order + the fried artichokes. Loved the artichoke with the aioli, but the grilled bread had strong hints of beef tallow flavors (perhaps they used the same grill for their steaks? Just a theory)

Entrees: the clam linguine; mom said they tasted great, and the serving size was plenty.

Scallop + pork belly; scallops were seared and delicious, my wife wished some of the scallops had a darker sear (color wasn’t even amongst all scallops); the pork belly portion resembled thick cut / deep fried bacon. We were hoping it was something braised or grilled. Accompanying vegetables were superb in the pesto sauce.

My dinner: steak (ribeye, medium rare) frites. Shoestring fries were plentiful and salty. Steak was beautifully medium rare, albeit a bit under seasoned. I’ve been thinking over this for some time and I realize it may be under seasoned purposely to go with their steak sauce (which tasted like a milder Hoisin sauce) or go along with the very salty fries. My only mild complaint was that I hoped the ribeye had come out with a more charred/carmelized outer crust since it was freshly grilled. Otherwise it was a delicious choice.

Dessert was the Moltado(sp?), which my wife gave two thumbs up.

Overall, a pretty good experience. Ambiance and decor were very neat, warm, and rustic.

I definitely would have swapped our bread order for their wild mushroom sautéed in butter (hen of the woods, freshly picked and displayed by the entrance), if I had to...