Bistro Zinc — Restaurant in Lenox

One of the best places I have ever been to ! Food is amazing, staff kindness is next level & management is the best !

I had a honor to work there for the part of the summer when I was trying to earn some money for my studies. And to be fair I will never forget this place... I was international student at the time far away from home and amount of help and support I received blows my mind... When I brought my resume they didn't ask me just about my experience at that time but also what is my favorite food? or my favorite book.. Which made me realise I won't be just a number there. And I was right ! Bistro Zinc is a family and they care about each other. I didn't have car at the time and was working in couple places. Management knew it and bought me black shirts so I wouldn't have to stress how to get to the city.. On my birthday they got me my favorite chocolate cake from my favorite Chocolate Springs shop knowing I didn't have any family there or many friends !! While I was working in USA car hit me when I was riding back home on my bike and I have been charged 5k for hospital expenses even if it wasn't my fault. Back than legal language was too difficult for me as second language speaker. Insurance was sending me to police, police to agency and agency to insurance.. I couldn't break out of the circle. When management find out what happened and knowing I didn't have much money at that time, hired the lawyer for me who solved everything down for me and took away all the stress. And this is where I want to give massive shout out for Bistro Zinc. It has been 6 or 7 years when I worked there. So much changed... But I will never forget this place and I still remember it with the biggest smile. Kindness, support and amount of help I received massively impacted my life and made me to want to be a better person on a daily basis.

Thank you Bistro Zinc ! How you do one thing you do everything

First I'll say that the food deserves 5 stars, because it's that good; however, I have to knock a couple stars off for other reasons. We got the burrata app and there was a long brown hair in it, which ended up in one of our mouths. Flagged the waitress over, and she apologized and took the burrata off the bill, which is great. Kind of expected her to share that info with the manager though, in such a fancy place, and get another apology or something, but no one ever mentioned it again. Parking is a flipping nightmare, so get there ahead of time to find a street spot and plan for walking quite a distance. Also not a fan of how tight the seating is. I know it's a small, popular place, and they want to seat as many as possible, but there is literally no room to move between some of the tables in the middle of the floor. In fact, it's so tight, that we watched a food runner literally spill an entire bowl of Sweet Corn Vichyssoise on an elderly man and into his lap because of how she had to twist and turn her body to set the bowl down in between the table and support beam. There's no privacy between tables or booths either, it felt like we were sitting with the folks next to us, and that's just not something we expected in a place like this. Our waitress was fine, but seemed to be more attentive to other tables around us and did give a little bit of preferential treatment to other parties. Maybe regulars? Maybe because we were only a 2 top and she figured the tip isn't worth the extra effort? Not sure, but it just made us feel a little awkward when she brought other people's checks and set them down with macaroons as a thank you and gushed over them with profusive thanks for coming in, but then just set our check down and walked away with barely a smile. All that said, we will probably give this place one more chance, because it really is a good menu, we'll just go back later at night or maybe with a...

The food, service, and atmosphere in the main dining room are...just okay. The bar may be a better bet in terms of service and atmosphere, and the drinks they make are solid. I think the chef at Bistro Zinc may be aiming for subtle, and that's a welcome aspiration in the Berkshires, where many restaurants give up on that endeavor very quickly. The issue with this particular restaurant's efforts is that most of the dishes we have tried are simply "meh." As in...not all that interesting in conception, execution, flavor combinations, spices, presentation, or...anything. Some dishes do depart from this norm, but they end up being really odd. (Why would you stack a bunch of really strong chorizo sausage over oysters on the half shell, for example? It's a bit of a head-scratcher....)

But for a relatively non-offensive meal in what becomes a very loud open dining room at peak times, with staff whose minimal enthusiasm and lack of attention to detail often feels like a "work-to-rule" protest, Bistro Zinc is a reliable option. It's just, well, you're going to pay a pretty penny for your meal. Remember that odd oyster appetizer? It was $25 for six oysters. Entrees range from upper $30's to upper $40's. A goat cheese salad is $19.

Lastly, it should be noted that Bistro Zinc is not a gluten-friendly restaurant. The kitchen cannot modify dishes to be GF -- and most of the starters and mains have gluten in them. This doesn't mean there aren't options -- I've had GF soup there that was actually quite satisfying, if somewhat bland -- and they will even offer GF bread for the table. So a gluten-sensitive person definitely won't go hungry -- I certainly didn't! But this is just a word to the wise that Bistro Zinc doesn't make the efforts that many other fine dining establishments in the area do...