Les Zygomates Wine Bar Bistro, Boston, Massachusetts Restaurant Details

Food:

Cozy place with love jazz band playing. Quite tasty, though portions are small. Also they managed to lose my reservation. Luckily, or was not busy that evening.

Food:

Great atmosphere, loved the smooth jazz with the acoustic guitar and a contrabass while enjoying a glass of grüner veltliner.

Food:

So apparently Zygomates is under new ownership with a new chef and I was lucky enough to be invited to taste their menu and besides for a few small misses the meal was a hit. The staff was phenomenal and did a great job explaining the dishes as they were dropped off to the table, which in my opinion doesn't happen enough in higher end restaurants. Les Zygomates is also in the middle of a renovation and from what was completed it looked pretty sharp.

Here is what I tasted:

Charcuterie - Great little board with a focus on duck. Duck pastrami and the pate were great

House made duck confit nuggets - I was just able to try one of these. Great concept, as someone who loves duck I think these were spot on. Crunchy on the outside and flavorful on the inside

Smoked Salmon - This was a highlight of the meal and I'm not usually a smoked salmon fan. It was served on top of a chip and I found it very flavorful

Poached Shrimp - This was also served on some type of chip, it was good but I thought it was just good shrimp on a chip

southeast Asian Mussels - Another highlight of the meal. I think the whole table was caught off guard at how good these tasted and the presentation. The curry and coconut flavors were perfect but not overpowering.

Gnocchi in a Garlic Cream Sauce w/ Escargot and Lamb Bacon - This was hands down my favorite dish. I wasn't sure if I would dig the lamb bacon but it helped perfect the complex flavor profile. The fresh gnocchi's were almost slightly crispy which I enjoyed.

Lobster Bisque - I've never had lobster bisque with a puff pastry on top but it was a welcome addition. There were a few chunks of lobster in there as well.

Bone in Veal - While I wouldn't normally order giant hunks of meat while at dinner if this is your style then this is a killer dish. The veal had a great crust that was just crispy enough and flavorful. It was cooked perfectly medium rare.

Creme Brulee - Not much else to say other than it was a perfect rendition of this classic dessert

Lemon Souffle - I never tried a lemon souffle before but I really enjoyed the tart and fruity flavors of this dish. Seems like a great palette cleanser to end a meal.

Baked Alaska - One of the best presented dishes of the night. They lit it on fire tableside. As far as taste goes I found it a little too boozey and thought the chocolate ice cream inside wasn't a good fit

Food:

Food was overpriced and live music was a bit loud. This place definitely should have three $$$ dollar signs.
The oysters weren't very good, containing some shell in them.
The swordfish was great, but the other dishes we had didn't measure up.

Food:

Quick Summary: Tacky decor, loud bad music and expensive mediocre food make this a dining experience to avoid.

Went here on a week night, not very crowded and was seated quickly in the main dining room where they have a live "jazz" band. The band really wasn't much to my liking, mostly cheesy covers that they tried to make "jazzy". Mediocre or bad music isn't usually a death knell though unless the music is deafeningly loud, which it was. At times you couldn't even hear people talking from across the table.

Second thing I noticed was the decor. Whoever decorated this place seems to think that throwing up posters with french words will miraculously turn your establishment into an authentic french bistro. Unfortunately the lack of detail and attention shows and makes it feel tacky all around.

Finally got around to ordering dinner, opted for the prix fixe option which isn't a bad deal at $44 for appetizer, dinner and dessert, but it should be noted that they limit your choices. Started with a french onion soup and escargot. The soup was fairly mediocre, not very hot, and I've made better at home with little effort. The escargot were tasty, but it's just garlic and butter and snails, so it's fairly hard to mess this one up.

Had the fish and steak frites for dinner. The fish was completely tasteless, was tempted to send it back, but just ended up not eating much of it. The steak was underdone, still raw in the middle on a medium rare request, however, the sauce they made to accompany the steak was good.

The dessert selection was extremely limited and most items were some variation of ice cream. We had the creme brûlée and a chocolate cremeux. The chocolate was passable, but nothing to get excited about. The creme brûlée was underwhelmingly mediocre and, although it was served cold, they clearly got a little too close with the propane as there were random warm spots of custard.

To top it all off our waiter was abysmal, vanished for most of the service and this was when there were three tables in the entire restaurant. The busboy did a better job servicing our table and I was tempted to slip him $10 if only I had some cash on me.

Zygomates was a complete disappointment through and through. Maybe they should do away with the loud live music and spend the extra cash on better food. At more than $50/head this place isn't even close to being worth the money.