Bistro du Midi

I came here with a group, and the service was slow. The food, however, made up for it. It was simply fantastic, from the beet gnocchi to charred octopus and bouillabaisse.

Super nice bistro with a great vibe and great service. Interesting, modern menu that is innovative but not over-the-top. I had the burger for my main course, as I can't pass up a gourmet burger. Solid choice of toppings, although I'd recommend a more conclusive combination of ingredients. The burger, which had foie gras butter, a prime short rib patty, and aged gruyere, stopped immediately at the gate with raw red onions, a piece of romaine, and a slice of tomato. Obvious improvements can be made.

Overall, nothing stand-out. But this is a great spot with views of the park with reliable food and great service.

Bistro du Midi is an upscale French restaurant in the heart of Boston! The location being near the Boston Commons makes it a great spot for a date night or nice occasion.

Food:
We got a few dishes: duck breast, grilled octopus, foie gras with pumpkin bread, whipped mushroom pastry, salmon crudo, and poached pear creme brulee.
The duck breast was juicy and soft and the skin had a nice sear to it. I liked the lentils on the bottom that gave a good variety in flavor.
The grilled octopus was our favorite dish. It cut like butter and had a beautiful and elegant charred taste without tasting burnt at all!
I don't love foie gras so I didn't like the actual dish but the pumpkin bread it came with was one of the best I've had! Also the presentation for this dish was stunning.
The mushroom pastry was very unique and interesting. The mushrooms were cooked very well but don't know if the whipped egg did anything for the dish other than aesthetics.
Salmon crudo was a little too buttery and fatty but the fresh green sauce definitely helped it seem cleaner.
The creme brulee itself was amazing and perfect sweetness level but the pear was sort of just awkwardly sitting there. I wish it was sliced better so that it could incorporate into the dish better.

Ambiance:
A fancy spot for an occasion. The service was really great but was ruined because we sat next to a group of teenagers who would not stop babbling.

Price:
The prices weren't as high as I was expecting. It was a reasonable price for the quality and amount of food we received.

Overall, would go again! They also have a tasting menu so might try that in the future!

This is a lovely restaurant across for the Boston Public gardens. We had reservations for Sunday brunch to celebrate my friend's birthday. We sat upstairs, which was a lovely room, busy but not too crowded, airy with a nice view. (downstairs was noisy and busy so glad we weren't placed there.) We sat at tables along the window which were a little close together. It made it easy for us to drool over the next table's order (and ask them what they had, which they cheerily answered). I'm not sure why we didn't hear every word they said, they were that close.
The service was superb. Wait staff were available whenever we needed them to take our order, fill our water glasses or clear our plates. Every encounter ended with a "thank you" or "my pleasure." My only mild complaint was I asked for more maple syrup for my pancakes and by the time the waiter brought it around I'd eaten as much as I wanted so didn't need it.
As for the food, it was delicious and beautifully plated. One of us had an egg white omelette which came with a lovely salad. Another had the salmon eggs benedict which she enjoyed; her only comment was that she ordered more hollandaise sauce and for some reason the extra order was salty, more so than what came with the original order. I had the ricotta pancakes topped with almonds and figs, hold the coconut. I found the pancakes to be a bit dense which may be normal for ricotta pancakes but I'm used to fluffy pancakes so maybe wasn't the right order for me. I ordered a side of pork sausage links which were the tastiest I can ever remember having at a restaurant.
We ordered a creme brulee to share and it came beautifully plated, with a written birthday wish for my friend. Delicious too.
This is a lovely, classy restaurant (but not stuffy), on the pricey side which one would expect given the location. I will definitely go back.

Finally got to dine out at Bistro du Midi, and was pleasantly surprised at how great their prix fixe menu was! I ordered the beef tartare, chicken with risotto, and banana hazelnut torte, and my partner ordered their french onion soup, steak frites, and creme brulee! Everything was quite impressive, and not too overly heavy considering it was a full course. Service was very timely and friendly, and ambience was good! A perfect spot for a date night or family dinner! I would definitely come back!

Sad to see how quality has declined here. Halibut was dry, beet salad was missing (or no longer has?) poached egg and the sommelier was rude.

Besides the tuna tartare I liked everything else. Nice food, nice wine, good ambiance, and friendly service, it is a great spot for a romantic date. The only problem is, like a lot of Boston restaurants, they pack many tables in a small space. Our table was very close to the table next to us, about 4-5 inches distance, it was difficult not to hear the conversation next table. The stranger seated closer to me than my date across from our table. You can imagine how the conversation goes. But the food was good, and it was a lovely day, we had a whole bottle of wine, it was a good time.

Excessively priced, their Thanksgiving day dinner was wonderful. We got there on the earlier side and afterwards they were slammed! Can't say anything bad about the food... the duck hit me where I needed a beating - perfect with lentils that are everything French food.

The service (Juan?) was beautiful and a delightful meal was had by the childless couple on a holiday date.

Flavors - 3.8/5
Textures - 4.5/5
Presentation - 4.5/5
Value for Money - 2/5
Would return? No
Must-try: Tuna Tartare

I came here for lunch! Because of the location and price I was expecting greatness, and although I had some great bites, overall it's not enough to compensate for the price.
- The tuna tartare has a bright, refreshing, super savory flavor that is tasty on it's own, but incredible with the crispy, sweet tuile on the side. The combination is fantastic but scarce, since there's only a couple bites in the plate and costs $25.
- The beef Wagyu tartare is very good! The presentation is gorgeous, and all the components are perfectly balanced. This one is fair for the price too ($27)
- The foie gras had a great presentation as well, almost like a playground of odd flavor combinations (which all magically work well together). The granola with foie gras was so weird and delicious. Now the problem is the foie gras barely had any flavor, although silky smooth it just tasted like fat. The bread was average at best.
- The Spanish Octopus was perfectly cooked, but was overall bland. Why would they mess with Spanish flavors being a French restaurant? It was good, not great.
- The Croque Monsieur was the biggest disappointment, since it wasn't one. A Croque Monsieur is a French grilled cheese with ham, gruyere and bechamel sauce, then covered with more bechamel and cheese to be broiled. This was stale bread with a very thin slice of ham and gruyere, with a salad on the side that didn't even have dressing. For $20 I'm sire they can do better than that.

Exquisite flavors! Was a delight to be here for dine out Boston. The kale Caesar was spinach but still good, the French onion soup was fine, the mussels in cream sauce were everyone's favorite appetizer. I'll be honest, was my first time have French onion soup, don't think it's for me and wasn't very hot... And there was a fruitiness or sweetness to it that felt beyond caramelized onions.

For mains the fish was good, the gnocchi was delightful and funky like the feta tasted like goat cheese, the chicken was very juicy and tender over the rich mushroom risotto. My favorite was the risotto!

For dessert we got the creme brulee (a classic favorite for a reason!), The chocolate pear cake that was much more like a mousse layered cake with nice ice cream, and the mango sorbet on the profiteroles was super-flavor-bomb-tasting goodness.

The only thing I WISH I knew, was the bottles of sparkling water were $20 EACH... The three of us thought drinking water would save on wine but I wish I had gotten another glass and just tap water instead. Well, you live and you learn! We saved a lot by doing the dine out Boston menu ($46 for 3 courses from their pre fix menu)

For the algorithm: the service was a bit slow and things weren't really hot at the end of the night. We had a reservation for 8:30 and our table wasn't ready when we got there. There's no good waiting area on these cold March nights. You're placed awkwardly in front of stairs employees keep running out of by the rotating door. Or you're basically standing in the dining area. The ambience was giving modern trying to touch the classic by having exposed beams, granite tables, comfy comfy booths, distracting mirrors at eye height good to check your face in and zone out into during this long dining experience, tile laid in an interesting star pattern, the chairs at the bar looked uncomfortable with the curved back, felt a little bare but definitely nice.

This review is a late post for the 2023 summer tasting menu at Bistro du Midi, which I was fortunate enough to try with my partner and his work colleagues. A summary of my experience: even though not every dish on the tasting menu agreed with my palate, I really can't give Bistro du Midi any less than 5 stars because of the excellent dining experience, high quality ingredients, and attention to detail.

We had a 7 course meal with some of the most incredible ingredients I have ever encountered. The first course was not on the menu so I don't have the exact details, but it was a cold cucumber soup with an oyster. This was probably my least favorite dish because I am not a fan of oysters or of cold soup, but it definitely had a very fresh and unique flavor, and its uniqueness set the tone for the rest of our meal. The second course was a fluke crudo with grilled watermelon and crispy rice. The grilled watermelon was confusing but the fluke crudo was fresh and paired very nicely with the crispy rice. The first 2 courses were the ones that I didn't love, but it was ok because I was in for several treats the rest of the meal. The third course was a butter poached lobster served with tomato ricotta tortellini and mussels in a lobster vanilla emulsion. At this point I realized the kind of meal this was going to be - decadent and luxurious. This probably was my favorite course of the night - it was so flavorful and comforting. The next course was a seared foie gras on crostini with strawberries and plums. I don't usually like foie gras but this one I surprisingly enjoyed. I appreciated the crostini because it balanced out the fattiness of the foie gras, although it didn't help to have more carbs in my system because it took away stomach space for what was ahead! The next course was Australian black truffle tagliatelle. It was perfectly cooked pasta with a lovely cream sauce and a strong truffle flavor. At this point I was completely full because of how rich all of the foods was but had 2 more courses to power through. The A5 Japanese wagyu rib cap was next. To be honest, I thought this dish could've had better accompaniments. It came with a large piece of heirloom tomato which was a nice touch of freshness, but I think it would've been better with a starch since wagyu beef has a lot more fat content and it was overwhelming me. The dessert I could only muster a few bites of but I wish I would've been able to eat it all - it was a hazelnut and raspberry mousse which was perfect because raspberries were at their freshest when we dined that night. Despite being a mousse dessert it was still very rich and matched the full-flavored nature of the rest of the menu.

The tasting menu was very rich and almost overly so, but given this is exactly the type of meal we were hoping to get, I couldn't have asked for a more fun dining experience. All of the ingredients were clearly very fresh, selected with a lot of thought, and prepared with a lot of care. The service was spot on and matched the fanciness of our meal. My compliments to the chefs and staff at Bistro du Midi - you really spoiled me this night and set the bar high for fine dining!