Bondir – No.17
November 3, 2019
No.17 – Bondir. Small, intimate, cosy and seats about 16. I think it’s the smallest restaurant we’ve been to in Boston so far. We’ve hit some huge restaurants such as Grill 23 and Bar, which was very grand but lacking in personality (great steak though). We’ve been to other pretty big restaurants, like Little Donkey and Row 34, which were loud, bustling and had great atmospheres; totally fun evenings. This type of restaurant though has a completely different feel. Clark and I differed in our thoughts on a few things about our evening here. It was quiet, perhaps a little too quiet; the staff were professional and polite, but maybe too polite and lacking that little bit of personal interaction; the food (I thought) was amazing, but there were a few areas that needed a little more….something.
Being a small restaurant, the menu at Bondir is a five course prix fixe, which allows them to minimise waste…very planet friendly. The ingredients are seasonal, local and fresh, and they include veggie forward dishes on the menu (to be explained).
I have to say, I think the food here is some of the prettiest I’ve ever seen. The chestnut apple opener (above) was so delicately presented it was almost a shame to eat it. I’ve never had a chestnut apple before (didn’t know they existed actually), and served with barley, daikon and buttermilk, this was a really fresh dish, very creative and unique.
The Wagyu beef strip loin is an amazing cut of beef and cooked beautifully rare – or you may like to call that ‘blue’. Unfortunately Clark’s came out very chewy, whereas mine was perfectly cooked (I shared). We also had a squash and baked beans dish, topped with suckling pig. This is where the veggie forward dishes come in. The star of the dish is the vegetable, in this case the squash. The beans and suckling pig are there to elevate and complement the squash not the other way around (which is why there wasn’t much suckling pig), P.S For those Brits reading, the baked beans were not Heinz.
We both agree on the desserts. A poppy seed tart with maple pecan white chocolate and blueberry ice cream. And a wild Bolivian chocolate and verbena pot de creme. So beautiful. So delicious. Total smug moment, apologies. See for yourself…
