My boyfriend and I went to Bergamot (118 Beacon St., Somerville, MA) for Boston Restaurant Week, but it turns out that they have a 3-course prix fixe menu all the time, anyway, for about the same price. The restaurant is a small square room with a view of the open kitchen. Like many good Boston-area restaurants, tables are quite close together.
Service was remarkably attentive, and we had a terrific dining experience. Our meal started with complementary potato bread with to-die-for orange poppy seed butter. Rather than having a bread basket clutter your table, servers return to fill your bread plate at your request.
The smoked white bean soup was yummy, with black beans and a light avocado mousse, topped with cilantro.
I had the seared local hake. It was a melt-in-your-mouth fillet over bed of crunchy hearts of palm and pale green chickpeas. It was surrounded with the complex flavours of garlic-clam sauce (mushroom, cream, pancetta) and small buttons of hon shimeji mushrooms
Panisse fries, served with herbed ricotta cheese, were an interesting concept. From our server’s description, I expected them to be crispy, more like typical fries. However, they were more like chickpea tofu – the lightly fried blocks were creamier than polenta. My guy gobbled them all up though – the thick herbed ricotta was the perfect partner to this dish.
The creamed spinach was nicely done.
For dessert, my guy had the carrot cake. It was four small cubes of cake, with golden raisins and candied walnuts. I found the cake slightly dry.
The black olive clafoutis was moist and delicious, but was just three small pieces spread across a rectangular plate, with caramel sauce and a little scoop of grapefruit sorbet. Complimentary mini coconut pistachio madeleines finished off the meal.
The Final Word: An all-around great dining experience with wonderful service, and beautifully presented food. Appetizers and entrees have great flavours. Desserts are very small.
Info: Bergamot, 118 Beacon St., Somerville, MA, 02143 USA
The Busy Foodie 
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