Bambara - Cambridge

Andres, our server, was lovely! I haven't met him before--he's kind, welcoming, and genuine. Hoping he stays with the team as I'd love to dine in his section next time, too.

I am consistently impressed with this restaurant located inside the Kimpton Marlowe. Chef Adam has created a solid, yet deliciously creative dining program over the years. I couldn't be happier to see him at the helm of this ship. He is unassuming, friendly, and delivers mouth-watering, globally inspired dishes.

This trip, we enjoyed his plant based pasta special (an off menu creation with veggies, fungi, herbs of the moment). This one was my all time favorites... mixed textures, savory with some salty brine... yum! Don't miss the new hummus app! The roasted chickpeas, pickled red onions, red sauce and spices served with crispy grilled flatbread/pita. Delish!

Staff was making rounds on the floor and we appreciated being checked on and conversing with familiar faces. Thanks again for a fantastic night Bambara team!

My first time staying at a Kimpton property; the Bambara is connected to the Kimpton Marlowe. For the $30 hotel daily amenity fee, you have a $10 credit at Bambara, among other cool perks.

We had dinner and breakfast at Bambara. The burger and fries is $28 and the lobster roll is $44. The two egg breakfast with bread and home fries is $19. Coffee and tea are $4 each. Tres leches is $12. The prices are on the high side with moderate portions,but so are most restaurants these days.

Service was very good at dinner- warm friendly and efficient. At breakfast, there was no place to put the tea bag which would have been helpful, but service was otherwise fine and the breakfast was very good.

The dinner was also overwhelmingly very good. The hamburger was juicy and the Caesar salad side (upgraded at no charge) was good with homemade honey dressing I asked for, which was excellent.

My mother, a lobster expert at this point, had the lobster on hot buttered roll. She found it over buttered and said the butter overwhelmed the lobster, which was a small portion. Her homemade coleslaw and thick cut fries, which I tried, were excellent.

The tres leches was different than the three milk drenched wonders I have had. This one had pieces of pineapple on top and was on the dry side.

They have $1 oysters at happy hour from 5-7 p.m. which were small but very good.

It was overall a very good (4 star) experience and I know Bambara has the potential for five stars.

Came here for a company outing and the food was amazing! I typically don't go for steaks, but theirs was wonderful, moist and full of flavor. I also enjoyed their chicken dish, I don't think I've ever had a chicken cooked so well and not dry! Even though I really loved their food, I had to knock it down a star because it felt like an eternity before we finally got to eat after ordering. I'm not sure if this was because we were a large party, but as soon as the food came, I ate it up very quickly. Overall, this is a great nice restaurant by the river, and I can see how it'd be a nice after work activity!

Inside the Kimpton Marlowe hotel, Bambara is quite a find. Full service bar with great entrees and service. They do get busy at prime time so definitely make a reservation.

TLTR by the end of dinner I had one disappointing arancini and a bit of pita and hummus which cost $55+ tax and took well over an hour so we missed our actual plans.


The best thing about the experience was the food runner. Super nice and honestly would easily make a better server just on service and attitude.

Food was ok, nothing to really write home about. Service (outside of the busser) was bad... our server brought over the regular menus and when we noted we wanted the dine out boston, she kind of huffed and walked away (she was probably hoping that we would run up our check otherwise... little did she know we were both servers at some point and tip generous even for average service)...

Throughout the night she would walk over to one table, then walk away, sometimes go back to that table or the next and then walk away so everything took ALOT longer. No trying to see what other tables were doing making, eye contact, whatever.

It's pretty obvious she was never taught about table touches and the manager was too busy watching tv to notice that we were not having a good experience or the 6 top next to us with multiple kids were waiting to the point you could clearly see the kids were over how long they were there; meanwhile they still had their menus infront of them.

When she came back we already had decided what we wanted from looking online and gave her our order right away.

Our apps were dropped and she never checked on us... if she had we would have asked for more pita points.the amount they give you compared to the amount of hummus is embarrassing.... And we still needed more even though I completely avoided the harissa which was most of it. The pesto arancini sound much better than the actual execution (never had it before so don't have an example to compare it against)

At some point they changed the pasta option from a red sauce to a spinach... and she never mentioned that... our food gets dropped and by the time my so was just about finished, she came over and I asked if there was spinach.

Turns out it was yes and my SO ordered the steak as I always encourage her to as there are 2 things that kick up my kidney stones- spinach and red meat...

They offered to remake it, which would have been great if it was 20+ minutes earlier when I took my first bite. They didn't offer anything else and the service got even worse.

When we asked for our desert TO GO, she walked away and brought over the menus even though it was done out and there was one desert. At the same time I asked for the check which should have been a dead give away we were in a bit of a hurry (because of the amazingly slow and poor service). After she dropped the check (honestly it could have been before) she stood at the pos and closed out checks.

I parked behind the sonesta and after the server dropped the check, I said let's divide and conquer. You take care of the check and I'll bring the food which I didn't eat and the desserts over to the car.

Well the server decided that now was a good time to eat and my SO waited and then walked over to the bar... the manager apparently dodn't take notice that she walked to the bar from the dining room even though she was standing next to him.

Eventually the server saw her, came over, apparently had a "how dare you interrupt my sandwich" and ran the check.

I had walked across land blvd 2x in the pouring rain, but the food in my car and back to the restaurant by the time she had paid...

We were supposed to see the Pink Floyd laser show as that is what our plans were and decided to add dinner before.

I would have been happier staying at home and just going to the MoS show instead of missing it for ok food and bad service.

Stopped in a whim with a friend a few weeks ago. We sat at the high tops and were served by a sweet, knowledgeable bartender. We started with a dozen $1 oysters which were super fresh. My friend asked the bartender to come up with a fun tequila cocktail for us. Not only was he up for the challenge but delivered! We also tried the arancini, calamari and hummus. Everything was really delicious. It's a beautiful space, great ambiance. We'll definitely be back soon.

This restaurant is located adjacent to the lobby of the Kimpton Marlow Hotel. When staying at the Marlow this makes for a very convenient place to grab dinner or drinks and appetizers.

From 5-7pm they had a happy hour on Wellfleet MA oysters basically buy one get one. We ended up getting 12 oysters for the price of 6 which was only $18. Also the oysters were superb.

I grabbed a quick to go dinner tonight. It was very simple. I ordered at the bar and charged it to the room. I went upstairs to change and the food was ready. Shout out to Chef Adam he is making great food for dinner down there. Check out the wings and burger if that's your jam.

I'm struggling with the rating for this spot.

The food was really tasty. We had the beet salad, burger (loved it), and fusilli bolognese (crispy topping took this one up a notch).

The service and pace is the issue. We waited to be seated for a reservation for quite some time even though there were tables. The guy in front of us was just trying to confirm his reservation and he had to interact with 3 different people to get that done. Once we were sat, we ordered after a bit.

The salad came out within 10-15 minutes and then we waited, and waited, and waited... over an hour for our remaining two items. We could see other tables we're getting food but the orders didn't seem correct and they looked frustrated. To add to the stress, it's marathon Sunday so folks are trying to eat and get to bed.

It was also frustrating because it took forever to hear anything about where our food was--no refills on water glasses sitting empty. Nothing to help appease in the meantime. I know things go wrong sometimes and we're pretty understanding.

It's a lovely space as well--pretty lighting, a bit noisy, friendly bartender. I would definitely go back, I just would be prepared to wait next time.

We were looking for a breakfast place early Saturday morning. We arrived right when it opened so we got a nice table by the window. Our waitress was very nice and took our order. I asked for recommendations on the French toast. She said it was a favorite and very good. I ordered the French toast and my wife ordered an omelet. Both were really good and hit the spot. Great taste.
So, good food. Food service. Nice view. Clean restaurant. What else could you ask for. I recommend this place.

We went here for brunch on a Saturday. Their brunch menu has tons of options especially if you are vegetarian. I go to brunch places a lot and always wonder why they don't have a Veggie Hash option. This place had Veggie Hash and it was so delicious. I finished it all. One issue I had was that the coffee was warm and not hot!!! I got two refills and I was disappointed with the coffee not being hot especially when it was a cold rainy morning. Service though was phenomenal.