Noir 1 Bennett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

"My only critique for Noir is that they should greatly reduce the amount of ice in their cocktails and not be so light on the alcohol. I will not be going back because of the cocktails. The foods I had are not in the choices below so i can’t recommend specific ones but they were very good."

"I am posting this for the purpose of female safety. I came to this bar for the first time to meet a date. The man near the door greeted me and asked me if I would like a table when I arrived. I had never been there and explained that I was meeting someone but I wasn’t sure if (in the distance) that was the man I was meeting. The staff proceeded to ask me again if I would like a table so I let him know I would just pop in and confirm or immediately leave. I went up to his table and finally he acknowledged me. My date ordered us two lemonades and we proceeded to talk. About an hour into it a staff member came up to the table under the pretense of “Do we need anything,” and my date said urgently “Remember what I told you ok?” The staff shook his head in agreement and said “Yes yes.” Shortly after, the door guy came with the announcement that our table was already reserved and that we had to leave. My issue here is that the staff was either paid off by the guy to assist this man in moving a woman to a new location or at the worst already knew him as a regular and were in on this routine. Because this “yes yes” plan was odd. Sure the table may have been reserved, but when have you experienced this? I did not drink much of the lemonade because when I saw the off behavior I became alarmed that maybe the drink had something in it. And I didn’t trust it nor anything else. In truth the bar looks nice, the food looked good (even though I didn’t have an opportunity to try it). Looks like a fun place for friends and I heard good things about it being a cozy date spot. But I didn’t like the staff interaction with this guy. So I felt I should just post a warning to anyone else going on a first date here. My date claimed he hadn’t been there in years but it appeared to me like the staff knew him well. And I don’t believe he was a good man. Not that it’s their job to babysit me or anyone else. However one would think if they saw “off” behavior or “odd” requests that they wouldn’t accommodate. My brother was a bartender for years and he wouldn’t allow people to treat women like a commodity or sell drinks to people he saw were looking to exploit women. He saw the men laughing and heard the plots men made. So for the Harvard girls or anyone else coming here on a date, just be careful. Looks like a great place, but drink slow and make sure you are not being drugged. I was very concerned for my well being once I saw we were getting kicked out and the staff was accommodating some secret request made ahead of time. I know the area well and ended the date. But you just never know what you’re dealing with. My guess is the guy did it on purpose to force a new location since he admitted he had a history of being a player like it was an asset. As you can imagine, he committed date suicide when he chose to brag about that. Be safe ladies! I would have called the bar about this but I didn’t think anyone would care. I however do care about people and felt it was important to share this experience. Hopefully it’s a one-off."

"5 stars for the atmosphere and service! Wish the non-alcoholic cocktails list would have been longer, but they can make classics (non-alcoholic) on request. My Negroni was delicious!"

"For a bar in a hotel, their food was surprisingly good. Henrietta’s was already closed and we didn’t want to leave the hotel on a staycation so we tried out the food at Noir and were pleasantly surprised. The blistered tomato flatbread was an explosion of flavors. Their chocolate cake was equally good. We also got some olives, cod cake and tofu buns, which again were pretty decent. We’re not usually a hotel restaurant/bar person but this one we’d gladly keep making exceptions for."

"Decent cocktail bar for Cambridge. There are some unique cocktails with trendy techniques like butter washed gin. There are some beers on tap. It’s crowded on Friday nights. You can wait or just be ignored for quite some time. There is some overflow seating inside the hotel but outside the bar. Edit, to respond to owner: We knew we needed to place orders at the bar. The issue was that members of my party reported standing at the bar, making eye contact with the bartender, watching the bartender take several orders and make several drinks for roughly 15 minutes. I hope that adds clarity to the review."