Permanently Closed - Little Gem

There were ants crawling around. When pointed out, the wait staff killed the ants by heavily spraying Windex on them.
The strong smell of the cleaning fluid permeated the air. It totally destroyed the taste of my wine and food.
Will not go back. Very unfortunate.

Good id tasty and of good value. Service needs to be tightened up. Not clear if there is a real system for serving and for getting foo out--particularly the desserts.

Food portions have shrunk since we first started coming here. If you want a big portion and don’t mind eating salad for dinner it’s best to order that. I ordered salmon which was less than a usual size portion of fish - even smaller than my palm which is small to begin with. My husband ordered the bean/tomato/rice dish and it was a big portion. He was fine with that. He always orders it because he knows it’ll be a big enough portion to fill him up. Prices were up too compared to past visits. Service was ok, servers are all gracious and nice. We will choose a different restaurant next time.

Salad was fair. Bibimbap was good. Maitake and beans was awful. We didn’t eat it. No one checked on us during the main course - if they had we would have sent it back. And they didn’t take the dish off the bill despite eating so little and us commenting on the poor quality. Never again

Great service!

We love visiting this restaurant before concert or Opera performance. Excellent food and the wait staff is friendly, professional and fast. They understand that concerts have starting times and comfortably feed you and get you out in plenty of time without feeling rushed or pushed.

Terrible service. Food was fine but whole experience was overshadowed by TERRIBLE service. I booked a 9pm reservation for my girlfriend's birthday on a Thursday. Our server took our order and never returned to check on us at any point. At 9:45pm we were in the middle of our meal and still had half a bottle of wine left when we noticed that the staff turned on ALL of the lights in the restaurant and starting turning over chairs onto the tables. Our check was brought by a different server as our server had left for the night. When we asked for dessert we were told that the kitchen was CLOSED. Very unexpected given all of the positive reviews I read prior to making my reservation. If you're going to close your restaurant at 10pm then DON'T offer 9pm reservations to your customers. It is completely unacceptable to make your customers feel rushed out when they spend nearly $150 on a dinner. We had to walk over to Monsieur Benjamin to have dessert -- mind you, they were still accepting reservations for 10pm and the staff was appalled to hear the way we had been treated at this mediocre restaurant.

Enjoyed our dinner at little gem very much. We didnt realize their food was both gluten and lactose free and it didnt matter. ..it was very good. I had let them know it was our anniversary when I made the reservation and they started us off with celebratory sparkling wine. We split a wonderful butter lettuce salad with quinoa and kalamata olives. Then we each chose an entree; one salmon and the other chicken. Both were very tasty. We finished with desserts of almond cake and chocolate pudding...yum. then off to see Hamilton.

Everytime we're there the staff is exceptional and so is the food.

Little Gem continues to be a favorite of ours. The menu changes seasonally (We hope! and that favorites will reappear.) The staff is attentive and friendly and the kitchen always delivers something fresh with interesting flavors and seasonings. Some items may depend on personal preference, but we've enjoyed whatever we try.

This was truly as the name implies, A Little Gem! The food was great and the service was quick and attentive.

Lackadaisical service, overpriced wine, and food that attempted
More than it delivered.

Dinner was amazing. We had the asparagus to start -- simple prep with lemon zest and olive oil -- yet amazing. So much better than the asparagus that I make at home, and I thought it was good. The spaghetti squash with cashew cream sauce was unbelievable. I am on a paleo type diet right now, and I was able to really enjoy this extravagant and healthy meal. Thank you!

A great location -- so close to the Opera House and Civic Center. Food was excellent and good choices for those who are vegan or vegetarian.

It was sweet! Looking for an organic spot with paleo, gluten free options, this was perfect! Would for sure recommend to friends looking for a nice healthy and aesthetically pleasing spot, and would go again if I'm in the area.

Great food!

This was my second visit to Little Gem and not their best night. We were there at 5:15pm and they were out of sparkling water!? There were some glitches with our food as well as at the table next to us. But the food was delicious, the main entree servings were large enough to take home leftovers, and the service we received from our waiter Courtney was fantastic! Despite the off-night, I would go back again.

What a great find! The food is delicious and light, the ambience is cheery and attractive, and the staff is so helpful and accommodating! We're definitely going back to try other menu options!

Great location and ambience. Staff is friendly and food is very good - especially the Bibimbap!

Great food and wonderful service.

Great healthy restaurant (gluten free, refined sugar free, I believe all organic) for a casual meal. The NON bread is AMAZING.

sweet place, good food, good karma, just overall great experience. Will be back

I hate to be that person writing a negative review, but I was really disappointed about this place. I see it in the press all the time and was excited to give it a try. While it has the trendy/hip vibe to it and the menu has serious potential, the food is bland/under-seasoned and the service is bad. It took quite some time to provide our table with water after sitting. We requested a shareable plate and that also took a while. Lastly we asked for hot sauce which our server didn't bring us until my friend was on her last few bites of her dish. Meh.

Food and Service was amazing! I wish it was a little more cozy but don’t let that keep you from the delicious food!

Pre-Ballet dinner which was fabulous! Food, price and service were excellent!

We weren’t super impressed. Service seemed odd. We had no less than 5 different individuals approach the table. It was not clear if we had a specific server. At one point an individual approached that I thought might be one of the chefs. He started to speak. I turned to him and smiled; however, people at our table we talking and he just walked away. Menu seemed limited.

The food was fabulous and the waiter answered all our questions about the preparation of the dishes we
ordered. We lingered and were not rushed.

I would recommend Little Gem to people who have dietary restrictions. The two fish tacos were good, but I needed a little more. A salad or veggies would have been nice compliment. My dining partner had the beef bowl, which she enjoyed and looked very good. We shared the lemon dessert, which was wonderful. The basil tea was quite weak, which was a disappointment. The servicer was good. The charge for a bottle of wine, which was not ordered, was cheerfully removed, once pointed out.

Food, service and ambiance were perfect!
Linen napkins and more comfortable chairs or added seat pads would have made everything more perfect!

Nice drink selection, atmosphere; food ok, some dishes better than others. Salad and fish tacos were nice, but mushroom bean bowl, so-so -"lentils" sub/add-on was actually under-cooked split peas.

Beautiful, healthy food that works with so many dietary restrictions! Please get the tartare -- that dish was the highlight and i wish we ordered 6 of them haha

Great fresh food an a lot of options to make changes to any dish on the menu. Service was terrific - our server was pleasant, knew all the ingredients and very amicable to let us swap rice for green or shrimp for pork. Clean bathrooms too.

The Service was exceptional. The food was unique and delicious. The prices were fair and I would recommend this restaurant. I will be back.

Always reliable, always warm and friendly, always good food. So excited they're opening another on Union Street!

The noise level was too high and the atmosphere was dark, cold, and hard chairs. The food was great!

It really is a little gem! Great menu. All we tried was very tasty. Service was excellent. All gluten and dairy free as well.

We love Little Gem and the wait people as well. We are strictly gluten free and
it feels great to know we can have anything on the menu and it will be delicious.
We took our non gluten free friends and they loved it also.

We were a party of three: 1 vegetarian, 1 gluten-free, 1 omnivore. It's hard to find a restaurant with adequate choices for all of us, but this menu looked like it would. And it did. What came out of the kitchen, however, was disappointing. My bowl of rice, veggies and short rib could have come from any inexpensive Korean-inspired restaurant with the same impact: nicely cooked, oily, salty and very fresh ingredients. It's clear that Little Gem starts with excellent food, but the kitchen needs greater skill in turning those ingredients into an exceptional plate that would inspire me to return even on nights when I don't have tickets at Davies Symphony Hall.

We've been to Little Gem before and love it. The service team is always friendly, well informed about the food, and responsive. We asked a few questions about menu items, for instance, and our server went into detail about each dish. I had the short ribs this time and it was outstanding. Like most dishes, the veggies can outshine the proteins. My wife had the tartare and really enjoyed it. Again, the veggies stood up well. Our friend had the tomato soup which had a aromatic spice she didn't really like, but the tomatoes were chunky and fresh. For dessert, we shared the almond cake and found it a little dry. We would have given 5 stars except for the dessert.

Started well with two servers, one seemingly training the other. As it got crowded somehow the servers disappeared. Food was edible but not great.