Bullfinch's in Sudbury - is it just me?

This place got a great rating in Zagat's and above average comments on Chow but we had dinner tonight and boy were we disappointed! The room was nice for the western 'burbs - warm indirect lighting, flowing curtains here and there, really well done for a strip mall - but the noise was considerable due to the tile floors, the glass and mirrors on the walls and the reflective panels on the ceiling. A table of six innocently (and soberly) enjoying themselves next to us were deafening, but in a place with some cloth artwork, tapestries, upholstery or curtains, they would have been unremarkable.

And the food - where to start? The escargot were overcooked and buried under the multiple flavors of roasted tomatoes, scallions, garlic, lemon and mushrooms. The poor snails never had a chance. My companion's crab cake tasted deep-fried and the shredded crab meat was certainly not in Maryland-style chunks as advertised.

The filet had the texture of a sponge and the medium rare was more a medium. The bed of fried leeks were black and crispy and tasted of three-day old deep fryer fat. The many, many peppercorns in the mashed weren't even cracked, which mean an overpowering taste of pepper and possibly a cracked filling.

The only bright spot - the grilled rack of lamb, perfectly done. A bit fatty but really tasty, worth getting your fingers greasy. Too bad they were paired with overcooked vegetables, a "pommery mustard cream sauce" that tasted like it came from a powdered mix and a double-deep-fried home fries that would be better served with a big greasy burger.

Really, I'm not usually this hard on the suburban restaurants but I'm so tired of the bad food out here and the seemingly-happy acceptance of it (at Boston prices) by their customers who make enough money and should know better. Is it just me? Am I missing something?