Bistrotheque review by hp5al
Went there this morning for brunch. We had never been there before and the entrance was a little confusing as it wasn't clearly pointed out and I ended up on the toilets (the restaurant is upstairs). We there first ones there so we were told we had a choice of where to sit. Tip: don't sit near the window on a sunny day as it will be baking hot. But we were the asked to move to another table.
What's so great about this place is the fact that the outside is nothing like the inside. At one point when we were walking down to the place I started to think 'where the hell have I taken us?'. The food is amazing although I did make the mistake of ordering eggs benedict and a croque monseiur so for someone who isn't such a great fan of dairy products it was a little bit of dairy overload but that was my own fault. My boyfriend ordered mushroom on toast followed by pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. Being the dutiful girlfriend that I am I tried his order too and it was just as nice. What other people ordered looked quite tasty also. The drinks too got top marks (should have ordered a cheeky cocktail but I felt it was a little too early and we were going out for afternoon drinks).
The only thing that let it down was the service. When we arrived we were the first one there and there was a tall blonde girl who I assumed was a customer was actually a member of staff. The reason for me thinking this was that she saw us arrive, looked at us and then looked away without letting anyone else know that we were waiting there whilst still standing in the same place (she was standing a few paces away) thus making us feel ingored. Whilst we were the first ones there the service was good but as the place started to fill up it felt as though we were slowly being forgotten about (as there were two of us and everyone was in a party of three or more). It took us just over 15 minutes to get someone's attention to get our bill as everyone, as they walked back to the kitchen area, looked as they were programmed to do so without making eye contact. Another let down was the fact that two of the three girls toilets had no paper in the cubicles. Perhaps the cleaner had a heavy Saturday night and so over slept that Sunday.
It was such a shame that the service we got was bad as I wanted to take by boyfriend out as a treat. At first we joked about how it would be fun to start by having brunch there attempt to try everything on that menu as it was so good and once completed we'd be in time for the dinner menu. But due to the service we were happy to leave (once we managed to get our bill and then to pay for it....that took another 10 minutes to complete).
I would love to take others here as the food is so good (maybe we'd get more attention coming in a bigger party) but because of the service I'd have to think twice about it...
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Overall rating 
Food 7 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
review comments
Leave a comment
Please note this is to leave a comment on the readers review above.
To review this restaurant please click here
To leave a comment about the review above, please log in or register first.
To review this restaurant please click here
