Once upon a time in Hamra street, there was a little Bistro who had big dreams… And dreams are meant to be pursued, however, dreams can be costly…
In a probable effort to differentiate himself from the surrounding establishments… Bistro bar presented us that night, that once upon a time night… with a menu… a very ambitious menu, commendable, and I have to say, made my mouth water… I mean hey, who wouldn’t love to have some Truffle Potatoes or Mango Shrimps or a Citrus Salmon… with later on Some Sea food Risotto or a Chicken Tagliatelle among other things? Not really what you would expect in a bistro bar called Bistro Bar, Right? Nevertheless, like my friend Chicho from Lebanese Memes always says “Challenge Accepted” (it’s even on his business card…) So, it’s filled with expectations and with a broad mind that we had decided to tackle the “festin”
High Credits are to be given to “serVme” team… they spared no effort in making our experience to be the most enjoyable possible while being friendly and professional
The experience that started nicely, however, declined slowly over time…
The Tables and chairs are real high and while they are nice to have a drink over, listen to good music, chill and chat… they are far from being adequate for dining… let alone fine dining…
The Crudités cup and the tortilla chips with their tomato sauce were already on our table, which was nice, but since we had just arrived we were still greeting each other and the ones that were already there… that took what? 5 min? maybe… however when we focused back on the table, we noticed that someone had Cast “Evanesco (Vanishing Spell)” straight out of Harry Potter… the crudités and chips were gone… when asked, the waiter said… “eh ana chelton” yet he had asked no one on our table to do so… (we were relieved though… it wasn’t magic), concerning the crudités, try to choose the cauliflowers that looks really neat, anything less is a turn off on the plate.
The Pizza Rolls were next, oily and a bit soggy… they taste however good and were an example of how the food should be like in Bistro Bar…
The Rock Mango Shrimps were beautifully presented in shape and color, the taste was also there, crispy shrimps that had absorbed well the mango sauce… with however a little “arriere gout” of mayonnaise, a bit less would have been perfect… great job on that item…
Then came the Truffle Potatoes… where do I start… they looked good, the presentation was fair enough, as for the taste, well… it’s really controversial, either you like or you don’t… the dish did not smell good… maybe because of the cream ? the Cabernet Sauvignon that should be in it? Or maybe an excess of truffle oil? I Don’t know, regardless, I could taste where the chef was probably trying to take that dish… but it didn’t quite make it… I’m a fan of Truffle Potatoes… but I was left wanting…
I was really happy when I saw the Citrus Salmon making its way to our table… I love Salmon… Salmon didn’t disappoint, really tasty and of good quality, it’s the avocado on its top that I didn’t appreciate, it was soaked with citrus… so much that the avocado was starting to break down under the acidity and of course had lost all of its taste… it’s really too bad as this dish had a great potential… it was so nicely presented…
French fries is always a great appetizer, especially if you add melted parmesan on it’s top… just try to put a good quantity of parmesan, because in our case… after the first 3 to 4 pieces were eaten… no Parmesan was left…
Quinoa…. The ingredient trending the most in all restaurants in town… well, here I have to say… great Quinoa Salad, it’s only a technicality that was the inconvenience, and not anything in the dish itself. You see in Bistro Bar… you don’t exactly “See” what you are about to eat or are actually eating, because of the very dimmed lights (that makes it even harder to read the big menu with small characters) so anyways… the Quinoa Salad contained some Pomegranate Arils (the red jewels inside the pomegranate) , and while they enhance the dish in taste and presentation, with no lights, you tend to crunch it under your teeth with the hard seed inside it, causing a little pain and a lot of sour taste… great dish though… really…
By now, we had already noticed that the waiters were absolutely not trained in the art of food service, or at least how to serve fine dining… and it was not because of the rush or anything, they are just used to serving drinks and sandwiches… quickly clean a table etc… however, you do not remove a dish from under the nose of any client without asking them… and definitely not as quickly as you’d remove an empty drink glass to push for the sale of the next one… people who are dining take their time, especially if some drinks are involved… However it was clear that they were on some sort of schedule from the kitchen staff, and were acting automatically: when a new dish arrived, the old one, empty or not, was removed… If I mention that we were 5 persons on the table and were served 1 person portions throughout the night, you would understand that most had one or two bites of each dish and thus left the place hungry… despite a diner invitation…
Moving on to the Sea Food Risotto… beautiful presentation, I loved the touch of the “Moule” that was in the middle of it… however that sea food risotto tasted more like tomato risotto with a some sea food inside… the “Mollusque’s” flavor were simply not there… As for the “Moule”, it was hard, chewy with a strong smell… i couldn’t eat it…
At almost the same time, we had the Chicken Tagliatelle, the pasta was a tad overcooked, it had absorbed very well the mushroom taste, however was really really lacking in seasoning… beside the mushroom flavor, it was tasteless… The chicken tenders were perfectly cooked with again, poor seasoning, great dish though, big potential, but trust me chef: loose the wing… it has no place on the plate…
My disappointment dramatically increased with the Rib-eye burger… don’t get me wrong, I liked it, but it’s ground meat… when you announce Rib-Eye, please make sure you have an actual piece of it on the plate… and not some unidentifiable ground meat patty… Tasty unidentifiable ground meat patty though… Ok, I will take your word for it… it was ground Rib Eye…
We discussed some of the above issues with the restaurant owner, a real nice guy truth be said… but then the dessert arrived: The “Drop It Like it’s Hot Cookie” was a delight, a bit sticking to the pan… not as huge as I’ve read in some other blogs… but a real treat… then we got a surprise… another dessert: the Pain Perdu… even a better flavor, for me at least, I loved it, but like everything that night, something or someone had to mess it up… a friend on our table enquired with the waiter: “ hay ma mafroud yenzal ma3a ice cream?” to which the waiter replied quickly: “houweh mafroud…” then turned his back and left… Training people, training…!
A quick word on the drinks we had, (I rarely drink) they seemed to me a bit strong , but the Margarita was undrinkable, very sour, very strong, it was not margarita, all around me who had it, only had a sip and left it as is… I really enjoyed the Bloody Mary though…
To conclude my long prose… You have a great atmosphere, we enjoyed the music, however, I would sincerely recommend you guys to drop the heavy food stuff, you don’t need to be doing fine dining for your success in your current location, you are not equipped for it (tables) nor your people are trained for it (service) and despite having a good chef, I’m suspecting he has poor assistance around him… I know you want to be different… just use creativity as a differentiating point and not a menu upgrade…
Gaston L’ honnête
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