Le Bistro is going to be featured on the upcoming season of Gordan Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. We went to the first night with new menu items dinner service taping.
What we had:
We had a lamb curry eggroll thing appetizer. The eggroll was so greasy we couldn't eat it, and the curry lamb was unidentifiable as lamb, and tasted frozen.
For an entree, I had one of the new menu items--local-caught Mahi Mahi over a bed of wilted arugula with an heirloom tomato coulis. It was a beautiful piece of perfectly-cooked fish, but the dish had absolutely zero seasoning. A real shame.
My DH had the steak frites. Greasy, slightly undercooked steak fries with a NY strip that was listed as Neiman Ranch on the menu, but tasted over-frozen and only a step or two above truckstop quality. Quality concerns aside, the steak was cooked perfectly.
I also had tea--the first glass was lightly cinnamon-flavored, which was nice. The second glass tasted like flowers--not so nice.
The menu will change, though.
Decor:
A little bizarre, though this will change too. Dark red walls made the tiny dining room (the 54 covers in there last night was absolute capacity) feel claustrophobic. Oversized teapot and servingware paintings loomed over diners, along with empty wineglasses and cobalt blue bottles. The seats were pink and very uncomfortable--my DH was convinced his chair would break at any moment. The light fixtures were straight out of a child's bedroom--those horrid three-color/direction ceiling fan lights in red yellow and blue.
One wall was brushed metal, which didn't fit, but looked nice.
The was a servingware cabinet directly across from my DH, with exposed plates, glasses and service items. Tacky.
Service:
Terrible. We waited over 10 minutes for our menus, and the aging and over-dressed waitstaff didn't have a clue. Some if that, I'm sure was due to the camera crews.
Overall Impressios:
Thank goodness Gordon Ramsay was there to straighten the place out. Hopefully it will be unrecognizable when he gets through with it. Gordon Ramsay looks just like he does on the F Word in person, and even said 'Good Evening' to us on the way out. (so. Freaking. Cool).
Rating:
Pre KN 1.5 salamanders. Hopefully more after.
3 comments:
We were there last night. Your description was perfect. You didn't mention the price though. Kinda high don't you think? GR did the two fish specials which was very reasonable at $16 and $18. That trio of duck with bleberries looked awful and it was like $34.00! Someone at at a nearby table ordered it, GR does look exactly like he does on tv. I expected him to be more animated though. No yelling, no anger at all. He actually looked really depressed. I get the feeling he saw this one as a hopeless mess. It was so small in there too! I've seen all the KN shows on Fox and BBC. This was a challenge compared to most of the others. Can't wait to see what the kitchen was like. I knew enough not to eat their regular menu food so I won't be too freaked out if the kitchen turns out to be as disgusting as I think it was. I know he is a miracle worker but my overall impression wasn't good. I have little hope for them.
Inside informant...
1) Restaurant intentionally packed at one time so Kitchen and staff cannot handle business and everyone suffers to guarantee a good show.
2) Lamb roll not frozen and fresh ground.
3) Menu did not say Nieman Ranch. It said Cedar Ranch center cut sirloin, it was not frozen.
4) Usually fried foods are fried in oil - ie fried eggroll & fries.
7) GR did not do the 2 fish specials.
8) Trio of duck was $24
9) Kitchen is extremely clean.
Andy would not be running my restaurant after reading some of the things I read. Did you see him on Kitchen Nightmare?
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