Comments on: First Look: Rendez Vous Bistro

By: CJ

CJ — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:20:35 +0000

Good service, totally ruined by the dish served at lunch. I ordered the prawns and scallop skewerS (notice the pleural). What arrived at the table was utterly shocking……. One, yes count them ONE, skewer laid over a bed of french fries and cabbage. On the SINGLE skewer were two very small prawns and two BAY scallops!!!! Absolutely unfathomable this would be served as a lunch. Any bistro worth its own weight would have been embarrassed to serve that dish as an APPETIZER!!! And here it was placed before me as a meal……..WTF?
Take a wild guess if I will ever patronize that bistro again. They are completely clueless………

By: CAJ

CAJ — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:25:40 +0000

I wanted so badly for this place to be good. BUT, it wasn’t! Waiters are not trained and seem clueless when it comes to the cheese and charcuterie. Why serve something you don’t understand? I don’t know who to blame, the management or unenthusiastic staff not motivated to learn the menu. Onion soup was bland, charcuterie was crap, steak frites…fries were soggy and steak was chewy. The list goes on. I will not be returning. The owners should have worked in a restaurant before they decided to open one.

By: MQ

MQ — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:57:33 +0000

The ongoing theme is still true. Horrible service. I sat for 15 minutes with bread and water until I flagged down someone to take my order. Lunch service needs to be organized, especially for working patrons that need to get back to work. I had the spinach/mushroom/chicken crepe and was very plain. Nothing like true crepes in Paris. Bistro 29 wil be getting my business until they figure it out.

By: Linda Smith

Linda Smith — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:42:29 +0000

Four of us ate at the restaurant Wednesday evening. The place was packed. We were very happy with the service, food, and atmosphere. We had time between courses to sip wine and chat. This was a birthday dinner for our friends and we all enjoyed the experience. My husband and myself will certainly visit this restaurant again. Our two friends are already talking about sharing this spot with their friends. All in all it was a hit.

By: Etienne

Etienne — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:13:06 +0000

Bistro 29 has better service and better food at a more reasonable price.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:54:39 +0000

Having just read Jeff Cox’s review, I wonder what restaurant he ate at – not the one we did last week. It seems such a shame that they’ve done a fantastic job on the appearance and the details, from the mosaic floors to the high end table settings. It feels like they spent time and money on the externals, but it’s all show – the food is mediocre at best. It would be such a tremendous spot if the food was chef-conceived or inspired. The tables are way too small for the plates set on them, and the service was truly lacking; its as if there’s no manager on site. Once done with our Paella (fair), Bouilabaise (better) and mushroom ravioli (good but not made on site), our dirty dishes sat through 5 walk-bys by the waitress and bussers. Then, the waitress came and removed only my empty wineglass. A disappointing meal. Perhaps they’ll learn and adapt – with that location, it could be *the* place to go downtown, but not unless they improve both food and service. I may come back and try the lunch menu out – maybe, just MAYBE they’ll take a hint from the comments and improve.

By: NIKI LORIAN

NIKI LORIAN — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:14:42 +0000

Last week , we had dinner at the new French bistro.
The decor is great, the service was good, the food was very unremarcable.
We had the Pate de foie, which was the artisan version but nothing to brag about..
My wife had a green salad. OK.
For the entree she had the steak and frites and I had the boeuf bourguinon.
Both of them, tasted like a regular cafeteria food.
We ordered a crepe with Nutella. They were out of Nutella so we had a crepe with pineapple. It was good.
This was a big disapointment food wise.

By: Food Diva

Food Diva — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 11:07:30 +0000

I believe that we were sitting next to SERVICE IS KING last night and I observed all of his/her complaints first hand. It was our little table of two who who may have received their salads by the clueless busser. We had to agree with all of their concerns regarding service and with their praise for the female server. I had the pate which was just OK – I still long for REAL Foie Gras but hey – it was worth a try. My companion had the mussels which unfortunately were “grainy” – UCK. The first half of the Frites were nice but the last portion in the bowl consisted of small overcooked dry pieces.
I had the sole and was impressed. The wine in carafes is a nice touch.
All in all I am hopeful for this little Bistro as it has the capacity to enhance Downtown, we had a glass of wine prior to dinner at Upper Fourth while listening to a great little live band. The Hostess at Rendevous was able to call us on our cell to let us know when our talbe was ready – again a nice touch.
Unfortunately the food does not hold a candle to Bistro 29 or K&L but the ambiance is “dope”. Good luck!

By: Service is king

Service is king — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 09:32:06 +0000

OldGal — Consider this. If there’s a theme, maybe it’s because there’s a consistent problem.
We went with a party of six last night, all of us first-timers, to check it out. The menu, the presentation, the atmosphere, the wine list and the food itself were just fine, really. And I would go back in a flash.
HOWEVER — management apparently has no clue about service organization. The waitperson herself was charming, friendly, knowledgeable and professional. But management apparently doesn’t understand that it would be best to have more people like her, and fewer buspeople. The biggest problem is that the buspeople are actually bringing the food out from the kitchen and have no idea where to take it. Time after time we watched as one or two guys would come out with plates, stand by our table and look like poor deer in the headlights, looking around with no idea as to which station (much less which diner) had ordered the items in hand. Over and over and over again.
Twice, once w/appetizer course and once with main course, we had one person at our table left with nothing to eat and had to flag someone down to go look for our food. In BOTH cases, the food for our table had been delivered to a different patron at a different table.
Then, later, it was our waitperson (the charming, experienced and efficient one) who was clearing our plates.
We asked her why the staff was disorganized and misdirected like this — why do you have busboys serving guests and experienced servers bussing? Why not use the busboys to keep water and bread full, and let the trained and experienced servers take orders and deliver the dishes themselves? And then the busboys should be clearing dishes — not using the servers valuable time to clear (except in emergencies).
Bussers — should speak at least a little English, keep bread baskets full, clear tables.
Servers — take orders, answer questions, serve dishes to the patrons they took the orders from.
Management — Organize the service hierarchy, hire the right people, and train employees better. Hire bussers who are capable of understanding the layout of the room & station numbers, and are able to interface with the customers enough that they can understand things like “I believe that onion soup is mine, please!” Don’t use bussers as servers or servers as bussers, except in urgent situations. And don’t send bussers out with food until they thoroughly understand the layout of the room, the station numbers. Train them, and test them.
Oh, and this…when we asked our waitress about the upside-down tasking, she said she would bring it up at the next meeting…again. Clearly, management isn’t listening or doesn’t think this is a problem.
I wish the boss would care about service — I’d really like this place to succeed. And I’m not so snobby about service I won’t go back — I will return. But the service situation is laughable. Fortunately I have a sense of humor and don’t let it ruin my evening.

By: TheOldGal

TheOldGal — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:51:40 +0000

Reading the comments here just now a theme seemed to emerge and caused be to wonder how many (if any) of these comments were planted. Just a thought.