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| - My boyfriend and I were anxious to try Bernard's Bistro for months, hoping that it could be a nice addition to our restaurant rotation once it opened. Unfortunately, even after giving it a second try, I can't imagine us coming back. I'll critique our most recent visit based on three areas: service, food, and atmosphere.
Service: The service fluctuates between over the top and stilted to rude. The manager and a server held both doors open for us when we arrived, which was a bit unusual given the casual atmosphere I expect from a neighborhood bistro. But the manager was cordial and told us we could choose a booth by the window or the wall. Mistakenly, we chose the booth by the wall. Apparently we were sitting in the section of a waiter who had no interest in serving us. After walking by us repeatedly and ignoring us for 10 minutes, he pulled another employee aside and whispered in his ear, pointing (pointing!) at us as they both looked straight at me and my boyfriend. It was incredibly uncomfortable. After a wait of about 15 minutes, another server came to take our drink orders. She wasn't necessarily impolite, but I think she had bigger fish to fry. Perhaps she pulled the short straw and had to wait on us. We barely saw her throughout the meal. Although, I should mention that she did help me to modify my dish to my taste (wasabi mashed potatoes tend to be heavy on the wasabi most places), which I appreciated.The only genuinely friendly interaction we received was from the busser who would chat with us when dropping the bread, gathering plates, etc. The night was a mix of "Welcome to our finest guests!" and "Ugh, I have to go talk to these people again."
Food: We had the escargot appetizer to start, as well as the soup of the day, carrot ginger. I had the seared ahi tuna entree and my boyfriend had the filet medallions. The escargot was good, but the mushrooms and tomatoes in the sauce were raw. We ordered the same dish the first time we visited Bernard's and it was better then. This is a small issue though; we sopped up the sauce with the bread long after the last snail had been devoured! The carrot ginger soup was also tasty. I was worried it would be a bit thin, but it had a very nice consistency. The entrees, however, were a mess. My seared ahi tuna was so chewy that I couldn't finish my meal. Honestly, I had to spit some out. It was not my finest hour. And my boyfriend's medallions were the consistency of a burger. The real problem were the sauces. The medallions come with a trio of sauces: peppercorn brandy, red wine, and citrus. They are all the same brown gravy sauce with additions. The citrus was the most offensive. Imagine gravy with orange drink mixed in. The plating and presentation seem outdated to me or like a plate you would be served from a catering service at a wedding reception. For example, the dollop of mashed potatoes is put on the plate with one of those cake nozzles. The sides are finickily arranged vegetables. It's like, "Here, have one steamed asparagus stalk perched upon a single zucchini coin, which is set next to a curly-cued lemon rind and surrounded by a fan of pea pods."
Atmosphere: I think that this restaurant is suffering from a confused identity. We happened to eat on "Titanic Night," which means that there is a special menu option (that we didn't take), they play the movie Titanic on flat screens around the restaurant, and there is a pianist. It's a strange theme for a "California French" bistro. You can tell that Bernard likes Titanic from the wall decorations. Well, some of them. Others are "French-y" things, like fleur-de-lis, while others are photographs of the meals. It's like Shenanigans. But despite the wall decor, which is fine because it's a bistro and needs to be casual, everything else is over the top. For example, the servers and bussers are in fine-dining attire, like tux shirts. Some customers were in shorts and flip flops; others were business casual. It was hard to get a read on just where we were exactly.
I'm okay with a confused identity or average service. If the food is good and a nice enough person delivers it, I don't care if you want to be a French Titanic bistro from California. But the rude server who refused to acknowledge us and the bad entrees push this restaurant in the 1.5 star range for me.
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