Mele Bistro

We had an amazing experience at Mele tonight. I am almost embarrassed because I have lived within walking distance of this restaurant for over five years and had not ever stopped in!
We were greeted by the owner, I believe, who was warm and welcoming. He sat us and gave us an overview of the menu. It was obvious that he took great pride in his restaurant and the ingredients that went into his dishes.
The food was top notch. The bread was fresh and warm from the oven with high quality olive oil and balsamic. We started with the portobello mushroom, which was a perfect light starter with a wonderful flavor. I had the swordfish as my entrée and my boyfriend had the ahi tuna with mushroom risotto and asparagus. The fish was SO fresh and cooked perfectly. My boyfriend was incredibly pleased with the ahi preparation a and flavor. The risotto and asparagus were perfect as well.
I really cannot say enough good things about this restaurant. Our server, Carlos, was knowledgeable, prompt, and made sure we had everything we needed. The décor and atmosphere were also wonderful. We will absolutely be back and I will be recommending Mele to all my friends and colleagues!

Had a great experience here! Everything is so fresh!!! Loved the shrimp scampi and lobster ravioli!!! Bread and olive oil is very fresh! Loved the décor and the service was great… will definitely be back!!!

Such a lovely restaurant! The atmosphere is so welcoming and pleasant. I met friends here that I sadly see infrequently. The staff made the evening so special. The menu is amazing and broad/​super fresh seafood and delightful presentations. I would highly recommend Mele!

I had such a wonderful experience at Mele Bistro! I’ll definitely make it out again. I had the tri-​color tortellini on a cold day after snowmageddon 2016, and it was EXACTLY what I wanted… warm, rich, creamy, flavorful… mmmm. The wine pairing the server suggested was also on-​point. The fiancée had the gnocchi, which was equally delicious. The atmosphere is warm and cozy, and the owner of the business (who had spoken to my fiancée earlier in the day on his failed quest for donuts) was serving tables alongside his employees. Even their coffee was good! The vibe and pacing of the restaurant reminded me of the time I spent in Europe, where going to restaurants was a social occasion and not just a practical one… when you’re at Mele Bistro, you can sit and relax for a while!

This restaurant has the cutest appearance. They really did a great job decorating. The music was enjoyable and the owner and other staff were very pleasant.
The seafood that my husband and I tried was very good quality and cooked well. The dessert was good as well. The service was very good when we first arrived (6pm) but got slow after the restaurant filled up as others said. I’m sure they can work on that though!

Cutest little Italian restaurant in Arlington! I was so fortunate to stumble upon this place and after that day I became a regular. I just wanted to try it since the atmosphere looked so adorable and a perfect cute romantic date spot. The owner came up to our table and made the experience even that much more special. I ordered a fish dish and a few different appetizers and was very happy with everything I tried.
I scheduled a few business lunches at this restaurant and my colleagues never complained to walk up since it is at the top of Roslyn, almost getting into Courthouse. Every night I pass by, I notice it is always crowded and for good reason. Each dish is so unique and you feel like it is made especially for you, not just mass produced. Can’t wait to go back here :)

Was waiting to get into phở place line was too long and we ended up here. Boy am I glad we did!!! This place is Great! Should be rated much higher on Unilocal.
Ravioli awesome. I ate so much of the delicious starter bread. Scallop appetizer very good! Absolutely want to come again soon. Be prepared to drop some $$ as its not a cheap place but that taste, flavors & quality are worth it.

Great ambience and delicious food.
If you’re in a hurry, go elsewhere but if you’re looking for a relaxing meal with friends and you enjoy old world service, and good food made from fresh ingredients, you’ll love this place. The place is packed and super busy so be sure to make reservations.
We ordered the shrimp scampi with linguini, the gnocchi with a rich and fresh Alfredo sauce and the Seafood fusilli. The shrimp was so tasty and fresh. The gnocchi was made just right. Highly recommend!

Great food. Loved the small plate offerings are a wonderful choice. Loved the French bread with olive oil pepper, red pepper flakes and balsamic vinegar. Dessert was homemade and tasty. Great pear tart. Highly recommend!

This place had great reviews on open table and we really tried to like it. Ok, I did — my husband wasn’t thrilled from when we got there and there was no host, no one to great you, there were 4 other couples gathered around the front door waiting for tables and most of us had reservations.
We finally got sat by the owner I can only assume who was also running around busing tables, taking orders, etc. Took a couple requests to get menus and service was pretty much horrible. I won’t go on about it because others seem to cover it in their reviews. How cheap are you — just get a host and extra servers.
Was hoping the food would make up for it. Unfortunately it didn’t. Calamari was overcooked. Red snapped was good, pasta — eh, ravioli good, and dessert — lacked any flavor. Didn’t even finish the pear tart. Overpriced for what you get. Honestly go eat across the street at Bistro 360. Delish and MUCH better service.

This place punches WAY above its weight in terms of both quality and service.
Mele Bistro is the new face of Village Bistro, though it appears to be from the same owners. It’s a small but impeccably clean place with a unique décor that doesn’t feel extremely Italian, but doesn’t really need to. Prices are not cheap, but are reasonable for both the quality and quantity of the food. Service is amazing — the owner regularly explains the menu to patrons, and a LOT of effort was made to make the dining experience comfortable.
The food here is superb. I had one of their Hawaiian fish offerings, which was grilled impeccably well. A lot of the food here is very fresh, so it appears that the menu may change depending on the circumstances and season, but there’s something nice about that. Suffice to say, the fish I had was good enough to warrant trying anything from here.
I was pleasantly surprised, and I think you would be too — highly recommended.

It was difficult for me to rate Mele. I’ve been three times and I feel I can say that the food is worth a near perfect 5 stars, but the service, unfortunately, is worth 1.
My most recent visit to Mele was this past Saturday night — I had a reservation for four people. When we arrived the restaurant was packed, and after waiting in the doorway for about 10 minutes, we were finally seated into the very last table in the place, all the way in the back. I was shoved up against the wall but we couldn’t even adjust the table because others were jammed in so close.
After we were seated, we waited 25 minutes to get water and menus. As soon as the server finally came over, we actually left — knowing if it took that long to get our menus, the food service would be even worse.
There appeared to be 3 waiters in the entire restaurant on a busy night, and I’m including the owner in that number. I’ve visited Mele before on weeknights and the service and food have been exceptional. I don’t know if they were short staffed or what happened, but other reviews here also note that the service is VERY slow.
Again, the food is delicious. It is clear that the priority is on fresh seafood and quality ingredients, and it shows. I have been very happy with the meals I’ve tried.
But unless this restaurant gets the service together, we won’t be going back. No one even apologized to us when we left.
What is going on with the service? No matter how good the food is, service will ruin it every time.

The location is great — parking is available. The restaurant ambiance is wonderful.
Unfortunately, the service — which we were warned about — was truly slow. We waited more than 90 minutes for our appetizers. We began to taking bets on when our food would arrive. Everyone enjoyed their food once it arrived.
I recommend this restaurant but strongly encourage you to bring a significant amount of patience and good-​naturedness.

The server was very attentive and the owner took time to talk to my mother and I about the ingredients, which he insisted were delivered fresh. He was obviously very proud of his establishment and answered questions about the menu and ingredients that we had, which I appreciated as it was reminiscent of the small bistros I remember from Europe.
The Rock Shrimp pasta had a type of tomato-​vodka sauce that made the whole dish very good.
Overall a delightful experience.

Great service is topped by delicious food. Atmosphere also is relaxing. Such a find in this neck of the woods where the trend seems to be noisy restaurants. The owner greeted us and made sure that we were comfortable and well tended to. He also explained menu items and invited us to try certain dishes.
Waiter was attentive, and fish and pasta dishes were *very* good! I like this place because it’s local, off the beaten trail, attention to detail is by far impressive, and of course, the food is well cooked, plated and designed on the plate to look as good as it tastes.

Amazing food and atmosphere!!! Yesterday was my first time with friends, had dinner and drinks. We tried several items from calamari to lamb and steaks; everything was amazingly delicious!!!
I will be a regular customer here from now on. The owner, Frank, is a scholar and gentleman; he was so hospitable and made us feel like home. Excellent service!

This restaurant is very interesting, but great none the less. At first we were very overwhelmed with the length of the menu and definitely had a difficult time deciding what to order. Our waiter was extremely friendly and helpful and informed us that all of their pasta was made in house. My friend went with the squid ink with smoked scallop filling ravioli and I went the chicken and shrimp pasta. Both were great! Will definitely return to Mele again.

My friend and I decided to eat out last night. We read the reviews and I booked a reservation for 7:30. We arrived and everything seemed okay. We parked a few spaces from the front door. There was no hostess stand or place to have one. A waiter seated us at a table to the far left of the door, for two, in the corner near the window. Remember placement. It’s important to understand why this is a low star review.
We were given menus, told that small plates come with one side while entrees come with two. We were then left in peace to review the menu and make a decision. The place was full. There was only one empty table for two near the door. My friend and I reviewed the menu and located several dishes we would like to try. I reached for my bread when IT happened.
Our quaint little seating area was invaded by one quiet, unassuming, roach. It crawled along the top of the tile, where the bull nose piece would be, exactly at our eye level.
What is that?, I asked my friend, shocked at the audacity of the intruder.
She had a look of wide eyed amazement. It’s a bug, she replied.
No, I finally recovered. It’s a roach!
We both looked a little green. What should we do? At that point I psychosomatically felt roaches crawling on me. The server came by to take our order. We advised him that we watched a roach crawl along the wall and would not be ordering. The server stated that the restaurant spent thousands to remove them however, another tenant in the property did nothing to handle the problem.
I looked at the server confused. I wondered if this was supposed to help me ignore the roach? I then responded, I don’t wish to make a scene but a roach means I can’t eat here. He, quite professionally, did a 180 and asked the table of four to our immediate right how things were. I hope they were great because they actually received food. We only received drinks and felt ill about that.
If the place could prove the roach problem was resolved, I’d give it another go. Specifically I’d have to see the cleanliness of the kitchen. It concerned me that the front of the house had a roach. Restaurants are, after all, a little theatre. The public comes for the show (food) and he’s to trust that the hands behind the curtain are competent, clean, and capable of delivering an edible meal.

My dad had been to this restaurant when it was Village Bistro and he really enjoyed it. I am not sure if a new owner took over or if they simply changed their name, but I do not think my dad liked it as much as he had before. It was his birthday and we wanted to give this revamped French (?) bistro a try.
The owner is very nice and spent some time explaining that are their meats, fish, and vegetables are fresh. The menu is enormous! Honestly, I have no idea how they manage to keep all almost 20 something types of fish fresh daily. We made some decisions from the Disney World sized menu and got an array of dishes. For appetizers, we go the calamari and mussels with white wine sauce. The mussels were the best part of the meal — they came in a great light sauce with delicious capers. We could not stop dipping our bread into the yummy goodness!
As for the main meal, I got a lobster ravioli with a tomato cream sauce and it was decent. The BF got a crab ravioli dish, but the crab was majorly lacking and he did not seem to enjoy the dish at all. My dad’s girlfriend got a steak dish, but it was really not memorable at all, so I can’t even tell you the dish. My dad got the lamb dish and this is really where it went awry. They had brought out all the dishes except for my dad’s and when they finally brought it out, the meat was so raw you could not even cut it, let alone chew it. We had to send it back. When it finally came back out, the meat was tasty, but it wasn’t anything special.
While the restaurant is in a cute location and the area definitely needs a good French bistro or eatery, I don’t think Mele Bistro really knows what it wants to be. They appear to have a mishmash of italian, french, and american classics. I would not really recommend this place nor do I anticipate returning any time soon.

I walked by this place for years when going to get a quick bite at Phở 75, and always thought it looked adorable and interesting, but never actually dined there until recently. The décor is quirky, but cute and charming, with pretty paper umbrellas on the ceiling, strands of Christmas lights, and fresh flowers. They were very busy that night for dinner, and we had to wait a while even though we had a reservation. I didn’t mind too much because I wasn’t starving, but they were apologetic and brought us complimentary glasses of wine while we waited.
Their food incorporates French and Italian influences, as well as a lot of seafood options, into a variety of dishes. The menu changes daily, depending on what is available to them, and I was particularly surprised to see that some of the seafood dishes are made with fish flown in daily from Hawaii. We both ordered seafood entrees that included scallops, shrimp, salmon, and mussels, and everything was cooked perfectly (a pet peeve of mine is overcooked or overseasoned seafood). Service was notably slow, but they were very busy, and we weren’t in a hurry, so that didn’t matter, and overall, the service was very welcoming and friendly throughout our meal. I’m looking forward to going back soon to try some of their other dishes, but for now I would highly recommend their seafood entrees.
One thing to note: they changed their name to Mele Bistro, although the Unilocal listing isn’t updated yet.