Bistro

THEE BEST lobster bisque soup I’ve ever had. Period. Their bread and crème brûlée are also spectacular.

Was in town for the week. Was super excited to take my parents and the rest of the family out to dinner here my first night back. The host did a great job accommodating us with our reservation. Was scheduled for 7:15 however flight got delayed called Jo problem at all! Food was very good, everything as it has been for over 14 years! Great job… However service was very unfriendly; don’t know why but she didn’t seem to interested in what we needed or wanted. Would have given five stars has she been on point. Still would go back!

Pretty impressed with service. Filet mignon was great for angus, and their topping added what a guest called «just goodness.» Bruschetta was great, although crab cake was above average. I think the ambience really made the place for me. I can see hanging out here again soon.

Have only been once for lunch, and once was enough to know this will most definitely be one of our very special spots! Lobster Bisque was so so yummy!!! Most definitely one of the very best burgers ever!!! You can request your burger cooked any way you like, medium rare is always our preference and it was done to perfection. While we waited we were served in house baked bread and a lovely plate of Oil and Vinegar and freshly grated Parmesan. Scrumptious! The service and atmosphere beyond:). This would be a great place for a luncheon for a group or intimate dining experience. Looking soon forward to returning and experiencing more from their varied menu.
The staff and atmosphere, top notch… Please don’t miss out on this !!

Food was so delicious! Parmesan crusted chicken was amazing! Service was great! Favorite place to eat in Bismarck by far!

We went for lunch and it was great! On-​site made bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar pre-​mixed (olio é aceto for Italians). The vinegar is a little sweet and the oil not very strong, but probably because many Americans don’t like that style. I had the pulled pork chipotle sandwich with fries and wow! Home made red cabbage and carrot slaw that had the perfect amount of slaw sauce. The pork was well made; tender with good smoke and a light sauce. The brioche was equally as good as the table bread. Ally had the lobster ravioli and it was an appropriate portion with lots of asparagus and a light cream sauce. Two lunch entrees and water for $ 23! Well done Bistro! We’ll be back.

The Bistro is EXCELLENT!
The wait staff was prompt and professional. I tend to be indecisive and our waiter didn’t mind at all. He answered my many questions and I settled on the Blackened Ahi Tuna. We we starving so we ordered a side of Chicken Noodle Soup which, in all honesty, was the best soup I have ever tasted!
My sister and I both loved our meals. We opted to take leftovers home and have desert. We ordered the Chocolate Caramel Turtle Tart (or something of that nature) and it was phenomenal. It might be strange, but it tasted like Autumn… which almost guarantees that I will be back this Fall to have it again!
I would recommend this place to any and everyone!

The food is terrible. «Chef» Tyler belongs in the Burger King brigade. Absolutely poor presentation, horrible seasoning, and worse attitude. Our server said she does not like taking food back to him. Not surprising, it must happen ALL THE TIME!

I love the Bistro. Amazing food, service, atmosphere. I think the Bistro has the best Chicken Caesar Salad!
I have never had a bad experience here.

Meh. That’s what I think about this place. They want to be upscale, but they have to start by providing high quality food and sevice.
I had the portobello mushroom appetizer, the vegetable soup, the greek pizza and crème brûlée trio.
Portobello had tons of melted greasy cheese, not in description. Same case for pizza. Soup tasted like canned tomatoes. Not fresh. Not coming back.

I thought this was an OK restaurant on our overnight stay in Bismark. The chicken curry pasta had an overly thick sauce with a nice curry flavor. The chicken was cooked well and was very tender.
The ostrich was perfectly cooked but overpowered by some sort of cream sauce with kalmata olives. As much as I love greek olives, these didn’t accentuate or add to the flavor of the ostrich at all. And frankly, there just wasn’t enough of the ostrich to justify the price. It came with just three small medallions. I ordered it medium rare and it was cooked exactly right. The rest of the plate was filled up with way too much potato and veggies.

Went here for a late dinner. Kitchen was pretty much closed down, but they opened up for us. (Very nice.) Our group had a variety of items from the menu and it was all very good. I was a little concerned since the kitchen was not running at full speed. But no problems here. And not long wait that sometimes happens in these types of situations. Nice selection of beers, too. And on top of all that, great service. This is a local gem you need to check out!

I was hovering between 3 and 4 stars but I finally settled on 4 due to the service I received. I have been here twice, once for lunch and once for dinner. Both visits were pleasant yet could have been better.
For lunch I had a bar burger and lobster bisque. The burger was good but could have been outstanding if it had been cooked medium well as ordered, rather than medium rare as received. I had heard rave reviews on the lobster bisque and will say it was pretty good, although not as great as I had been expecting.
My second trip was for dinner and I ordered a crab cake appetizer (after the waiter raved about it), a pecan and cranberry salad and a mahi-​mahi special. I was totally underwhelmed by the crab cake — for the price I expected a top notch, lump crab cake. Instead I received a mediocre, breadcrumb breaded lump of shredded crab meat and filler. Not impressed.
The salad and mahi-​mahi, however, were fantastic.
The only other slight issue I had was the price of wine by the glass. I had a glass of merlot and a malbec and while both were good I’m sure they were sub $ 10 a bottle wines so $ 8 a glass was a little steep, especially considering the amount in the glass.
Overall I was happy and will certainly stop back on a future trip to town — it just won’t be my first choice.

Upscale atmosphere. Really nice restaurant for a date and dinner. Went there with co-​workers when I was in town for work.
Great beer selection, and I tried several local-​ish brews. Very nice. I had the Lamb Gnocci, and it was great. Huge portions and very good service.
I can recommend this place for all occasions.

I’ve been here twice and haven’t had a bad experience. In my opinion this is bismarks nicest restaurant. A wide variety to choose from.

Let’s face it, y’all. Bismarck is rather slim on choices for fine dining. Most of the time I feel like I’m limited to places like Applebee’s and the Ground Round. This was the first time I’d visited Bistro, and I can now say I’m a fan!
My family and I visited for lunch around noon. Neither the bar nor the dining room were busy. We were seated immediately. Our server was attentive and sweet and made sure we were well cared for.
We started with the beer cheese dip, served with tortilla and pita chips. It wasn’t unlike a cheese fondue made with a beer base.
Since the Bistro is famous for their burgers, we each had one. I was not disappointed! The burger itself was huge, and I could tell that the beef was of rather high quality. I could only eat half my burger and couldn’t even fathom having dessert!
I would have given the Bistro 5 stars, but the food service itself was rather slow, especially considering it was lunch time and was not busy. I definitely recommend it, though!

Finally made it back here and am glad I did!
We arrived barely after the dining room opened for dinner. Again, the service was impeccable, though the attentiveness of the water boy/​girl gets a little tedious. The bread is fantastic. More than one appetizer and entrée appealed; it was a tough choice to make.
By the time I devoured my share of the bread and appetizer, I was pretty full. My meal (protein, starch, veggie) was enough food to give me a full-​size meal of leftovers today.
Meal for two adults, appetizer and two entrees was about $ 60. Less food for the price than at other places in town, but the atmosphere is better, and the service is top-​notch.

Super cool place for ND. Stopped with the kids had a good time

This completes my trifecta of mediocre Bismarck restaurant reviews. NOT that Bismarck doesn’t have more so-​so ones, it is just these three (Bistro, Toasted Frog, and Walrus) are probably considered by many as some of the best places to eat in town (we’ve long given up on Peacock Alley…).
The last time we were at the Bistro was Valentine’s Day. We had hoped to either go to the Brazilian Harvest or Roby’s in Mandan (the former we like, the latter we wanted to try again), but had to settle for the Bistro as the former was packed and the latter was closed.
Our waiter was slow and bored. Seriously.
My wife had the scallops and asparagus linguine in crème sauce. For some reason the chef apparently thought pencil eraser-​sized bay scallops (obviously frozen) were the way to go, instead of much larger and sweeter sea scallops. He also must have used the asparagus tips in some other dish since all my wife got were 1″ stalk pieces — yes, like the tough, fibery bottoms. To complete this dish was a crème sauce that tasted exactly like — you got it, crème. That was ok though as it was much to hot to eat.
I had a hankering for meat, which is why we tried the other places first. Now, normally I order the ostrich at the Bistro, but I went with their very large porterhouse — medium rare, of course. Sure, part of it was medium rare, along with part which was medium, another location was well done, and to demonstrate his complete inability to judge meat temperature, the chef was able to cook part of the tenderloin rare — or perhaps it just didn’t hit the fire at all?
I had a nice glass of some indifferent Merlot, but paid for it (something like $ 8 a glass) and my wife had a warm Sam Adams Lager.
I thought about complaining but seeing how hard it was to get a hold of our waiter, I let it pass (besides, some business acquaintances of my wife picked up our tab, so I didn’t want to ruin it for them).
The restaurant’s atmosphere is nice, but I was also very surprised and disappointed by how dressed down people were. I get jeans and a collared shirt, but there were several tables of people with logo’d t-​shirts and baseball caps. Yes, men wearing caps. I’m not old but that is just not very couth, so I guess that speaks for the Bistro. Overpriced, average food, served to uncouth slobs.
On second thought, I may have to swap Peacock Alley with the Bistro. Same complaints save the slobs…

Was expecting better in terms of both service and food. Ordered our wine and it took ten minutes to get it, on a Wednesday evening… We had crab cakes for an appetizer that were almost soggy from all the grease used to fry them. I did enjoy the fresh baked bread and a starter salad with mozzarella, red onions and tomatoes. However, when the menu says «fresh mozzarella» I would think you would get more than three tiny spheres of the stuff. I ordered one of the specials, a fish flown in from Hawaii with lemon saffron rice and sauteed veggies. The fish was supposed to be cedar smoked with a spicy chile garlic sauce. I did not taste one hint of the smokiness and there was little sauce on it. I had to ask for something to dip it in because it was lacking in flavor. Rice was dry, veggies were veggies.
Overall, I do not think I would return again especially for the price.