The Bistro

Food here was up and down. We had a calamari starter that was excellent, a paella that was good but the shrimp tasted funky, and a soup that was incredibly sour (described only as vegetable with white beans). The atmosphere is loud and casual. They wiped down the table next to us while we were eating and the smell of ammonia was overpowering. Service decent. Full bar.
7 years ago (27-08-2017)

Fresh warm seasoned bread with oil and balsamic dip was excellent. They serve and actual glass of wine and not two fingers. Must say that the calimari was very bland. Could have used more capers, chicken stock, and general seasoning. There rest of the meal follow suit. My wife had flavorless strip steak with mustard poorly melted over it, and I had short ribs that were very tender but flavorless. Waitress asked me if I wanted more wine when I had quarter of a glass and I said please. Instead of going and getting another glass, she took my glass with wine in it and filled it back up to where it had been. Then while eating, one of the cook staff came out to the bar and hung out talking with the other staff. For a "fine dining experience" very disappointed considering the great reviews.
8 years ago (15-04-2017)

The Bistro restaurant was our pick for my wife’s birthday celebration while we were visiting the Mystic seaport in Connecticut. We were 4 adults and 2 kids. When we walked in around 6 pm the restaurant was pretty empty, but we trusted good reviews on yelp. So we ordered starters: eggplant meatballs and calamari. We were starving after a long day and kids were really tired. It took 30 minutes to bring the starters. We have to admit, the food was really good and we shared our thoughts with the waitress. People started to walk in and had to wait to get seated. There was only one waitress, so it was hard to get her attention. While we were waiting for our main courses, 3 couples got up and left before having a chance to order. We saw that the waitress told one more couple at the door that they couldn’t accommodate them, so they turned around and left. The smell of smoke from the kitchen got unbearable, we could hardly breathe. There was only one chef cooking, we waited for an hour to get our main dishes. I asked the waitress to make an attempt to bring my daughter her pasta dish since she was starving and didn’t want to eat the starters. She got her pasta 30 minutes later, but it didn’t have the sauce we ordered and tasted pretty bland, alfredo sauce too greasy, dripping from the pasta. Finally our entrees were brought. We ordered paella I was told it’s made to order, so I was willing to wait (more then 30 minutes, but definitely not over an hour), pasta with shrimps, fish tacos and scallops. All the seafood was good, not overcooked. However, the rest was a disaster. Pasta with shrimps was edible but under-seasoned. The scallops had burnt corn all over them. The veggies on the fish tacos didn’t have any dressing at all; the waitress promised the tacos would be fried, but they weren’t and they were cold as if just taken out of the fridge. The paella was a total catastrophe - the rice wasn’t the kind that is usually used for paella and had weird brownish color, not saffron risotto at all, the chicken was SPOILED and foul, it tasted sour and smelled like ammonia. My wife took the kids out of the restaurant to breath some fresh air, since the smoke was really bad inside. When I told the waitress about the chicken, she took the dish to the chef and then returned and said arrogantly that the chef disagreed. She didn’t even say sorry but added reluctantly that they are willing to take this dish off our bill. I raised my voice and asked to get the dish back so I could take the food to the lab for tests, she bent towards me really close and said “Shut up, no one will shout at me, don’t you see, we’re already having a bad night.” She refused to bring the dish back. I paid the whole bill and we left. The night was ruined. I could never imagine being told to shut up by a waitress over a spoiled food! This restaurant is going down the hill.
7 years ago (19-09-2017)

Long on flavor, but short on embiance,this quaint little "find" brings culinary diversity to New London's fare. My wife had the seafood burrito, and i had the paella ....I would strongly recommend both . The menu is very diverse,and sophisticated, even if the decor and staff are not.our waitress was oblivious to the idea that soup du jour changes daily! Awesome little place if you can tolerate the flies. We will be back!
7 years ago (26-06-2017)

The paella was good, but the ambiance was slightly off. Many things were misspelled on the menu.
7 years ago (24-06-2017)