Bistro Bistro

On Friday night, I really wanted to go out. And by «go out» I meant go out for dinner and sit outside and maybe get home by 9. I’m 30 now. Give me a break.
We took a drive down to Shirlington because we couldn’t be bothered to walk there (first world problems to a T), and found parking on the 3^rd level of the huge garage. I know everyone bitches about parking here but seriously, just go straight to the lot and be quiet about it.
I wanted Guapo’s. Husband said «No way in hell am I waiting in that line.» The patio was pumpin’, no empty spots for miles. We walked around, looked for some other places, and came back to Guapo’s anyway. Then I peered across the street and said, «What about Bistro Bistro?»
We walked over to BB, and lo and behold they had two open tables on the patio. What?!
We took the two top, were seated, and I was expecting something awful considering the 2 star rating and the fact that they had open tables on a perfect evening.
The meal was good. I had the Farfalle al Pesto and Husband had the rockfish (see photos). The bread was warm and fresh cut. The wine was great. Our server was nice.
The only things I wasn’t a fan of were that three people walked past our empty breadbasket and not-​a-​one took it or offered more bread. Our waiter was nice, but it was so noisy outside that we couldn’t hear him, and, lucky for me I understand accents because I had to translate to Husband pretty much everything he said.
I’m not sure why this place gets a bad rap or wasn’t super busy, but it was just fine by me.

Out of all the restaurants in Shirlington Village, this is probably the last one I haven’t tried, so I thought I’d give it a go since it looked inviting and promising. The service was decent, but the food presentation and taste was eh. I’ve had better. I think I could have gotten better tasting/​looking food anywhere else on that strip for the same price. This place is a step up from Luna Grill, which if you read that review, you’ll see what I mean. Anyway, been there done that, won’t be trying them again.

This place is terrible! Tasteless, over-​priced food with terrible service. Our waiter was always nowhere to be found and we constantly had little to nothing left in our glasses. A table next to us was complaining about the same things and how they’re food was cold adn they could not find the waiter to get their entrée fixed! Happened to 3 out of the 6 people in my group! We also asked for seperate checks from teh beginning and they said it was fine, never came out that way, and it took 40 minutes for them to fix the bill. IT WAS TERRIBLE. Explians why all of the restaurants in Shirlington are bumping and this place is always dead.
Do not go here for a disapointing meal and terrible service. Oh yea, if you want another alcoholic beverage, order 2 when you order your first one because trust me, you wont get it.

If I could put zero stars, I would. Read the other reviews, you’ll get the gist. Came here for drinks and karaōke on Saturday night, two hours of my life I’ll never get back. One thing about the service industry is that it thrives on service. This place lacks anything resembling service. I’m usually not one to single people out, but the bartender should serve time for being the king of D-​bags. Never again.

I wanted to choose no stars but Unilocal wouldnt let me. PLEASE go out of business already!!!

1.5 stars
Parking here on a Friday night is a total complete mess. With most of the parking in the garages reserved for the office spaces I don’t understand why the village at shirlington website would tell you to park there. After my experience at Bistro Bistro, I can say that I probably will never go back to that shopping complex. They know parking is bad, yet there are parking enforcers everywhere. It screams «entrapment» to me.
When we finally did park far from the watchful eye of the law, it took a long walk in the rain to get to the restaurant. My party and I were seated in the darkest bowels of the restaurant, even though it was pretty much empty inside. I noticed that for the most part, people sat close to the lighted windows… now I know why — if you can’t enjoy the food, why not enjoy the view? I can’t remember much about my meal, since it was not at all memorable except that maybe I had the risotto. I’ve been in many bistros in Europe, and nothing of this place reminds me of a bistro, especially the ambiance. All I can remember was that the food was a) not worth trek and the money; b) bad; and c) salty.

Bistro Bistro = Yuck Yuck
Boring, trendy, tasteless, over priced food served by under enthused waitpersons who take way too much time.
I don’t know why I let people drag me in here, it sucks every time. At least they’re consistent.
Parking in Shirlington is horrible.

I’m the duke of Bistro Bistro. It was once a great place frequented by all of the Shirlington locals and regulars — now it’s a last resort.
The new owner has absolutely no idea how to run a restaurant. He’s cheap, doesn’t do ANY maintenance, and worst of all — doesn’t pay his bills (I know because I have done work for him in the past). Speaking of not paying bills, the air conditioning on the bar side hasn’t worked in TWO YEARS because the owner refuses to pay the HVAC repair man to replace a part. When it did work, he kept the temperature set too high for it to be comfortable.
There is no manager on duty, so if the owner isn’t there (he’s rarely there), you have to take your complaints up with the wait staff and hope for the best.
The food is mediocre and extremely overpriced. There is no consistency — sometimes you get a good meal, sometimes it’s horrendous. Sunday brunch is $ 25/​person and consists of a very large buffet. However, if you don’t get there before noon, most of it is cold. This could be fixed by simply replacing the burned out Sterno cans promptly rather than just letting the food sit and get cold. I have gotten a few peeks at the kitchen… scary is all I can say. Looking under/​behind the appliances and noting the general condition of the kitchen and equipment makes me wonder how the county health inspector lets this place continue to operate.
Drinks are expensive — fortunately the bartenders make up for it by pouring generously. Happy hour is decent but pricing is otherwise too high for the area and especially high for a restaurant that has little to no business.
I hope someone buys out the current owner SOON because I love Bistro Bistro and it pains me to watch it go down the tubes. This is my only 1-​star review, but it accurately reflects how incompetent someone has to be to have an unsuccessful restaurant in Shirlington.

Poor Bistro Bistro. The waitstaff are eager, solicitous, even desperate for customers, but nonetheless the place remains identity-​less, overpriced, and cavernously empty. It’s the real-​life experience of the Babu Bhatt Seinfeld episode (You very bad man, Jerry, very bad man.”) All that’s missing is the franks and beans on the menu.
At a recent weekday dinner, I ordered French onion soup, followed by insalata caprese. The French onion soup was tolerable but clearly from frozen stock; the caprese was sad, made with completely tasteless refrigerated tomatoes and mozzarella. I’ll hand this to Bistro Bistro: the food came with bread, and the bread was not bad. I think they just got a baguette from the bakery across the street and heated it up. And the service was great – the waiter hung around our table, played with my puppy, and never let our glasses go empty. But then again, there was no one else to serve.

I too am surprised on the reviews here, as I had a wonderful time at brunch!
Brunch buffet has a wonderful selection beyond the expected staples. There are a variety of cold salads, lox & cream cheese, and if I remember correctly a waffle station? Maybe not — but I remember a cook being accessible to make an omelette for you.? This was a couple years ago.
I’ve been going through my binder of business cards, and came across this restaurant and remember enjoying myself.
I do also like the ambiance — it was clean and a little dark, so it had this… I don’t know, I guess European vibe. I sort of felt like I was in a spy movie.?
Good times though!

Wow — I can’t recall the last time I gave a restaurant 1 star. I returned to Bistro Bistro for the first time in 3 years and was shocked at how bad it was. Now that I’m reviewing my receipt and realizing that we paid $ 40 (after a $ 25 discount) for 2 salads, 2 appetizers that were too bad to finish, 1 glass of wine and an inedible dessert, I wish I could give this place a negative star. There’s no way that ‘meal’ was worth $ 65!!!
The fried calamari were greasy and thick with breading. The mussels were of dubious vintage and the german chocolate cake was … simply inedible.
Our server was pleasant. The bread was tasty — but sheesh! This place is just awful. Also, the bar tables are deeply scratched — like they were taken off of schooldesks from 1950. Save your hard-​earned dollars.

Should have known not to come here from the reviews. Yes, the bad reviews are on. Service was pretty slow (ate at the bar), they don’t have a great selection, and its not what a French restaurant is (think more Italian if that).
The food was just not good at all. I ate it all because I was so hungry, but I might as well have gotten a Beef Stroganoff Banquet TV dinner (usually around $ 1.50) from the grocery store. And I paid almost $ 20!
I am never going back, and steering people away if they ask.

We dined here for the first time using a gift certificate from
. Even with the discount, the food wasn’t worth it. The service was equally poor. Our first tip-​off should have been that on a Thursday night, when most of the other restaurants in Shirlington were busy, this place had only 2 other tables.
We ordered a fried calamari appetizer that was supposed to have some fried zucchini mixed in. It was a $ 10 dish, no fried zucchini, and made with poor-​quality frozen calamari. The small ramekin of «marinara» sauce tasted more like store-​bought Hunt’s tomato paste. I asked our server why the dish didn’t match the menu description. He replied, «Oh, they haven’t had fried zucchini for years. They need to update the menu.»
REALLY!!!
The entrees were no better. Overpriced and mediocre. This place needs a visit from Chef Gordon Ramsey if it’s going to stay in business! Save your money, or spend it elsewhere.

Okay so I used a
certificate since it was $ 25 off $ 35. I ordered the Coq Au Vin and my boyfriend ordered the Cordon Bleu and we split the Strawberry Mousse cake for dessert.
Service is awful AGAIN! Had to keep going inside to get our waiter to help us since we were sitting outside.
Then the Coq Au Vin was the driest chicken ever and I barely ate any of it but just mainly ate the vegetables potatoes in the sauce. The waiter seemed offended when I didn’t want to box it up but I said the chicken was extremely dry and I had no interest in taking it home. My boyfriend’s dish was okay but nothing great.
The dessert was small and overpriced — $ 7.95? Like really?
Anyways, this place has a string of bad reviews and no marked improvements. I would strongly suggest staying away from this place. I wouldn’t eat here again even if they offered me a free meal!

We were invited to celebrate a birthday party. There food was bland and overpriced for my husband and my tastes. It was a party of 8 people and the other guests enjoyed their food. But we won’t be returning.
We had the Tuna Tartar that came chopped presented like a raw burger in the center of the plate surrounded by greens with balsamic dressing. What happened to the Wasabi dressing mentioned on the menu?
The dinner specials were Monkfish in a saffron sauce $ 21and grilled meats (lamb chop, beef, and chicken) $ 23. Bistro Bistro must have read the review about too much salt cause ours had none and needed to be added by hand.
My husband thought the fish was tender and the mashed potatoes creamy. The sauce wasn’t impressive although the other guests licked up their plates. My grill meats came over done even though I asked for medium-​well-​done in an overpowering brown sauce.
The positive they have Stella beer on draft.

I don’t know why this place got such bad reviews. I had a gift certificate from
. We had a very attentive waiter. The prosciutto with melon appetizer was pretty good, but not what I expected. I sort of expected some melon pieces tightly wrapped in prosciutto. Instead it was a plate with 4 large melon slices on it, a HUGE pile of prosciutto on top, and three olives on top for garnish. There had to be a full pound of prosciutto piled on the melon.
The coq au vin was pretty amazing– the bacon and mushrooms deepened the flavor. The portions were very generous, which they should have been considering the price. The bread was hot and delicious. I had the onion soup, which was okay but lacked that lemony-​thyme flavor I’m used to– it was just sort of salty and oily. I would still go back– the main dishes were great.

Last night we went to Bistro Bistro for dinner, having not been there in years, and remembering it to be quite good, we gave it a go.
We started with the calamari. The presentation looked as if half of the app had been eaten already. The calamari was not quite crispy enough and also very salty. What they called spicy marinara sauce, I call a strange cross between tomato sauce and mayo. It lacked in flavor, except for salt.
We then split a Caesar salad. The croutons seemed as if they were bought at the market and the lettuce was kind of white, pale green and yellowish. Not a GREEN salad as one would hope for. The dressing was ok. Not bad, but not memorable.
For dinner I ordered the seafood linguine. Lots of mussels, calamari, huge shrimp and many clams. The sauce was the same as was used on the calamari app. AND the high salt level was a little much. My husband ordered the lobster ravioli. 5 or 6 huge ravioli. Sauce was salty. What is up with all that salt???
Our service was ok. Not great. At the end of our meal we had to sit there for quite a while as we waited for someone to clear our obviously finished meal.
Shirlington offers too many excellent restaurants to bother going back to Bistro Bistro. Too bad. It USED to be so good!

Apparently this place is under new management, but aside from that, it’s still pretty much the same place.
This review is for happy hour. They have some really good specials like $ 1.39 bottles, and $ 1.99 pints. That’s pretty competitive. The happy hour food menu starts at $ 4.25. I tried the calamari for $ 4.95 which was not bad, not fab. Bar was full but the restaurant side looked empty.
If you come, I’d recommend happy hour.

The menu is heavy on the Italian specialties like veal marsala and ricotta stuffed manicotti. However it was lunch and we were sitting al fresco, so I started with the beef carpaccio. Very nice, thin, tender with nice parm cheese shaved on top, with dribbles of olive oil and lemon wedge — done very nicely!
The sirlon steak sandwich with peppers and onions was tasty, but a bit light on steak and heavy on the bagette.
Strange thing, service was sluggish, tho there were only about 4 tables outside, and no one dining inside… and plenty of staff.
I know, 3 – 4 pm is a tricky time to get good service, but cmon…
I don’t like my dessert and coffee decision being made because I don’t want the pain of slow service to continue any longer.
Then, there was a «printer problem» which delayed returning my credit card receipt to me… ugh, get me back to DC, I promise I won’t cross the moat to eat again!
It could be cute at night, but twice during the day, it’s been just boring here for lack of better description.

Limited in quantity of buffet selections, but overall best quality brunch buffet for what you pay for. My advice: get the minimum required breakfast protein and head straight to the waffle station. The waffles are the BEST you can get around here. Be prepared to eat — a la carte options aren’t available.
Had to downgreade my ranking because of the terrible service my brunch bunch got at the end of our meal. It took them FOREVER to give us the checks and process them, and they had the audacity of writing in the 18% tip. Granted I hope some of that money goes towards the omlette/​waffle/​carving station chefs, but for unattentive wait staff who doesn’t do as much as a non-​buffet staff, it seems kinda much.