Bistro Thierry — Restaurant in Melbourne

Bistro Thierry was highly recommended to me and I can see why — lovely venue with really good quality food.

The experience, however, was brought down by a waitress and, interestingly, I see that other reviews have mentioned the lack of professionalism shown by her too. Let’s not beat around the bush — she was rude and abrupt.

When I made the booking for 6:15 pm, it was made clear to me that the booking is until 8 pm — I was comfortable with this, as, to me, this was sufficient time for dinner.

The issue I have, however, is that, once we placed our order at 6:25 pm, it got brought out to us at 7:20 pm. Don’t get me wrong — I had absolutely no problem waiting an hour for the great food that came out. My problem was that, at 7:40 — twenty minutes after the food was served and I was half way through my $67.50 steak, the waitress came and asked whether we’d be having desserts. We said we’d love to order desserts and we’d like to see the menu, to which she replied, “Well, you’re gonna have to hurry up, because we have another booking for this table at 8 o’clock!”

I’m sorry, what now?

This went from bad to worse as it took a further 10 minutes for someone to come take our dessert order and we actually had to grab another waiter’s attention, so we could place the order. The desserts arrived at 8 o’clock, at which stage the waitress started circling our table and making us very aware that we’ve now become an inconvenience as we’re holding up the table. It made us feel so uncomfortable, that we literally scoffed the desserts down and asked for the check.

At $390 for the three of us, I would’ve hoped that I spent my time writing a review about the amazing food that we had and not a waitress with no manners, who ruined our special evening.

Will I return?

I’d love to try more of their menu, but I’d think twice and maybe check other French restaurants in town first.

P.S: After posting my review, I came back to add this quote by another reviewer further down:

“Extremely disappointed!!! It was such a disaster!!! Came here for dinner, a lady served us was in an arrogant attitude!!!

When we ordered the dessert, the lady told me something like: “ we’ll see how you go, maybe you don’t have time to have the chocolate soufflé.” After hearing that, I said: “okay then maybe we can have anything come together”. The lady also told me: “ because we put the soufflé in the oven, you can’t have them together.” It was sooooo ridiculous!!!!!!”

I went on their website to send an email to their management, however, there’s no email available for...

We have been to Bistro Thierry three times over the past couple years, for special birthdays because it seems to be a fancier, nicer restaurant, a real treat.

TL;DR

Order souffle first and then leave.

The only reason we came back after the first time was because there are next to no restaurants in Melbourne doing a chocolate souffle. And they do an exceptional souffle.

Food. The steaks and fish are decent. The duck is fine, the skin is not crisp, however I am not from France so this may be french duck. The wine selection by the glass is average, better to go a good bottle if you can finish it because they have some great ones on their extensive drinks menu. The food is presented in a very classic way. Souffle, order it.

Customer service. My partner told me not to say it was atrocious. So, appalling. Not everyone however, bar staff and at least one waiter were friendly, courteous, even made it seem like they were both happy to be there and happy to serve you. However, some of the delightful service that we have experienced whilst attempting to dine in were things like literal snatching of menus from myself (f) and others in our party so that the waiter could show (m) members of our party, condescending attitude when we needed more time to make menu choices, when items on their chalkboard were unavailable a snappy 'why are you looking there' because obviously a chalkboard menu is not a menu, and when we tried to set aside a souffle for everyone in our party while we were ordering our mains (because they had almost run out last time) received a 'you want me to bring the souffles out with your mains then' with a smirk and a laugh that makes you want to leave except you can't because you just received your drinks and haven't even had dinner yet.

Decor. The ambience is cute date night, not too bright, classic bistro style, loud/quiet enough to have an intimate conversation or talk across the table without everyone hearing what you're saying.

All in all, even though the souffle is amazing, sadly I will not return to this restaurant and feel the need to hype myself up to feel anxious, uncomfortable and like I should feel grateful to be dining in such an establishment. Oh, and don't share food. They really don't...

Had high hopes for Bistro Thierry, service let it down.

We had browsed the menu before arriving and tried to order a few soups while we continued looking through the rest, but the request was refused — we were told to order everything at once. Fair enough, but we then spent the next 15 minutes trying to get someone’s attention to actually place our full order. Multiple waiters avoided eye contact while seating others and taking new tables before us.

When we finally got someone to take our order, the interaction felt flat — no real recommendations offered and the staff member seemed uninterested or unmotivated. We had water poured at the beginning, but never received any refills. We also asked for butter several times — each time acknowledged, but it never came.

Food-wise, it was a mixed bag: Snails were decent but nothing special • The anchovy starter l came straight from a can. Bread was okay. • Calamari was lightly fried and had a good sauce — probably one of the better dishes. • The steak tartare was my favourite, but the way the egg was served felt a bit unhygienic and left me feeling quite gassy afterwards. • The French onion soup was more like a piece of bread with melted cheese on top of some onion — lacked the depth or finesse I expected. • Beef bourguignon was two lukewarm pieces of cheek with decent mash. Fries were undercooked and floppy. • The steak was cooked properly and decent overall. The mushroom sauce was on the lighter side, not very creamy but acceptable. • Duck was chewy and not particularly tender, and came with a basic veggie mix.

The only positive on the service side was the food being delivered in the correct order and without delay — but that was about it.

I also couldn’t help but notice the contrast in how some tables were treated compared to ours. Being of Asian background, I did feel we were somewhat dismissed, and after reading through other reviews, I can see similar sentiments shared by others with similar experiences. Hopefully it was just an off day, but it left a pretty disappointing...