MATEUS BISTRO — Restaurant in Town of Mahone Bay

An Experience in How Not to Run a Restaurant

We walked in with two kids and 7 adults, expecting a simple meal. Menus arrived 15 minutes later—not a great start when you’ve got hungry children. We ordered kids’ burgers. The patties were tiny and came with adult buns, so the kids mostly ate bread. When we asked why, the waitress casually said they were out of kids’ buns—something she never mentioned when we ordered. The owner later appeared and claimed, “We never had kids’ buns.” Amazing coordination.

Some of us ordered starters, some didn’t. They brought starters but didn’t serve the main dishes for those without appetizers. When we asked, the waitress said they were planning to bring all mains together—fine, but at least tell us. Instead, we waited 1.5 hours for the main courses.

My salmon fillet arrived completely different from the menu description—it was supposed to have asparagus, but none was on the plate. And the rice portion was too small:) When I pointed it out, they apologized and promised to bring it “ASAP.” It never came until I finished my meal 2 hours later, at which point I told them to forget it.

A friend’s creamy pasta turned into a microwave vegetable pasta—definitely not what was promised or ordered.

We voiced our disappointment to the waitress, who then spoke with the manager/owner. He finally came over, half-drunk and dismissive, asking, “What’s up?” I asked if he even knew what was going on. Clearly, he didn’t. We explained everything again. He said he’d “fix it,” which took another 15–20 minutes. In the end, he removed my salmon from the bill—but it was never about the $30, it was about the experience.

This place needs to take its business seriously. Coordination, communication, and quality are all broken. I hope they see this review as constructive criticism, because people...

Would have loved to have experienced and reviewed but wasn't to be...planned a nice night for my husband's birthday, booked reservation 2 weeks in advance as we were coming to stay in Mahone Bay especially for his birthday. Got a call from Matt before our reservation, him saying there was a problem with the stove,and he didn't know of he could get a technician to fix it in time for our reservation. Gave him one star for that but we called twice ,on two separate days,asking for an update to see if we needed to make alternate plans and no response,not cool and very non Nova Scotian as far as service/hospitality. As well it just so happened to land on the new federal holiday, a coincidence that the "stove wasn't working "? We stopped by and knocked on the door at 4pm when they opened, pur reservation was for 5pm. Again no recourse as Matt wouldn't return our call. When I mentioned their stove having an issue they looked at me like I had 2 heads, as I assumed it was BS. There was no other restaurant in town open other than Ricardo's Pizza but kudos to them ,I will be giving them 5 stars for great food,service and hospitality! I feel like Matt panicked when the new holiday came about but instead of being upfront about it there was stories about a stove that didn't work. Instead of telling us upfront, he decided to be fishy and wouldn't just come clean that he wanted to close. I would have been disappointed but by not communicating and leaving us on the lurch during a holiday inwhich there was literally no other restaurants open was just horrible in my opinion. I know being a tourist town you don't need to cater to people but that doesn't mean you should be down right rude and screw people over. Just so not right any very un Nova Scotian, extremely...

This is one of the few nicer restaurants that are open during the winter months. If you're a larger party of people, it's definitely advisable to call ahead since it's a small establishment and tables fill up fast.

The indoor and outdoor decor is very eclectic and cool. There's all sorts of local art hanging from the walls. It's an old building, which contrasts nicely with the more modern touches they added to the place. It has a very maritime-ey feel (I made that word up). It's also very cozy; especially like on a cold night with sleet falling like it was.

Among the typical Atlantic coast fare on the menu, there is also a nice variety of Slovak food, which I've heard is delicious (because the chef is Slovak).

We ordered a variety of dishes, so could compare notes. Our favorite appetizer was the Mexican scallops and pork belly. It was delicious and had the most decent portion size of all the appetizer dishes. I had the beef tartar, which had a very unique taste, but was quite tiny. For the entrée, I had the special of the night which was Atlantic trout with scallops, shrimp and hollandaise sauce. The fish was really good, though I wasn't much into the vegetables that accompanied it (bok choy was slimy). My sister ordered the steak. On the menu it says "rib eye", but they had none of that in Stock and so we're serving striploin. She ordered it medium rare, but it came out well done.. They fixed that up quickly.

They have a large and varied dessert menu. Definitely larger than most restaurants I had been to. So I would recommend saving some room for that. I'd definitely visit again.. Next time in the summer...