Bistrot Pierre — Restaurant in Nottingham

Short review: Incredibly delicious and high quality meal, and satisfying portion sizes for the price

Long review: Came here with my girlfriend for a special meal we had planned for some time. We chose this place because of the glowing reviews, although it looked to be at a price point higher than the places we normally go to.

We were greeted by a friendly waitress Caitlin, and decided to order some bread, olives and Chorizo as starters to share. The bread was clearly freshly baked, still warm with a crispy crust. It was a decent sized loaf for 2, and came with a soft garlic butter, which was lightly salted and very tasty. The olives were a mixture of a few varieties, which tasted fresh and high quality, and the chorizo was incredible. We got 5 house made small chorizo sausages, which were lightly charred and coated in honey. These were incredible on their own and with the bread, and the honey balanced the saltiness of the chorizo and olives perfectly. Together these came to about £12.50. I would especially recommend this combination, particularly the chorizo.

For my main, I ordered the duck breast, and my Girlfriend had the 8oz sirloin. The duck dish consisted of a large whole duck breast (which was offered pink or well done, so I opted for pink), a square of dauphinoise potatoes, a poached peach half, a red wine jus, broccoli, hazelnuts and chicory, costing a total of £23.95 (this was one of the more exoensive options, with some ofbthe cheaoer options costing £15)

The duck was cooked perfectly to my liking. The fat was not as crispy as I would usually prefer, but was still rendered down and was soft rather than chewy. It was very juicy, tender, and had a complex flavour. The dauphinoise potatoes were lightly crispy on the outside, with a creamy soft texture I'm the inside, with a hint of onion and cheese. The red wine sauce was very savoury with a nice saltiness, and when paired with the duck and some of the peach, made for the perfect bite. The vegetables were cooked slightly soft in he middle, with a satisfying crisp on the outside. Allong with the crunchy nuts, this added some textural variety from the softness of the duck, peach, and potatoes. Would highly recommend this dish for anybody else considering going

The sirloin steak came with a small metal basket of fries, and a generous helping of melted compound butter over the steak. She ordered hers medium rare, and told me that it was perfectly cooked for her. The fries were thin and crispy, with a generous amount of seasoning, and the butter made it even better (because it's butter, and you can never go wrong with adding more of it). This also cost £23.95

For desert, we each had the Creme Brulee. It arrived in a much wider ramekin than usual, meaning we got a large area of the sugar layer. A scrape with a spoon showed that it was perfectly torched, with a glass-like feel. The spoon cracked very satisfyingly through the layer. The custard tasted perfect to me, with a good balance of sweetness and vanilla. The sugar has a great snap to it, and had a subtle bitter note that tied the desert together and stopped it from feeling overly rich. Easily the best creme brulee I've had, and would highly recommend. These got £7.25 each.

It is also worth mentioning that our waitress Roi, as well as Caitlin, and Duarte who greeted us at the door all gave us excellent service, and appeared genuinely friendly. Roi in particular seemed very friendly and genuine, and made us leave feeling very happy with the whole experience. Besides the food and staff, the atmosphere and decoration was cozy and calming, with a lot of interesting things in the walls to stare blanky at while savouring an especially good bite.

Could not recommend this place enough, even if the price is higher than the places you...

We arrived during lunch on a Friday, and hadn't booked a table but the restaurant wasn't completely full so we were hopeful that we could be seated. We waited just over 5 minutes and a lady took us to a table.

Another young lady took over and her service was brilliant (at first) and she took our food and drinks order within 15 minutes of us arriving. The drinks arrived swiftly, the food did not. 30 minutes for the small plates, a garlic bread and mini chorizo, a further 40 minutes once the plates had been cleared for our main to arrive. I must say the food was nice enough for lunch, albeit mine and my husbands chips were luke warm at best and the pepper sauce was a little gloopy (Steak Frites and Burger). I hadn't even finished my final mouthful before the lady that originally seated us, swept my plate up from under me. My husband explained that I hadn't quite finished, and she chuckled embarrassed and took the plate anyway. It was at that point we felt rushed to leave, rhe servers were looking over at our table, checking their watches etc.

We took the hint and asked the young lady for the bill, explaining that we were paying with a voucher with a value of £50 that we were kindly given as a wedding gift. Our bill arrived and was £51.15 (10% service charge had been added). So I asked the lady to remove the charge but round our meal back up to £50 so we could pay with the whole voucher whilst still adding a tip. I should add, that at this point, my husband also had £5 cash to give to the lady as a gesture. We could have broken into the £5 to pay the additional £1 but we wanted this young lady to have the full £5 tip. It was at that point her attitude changed completely, she become EXTREMELY argumentative, rude and really quite abrupt with us both. "What is your problem with the service that means you won't pay 10%". I explained that I would be happy to tip, I just would like to have the figure round to £50 to the value of the voucher. "What could I have done to offend you?" "I didn't see you complain" "You just don't want to pay."

I was becoming quite worked up by this point as she was raising her voice and making me quite anxious. My husband asked her to leave, and remove the service charge completely. She returned 5 minutes later, all smiles as if someone had flipped a switch within her, thanking us. She hadnt removed the charge as requested, she had done what I had originally asked and rounded the bill to £50. Her eyes were floating around the table, almost looking for the £5 that my husband had in his hand earlier.

We stood up, collected our things and left. The lady that greeted us must have been told of the situation and asked if we were OK. I said yes and left without causing a scene, since there were two other customers at the time that were also complaining. One couple who had been there longer than us that were still waiting for mains, and another family who had ordered afternoon tea for three people and only recieved it for two.

I think they could possibly be under staffed, but there is no excuse for the way that young lady spoke to us or made us feel. That 10 minute interaction was enough to put us off visiting again unfortunately.

I hope that when things settle down, staff are trained to understand that a service charge is discretionary l and should not be forced on anyone. Especially if the customer is so willing to tip you...

I have been pondering over weather to send this review or just not bother and never return but I feel you need to be aware of how people are feeling about the changes that has been made. I have been coming to this restaurant for many years and have seen it change hands on several occasions and I have always been happy with the service and food , however I came at the beginning of the year and wasn’t impressed at all I was taken aback when I ordered my meal and it came on just one plate the portion was very sparse and I sat and waited for my dish of vegetables that I always got. It didn’t come. I asked the waiter and was told we don’t serve it like that anymore you can purchase the vegetables as a side now. I was very disappointed as I was still hungry when I had finished my meal. This has never been the case previously. Needless to say I didn’t come back for some time. In fact it was that long I even lost some of my points as they had not been used. I decided to give you another go on Saturday so booked a table for myself and husband and two friends We got straight in and immediately I could see that it wasn’t busy at all We looked at the menu which was very Small I always have the same thing. Deep fried Brie Chicken chassure Choc brownie. None of which was on the pri fix menu This was very disappointing We ordered our meals and waited for the bread basket which didn’t arrive when asked about it was told you have to pay for that now but no offer of would you like to order. My husband had steak and wasn’t asked how he wanted it cooking and it came very well done. We waited well over 30 mins for food in between courses and left with dirty plates at the table for all this time. My husband actually said to the waitress can we have the table cleared please as we have been finished at least half An hour and she said yes I’m Sorry we are short staffed. Even though I had seen her on several occasions standing around doing nothing. We wasn’t asked if we wanted dessert so all In all not a good experience. I have had a restaurant myself and know how hard it is to get the right balance I know prices of produce are rising but taking away a complimentary break basket and limiting the menu so drastically is just not the right thing to do. It clearly isn’t working due to the amount of people that used to go in but now don’t. This is not down to Covid this is down to the bad changes that have been made. The sad thing is that this restaurant was the place to go but now not so much. I needed to let you know how I was feeling as don’t feel I will be returning anytime soon. Which is a real...