Southside Bistro — Restaurant in Alaska

I gave this 3 stars because I am always frustrated by the inability to be consistent with their food and especially their to go orders. I was sad to see they closed during lunch. My office would place lunch orders (at least 5 people each time) several times a month. For the most part food was fantastic but at least one order was wrong every time. We would call and talk to someone each time but I don’t know what would happen because nothing ever changed. I live on the east side of town so I often stop in after seeing Dr Lloyd around the corner to grab a bite to eat. Their Caesar Salad dressing is to die for. Not only the best in Alaska but the best I have tasted and I travel a lot.

Now that brings me to tonight and my very big, big frustration. My husband was the one that was seeing Dr Lloyd to night and I asked him to order what I get most of the time to bring Home. Small chicken Caesar salad with extra side dressing. I’ve gotten in the habit of checking my order before I leave to make sure it is correct. There is nothing better than a Caesar salad with fresh ingredients and tossed. It has to be tossed to get the dressing all over and let it soak into the croutons. So my husband came home with a salad with no dressing on it and a side of dressing that was only 1/2 full. Very little cheese on it and very hard croutons because no dressing was sweeping through.

It just set me off. Again? These messed up again? Really? We live 30 minutes away and I’m just frustrated Again. Now some may say wow lady you are uptight over a simple mistake. Sorry, like I said, again, it seems that it is 40% or more percent of the time something is screwed up. Because I texted what I wanted to my sweetheart and he said he read my text to the lady taking the order, I knew it was ordered correctly.

My husband called the lady and she remembered him. When he said what the problem was she said sorry I misunderstood, bye. That didn’t help my already sour mood. When he told me he tipped her I decided that’s it, I’m doing a review.

In fairness they can make incredible food. Their shrimp are to die for. In fact if you order the shrimp dinner you will never be able to eat shrimp anywhere else. It is super sweet. The skirt steak sandwich is also way up the list of unbelievable. But make sure it is medium rare. It was made well once and I took a big bite and chewed and chewed and chewed. Awful and tough well done. Wonderful medium rare. My friends like the schnitzel a lot. I thought it was ok but that’s probably just me. I lived in Germany and it’s nothing like the real thing. Easily best French fries around. Great burger and steaks. Really good Cream of Mushroom Soup but they don’t offer it enough. Their fresh fish is usually very good also. And of course the Chicken Ceaser Salad with their incredible dressing is tops. My co worker won’t order it though because she always gets the salad that is all “white”. She said the lettuce isn’t green, just mostly white. I think it’s always full of the core, and stems.

Well husband didn’t like the lady’s attitude either and just talked to the manager who says I have a free salad waiting for me. So who can resist free? I guess I will be back next week. Almost didn’t send this in when I found out the manager was so nice but decided to anyways. They have great food but if you take it to go check it before you leave...

I stopped here by myself and was greeted very warmly and was immediately seated. I was waited on by a very polite waitress who promptly took my drink order and food order which was a cup of soup, small Caesar salad and an eggplant appetizer. My soup came out with a basket of bread which was very good (though a little on the cold side) but it was really good. Then I waited, waited and waited some more. I was there earlier in the evening when there really was not that many people there and from what I could tell they weren’t all that busy, plenty of employees wandering around. So I’m still waiting and the restaurant starts to fill up. A woman who was also dining alone was sat next to me, as far as I could tell she ordered tea and a salad, within minutes of her placing her order she received her salad. At this point I’ve been at the restaurant for almost 40 minutes, and was now very hungry, I had only eaten the cup of soup and had 2 glasses of iced tea. I decided I would leave at this point and asked for my check, the waitress assured me that my order was ready, I explained I didn’t have anymore time and needed to leave. Then a man, who I assume was a cook/chef due to the smock he was wearing arrived at my table with the salad I had ordered almost 50 minutes ago, I told him I would have to pass. He then came back to the table and appeared very annoyed and asked “do you want me to box up all this food for you?”. I told him no that I had to drive across town, which I did to pick someone up. I really wanted to like this restaurant and I have been a waitress myself and completely understand how things can be delayed or get lost. But the fact no one acknowledged that I had spent this much time waiting for a small salad and appetizer was strange to me. I don’t go to restaurants to sit there for almost an hour and then when I have to leave the food gets boxed up for me...

I’ve been here before, and the food is always spot on and fantastic, which is why I’m giving this place a four star rating. I decided to schedule a birthday dinner for my partner at 7:00pm ( party of 7) and we were seated quickly which was wonderful. When we first sat down our waiter had let us know he would be back to take our orders. For the first thirty minutes our waiter proceeded to walk up to our table just to tell us all of the menu items that the restaurant had run out of. I cannot tell you how many times we were told that they were out of mahi mahi…which was totally fine. After 30 minutes we finally got our drink order taken care of, and after he took our drink order he asked if we were ready to order our meals. In the middle of making a decision on whether we were all ready, the waiter walked off without any communication. At 7:40 our waiter returned and finally took our food order. I’m not sure if he was extremely busy, and I would normally take that into consideration anytime I walk into a restaurant. Our food arrived at 8:30 and the meals were absolutely wonderful! I would say worth the wait. I could tell the waiter was not in the mood, his tone and energy made me uncomfortable, it was just different from all of the other experiences I’ve had. My partner ( who I was celebrating) walked up to our waiter around 9 to ask for a dessert menu. We were given our checks at 9:30 and our waiter was only cashing them out one by one..he had made a comment about having to split our checks, and I could tell it was not the right thing to ask. Anyways…great food! I’ll recommend this place, but I would probably just note that the service might be a...