Bistro 63 — Restaurant in Amherst

I was curious about this place and somehow got the idea that the food would be good here. it always seems packed and it's difficult to get a reservation. wow I was quite wrong. walking in and sitting down, we could feel the grime and the dirt. the waiter was quite nice and obviously very experienced dealing with parties that had kids. he did a really good job although he did want to up the tab, naturally, with some way off the mark descriptions of the food. and about that food..... really quite bad. the jambalaya tasted like it was canned tomatoes canned beans and plain rice and cubed chicken breast with no flavorings (the sausage in the dish was good). heavy taste of tomato paste. my wife's fish was a messy puddle of pseudo Curry sauce surrounding cheesy rice with a very thin flavorless fish filet sitting atop it all for $24. I'm not sure what they were aiming for with this combo. one of the worst dishes I have had in the area. my son's plain pasta was $9, and had a very small container of fake parmesan to put on it. Our garden salad was $10, tiny, and was simply some mesclun with some grated carrot and pickled onions, bottled dressing. and there was a good wait for the food. maybe if we had just ordered burgers and beers we would have loved the place? that is what most people seem to be ordering. but this restaurant is not cheap, including the burgers, even with inflation factored in. when one spends a good chunk of change on three really bad dishes, and waits a good while for the food, sitting in dirty booths, it leaves a really bad taste in one's mouth. no...

Came here for Valentine's Day with my husband. The restraunt itself was very nice. Great atmosphere.. Very clean.. Dimly lit so even a bit romantic. The hostess was very friendly and the waitress was also.. They gave us a glass of champagne to toast which I thought was very sweet. There was a young man singing and playing music most of the night, he was very good, I enjoyed that very much... So everything seemed to be great until my glass of wine came to the table and smelled like dirty wet socks. I sent it back and they said no problem and offered me another drink but the taste was so bad I just drank a coke for the rest of the evening . Then the food came out.. Our appetizer was first we had the calamari. It was awful. Tasted like it was freezer burnt right out of the box.. But the dipping sauces were very good. I had about 3 bites and couldn't get over the taste. .Then I had the lobster chowder that was nothing beyond OK.. The worst part of the meal was our entrees.. I had the lamb shank my husband had the blackened scallops both came with risotto.. The lamb was dried out and gamey it was so awful I took one bite and that was enough.. The reduction sauce they claim was basically brown gravy from a can. The risotto with both meals was clumpy and without any real taste. .The blackened scallops I believe were only black because it tasted like they were made in a dirty pan.. Very disappointed and would not suggest eating here at all.. Total...

Food was good BUT... had some serious ups and downs in the experience. Amazing for a stable business how one bad egg can ruin it for the bunch. Went for lunch and they were very on top of things, got sat right away and promptly had our drink order taken. However, upon ordering we asked if the pickle chips appetizer are dill pickles, to which the waitress first said an extremely hesitant "....yes?" good news was she was happy to check but came back to say "they are "chips" pickles" sadly to say, that was obvious from the menu and NOT the question, so ordered blind with fingers crossed. Turned out to be a generous helping of that perfectly crispy with a nice crunch dill pickle chips. Again, the beautiful BBQ burger came along with our order of fries (sorry no sides come with your $16 burger). Awesome fries, but when we asked for malt vinegar they brought us balsamic. I'm sorry... not the same thing and sad that in a restaurant like this they wouldn't know the difference, someone should bump up the training here. $3 soft drinks beware, there's as much ice as will possibly fit in the cup so you end up with 2 ounces of soda and sorry... no free refills. All in all, the food was generally very good but be ready to have the order mixed up and get upcharged...