Bistro Niko — Restaurant in Atlanta

I decided to treat myself to one of the top-rated Atlanta restaurants to start the holiday season and invited a guest to Bistro Nico. When I walked in, I thought I recognized somebody that I knew and asked if I could walk around the restaurant which they said fine, and then we then sat down at our table. I explained to the waiter that I had received an invitation, via email, to join the restaurants celebration and the special $49 per person special celebratory menu. I explained this to the waiter and said I had a gift card to use . We then ordered and I got the fish and asked to switch the string beans to broccoli. The waiter said in a very condescending tone that the French people do not eat broccoli. I stayed quiet but wanted to reply "while I know you are a French restaurant, this is still in Atlanta and I don’t think broccoli is such a big ask, but chose to just stick with the string beans and would not eat them. My guest then ordered and attempted to switch his starch to mashed potatoes to which the waiter said "I don’t understand why you both keep making changes - there are NO substitutions. Period". He then said can I order it and pay for the mashed potatoes and the waiter said fine. At that point the general manager came over to the table, and I was already frustrated because of the no substitutions and asked me to see find the email and how I was going to pay. I explained I get over 1000 emails a week as a self-employed individual and was not going to take up my time finding the email regarding the special, but I did show him the gift card. I was so frustrated by this point that I got up to find another manager, as things were spiraling, and met Sherry. Sherry was very nice, friendly and professional and I said I felt I was being harassed by the other manager and explained the series of events. She understood my position that I was not having a relaxing evening and said she would get a new waiter and just to return to the table and relax. Much to my surprise, the other rude manager, was listening to the entire time conversation with Sherry and when I went back to my seat, as Sherry suggested, this rude manager, an older white male, came over to the table and said to us that he called the police, and I had two options. Leave the restaurant immediately or deal with the police. I have no idea why he was so obnoxious and threatenin. There was no yelling, no other guests were inconvenienced, there was no screaming and certainly no pushing or shoving. I consumed zero alcohol, which the order would prove. As we were walking out, Sherry was standing by the door and asked where I was going, and I explained that I was told to leave, and the other manager called the police. She could not believe how the situation became so escalated or that her colleague would threaten a patron. I have probably spent close to $15,000 at Buckhead Life Group over the years and renting out rooms for company holiday parties and family milestones. I frequent Chops regularly. When I was outside, walking to my car, the rude manager was also outside, talking to the off-duty police security guard describing me. Luckily, Kelly escorted me out to my car, otherwise I am sure that the off-duty security would have believed this crazy manager story and tried to come over and further harass me. I suggest one stay away from this restaurant as the staff do not follow best practices nor training and are downright obnoxious. I would like to thank Kelly for being sweet and attempting to make things right, but her counterpart just would not let it go and made things just more heated. If this is the type of experience you want, dine at Bistro Nico. If you want a relaxing evening with reasonable staff and management, go elsewhere. This was the worst dining experience of my entire life, in any city and in...

Mother’s Day. 😨 Gosh. What a disappointment. I love Paris, (I’ve been 2x), I love French cuisine and I’ve heard great things about Bistro Niko. My husband and son brought me here as a special surprise for Mother’s Day. Where do I start? We were there for 2.5 hours. We arrived at 3:25. We left at 6:00. Does that seem a bit ridiculous to you? It’s not a 7 course Michelin star experience, so the amount of time we spent there makes no sense. I was so hungry as I had skipped breakfast and lunch. I wanted to spare my appetite because I love all things French food. We waited 12 minutes before a server approached the table. I get that it’s Mother’s Day, probably a very busy day for the restaurant, so I decided to take a deep breath and be patient. I asked the server(guy with a hair band around his slightly longish hair) what he recommends. He said the trout is the most popular. Then he said “it’s a French restaurant, so anything French food would be a good option.” Then he listed off all of the French menu items. Hm…I got a very smug vibe from him right off the bat and considered asking for a different server. In hindsight , I wish now that I had. About 20 minutes went by before he came back to the table to take our order. My husband and I ordered from the Prix fixe menu and my son ordered a burger. Easy, right? Nope. We got our appetizers about 30 mins after we placed our order. We waited another half hour before our entrees were delivered. I had to approach a manager to ask why the service was so slow. As he accompanied me back to the table, boom. Our food is put on the table. The French onion soup was the worst i have ever eaten. I love French onion soup. It was a thick brown salty stew of boullion and LOTS of onion, soggy bread and a huge glob of leathery inedible cheese. Yuck. The mussels I had prior to appetizers was the best part of the meal. They were perfect. The only enjoyable part of the meal. I am a very observant person. As we sat and waited for each course/plate to be brought out, I noticed how our server was able to greet, serve and close out several tables-and that all of them had ordered alcoholic beverages. Interesting. I don’t drink alcohol. My husband doesn’t drink either. Did our server decide to just ditch us and focus on the tables that drank? If so, what a shame, because my husband is a very generous tipper. He usually tips at least 20% on excellent service, sometimes more. Our check was $150. He gave $13. I found that to be generous compared to what I would have offered. If you want to experience blatant judgment, bigotry, stuffiness, overpriced mediocre food and terrible service, this is your place. We will never go back to this god awful place again. Absolutely dreadful. Coq au vin was bland. Chicken overcooked. Creme brûlée is my favorite dessert of all time but I wasn’t able to finish it because I just wanted to leave. Happy Mother’s...

Phew. For being opened for 15 years (as the manager proudly stated multiple times 🧐🤭😏) this place needs to press the reset button. Their New Years Eve Experience was horrendous. First off the restaurant swindles their diners into a $135 prix fixe menu. Not sure if any other diners experienced what we experienced, but we were given the option on OpenTable for Standard Seating (which we chose). Well apparently that was a “glitch” in their system and wasn’t actually an option. The manager stated that they contact every guest before their reservation to fully explain the NYE event. I assure you we never got a text, phone call, email or carrier pigeon about the prix fixe menu. We went ahead and endured the dinner. But that wasn’t before the hosts gave away our table by accident before our prompt arrival. In turn, they seated us at an uncomfortable high top next to a door and a drafty vent. Unacceptable. It took 45 minutes for our first round of drinks to hit the table. 2 out of the 4 were made incorrectly (the WORST margarita I’ve ever had). Lime juice and tequila is not a margarita make. Oof. It was laughable.

The shrimp amuse bouche was room temp at best and the batter lost its crispiness.

The French onion soup- more like French onion cheese. Come on guys. It’s French onion SOUP. We scooped the cheese out of the bowl to make it to the broth. It was around a cup and a half of a melted Gruyere mountain on the plate. With around maybe a 1/4 bowl of broth remaining (that was actually tasty). The mashed potatoes were pasty. The asparagus tasted canned, the scallops were small and underwhelming. The crème brûlée was runny.

My friend ordered the $49 wine flight with dinner (4 DIFFERENT wine pairings for each of the 4 courses respectively). Not sure if they thought we’d notice, but the 1st course and 4th course wines were the same (a sub par sparkling). Also the red for the 3rd course was not an acceptable pairing for the loup de mer (which did have a nice sear). The wine pairing lacked creativity and was lazy at best.

Lastly the service. Our server was sweet. Was the only reason I did not give one star. She did the best she could with what she was given. Although she did run the cards incorrectly at the end that had us rushing a bit. But she was attentive as she could be. And got dinner out as fast as she possibly could since our experience was 45 min behind. We appreciated her motivation to keep us happy.

There are plenty of other restaurants in the area that are better that also won’t cheat their patrons into spending money they weren’t planning on spending. In the end this restaurant probably needs a revamp. Food, staff, and cocktail program all need vast improvement. Go somewhere else where you’ll be...