Bis on Main — Restaurant in Bellevue

I have to say that the food here is really good. However, the service is what I’m leaving the review about. I took my friend there to treat her to a nice birthday dinner. My friend is black, and I am white. Neither my friend nor I had been to Bis on Main before. We had a reservation, and in it I left a comment that it was a birthday dinner. None of the wait staff mentioned happy birthday or asked whose birthday it was, but that’s the least of the issues.

We had 2 waiters that night, one was training the other who was a new hire. Waiter 1 came, greeted, and began to explain the specials of the evening. I noticed that he only made eye contact with me, only spoke to me, didn’t acknowledge my friend. I noted it as odd and started to pay close attention. Waiter 2 came shortly after, made eye contact with me and asked me how I was doing, and managed to glance at my friend. Then a little later Waiter 1 came back to check on us and ask if we were ready to order, again he only made eye contact with me, and when it came time to take my friend’s order, he didn’t even look at her - he looked down at his note pad and asked what she wanted. At this point I fully realized what was happening. I asked my friend if she wanted to leave, but she said to stay.

Our salad was delivered to our table, and again - only making eye contact with me and only speaking to me - I was asked if either of us would like pepper on the salad. So I made the point to ask her if she would like some pepper. I was trying to give the hint that the staff needed to be treating her better. They didn’t take the hint. Throughout the whole evening they NEVER asked her a single question, and I kept asking her the questions first before giving my answer, because if I answered first, they would just walk away without getting hers. Towards the end of the evening it got to the point where, when I would get asked a question, I would gesture with my hands towards my friend to force the waiter to ask HER the question, THEN I would give my answer after she gave hers. They still never looked at her or acknowledged her without me forcing it.

When we were finished, I paid, tipped for the quality of the food, and then went up front to talk to the manager. I calmly explained what had happened, and he reacted in shock. He was very apologetic and said that the owner would be in the next morning, and that he would talk to the owner then. He also assured me that there would be a conversation with the wait staff that served us that evening. He took my name and email address as well. I told him we weren’t looking to get anything from him, but rather just wanted them to be better. Well it’s been a week since and I haven’t received any correspondence from the restaurant. No confirmation that there even was a conversation, no official apology or reassurance from the manager or the owner - nothing. Complete radio silence. Which is why I’m leaving this review, because it’s 2021 and NO ONE should EVER be made to feel unwelcome because of the color of their skin. This story deserves to be heard, especially since the restaurant has chosen...

Terrible food, raw, rubbery, tough steak. Crab cakes taste like glue and cafeteria fish sticks mashed together. Not the quality you want in a $300 dinner. The owner tried to pressure me into taking my review down. I wonder how many other diners he has "requested to remove their reviews." Obviously, this kitchen has some really bad days and I, unfortunately, showed up on one of them and wasted $300 on my anniversary. To make matters worse, even the waiter said, "the kitchen screwed up," but, when I posted a review about how bad the food was, the owner calls my phone and also texts me as if it is my fault. The chef/owner served raw meat and raw potatoes and rubbery cran cakes. He tried to fix it, but both dishes came back worst than the 1st dishes. Below is my review. I hope no one else's anniversary dinner is ruined. 😡$300 for 2 people was completely wasted. NY steak was cooked wrong twice. Crab cakes are gummy and have very little crab. Potato gratin was served raw inside twice! The staff was apologetic, but, that does not matter when you pay $300. The NY steak was served raw inside rather than what I ordered. I had clearly told the waiter I wanted medium with no raw meat inside. After the steak was served, the waiter even said "the kitchen blew it" because it was raw inside. The waiter took it away and had it "recooked" and put in a to go box. However, when I opened the to go box and cut into the steak, it was still red raw throughout in the middle. I think the problem is the steak is cut too thick to do any degree of cooking beyond "rare done" without burning the outside of the steak. The steak fat was even tough and raw. This was not a $70 serving of steak! The potato gratin side dish was served almost raw on the outside and inside. I sent it back. So the chef comes out 5 minutes later with a new undercooked potato gratin side dish and walks away. The replacement potato gratin side dish was also undercooked. The potato layers still were raw on the inside of the dish and barely cooked on the outside. This was part of a $72 steak dinner. I expect better. Crab cakes. Where is the crab? 🦀 The crab cakes were gummy from over breading and had almost no crab. Two crab cakes cost $26. If there had been more crab, $26 would have been a reasonable price.😡 The miso black cod had great quality fish, but, sadly the sauce was so syrupy sweet, you could not taste the fish. There were too many mistakes in the food service to ignore. 1) Steak cooked to wrong doneness. 2) Crab cakes were mostly gummy breading. 3) Miso cod was served with a syrupy, too sweet sauce masked the flavor of the fish. 4) Asparagus side dish was overcooked. There was no excuse for the food to be so bad. The chef owner was in the kitchen so he can't blame the bad food on...

Bis exemplifies a lot of what American restaurants do. Disclaimer, I live half the year in Italy (am US dual citizen) so I'm looking at it from a different perspective. The food could be great, but they insist on gussying it up needlessly. I prefer the simpler mains, and what they do with seafood is properly respectful of the ingredient. This last visit I had the Caesar, and they still do a very good one. But a friend and I both asked for extra anchovies, and instead of 1 lone anchovy, we got 2 lone anchovies and the waitress had to go into this long story about how she would have to discuss with the kitchen how to add the extra anchovies. But the dressing and greens were fresh. All for $16. I had the lasagna (about $38) and opted not to upgrade to bolognese, or added burrata (why? never done in Italy) or extra parmigiano (also never done in Italy.) What arrived was close to a classic Bologna style, nice large fresh pasta squares, but a bit dry and crunchy around the edges. Really well-done veggies inside, kudos to the kitchen. But on top was a big glug of pesto. While I like pesto most Italians outside of Liguria don't care for it, and you'd never see it on top of a lasagna. However, I appreciated the light bechamel and putting the tomato sauce (Napolitano style) around the edges instead of drowning it over the top. Was it worth the price? In my estimation, no. Too many things on the plate. Service was the typical American in-your-face and constantly talking to us like we were their best friends, taking plates before everyone at the table had finished, etc. Even the busboy talked to us like we were friends. Just leave us alone so we can talk, please! Drinks were very expensive, cocktails 20-25 bucks. So I had the cheapest glass of wine, a rose' at $12. My colleagues had dessert...the gelato was more like ice cream and didn't have the right taste nor texture. I left paying about $75 for dinner...salad, pasta, glass of wine. There are much better places in Bellevue and Seattle for that price. And now that downtown Bellevue is the hot place to be, parking...