Plae Bistro — Restaurant in Bellevue

My husband and I were avid customers of PLAE Bistro, visiting at least every two weeks. Spending upwards of $6,000 a year at this restaurant. Food and ambiance has always been stellar. Last weekend we took friends/business partners from another state to dinner. After being seated 30 minutes after our reservation time, which we completely understood, as they were very busy, we ordered appetizers, dinner and cocktails. The meals were fabulous and our service was great. Upon paying our bill, a gentleman, whom we had conversed with on other occasions at the restaurant, came to our table, clearly angry and extremely rude, and proceeded to challenge us on the tip we left. As fast as he showed up at the table, he quickly disappeared. Absolutely shocked at his action, we asked our waitress to ask him to come back to the table. He returned a second time, once again ready to attack, he repeated his initial comment and was ready to flee away again. At that point, we explained that we were very disappointed that as an owner/investor in the business that he would treat his customers so rudely. With that, he actually lied to us and said he was not an owner. When we explained that he himself had told us at one of our previous visits that he was, he quickly retorted "I am an investor". He then barked at us that his reason for being rude was because his wife had passed 4 days ago. Sadly, because we frequented the restaurant so often, we knew of her passing, which was nearly three weeks prior. At that point, we chose to let the conversation end and he quickly stormed off. With all due respect for the emotional situation he was likely dealing with, it is the credibility of the owner/investor and the way he handled our situation that was clearly unprofessional. He clearly had no recall of any previous conversation with us, and he clearly had no problem lying to us to justify his behavior. In the end, there was no apology and no effort to make things right. I don't typically write reviews, however, after our experience, I decided to read other reviews about PLAE Bistro. There were many good reviews, however, there were also many reviews that were very, very similar to the experience we had, which all centered around how the customers were treated by the owner or the owner/investor. We will not return to PLAE Bistro simply because we were treated inappropriately, not by the staff, but by the owner/investor,...

My husband and I went to Plae Bistro last night to celebrate his birthday. We started with the brussels sprout bruschetta. It was decent, and we enjoyed it. The brussels sprouts were delightfully crispy and the balsamic glaze was flavorful. The bread of that evening was some sort of cheddar and herb roll. It was dry and bland, even after adding the siracha honey butter they provided. Next we had soup. I had the French onion, which was mediocre at best. The broth was too sweet and it had no umami. There was an appropriate amount of cheese on top. I honestly think the French onion soup from Panera is much better, though. But the golden standard will always be my own. My husband had the tomato bisque, which was also much too sweet. You could tell there was added sweetener. I make tomato soup often at home and it’s never sweet like what my husband had. For our entrees, I had the short rib with horseradish cheddar mashed potatoes and green beans. The short rib had excellent flavor, and the meat was tender, but somehow dry at the same time. The potatoes were good, but not special, and they were cold. The green beans were cooked excellently, but the stems were left on, so I had to remove them myself. They also had no flavor whatsoever. Not even salt. My husband had the Wagyu ribeye, along with risotto and green beans. The wagyu was not A5, but we were told that ahead of time and ordered it anyway. In my opinion, there’s no point in serving wagyu steak if you don’t have A5. You can get an equally high grade steak for a lot less money. You’re only paying for the name unless it’s real A5 Wagyu. My husband said it tasted like any other good ribeye he has had. It was cooked well, but it was nothing special. The risotto was soft and flavorful. Green beans were the same as mine. For dessert, we had the carrot cake and it was alright. The frosting to cake ratio was much too high. An exorbitant amount of frosting. The cake was moist and flavorful. It was enjoyable.

Our server was very kind and knowledgeable and we enjoyed her service.

The total bill came out to $150 (before tip). Considering this, we will not be back to Plae Bistro. If it was, let’s say, 30% cheaper, maybe we would come back to try some other menu items. The price, however, does not make us interested in...

Ate there on Saturday around 8pm. The place is beautiful (although dimly lit). I ordered a Plae Burger (no bacon, cooked medium) with a side of French Onion soup. The rolls they bring out before dinner comes out were delicious. The soup was also generously sized and very good. My burger; however, was not good. Not good at all. Upon my first bite, I noticed it was pinker than I would have liked. I thought I could muscle through it and I ate another bite. However, then I decided to look more closely as it didn't taste very good (like I said, it was dimly lit). My burger wasn't a little underdone. It was flat out raw. The outside was seared, but the inside was bright pink. It still even had the gummy texture of raw beef in probably 95% of the burger. The burger was so raw that it was still cold. and not a "sitting out on the plate, waiting" kind of cold. It was a "never was hot to begin with" kind of cold. And on top of that, it was bland and soaked in grease (and therefore, incredibly messy). There wasn't a speck of seasoning anywhere on the burger. I'm also not sure how it got soaked in grease since it was only seared (hate to see what its like when it is cooked!). I sent the burger back as soon as the waitress reappeared (maybe 15 minutes later) and told the waitress I didn't want another one (my party was pretty much done eating and I didn't want the burger anyway because it was so bland). She waited for me to finish my soup and then said the manager needed to inspect the burger (why? who knows. Perhaps they didn't believe me) and said the manager would be out. The manager never came out and they only refunded half of my meal (which was the burger and the soup. The burger was $14 and the soup was a $3 add-on). Apparently I had to pay for the few disgusting bites I ate? It was the worst burger...