Bistro on 19 — Restaurant in Bessemer

I was really excited to try out a black owned restaurant on Mother’s Day with my family of 7 around 12pm. Let’s unpack our experience there.

Understaffed: We had several issues that boiled down to it being understaffed. When we got there I would say it wasn’t busy at all and there was only 2 “big parties” of us (7) and another part of maybe 8. The rest of the occupants consisted of people of dates or a group of 3-4. I would say in total there was no more that 10 separate “parties”. There was 3 “waiters” one the owner, one the bartender and the last one I think is normally a waitress (she had an Afro). There was a delay in us being seated because there wasn’t a distinct hostess to seat us. When we did get seated it took the girl a long time to get us water and to get our order for our appetizers (remember this). Not only that but we could barely hear her (and I give people leniency but she was genuinely quiet) because she talked so low and i would like to say that music was playing but it wasn’t that loud she just talked every low because my party and I could still hear each other fine if we talked normal. Along with her extremely soft voice she moved really slow as if she didn’t want to be there. Finally, it got so bad the owner had to move the bartender to take over our table (mind you it’s still 3 of us out of 7 at this point). Just when the bartender takes over we follow up with him about our appetizers (mind you we only ordered two). At this point we’ve been there close to an hour and we’ve only gotten waters because of the previous girl. We wait some more time (read below under “miscommunication” to see that happened in the meantime) and we finally get our appetizers AFTER my family ordered from the hot meal area ( we’ve been there for about and hour and a half at this point).

Miscommunication: The bartender takes our order, well actually I ordered fish and grits. Speaking of that, the menu originally said tilapia but they said they have catfish. I asked to clarify if the catfish is the fish that has skin on because if it was I wouldn’t want it because I can’t stand skin on fish but he confidently said it was skinless (I normally only get tilapia when I get fried fish so I didn’t know better). So I ordered that. Upon talking to the bartender/waiter after taking my order all of my family opted to get food from their hot meal area because they liked what was offered and it helped that the bartender said it’s already made and they can just get in line and get their food. Upon going up there only a select few were actually ready. My mom was the only one to actually get something from up there and I had to get her utensils because there was none on the table. The rest of my family wanted fried chicken and oxtails (but no rice). The guy making the meals said the fried chicken and oxtails would have to be ordered at the table. So time was taken up having to wait in that “hot meal” line then having to come back to the table to wait for the bartender to come back to order the “hot meal” option. Okay, now once they are back my sister specifically asked if the oxtails were already made because at this point we were hungry and she was only getting it if it was already made so it wouldn’t take long to come out. He again said yes it’s already made so it wouldn’t take long. YALL probably an hour goes by and nothing has been brought out and our mom been finished her food. We are restless and we are about to cancel our orders when my food comes out. The fish has skin in it (UGHHH) and the was a lot of bacon, tomatoes, and the green leafy stuff (pic doesn’t due it justice) that I spent so much time picking out all of that and taking the skin off so it was a 6/10. So, to recap my mom is done eating my almost down eating and the rest of my family (5/7) still hasn’t gotten their orders from the hot meal area that not actually over in that area but you would still think that its still already made just in the kitchen right? After 3 hours in total, we ended up only paying for my mom and I meals and going to a...

Tried this place for the first time today 5/17/2025.

Location: it is in a decent location.. the overall restaurant is very nice and has a great vibe! Loved the music and atmosphere. Plenty of seating.

Customer service: the service was not great to me. We had to ask to the waitress to take our drink order. When I asked can I have a sprite the waitress didn’t hear me apparently and asked did I just ask her for drugs. That was a shocker! Not sure why she would think I would ask for drugs or how she got drugs out of a sprite. She could have just said sorry can you repeat what you asked for. We sat down at 12:30 and didn’t leave until 2:14. We didn’t get our food until 1:24 pm. Waitress didn’t come check in with us after dropping the food off until we were DONE eating.

Food: the food was not great at all. My bourbon salmon tasted like just bbq sauce put on top of salmon. The salmon didn’t have any seasonings that I could taste. My husband had fried pickles and they tasted like straight chips. The mozzarella sticks tasted old. The spinach casserole smelled awful so I couldn’t even eat it. The chicken and waffles were ok. The waffles were dry and the chicken looked old too. The price does not match the quality of the food. I’m all about supporting local black owned businesses but this was not a place I would recommend or return to.

They charge a 20% gratuity upfront which I obviously see why because if they didn’t I would have not tipped at all. The service was poor and the food was basic and tasteless.

I HIGHLY DONT RECOMMEND this place.

It was me and my husband and we spent 78 dollars for 2 appetizers and 2 entrees. 1 sprite and one drunk (no refill)

Could have been an off day but our experience...

Soooo I am leaving this review at the table. Been here over an hour, waiting on fried fish, waiting on the live band, waiting on my server, waiting on a fresh cup of water. Why am I waiting? My family got their food from the very lack luster hot tray from the back. My mom has bbq sauce in her face because we have no napkins. My sister ate her bland baked chicken with no hot sauce. And my fiancés roast beef hard as rocks. My pastor was the only one with sense at this table because he left. The table next to us also left due to them waiting an hour for food also. The server she’s working the bar and the male server told us if we had his section we’d be taken care of. Although we have not received server worth a hoot we are still expected to pay 20% gratuity on each and every single plate not by the table. Because our ppl don’t tip. Did I mention drinks flat, yams out the can. (My pastor recommended this place after church lol it’s ironic he left us at the table lol he was too hungry to wait but we were being polite and ordered because we didn’t want to offend him.) Now the band is finally performing also an hour late but Atleast it’s the best thing that has happened to me since I walked in here. My family is done their food and I’m still waiting btw for...