Brother's Bistro — Restaurant in City of Olean

I happened upon this lovely bistro in the downtown setting of Olean, NY while waiting for my car to be fixed. I had an hour and a half to occupy my time, mind you I thought that I would be sitting in a garage this morning so I was dressed in my oversized sweatsuit, looking like a bum. As soon as I walked in I was greeted by a nice young man, whom I later found out, name was Will. He was so pleasant asked me how my day was going and made me feel at home. Will then introduced me to Sue, who was one of the most amazing servers that I have met in awhile. Even with a busy lunch crowd, she stopped to talk to me everytime she was in close proximity, making me feel at home and comfortable. The food: wow For a small little corner bistro I can say I felt like I was eating a 5 star meal. The cajun calamari was perfectly cooked with a light cajun sauce on the side that had the perfect blend of seasoning and did not overpower the taste of the calamari. I also ordered the chicken kabob, and asked if they could do it Tandori style. After eating the calamari I only tasted a small amount of the kabob due to the fact that my car was ready to pick up and I have a busy day ahead of me. The presentation, and the teziki, sauce with fresh pita was a winner. This review is to be continued as I had to leave and box my food up! Let's see if it is as good as it smelled and looked. I am sure it will be. Kudos to you all,I am in this profession and run a restaurant myself , that warm fuzzy feeling that I had sitting at bar alone. I am extremely impressed and I will return. Thank you for making me have a...

Our waitress does not belong in the business. We set reservations ahead of time and she refused to allow us to sit where we wanted despite admitting that reservations are set for the other room. That little brick room up the stairs they advertise with, we were denied to sit in bc someone else had a reservation too, so the manager doesn't do her job coordinating for customer experience. I had to babysit our 'waitress' to do her job, like take the dirty plates when she walked right by them several times, or tell us about the 'complementary' bread they served us when we are gluten intolerant (which our waitress never bothered to ask about). They are vastly overpriced for the portions they give you. We ate two measly plates of food, mine was a salad, and it was nearly $50. The restaurant most people eat in has the look of a school cafeteria with a bar (notice they don't advertise that!), and not one of the miserable attitudes running the front end shows they care about anything that goes on, least of all their customers. We requested to see the manager, and she only got off her rear end only after she saw we got up to walk out after she made us sit long enough waiting for her. Places like this give restaurants a bad name and should just go straight out of business. Don't waste your money...

Not a good interaction. I love the Bistro. Good food, staff is great, and the place is decently put together. The problem inlays when you have the OPEN sign turned on, customers eating at tables and the bar, and the chef is clearly in the kitchen as he makes eye contact with me when I walk in. I sit down at the bar expecting to just order something quick as it was a late lunch for me. A server approaches me and says, "I hope you're not trying to order lunch." Now... probably not the best thing to say to a customer but my first thought was "Okay, they must be switching to dinner menu, no problem." "Kitchen is closed, Ashi left for his break, and we're closed 2-4PM., sorry." Those are odd hours and honestly if you can't find one person to cover simple lunches for two hours for the chef to take a break then I don't know what to tell you. Realistically I don't mind the odd hours, and they are posted on the site. BUT when you have someone who comes in often and the sign is on, customers are already there eating, the chef who knows you order there often makes eye contact and decides to leave at 2:15PM having his wait staff to tell people he left the restaurant? What a garbage way to run...