Chez Nous — Restaurant in City of Schenectady

We had a 6:30pm reservation on 2/4 and arrived about 15 minutes early. They were able to seat us right away but we waited about 30 minutes for our drinks to arrive. The atmosphere was nice and any employee who spoke to us were pleasant. Unfortunately, the service was not good. It looked like there might have been one server for most of the restaurant. There were two other people who seemed to be helping out (pouring water, cleaning up tables, and telling the server what tables were requested). While they seemed to be trying to help, I think it was going poorly. For example, we asked a woman who worked there if we could order a bottle of wine. I saw her walk over to the one server (who was running around like crazy and doing the best she could) and tell the server what we wanted. Why couldn't that person just go get the wine?!? Our appetizers arrived about an hour after we sat. When they brought the appetizers, I asked if we could have some bread (they still had not brought us any). The server said 'of course' and again was very pleasant but we never got bread. Usually someone comes over to ask how everything is going and/or come back a few minutes after food is served to check in - this never happened. If it weren't for the yummy cocktails (French 75) and appetizers, this review would have been 2 stars. For apps, my husband ordered the tenderloin of beef cassoulet and I ordered the lump crab and lobster napoleon. Both were excellent! The salads were good too. Our entrees on the other hand were bad. My husband ordered the Seafood Fra diavolo - there was very little flavor and the seafood was overcooked. I ordered the Shrimp Alfredo - the shrimp were fried well but had no seasoning at all. The pasta was gross and had no flavor or seasoning. It was nothing like alfredo sauce - it was kind of a watery sauce. We had originally planned to stay for dessert but between the poor service and dissatisfying entrees, we...

In town on business and found this lovely sounding place. Menu looked great, reviews were exceptional, so I gave it a shot. This is the kind of restaurant I want to succeed. I was able to walk in and get a table immediately at 630 on a Wednesday night. I ordered the Rhone red wine, the lobster bisque, chicken sherry, and cannoli cheesecake. The lobster bisque is a twist on the traditional as it has a large lobster ravioli on top of the bisque, but no lobster chunks inside the soup. You are intended to dip it. Interesting idea! However, I found the flavor to be lacking, and there was a specific ingredient added to the bisque that I didn't care for. On the the main dish. The chicken sherry, was flavorful and unique, I would say good not great, but a large portion, I took half to go in a box. The cannoli cheesecake I was most excited about but a little nervous about the citrus component, and unfortunately the citrus just overwhelmed all the other flavors.

As far as service, while definitely friendly, my water sat empty until I could flag someone down for a refill. I had to ask for plates to be cleared and a dessert menu, little things, again, good not great.

As stated I really want this place to do well, I liked the 'old home vibe' and think they have a lot of good things in place. A few smallish tweaks and I believe it would be a stand out...

Chez Nous has a fantastic star rating on Google. I was very excited... instead of a culinary delight, I found myself disappointed. The service and ambiance were very good, but the food was lacking in flavor, execution, and vibrancy. The one thing I can say is that the food looked good on the plate. My French onion soup was burnt on top and, in general, not good. I intended to send it back, but my boyfriend ate some, so I didn't bother. He had a chicken gumbo that he enjoyed very much. My salad was decent with a tasty balsamic dressing that I would have again. The bread seemed to be a whole grain type of sourdough and was very good with the provided whipped butter. My boyfriend ordered the wild mushroom ravioli with roasted pepper coolis, which looked beautiful on the plate but tasted bitter. I had chicken cordon blue, which was just overall lacking in flavor. For dessert, we were let down again. The bananas foster was lacking in flavor and caramelization, and the apple cider beignets were tasty but dense and heavy for what I was expecting. Last and not least, the 2 drinks that I had, a strawberry margarita and a peach sangria were pretty good.

Overall, we will not return, there wasn't any value for the price for us, the best part of the dinner was the company and that could have been...