Revival Kitchen and Bar — Restaurant in Concord

Such a disappointing Valentine's weekend dinner! I had been here before and the food and the service was very good but Saturday evening was a complete failure.

We were seated at the bar and told the bartender, Jeffrey, would be over shortly. That was the last we saw of him the entire night (more on this later). He took our drink orders and made our cocktails. We were then informed the bread was coming out shortly, that it was in the oven. When it arrived it was ice cold, I thought that was strange if it just came out of the oven, then I bit into it and both my wife and I looked at each other and realized that this bread was mighty stale, it felt like we were getting the night before's leftovers. Not off to a good start!

When we finished our cocktails, Jeffrey couldn't wait on us because he was making ALL drinks for the entire restaurant, they didn't have a service bartender on Valentine's weekend. There was another girl with glasses on at the bar who came, I assumed to assist, but she talked to a gentlemen who was sitting there by himself, for the entire length of our meal start to finish. After 15 minutes of being ignored by her and looking at our empty glasses in front of us, I finally asked her can we have another drink? Throughout the evening, this continued, could we have extra napkins, could we have clean silverware, could you remove our dishes? She was completely useless!

My wife had the Parsnip bisque to start and it was quite tasty, I had the Roasted Beet, pistachio with Chèvre salad, and that too was quite tasty. When our main meals came, I had the scallops and my wife had the Sweet Potato Gnocchi. I knew the scallops came on top of Calasparra rice and had baby shrimps as part of the meal. When I took a forkful of the rice, I wanted to gag. It literally tasted like someone poured at least a cup of shrimp juice in the rice. I had my wife taste it and she said the same thing, so unappealing on the palate and not good at all. Her Potato gnocchi was equally as bad, they were completely overcooked and then seared in a pan to give them some caramelization make them hard and quite chewy, she even made the comment if she continues to bite down she may break a tooth. We planned on getting dessert but with the bread and main meals being sub par we just wanted to leave.

A VERY BAD evening indeed and enough of a disappointment that I probably won't waste my money coming back here as that meal with tip cost $150.

If you go, do NOT go on a holiday weekend, the staff were completely overwhelmed and the service and the food was below...

25th Anniversary Dinner, Called to reserve table for 2, Restaurant was 25% seated Tuesday Evening Sat at a cute copper topped table by hostess.

We were overdressed for the Restaurant, most wore shorts and tennis shoes, Restaurant ambiance was minimalist but adequate lighting, Restaurant wide open with lots of Hard finishes so sound was amplified and traveled quite far. Large parties would drown out intimate parties with lack of separation. We order cocktails both were very light pours, I typically get a buzz from 1.5 beer but both cocktails went unnoticeable in both of us, (Hive, with Gin; and the Strawberry Mule). $45 in 2 drinks, tasted ok but a third would.not have added value to the experience. Soup was Southwest Chicken and very tasty, Confit Chicken Thigh was seared and served over a Thai themed cold noodle and peanut dressing which was ok but Chicken had no stand alone personality, and need to be balanced bite with noodle and sauce to bring home flavor, (every Confit I've had to this point had a very obvious savory mouth feel and taste, here was very subtle if at all) Calamari was cooked perfectly with a generous serving and balanced sections of rings and tentacles and a tasty dipping sauce. Bottle water was never offered, nor were pairing suggestions, bread was offered and pre made warmed white bread rolls were brought to table with a house made herb infused butter which was tasty. We ordered the Salmon over house fettuccine which was served at the requested temperature (medium) and was tasty with subtle flavors. And a generous portion, and Also ordered the Dijon and Balsamic Pork loin and smashed red potato served at medium temp and was tasty with smaller portion of sliced loin ~5oz We finished dinner and ordered a creme brulee served with top appropriately torched with a garnish of tart berries. She finished with a Cappuccino and an espresso for myself, arrived warm and there was no crèma top on my espresso leading me to think the machine was uncalibrated. The meal and experience did not disappoint, but there was significant room for improvement and wow factor. The bill was a reasonable $150 plus tax and we tipped 22% There were no complaints, or issues with Service or food quality. Where they could improve on service was engagement, We notified them of our 25 year anniversary, there was no mention or added value to the experience to make it feel any different than any other table. (This isn't anything more than perspective on improving guest experience) Adding a table cloth, a flower or...

I know this restaurant gets a lot of hype and many positive reviews, but we were underwhelmed and disappointed. We dined at Revival Restaurant in Concord as a party of 4 last night. We were seated on time for our reservation and the staff members were enthusiastic and friendly telling us how we were in for an amazing dining experience. Our friends ordered the chef’s prix fixe dinner, while my husband and I ordered off the menu. I started with the soup, which contained chicken, shiitake mushrooms, and carrots in a clear broth. It was delivered to me luke wam. The taste was very bland, including the tasteless chicken. I ate most of it, but only because I felt like I shouldn’t waste it. I did not enjoy it at all. For the main course I had the sirloin steak. it was prepared medium rare, as I requested, but the meat was not particularly tender and again, the food on the plate (steak, asparagus, potatoes and gravy) was just barely warm, not hot. The gravy looked congealed, as if it had been sitting for a while. My husband ordered the pork and his food was also luke warm. Our sever asked how things were several minutes after we received our food and I told her my food was not delivered hot. She offered to take it back to the kitchen to have it heated up, but by then I was halfway through my meal and there didn’t seem to be much point. I also didn’t want the steak to come back overcooked from a blast in the microwave. She then said she’d mention it to Chef, but I never had any follow up from her or the chef. She never asked again whether everything was OK. They don’t seem to know how to handle any feedback that isn’t praise.

Our friends also mentioned that only one of their courses was delivered hot. Their main course was also delivered cool. We had a late seating at 8:00 and the restaurant became less busy as our dinner progressed, so there was no obvious reason for our food to be delivered cool. In addition, the food was OK, but not great. Definitely not worth the hype or the price. The best part of the meal was the bottle of wine we ordered. And my husband ordered a scoop of ice cream for dessert just so he’d finish the meal with something he knew he’d like. We...