AT Bistro | Au Troisiéme — Restaurant in Dallas

Truly disappointing from a French Bistro with a 4.8 rating near University Park.

Ordered the little gem Caesar and received romaine, no discernable anchovy. Fried mushrooms absorbed a lot of oil (low fryer temp?) and sadly under seasoned. Immediately regretted ordering Steak Frites - an unfortunate cut with a very large protein grain, unrendered fat, not easy to cut (server wasn't sure of the cut, it looked/felt like an outside skirt steak) with "mushroom bordelaise" of over the top (thin brown gravy, 2.5 mushroom slices, no discernable wine/shallot) and... served with ketchup.

There was an unpleasant person (manager?) on expo, who we heard speak rudely to staff several times. A shoulder height wall separates the dining room from the kitchen line, with a booth against it. I was sitting in that booth when this manager decided to lean over the wall, shout a server's name twice into the dining room, and once he had everyone's attention, he attempted to pass 2 plates to the sever directly over my head. Luckily the server was mortified and quickly ran around the wall to prevent this from happening, but the expo/manager was visibily pissed and stormed away. Atmosphere would get a much higher rating without this

The fried green tomatoes were a great start, the cauliflower dish was excellent, and the duroc pork was pretty good. I had hoped for everything to hit that standard when I saw the 4.8 rating and chose it...

Our experience at AT was a little bit of a mixed bag. Overall the service was impeccable, our waiter was eager to explain the dishes and our drinks were meticulously filled. The appetizers got glowing reviews: we split the biscuits, mushrooms, octopus and crudo (which was the daily special). Our only eyebrow raise is when we asked the lady who set down the octopus what was in the sauce and she flatly replied that she didn't know and it was on the menu.

Our mains ranged from the sea trout , fish and chips, steak frites and port sugo ragu. Each dish ended up being fine. While each had good components (for example, my steak was excellent but the frites were ok at best).

The desserts were not our favorite and seemed like an after thought but the waiter did note that they were not on the menu because they were still working a few things out.

I want to end with the one thing that bothered me the most about the experience. The manager both greeted us and said goodbye which was lovely, what I didn't appreciate with the amount of touch and back pats/rubs that came with it. I do not feel that this is either professional or appropriate with someone you have never met before. I did not mention it at the time that this occurred because I did not want to change the mood of the evening and I was not comfortable with the words that I was going to use...

We tried this place based on good ratings and a magazine endorsement "best burger in Dallas".

Ratings, though are easy to game/fake, and I question my decision. Fake reviews often have a small number of total reviews.

Decent atmosphere, but very overcooked "best burger in Dallas". So, not a great burger in taste or texture. One member said the octopus was good, but it was universally agreed the burgers were no big deal. The restaurant has a happy hour, but while it is not stated anywhere, they made a big fuss about separate checks. We had 10 folks, so this was an issue. The owner was angry enough that he came out to pick a fight about it and was not content until it was a disagreement. So the service... One person never got their order. The waiter also did not bring my second beer until reminded. On top of this, the waiter was not particularly big on friendly or customer service.

The group consensus is not to put this place in rotation and no one would likely go back.

Update: In response to the owners rebuttal. The waiter did say they would try to accommodate my request for not over cooked, but they did not actually try. As for happy to accommodate, they were not too happy. The owner came out to start an argument about it. I cast doubt on his remembrance of the whole unpleasant aggressive conversation...