Bistro 76 Cafe & Catering — Restaurant in Edmonds

This is a weird one as the food, atmosphere, and service were good. It's pretty consistent each time we go, but a strange thing happened in my recent. Everything was fine until it was time to pay the bill. I tipped the waitress $8, 10% of the bill as we were there for breakfast. Our bill was $70 odd dollars plus taxes. It was always customary to tip 10 for breakfast, 10-15 for lunch, and 15-18 for dinner with small parties. I don't know where these ridiculous percentage these mobile check out card readers are getting their numbers from, with tipping options as 25% and 32%. I've worked in the food service industry since 1999, and I've even worked in food delivery service prior, so im speaking as a service worker myself. The waitress displayed a shocked face and asked, "Is everything ok?" She immediately lost her smile, and it was obvious she was quite upset. I don't know what her expectation is? By my estimation, she has at least 3 tables. Even if I assume she received $8 per table (which is unlikely as we were the smallest table with the smallest check), one hour turn around per table, plus her hourly rate (which I'll assume it's about $15), that's $39 an hour. Even if I dropped it down to $30, that's still a high hourly wage . I can't think of any non unionized, unskilled job that pays $30 an hour. These cars reading machines and expectations are ridiculous. Am I the only one who thinks these "new tipping standards" are ridiculous and...

I had written a very positive review 7 months ago. Unfortunately I have to change that now.

I went for brunch today with a friend. The food was not very good where before it was excellent. We both ordered the breakfast plate, I had mine with fresh fruit instead of potatoes and toast. Most of the fruit was inedible, it was brown and looked to have been cut five or six days ago. They used to bring a bowl of fruit that you could tell had been cut within minutes of ordering. Today it was very different, I'm not sure why they've changed this but it was pretty bad.

My friend said the potatoes were not good, my eggs were congealed when they arrived, the bacon wasn't hot. She said the toast was good, so there's that.

Our waitress seemed lovely but struggled with the language. We also waited over 45 minutes despite the fact that the restaurant was not crowded. This was after waiting approximately 20 minutes to place our orders.

The coffee used to be excellent, it was not very good today. I asked if the restaurant had changed hands and I was told it had not but I didn't recognize any of the prior staff. It seems clear that something has happened to the quality of the food and service.

All in all an extremely disappointing experience. I have been to Bistro 76 a couple of dozen times, sad to say I will not...

1 star for the polite staff. However, since the business has been sold, this place has completely tanked in terms of food quality & hygiene. Pre-filled water glasses sit at the hostess station as you walk in, available for anyone to cough or sneeze on. Dozens more are stacked on the 2nd shelf to the left of the cash register. I would not be surprised if they sit out until they get used. The coffee is standard burned Starbucks in espresso drinks, the drip coffee is now flavorless brown water. Cheap wood stir sticks are handed out, as apparently they didn't buy the little coffee spoons that the original Bistro owners had. The milk that came with my coffee was barely cool. They are definitely not using the same ingredient provider, & you can taste the difference. Basically, they took the recipes and now serve them with the same food supplier as Denny's, Shari's, & Ihop while charging for the fresh, locally sourced ingredients they no longer use. We went out of our way to come here weekly to pick up food during the pandemic & support the original owner because the food was amazing and worth every penny. It's a damned shame one of our favorite places has been completely ruined. We won't...