Starving Artists Bistro — Restaurant in Fresno

Great greeting at the door and seated right away. The person was actually on their way out. Love the atmosphere. The art, the bar, the patio and that there is music. We were seated close to the bar. I think we were a bit out of sight. After watching the waitress wait on people who came in after us. My daughter stood up to go let her know we were there. But, the waitress disappeared into the back. The bartender did come and explain she had gone to the restroom and he took our order. We ask for recommendations. But, he was of little help. He is the bartender maybe he doesn't eat there. Our food didn't take long. We ordered the Lemon Artichoke Chicken Pasta, the Short Rib sandwich, onion rings and tots. The chicken wasn't warm and the sauce was oddly not creamy. It needed S&P. We tried to ask a staff member as he passed. But, he didn't seem to hear us. We did finally get it and it greatly improved the dish. Short Rib Sandwich was served on Dutch crunch bread with I love. But again not hot. Melted cheese was already solidifying. But, it did taste fine. Onion rings and tots were average. The waitress did come and introduce herself and did check in again later. She was busy on the floor serving. There was now a young lady greeting people at the door. I think she would be of better use on the floor helping serve customers. Our visit was disappointing after seeing a few reviews and their star rating. I really wanted to love the place. Once you got their attention staff was nice. I am open to giving it a...

I have been to this restaurant twice now. The first time my husband and I had a great time, enjoyed the food, music, wait staff, and speaking to the male co-owner. We liked it so much we returned one week later when we had a friend visiting, hoping to show him what we thought was one of the better places in Fresno.

Our second trip was not as enjoyable as a result of the very unfriendly female co-owner. We were seated outside for drinks whilen we waited for a table to be ready inside. It was cold and it turned out that the heater at the table wasn't wired in. We asked to move to a table that had a functional heater. We were accommodated and moved. Shortly after, we were seated at a table inside that was basically on stage which was way too loud. When we asked to move we were told by the female co-owner "after playing musical chairs we can play pin the tail on the donkey"! Not knowing at the time that she was the owner I asked the bar staff if I could speak to a manager. She appeared. I asked to speak to the male co-owner. She refused telling me that was her brother, not an owner. After lodging my complaint to her, instead of apologizing she made excuses saying that is an old-timey saying. Her apparent disregard for customer service and willingness to sacrafice loyal customers is enough for me to not go back which is a shame because the place has a lot...

I do like the place, the music and the service, unfortunately after going several times, today we had a bad experience, we ordered 2 old fashion that we have ordered other times and it’s usually good, but this time it took longer to be served and it came watered down, when we asked to return it after having the first sip, and we tried ordering something else instead, we were told all alcohol sales are final, which fine we do understand the rule if it is a taste thing situation, and this was not the case, it already came bad to our table, when we were told the sales were final on alcohol the bartender said she could “fix” it, there’s no real fixing for watered down drinks, but anyways we would have to pay for that drink so we took it, it came the same as it was and we left the drinks in there without drinking it as in shows in the picture and yes we’ll have to pay for them, actually our bill came with the extra drinks that we had canceled when we tried to exchange the first ones, and we had to ask them to remove them from the bill. Now we’ll think twice before coming, as sometimes we stop by only to have some drinks and...