Maestro's Bistro and Dinner Club — Restaurant in Greenville

The short answer for me on Maestro’s is good food for the most part, but experience was lessened by ambiance and service.

I will start with the negatives and finish with the positives. We were seated in a back room that felt like a hotel conference room (another guests statement that totally fit). Initially the lights were dimmed to a nice level, but needed to be raised for another table. The other table was in an alcove and had no lighting other than a couple candles, so they definitely needed it, but it did leave us sitting in a fairly bright room. The table was wobbly, but in a way that I could not fix. The base was solid, and the top rocked back and forth. I’m pretty tall so I just used my legs to shore things up when we were actively eating. Another table had the same issue and after about five minutes of 3 different waiters trying to fix it, they moved that party to another table. After all of that, they just reset the table instead of trying to fix what was actually wrong. The service would have been excellent if we had one server, but we had 3. You might think that that would be a good thing, but they were not communicating with each other, so we were asked the normal questions 3 times. It really got old, especially at the end. I ordered the Bibb salad, which tasted fine, but missed the mark on presentation and enjoyment to eat. Six or seven full leafs were arranged around the edge of the plate, with the toppings and two full strips of bacon in the center. In my opinion, the arrangement lacked sophistication and looked like what a home cook would’ve done. It also made the salad difficult to eat, since I have to cut up and mix a salad that is spread out over a large plate.

For my main course, I made a big mistake. This was my fault and not a reflection of the restaurant at all. I’m including this so you can ask better questions than I did. Ten years ago, I had a certified Kobe beef NY strip. It was amazing. When I heard that they had certified Japanese wagyu, my brain went into overdrive and I ordered the wagyu cooked to medium, but did not ask what was the cut. It turned out to be filet mignon. Sad face. And although the steak was cooked well and had all the qualities of a great filet, it lacked what makes wagyu great. I like a good filet every now and then, but at no time would I recommend someone to pay wagyu prices for something that tastes just like every other filet.

Now, on to the good. We had the empanadas as an appetizer and it was delicious. My wife loved her Caesar salad with the charred romaine. My truffle fries were perfectly cooked, and they went a little lighter on the truffle oil for me since I feel it can be a little overpowering. My wife loved her Chicken Marsala, but did feel that there were a few too many mushrooms.

On our way out, we did see some of the main dining room. The lighting did look better in there, and the seats were upholstered which would have been nice. One odd thing was a big screen TV with a fireplace image on it. It didn’t make sense to me, and just stood out...

We started coming to Maestros after our friends had a private party at Entre Nous. We enjoyed the staff, atmosphere, and food so much we have made this our go-to spot! Six of us dined at Entre Nous on St. Patrick's Day! Our reservation was at 630pm and we were seated and greeted immediately! Taylor was our server! She was fun and incredibly bubbly and dealt with us rather well! We all are big drinkers and eaters so we were constantly harassing Taylor with our orders and she stepped up to the challenge!

They had music playing as well as a woman singing live music. We enjoyed that however, it was a hint too loud for our party to talk to one another without having to scream. We were incredibly close to the stage area. Also, the lighting above our table was very harsh and I feel we spent 70% of dinner covering our eyes or making jokes about being in an interrogation room. Not sure if management could do anything about replacing those bulbs with something softer, we just know we never want to sit there again.

The food and drinks were perfect! We all had a variety of food and beverages! My husband had the tuna tar tar as well as a filet mignon and loaded baked potato! He devoured it. I tried all his food and it melted in my mouth! I went with the oyster Rockefeller and the Sea Scallops! The Rockefeller was pretty good I just felt there was a bit too much breadcrumb on top. But all the components under those crumbs were divine! The Sea Scallops with the crab rice was wonderful!!! I was very impressed the Scallops were cooked perfectly but that rice oh man I can't believe how beautifully executed it was! One person from the party had the venison steak I tried and it was mouth-watering! Two people had the seafood pasta and chopped salad and raved about it all Night.

Maestro Bistro please pat yourselves on the back! We were blown away by dinner and how incredible the service was. Everyone worked together as a team that night and it...

Tldr: uncomfortable seating, decent quality, poorly executed food at high end pricing.

The good: Drinks are exceptional. Very well done, original, good quality liquor. Good selection of beers. Entertainment was perfect volume. Decor was nice. Service was pretty good. The filet was hot and cooked to requested order (medium). Polenta croquette and mashed potatoes were delicious. The of oysters Rockefeller were great!

The bad: The ribeye (medium rare) and rack of lamb (medium rare) were cooked right but..... cold. Maybe lukewarm. Which is really kind of a tragedy because it could've been great. The lobster Mac and cheese was boring, except for the overly salty pancetta. The calamari breading was overly salty. The wagyu app was overly salty, even though it already had cheese and capers, they felt the need to salt the beef? The duck was grisly, which is a big disappointment.

The really bad: The tables they seat you at are a joke. It's a small card table for 4. Seriously. You would have more room with a regular folded card table. The staff were great at playing horizontal Jenga when trying to figure out where to put food, which got so tiresome. I also mentioned the lukewarm food to the waiter and he did his due diligence in taking my complaint to the chef. I am trying to help them be better and didn't want anything in return including a response. They did respond- Their answer? The steak and lamb chops are bigger and therefore not as hot....um, Really? I'm fairly certain you can cook large pieces of meat and have them come out hot. All this for a bill of $400. But I don't mind paying that. I cancelled a reservation at halls to come here and would spent that there easily. Which is when I realized that they are trying to be halls, but falling very short.

In short, it wasn't that the food was terrible, it was the poor reception to feedback and the value of overall experience to quality that drove...