Bay Street Bistro — Restaurant in Lakeland

Updated review 2022

I had visited this restaurant over a year ago and gave it 5 stars for the excellent food. Then I said it was a true diamond in the rough and didn’t understand why more people weren’t aware of it.

Fast forward a year later and I came back for my birthday dinner. I had a party of 13.

The staff seemed friendly per usual and everything was off to a great start.

The appetizers were great and the wine selection was nice.

We ordered our entrees and then we started having issues.

First off there are no children’s items on the menu whatsoever but our server said the chef could make the 4 children a simple chicken Alfredo.

The children were excited about it so we proceeded to order.

When the children’s Alfredo arrived the children took a few bites and instantly pushed the dishes away.

ALL 4 CHILDREN!

I then tasted one and it was just a bland mush of noodles and cheese with undercooked chicken.

The kids were not being picky. Their Alfredo was not good at all.

However we decided not to complain or send the food back because we didn’t want to be difficult and also there were no other options for the kids.

Then the adult entrees started coming out. Mine was as expected and still a really great steak.

However we had two more steak orders that were prepared incorrectly.

The first steak was ordered rare but came out very well done.

These kind of things happen all the time and aren’t a big deal. Usually the restaurant will just prepare another steak at the right temperature and everyone is happy.

That’s not what happened here.

My guest who ordered his steak rare brought it to the attention of our server and she told him he didn’t order it rare and said he was wrong.

This is after I heard him order it rare and our server admitted earlier in the evening he has trouble hearing out of one side.

5 mins later the OWNER comes out and proceeds to tell my guest that he didn’t order rare because the server wrote down something different.

He does this in front of the whole party of 13 and completely embarrasses my guest.

My guest then apologizes, stands up and walks out of the restaurant after being humiliated by the owner in front of everyone.

They THEN decide to make him a new steak but the damage had been done.

The other gentleman at my party who’s steak who had been prepared incorrectly didn’t even bother to say anything after that interaction. He just had them pack it in a to go box and threw it away as soon as we left the restaurant.

I had the owner come back out and I explained to him how inappropriate and unprofessional that sequence of events was and he just responded with “I’m sorry but those steaks cost me $30”.

Clearly the owner is more concerned about his margins then making sure his guest are well taken care of.

This officially ruined my birthday dinner after I had been raving for weeks to everyone who was attending how great this place was.

I feel I wasted over $200 on a birthday dinner that was ruined by terrible customer service. I can’t even imagine how the rest of my guest felt and honestly I’m too embarrassed to even ask.

After this recent interaction I can honestly say I have no intention of dining at this establishment again. The food can be very good but not at the cost of good customer service especially at a higher end restaurant.

It saddens me to say this but 1 star is all I can give this restaurant after a completely...

I had looked forward to taking my friends to Bay Street Bistro for weeks. The food sounded delicious and I expected the service to be also. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. The baked Brie was okay as an appetizer, but when my guests' tomato bisque soup arrived, one had been poorly microwaved in that part of it was cold and the other part was very hot. She had to stir it up to make it lukewarm enough to eat. Service was a problem all night. The server would disappear for 20 minutes at a time, and never appeared in time to deal with the soup. Main courses were good. My guests had wild salmon and a rack of lamb with cumin, which they told me they enjoyed. I ordered the duck with bacon and mushroom confit. When it arrived the duck was at room temperature as were the vegetables on the plate which looked like they do when they have when they have set out too long before serving. The duck was very salty, which I didn't mind, but others might have a problem with. Finally we had dessert and a promised peache soufflé turned out to be just plain old cake with sourish peaches on it, and the carrot cake with blueberries had too little icing for such a large piece. This restaurant is expensive. And for $38 and $40 a main course, you expect your food prepared excellently across the board, which this clearly was not. There is no excuse for a professional kitchen to be turning out mediocre food. Food should be freshly served and consistently hot and portions of our meals were neither. And I know that I could have snared a server away from her 20 minute respites, but if we had done that we would have sent back two courses and delayed the evening further. I have to admit going away a bit embarrassed in front of my friends, who had driven all the way from Bushnell to have dinner with me. I had promised them that the restaurant was going to be terrific. I...

My husband researched restaurants before selecting this location since our honeymoon was in Paris, he wanted to take me to a French Bistro for our Valentines dinner. All the restaurants he researched had a set menu, this one did not advertise as a set menu and he made our reservations for 9pm.

After walking in, we were greeted by someone who confirmed our reservation and sat us at a table. Ambience was ok. The waitress was very sweet but lacked skills as an upscale server.

The menu was set and had no vegetarian offerings. They offered items from their regular menu. The set menu had two appetizers, three salad/soup options, and four entrees along with dessert. When the menu was presented, the waitress did not tell us some items were no longer available and we discovered this only as we tried to order. They were out of French onion soup and creme brulee. Sorry, but I would think with a set menu the restaurant would be better prepared to serve these two popular items.

I ordered the filet mignon. The food taste is certainly a five star. However the experience was a two at best. I ordered my steak as a medium. It came out rare.....Bleeding rare. I thought maybe I could eat the edges and just take it home. The edges were even too rare. It was extremely rare and bled all over my plate and into my side items. I hated to send it back but I did. It came back rare/med rare and the blood from the steak was still too much. It even overpowered the brown sauce. I lost my appetite. Sadly, we...