Hello Bistro — Restaurant in McCandless

HORRIBLE experience and customer service. Although you may be told differently by staff, NOT PET FRIENDLY!

My husband and I visited this location today as we were trying to find a pet friendly lunch spot to sit outside with our dog. We had first come across a different restaurant nearby and were on a 45 minute wait list. We decided to walk around the area to try to see if we could find another spot to be seated quicker - we stumbled upon Hello bistro. As we always do, I walked inside to ask the staff if we were permitted to sit on their outside patio and eat with our labradoodle prior to getting in line to order. The staff, so very friendly, were quick to tell me "of course we do! and thanks for checking with us first" I thought great! She then proceeded to tell me someone else has just called in to ask the same question! I went ahead and called the other restaurant and cancelled our spot in line.

I took a menu outside to look over with my husband since we were new to the place, and after a while of sitting on their patio we decided what to order. I went inside and waited in a long line to place my order. As I was getting ready to step up to place my order, the manager comes up to me and tells me that she had just told my husband outside that we were not allowed to eat there with our dog. At this point, I of course was upset that I had waited in their long line, cancelled my reservation at another restaurant, and WAS TOLD BY THE STAFF we could eat there with our dog!!

As I work with the public, I tried to remain calm and explain to the manager the situation and how her staff told us we had permission. I had asked since I was getting ready to order if they could make this exception since we were informed incorrectly. The manager just simply responded its our policy and you can not eat here.

I hope that the customer that called in to ask about their dog policy outside did not drive too far to get there. As a dog owner, we will call ahead to verify pet policies and will sometimes drive out of our way to eat at those places. Hopefully others will at least see this review and then know what their true policy is before waisting their time at this place.

For anyone in this area looking for a pet friendly place - go to First Watch - excellent food and very accommodating staff!

I asked the manager to educate all staff members and standardize...

I am a frequent customer at Hello Bistro. But I won't return to the McCandless location. I was there on 12/22 and ordered around 12:30. I had 47 minutes to assess how inefficient the staff was since that was how long it took to get the salad after I ordered it at the kiosk. There were 3 workers in the salad preparing area. It looked like there were at least two people in the back area. The entire time, the two younger women were staring at the food and the receipts attached to them and hardly moving. Not once during that time did they help prepare a salad. There was only one person making the salads and she looked very frustrated by the other two "workers." The food kept piling up in the back counter and they weren't bringing the food out to the carry-out spot or the dine-in spot. I counted 21 salads and sandwiches on the back counter and said to myself that somebody must have had a big order. But then I noticed that the orders would slowly trickle out to the pick-up area and often nothing was added. It turned out that these orders were a bunch of separate orders. When I did a head count, I counted 31 people in the restaurant and only 3 people had food. The rest were awaiting their food. It was easy to tell that nobody was managing this place on this day. When I noticed this trend of the food just sitting there and noticing that the order wasn't in need of something else being added to it, I finally asked the two slow workers when my food was going to be ready and I had waited 47 minutes. I don't know how long it was sitting there already, but they said it hasn't come out yet. The lady who was doing all of the work heard the tail end of my conversation and turned around and pointed out my order to the slow workers in like 2 seconds. She gave me an apology and said she hates working at this location because the staff doesn't help her. Sounds like this place needs a visit from Undercover Boss to help the ones actually working and fire the others. Just trying to make management aware so that this place...

After several visits, I finally have a decision on what i think about this place (specifically this location). It's hit or miss, but mostly miss. I kept telling myself that everyone makes mistakes, and therefore being okay with the service, time, and product because there always seemed to be something going wrong. The one shining moment was a day that they were well staffed in the middle of summer... everyday since (despite being well staffed) has been a nightmare.

My most recent visit started off fine, being greeted by Jesse (what a wonderful person), but it went down from there. A very simple order of a cheeseburger and fries took about 15-20 minutes to get and that was only after inquiring as to where my food was.

The location wasnt busy when i ordered, having 2 salads go through the line while i was ordering, 5 salads while I was waiting, and a call ahead order that was incorrect.... And the lady ordering was very rude I'd like to add. Never wanting to be that person, i politely waited as long as I could (in turn being late to where i was headed).

Upon opening my order, I wasn't surprised by the barely warm fries (doused in pepper so heavy they were almost inedible) and a 'just okay' cheeseburger that I ordered extra pickles on and only received 3 tiny pickles all stacked in the center.

I'm glad other locations aren't this bad and I kind of want my $9.36 back ☹️ now that I'm recalling the whole situation.

*Disclaimer, they did offer me a refund while I was in the store, but only after I told them that I was in a rush and halfway out the door. Honestly who knows how long a refund...