Elevation Bistro — Restaurant in Mentone

I wish I could do a -1…. We recently relocated up here a couple years ago and everyone knows you don’t have too many options for food. We’ve been here a lot and spend a lot of money eating out and supporting this local restaurant on the weekends. However through those times there was a guy “ Reed” that works there. Sometimes he is a waiter, bartender, and a host. He has the personality of a rock, and my wife and I would talk about that, but would chalk it up and would keep going . The last time we went we sat at the bar and you could notice that Reed was the bartender, and we noticed an attitude, but he was friendly to everyone else. So my wife was like we are not going back for a while, and then this afternoon we decided to go for drinks, and Reed was bartending and you could tell he was rude to us. We ordered one drink then before asking if we’d like another round, he brings us the ticket and I told my wife I guess we are not allowed to get another drink? So we finished our drinks, and I ordered another round, he brought the ticket and put an X for the tip. Me and my wife were confused, so we asked him can we leave you a tip and he said “ you can if you want to but you guys don’t usually leave an adequate tip” that took me by surprise and I then I made the comment to him “ it could be your attitude “ . Needless to say I will never step foot back in there and will not recommend this place again as I have in the past. We have spent at least $2000 +++ at this place to support them, because we live to support local business, but we will not be back and never recommend it to anyone. It’s a shame to let one arrogant employee affect...

Friends of ours had told us Elevation Bistro was worth a try, so try it we did.

My wife had the marinated mozzarella as an appetizer. It was ample and equally as delicious. I had a taste of it, and the combination of ingredients was perfect. You will find yourself dipping the crostini in the sun-dried tomato infused EVO.

I had the tempura fried mushrooms to start. Hands down, these were the best "fried mushrooms" I have ever had, although calling them fried mushrooms seems like a grave injustice. There were a nice assortment of different types of mushrooms, and the chef fried them to perfection. Not greasy...just delicious.

For entrees, she had the linguine al lemon with added shrimp. While the dish itself was delicious, it could have done with another shrimp or two for the price. Still good quality though. For my part, I had the NY Strip which was charred to a perfect medium-rare (I don't see how he did it, frankly), and accompanied by terrific "crispy broken potatoes." Fantastic.

Full bar...which is nice in Mentone. I had an old-fashioned, which was right on time. My wife had a mojito, which she said was also very good.

We will definitely be back, as we have found our new "go-to" restaurant in our favorite...

The Mentone mules were great. Get one if you go there. The service was good. The meal taste wise was good. However a major complaint for me was that I got the pork chop, of which around half of it was solid uneatable fat. The half that wasn't was the bone side, so I had to be that guy that just picked up the bone and chewed to get my money's worth. My wife got the pasta they had that week. She said it was okay, but her chicken salad sandwich from wildflower cafe earlier that day was better.

To sum up, it was an absolutely okay meal that for 2 cost right at $100, (Pork chop entree, pasta entre, salad, bread, and 2 drinks) that was outshined by basically every other meal we ate at half the price over the weekend in Mentone/Valley Head. We overhear the table beside us complaining about similar problems. If we come back to Mentone we probably won't try this spot again even though nothing tasted bad or anything.

I'll also add that we often eat at more expensive farm to table restaurants like Acre in Auburn or The Hope Farm in Fairhope that are similar in concept and price, and find them worth...