219 Bistro — Restaurant in Norfolk

Disgraceful treatment for elderly. Worst service of my entire life. Had to leave. Not accessible to people with disabilities, and unkind. Preface with saying I never write reviews, and generally feel like everyone in food service is doing the best they can, while being overworked. That said never been treated this poorly.

We arrived here 10-15 minutes early for our reservation at 5:15. Even thought the restaurant was literally completely empty, we were told we had to wait for the one table that WAS full in the restaurant to leave. “They just got their check.” Fine. We waited inside.

Despite having 4 Elderly people in our party, my mother in law who has a waked and a disability, we were told by the hostess that we weren’t allowed to sit literally anywhere inside, not any of the empty tables “in case somebody came.” Or any of the MANY empty tables outside. Also in case anyone who had reserved them came. Do you see that someone in our party is having trouble standing up!?!? Again, WE were a party that had reserved a table. So I was not sure why these other parties who had yet to appear were more important. Oh, we could wait at the bar, which only had high tops and was a flight of stairs up. Really great for people with disabilities.

So, we took my mother in law who needs a walker to get around, across the street to sit on the bench outside the police station. Thank you hostess.

We came back at 5:45 (our original reservation time) and were told we still couldn’t seat. 3 other parties came in and were sat with no problem, each around the same size as ours.

The entire time the hostess was not at all apologetic, or trying to fix our problem. Finally at 6pm I asked what the possibility was that we could be sat. I explained that we had someone in our party who was in a play at the Wells so needed to be there at in 45 minutes, and we now had been waiting in an empty restaurant for a seat for nearly an hour. She explained again, that the party sitting at our table was nearly ready.

I lost it, told her this situation seemed absurd. She explained something about their computer system. We left and got Chinese food.

DO NOT GO HERE IF ANYONE IN YOUR PARTTY ISN'T...

We hadn't been in 219 since it had been remodeled, and we were excited to check out the new look. Previously the food had been good so we had high hopes. The interior is shiny, new, and modern. The deep red walls are replaced with overhead sails, light green walls and some wooden accents. We sat at the bar, as we enjoy a good happy hour, we were greated by one of two bartenders. She gave us a grand total of 4 different menus. Dinner menu, drinks menu, and 2 different happy hour menus. We went to order drinks but were informed that one of the happy hour menus was incorrect and not to be used and there were no draft specials. I grabbed a glass of wine (prosecco) for $5/glass, and my significant other grabbed a $2/bottle Coors Light. The drinks we're good, about what you would expect for happy hour. We also decided on food to share, starting with the loaded tater tots ($4). They we're ok, hot and crispy, but the toppings we're clustered over a few central tots, and they lacked seasoning. We also tried the sliders (3 for $5), the beef was good, the sauce was ok, the buns we're lack luster. We shared the scallops, the scallops ($5 for 3) we're undercooked and slightly raw in the middle and some buffalo wings ($5 for 6), grilled not fried and lacking any flavor but chicken and cayenne. The wings were served on a plate with the most limp and disgusting piece of celery I've seen in a long time. The blue cheese dressing didn't even have any flavor. I brought the wings home to sauce, they were cooked well just needed more flavor. The worst part was at no point did either bartender check on how the food was. I twice tried to flag them down, to no avail. Not sure if they are still trying to get their feet back under them, or what, but I'll give it a long while before I go back and try again. Which is disappointing since we enjoyed 219 so much before the remodel. I hope they can get back...

Our family group went there after taking a show in at the Welles Theatre. We had a reservation and arrived a little bit early and were seated immediately (the place was a little empty but it appeared that all the tables had been reserved).

The only thing that dinged the rating was the incredibly slowness of getting the food. While the appetiser came out relatively quickly (it was just a charcuterie), but dear lord the main meal? It was well over an hour for it to show up at the table.

The meal was reported as generally good by the family members, but I cannot comment on those because of having a gluten free diet (Celiacs). What I did have, the Filet au Poivre, was surprisingly good. The pepper sauce was excellent, and as the tenderloin was stacked on top of the grilled asparagus and baby potatoes, imparted a good flavour to them, too.

The tenderloin itself had an overall good beef-forward flavour and was complimented well by the sauce. I rather enjoyed it.

If I had to critique anything, it would be the unevenness of the medium rare in the steak. Perhaps I spoil myself with too much sous vide as this would be fine coming off the grill but the price point I guess I was expecting just a little bit more.

Portion size was also highly variable. The rest were more---ah?---hearty in size while the Filet au Poivre was dainty in comparison.

I would go there again as another treat, but the offerings for gluten free diners are necessarily the best (for me). The "upscale" design of the restaurant means that some of the food pairings are a...