Torch Bistro — Restaurant in Norfolk

11/15/2018

This is a little dated however on my latest visit to Torch it was a nice outside so we sat outside and enjoyed the evening and some beers. The place was probably 3/4 full.

Had an app this time around and tried out the Smokey Egg Rolls. They consisted of smoked brisket, applewood ham and Swiss cheese packed inside an eggroll. It also comes with a house duck sauce. They were pretty good.

For the entree I ordered the Olè Burger and my friend ordered a sandwich called the Godfather.

The Olè Burger comes with Chorizo Chilis, Fritos, cheese, lettuce and tomato on a Brioche bun. Pretty good except mine was missing the Fritos and had bacon substituted. Not a real complaint though, you can never go wrong with bacon. My fries on the other hand, barely any. I was thinking their must be a potato famine going on.

My friend said the Godfather was pretty good but kind of plain. The Godfather comes with salami, pepperoni, ham, lettuce, tomato, banana peppers, roasted peppers, onions, fresh mozzarella, & vinaigrette on a toasted roll.

All in all the service, the food, right down the middle. Not great, but not bad either. That's about it.

11/26/15

One of the benefits of having 3 days off in a row is that I can usually find the time on a Monday or Tuesday afternoon and stop and have lunch somewhere. Recently that location was Torch Bistro over in what us locals call West Ghent, however these days I'm hearing the term Chelsey District more and more.

Torch Bistro is located down near the far end of Orapax street, diagonally across the street from T-West, Birch Bar and the Bake House. The building has been extensively overhauled. There's now an outside area with fire pits, benches and corn hole games. The outside element is nice. I like it and I think it will help get customers there no matter the season.

Inside it's basically one big dining room. As you come in the door the bar is immediately on your left against the wall the door is on. On the far left wall is the kitchen and the rest is the dining room. There's a lot of cool iron wrought lighting fixtures and whatnot around the room. The place looks cool.

After looking over the menu I opted for a burger. (When don't I?). The object of my affection today was the 'Torch Burger'. The menu lists it as "The Torch** - On a bed of arugula, topped with tomato, red onions, jalapeños, bacon and ghost pepper jack cheese with a fire sauce spread. It also comes with fries.

They forgot the bacon, however that was fixed by bringing me some on a side plate which I added to the burger. Was the burger good, yes it was. The spices added to the flavor. Was it hot? Unfortunately no, it wasn't hot at all. As I said the spicing added to the flavor some and that was cool, but I found the burger had zero heat to it which really surprised me after reading what was on the menu. The fries were also very good and thick. Not quite a steak fry but definitely a good solid cut.

One more thing I wanted to put out was that the prices on the website vs the menu were out of date. The menu prices were slightly higher...

I am so in love with this place! I'm very thankful Groupon pointed me in the right direction :) So my first experience here was for lunch. I could tell it was more than likely going to be amazing because it was packed for lunch on a Wednesday! My boyfriend and I sat at the bar and admired all of the unique and rustic decorations while we waited for our menus. Just a quick FYI, They have three different menus: brunch, lunch, and dinner! We glanced over the menu and found so many yummy options that it was hard to decide!

Thanks to our awesome waitress Stephanie for making wonderful suggestions and persuading us to try the fried pimento cheese balls! Let me tell you, I hate pimento cheese with a passion but I could eat these cheese balls all day long. They're great! For our meals, my boyfriend got the torch burger with fries and I got the border wrap with truffle mac and cheese. I was totally impressed with my wrap which had the perfect blend of chorizo and jumbo shrimp. Can't go wrong with some surf and turf. One thing I was not so impressed with was the mac and cheese. Don't get me wrong, it was tasty but I'm not a fan of penne as the "mac" in my mac and cheese! My boyfriend thoroughly enjoyed his massive burger which was cooked to a perfect medium.

So onto my second experience. Came here for brunch with a girlfriend to enjoy a nice large mimosa pitcher and some good food. We shared a pitcher of the Blushing mimosa which was sooooooooo good. Can't wait to try the other variations they have! You can't go wrong for $12. I ordered the sweepstakes burger which was okay, not anything to rave about and my friend got the breakfast pita which was delishhhh.

Third time I came was for some drinks and to check out the night-scene of this place. It was definitely busy on a Thursday night! Granted, it was also Trivia night. I love that they have a fire pit in the back so you're able to enjoy the outside even though it's a little chilly! They have cornhole available to utilize as well which is a fun addition.

So as I said, I totally love this place and it's such a great place to hangout with friends and enjoy some great food! Great little gem in the...

This was the worst experience in my life and I've traveled the world serving my country and I'm a proud military veteran. Me and my girlfriend tried finding a place open late night so we figured this would be a good choice, I almost refused to go in once seeing it was only a few crowds near the bar and outside but I wanted us to go out and enjoy our night... Regrets now. My reasons are below.

We never was greeted but was stared at for several minutes and then finally the bartender looks surprised and says would you like to order a drink...? We did so and found a table after my girlfriend ordered appetizers. One of the cooks stared once the order was placed and wiped his nose on his elbow while looking at the other cook with a smirk.. at this point I'm wanting to walk out. The waitress walks by atleast 10 times and never said a word to us but played with her hair and kept coughing and wiping snot from her nose with her hands. I'm so sickened by now and hoping to see her wash her filthy hands. The bell was rung and I looked at my girlfriend and said I hope this isn't about to happen, and she says it's a bar babe, and I stated it's no exception when handling food and the customer service already was horrible on top of that. The waitress grabbed the plates 2 minutes after the bell and brought them to us and I shook my head in disgust. I tried to not disappoint my girlfriend but I was disgusted and we got up and left all the food as it was and our money was wasted! I was so upset by this experience but I will never go back.

If you value a good customer experience and sanitation, this place is...