Palate Neighborhood Bistro — Restaurant in Pocatello

Passed this place on my way to dinner at a different restaurant but thought it looked cute so I called my friends and we came here instead.

Perhaps we caught them on a bad night, but literally the only thing good here tonight was the patio vibes and lighting. I truly regret to write this review because I hate having to say anything bad, but I thought the feedback might be necessary in this case.

We ordered the salmon, pork scallopini (schnitzel), and the Triple S sandwich (tri tip).

Taste and Presentation (Bad): It took a bit for our food to come out, and when it did appear, it was very dried out and kind of hard, as if it had been sitting under a heating lamp on a high setting too long. The left third of my salmon was basically salmon jerky. My friend’s tri tip sandwich looked kind of like a few pieces of beef jerky on a ciabatta roll. He also ordered the chimichurri and arugula on the side, but the cooks forgot to send those out at all. He got the truffle fries, but they looked exactly like regular fries and I could not taste any trace of truffle on them. I thought they might have sent out regular fries, but the server informed us those were the truffle fries. The pork scallopini was a thin hard piece of breaded pork on top of some soggy noodles with store-bought tasting Alfredo sauce and some capers. They were out of the first two desserts that we wanted, so we settled on the peanut butter cake as a third option, and it tasted like stale fridge :(

Menu Availability (Bad): We came in around 7:30 pm on a Friday night, so it seemed like it was still in a normal window for dinner, but they were out of half of the things that we wanted. They were out of the gouda mashed potatoes that I was looking forward to having with my salmon entree, out of the bread pudding, and the beignets. I overheard the table next to us also express disappointment about the mashed potatoes and the beignets.

Service (Bad): Our server took a bit to greet us, but seemed nice until our food came out. That’s when she told us they were out of mashed potatoes and asked if I could sub a different side. When we saw the sandwich without any of the things on the side, we asked for the chimichurri and the arugula. She said “I’ll go get the chimichurri” and turned around to go head towards the kitchen. My friend said “oh and we’re missing the arugula too” and she turned around and was like “I HEARD YOU!” We were shocked and just looked at each other because it was so rude and kind of out of nowhere so we just stopped saying anything to her other than the bare minimum and just tried to act super polite for the rest of dinner because it felt so awkward and I didn’t know if she was going to snap at us again. When it was time to pay, she brought the handheld Square terminal out, so we thought we would just tap and sign like we have plenty of times at other restaurants, but she showed us the total on the terminal, and then took the card and walked away with no explanation back into the restaurant and stood clear back by the bar with her back to us for a while. We were really confused where she went or why she took our credit card with no explanation and why she was standing out of sight with our card when we’ve paid on one of the handheld terminals plenty of times at the table. We asked where she went when she came back, and she said the wifi on the patio is inconsistent so she had to take it closer to the router. It might have been true, but was weird, especially with no explanation.

Ambiance and Decor (Excellent): The only thing that saved this place was the ambiance and the decor. It was decorated very nicely and the lighting on the patio was really cute.

Perhaps it was a bad night. Maybe there was a huge rush and they sold out of a bunch of things. Maybe they forgot about our food for a while. Not sure what was going on, but I would be hesitant to ever come back after having the triple whammy of being treated poorly, not being able to order all of the food we wanted to try, and then having the food we did get come out in such...

Has always had quality service, not to overbearing and not neglectful, attentive to all details and honestly following a template that I thought was long ago forgotten. Now to the food. Every time has been amazing. The bubble waffle takes a minute to process but once you get over the appearance and take a bite, the quality and flavor are all you notice. And of course I ordered in the chicken and waffles, not really a rocky mtn staple but an amazing cultural dish when done well and BISTRO does it very well indeed! Their fish and chips is going to be a love it or hate it experience. They make their own tarter sauce that is not mayo and relish but actual ingredients mixed in a concerted effort to introduce truly unique experiences and flavors and again, superbly done. I could review the tarter sauce alone it was that impactful. The cod is light and flakey, properly fried, no hint of "old oil" being used here, the fish color, was pure white, no indication of rice, worms, or cancer in any of it. {Yeah it is a thing with battered fish} The coating was a testament to the chef. If this is pre ordered kitchen fair I'll eat my own right arm! Potato chips (although on sight I thought corn flakes) yes. Crushed potato chips and whatever else I'll just call a dash of heaven added great body to the fish, was a complementary addition that gave a great toothsome feel to the dish and allowed That tarted sauce to cling just so. I pray they are training and cross training their whole kitchen staff because they have some winning combos for certain. As with all eateries, consistency is the make it or break it issue and now having gone several times over a 6-8 month period I think they have a chance of...

The food here is absolutely amazing—that's honestly the main reason we keep coming back, even though ordering takeout or delivery is almost always a hassle.

When you order online, chances are something's going to be wrong with your order. I've had a few frustrating experiences with them. One time, I placed a order (about $100 worth of food), and they called me shortly after to say it was too early to order those items and they’d have to cancel it. My first thought was: why are those items even showing on the menu if they're not available yet? Or at least there should be a heads-up letting customers know. I asked if they could just push the delivery time back to when the items would be available (only about an hour and a half), but they said no—it had to be canceled completely. They told me the refund would go through right away and that I could just reorder for a later time, but the refund wasn’t immediate, and honestly, re-entering the same order again, on a website that is not user friendly was just too much of a hassle, so I never reordered.

Other times, they’ve run out of items I ordered and didn’t tell me until the food showed up (the delivery driver was the one who let me know part of my order was canceled). I’ve also had orders arrive missing items or completely wrong, which meant I had to drive back to the restaurant to get it fixed (after already paying for delivery and tipping the driver). Plus, some deliveries have been really late and the food showed up cold.

If you’re going to dine in, everything’s great. But if you’re thinking about ordering takeout or delivery, I’d honestly recommend skipping it. It’s just not...