Renton Bistro — Restaurant in Renton

This review is for the service only. We absolutely love the food and think they are the best in town. Our family owned a restaurant so I am very sympathetic to small business owners, but Renton Bistro has HORRIBLE processes that lead to their slow down in service. We called at 7:02 pm tonight and they said pick up time was 7:35pm. I asked them "Are you sure? Because we have guest in town and you guys have always made us wait longer than your estimated time?" The woman on the phone reassured me our order would be done. It is now 8:07pm and our food order is still not ready. In watching their processes, they take ticket orders out of turn and end up only fulfilling half the orders never completing one (I've watched them since there isn't anywhere to stand because they have so many people waiting for their food). Every time I've ordered, there has been someone complaining of the wait time which until now I've never experienced. I'm happy to change this review for them, but the woman on the phone was rude and didn't offer anything to make up for the horrible service today. I believe in the quality and taste in their food and I'm hoping management responds to this review. They need a makeover when it comes to the processes because they are literally hurting their own business and its shame because they have a quality product. If you click on my profile you will see I don't give 1 star reviews. I am easy to please and so my 5 stars may not mean much, but when I have a horrible experience met with horrible customer service, I post it. I will update this review if management is willing to discuss the constructive feedback I have otherwise if you are hungry, DO NOT BELIEVE their wait times and go elsewhere. If you have two hours to kill and don't mind waiting, then the food is really awesome. However, when your competitors can get the same orders out with the same amount of customer traffic in a faster time frame, Renton Bistro isn't worth the 45 min+ for a To-Go (its now 8:14 pm and no food...don't pay for the food until you get it....our mistake so we are held to our order now). Renton Bistro, I hope this isn't it because we would love to continue to support. I'll be dropping by to introduce myself in person so that this review isn't anonymous to...

This is the second time I've ordered food for take out. The first time I had pho and a pork platter which were both good and this time I ordered the 5 spice chicken soup which was good and very tender. I also ordered the crepe and the duck & bamboo soup, they were out of the soup so I asked for a recommendation and the lady (Linda) suggested a spicy beef soup which came with lettuce, is that normal?? I didn't enjoy it but too each his own My biggest complaint is the $13 dollar crepe. First they forgot the veggies and I spoke to Linda and she offered me 10% off my order next time but I've just returned from a trip to Vietnam where I had these crepes many times. The Renton Bistro crepe was anything but authentic, it was one huge greasy slab of basically batter. There was no rice paper or veggies. It was full of bean sprouts which were ok but I had to throw the rest away because it was really thick and greasy. I added a $3 dollar tip on a $37 tab because it was just takeout. $40.00 I paid for a greasy crepe with no veggies, soup with lettuce which turned into a big bowl of jello after being in the fridge overnight and the 2 pieces of chicken with broth. I asked for my tip back which she told me I could pick up and I asked about the missing veggies and she said, "we talked about that & I offered you %10 off your next order" ...this won't do me any good since because I won't be back... Things go wrong and mistakes happen but how a business handles it or owns their mistake is the telling factor. I gave it 2 stars because the chicken was good but Linda should have handled it by giving me %10 percent off this order or comping the crepe and removing my tip. I would have left the tip if the crepe had been comped. This was bad customer service and the restaurant business isn't easy. Repeat customers ate important, this isn't how you stay in business...... UPDATE-- a couple hours after writing this review Linda called me back and is refunding me $26.00....

I typically don't like to leave negative reviews, but I had to share this experience. I was extremely frustrated when I was told that my service dog couldn't be accommodated. It's important to understand the rights of service animals before making a decision. My dog got cold outside because I couldn't bring him in, and if it wasn't for my friend being there, I would have left without eating.

On top of the service issue, the food was also disappointing. I ordered the banh canh cua and it lacked any flavor. It felt like I was just eating water and noodles, with barely any "cua" (crab) at all. The only saving grace was the banh beo ,which was still good. Overall, it was a frustrating and disappointing experience.

"Restaurant owners may wonder how to identify a service dog, whereas service dog owners may wonder if they need to bring some sort of identification or certification with them before entering a restaurant.

Service dogs are not required by federal law to have any official certification or documentation; as such, service dog owners do not have to bring any paperwork when visiting a restaurant. For the same reason, restaurant owners cannot ask for documentation that a dog is a service dog.

Restaurant operators are allowed to ask only two questions:

Is the animal a service animal required because of a disability? What work or task has the animal been trained to perform?"

"Out of all the questions I could have been asked, the staff actually said, 'Do you have...