Circa 1875 French Bistro — Restaurant in Savannah

I had a reservation for a group of 8 and we were celebrating a bachelorette. We drove in from out of town and were very excited to eat here. Unfortunately, our experience was hugely disappointing and I would not recommend this restaurant to ANYONE especially someone who is on any sort of time restraint or itinerary. Service was friendly and somewhat prompt but the issue was the rudest manager I have ever come in contact with. Our food took an hour and all came out cold and over prepared. I was the only one to speak up about the wait for our food and mine specifically being incorrect. The waiter explained issues in their kitchen with their system going down. He also apologized for my friends food not coming out. Hers wasn’t out until we were all finished. At which point she didn’t have time to eat and asked for a box and to split the checks. The waiter said he was unable to split the table between more than 3 checks. I asked if he could make an exception given the time our food took and it all coming out cold, wrong or not at all. He said he doesn’t think so but isn’t sure. I then asked to speak with a manager. The manager came over, without taking any time to understand the issues we had throughout our experience or even introduce herself and rudely stated, “ladies I’m not splitting the check more than 3 ways I can’t do that.” I inconvenienced her by explaining everything that happened and she pretty much just said fine she would take off one of the entrees because I “complained.” First of all it is not a complaint it’s an opportunity for your business to correct a mistake you made and second of all what about my friend who didn’t even get to eat because the waiter admittedly forgot to ring in her food? She rolled her eyes and agreed to take hers off too and re-assured us she would not split the checks after we had already said that’s fine. She was very quick to blame her server who she was not even sure who it was. She was pointing to random people asking if he was the one taking care of us and then stormed off and never returned. Really we were not trying to get anyone in trouble or get anything for free. All we wanted was at least some acknowledgment or communication from the manager about the situation. If you are having issues in your kitchen okay, we understand stuff happens however it shouldn’t be at your guest’s expense. If your operation is struggling you should make it right for people who chose to dine with you and create returning business. She did not care to make amends with us, invite us back or even apologize once for our horrible experience. Again I would not recommend this restaurant, management doesn’t care about guests all you are to them is a dollar sign. I had to ask the waiter for managers name since she didn’t tell us. From reading other reviews i learned she is somehow the GM. Mary, if you’re reading this you need a lesson in customer service before you destroy what has potential to be an awesome restaurant!! Hospitality isn’t for everyone and you clearly are having a hard time running your establishment given all the obstacles we had last night. If you want my opinion look into a...

EDIT: See below... I previously gave this restaurant a 5 star review. WOULD NOT GO NOW. I have no idea what happened to this place within the last year or so. Every time we go we are disappointed more and more. My husband and I just had the swordfish last night and it was TERRIBLE. Everything was so beyond BLAND with no seasoning. They used to cook fish perfectly with crunchy corners and now they always have soggy fish. The rice that came with our dish looked and tasted like those microwave packets of rice. The asparagus was small and tasteless (see my attached photos). We also ordered a side of the glazed carrots as you can see from my previous review that they used to be amazing. Now the glazed carrots tasted steamed, bland, flavorless, and NO CARAMELIZATION. We literally had to ask for salt because nothing had any flavor (look at may picture.... no seasonings).The escargot was no longer covered in garlic and tasted gamey. WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS PLACE?! This is soooo upsetting to us as this used to be our favorite place. The trout is not even cooked the same anymore. I don't think we will ever be back as we paid over 100 for food that we stated did not taste good and got absolutely no discount or free anything and we are regulars. So disappointing. It seems like no care has gone into the quality of the food or ingredients, yet the prices are still high. I heard they have a lot of transitions in the kitchen which they should work out before opening. It's just not the same place anymore :(

Two stars because the service is still superb. Great waitstaff as always!

This place has the best food we've ever had in Savannah!! My husband and I went for our anniversary two weeks ago and we're still dreaming of the food we had. We ordered a full 3 course meal and every item was made to perfection. For our appetizer we had the scallops and the escargot. For our meal I had the trout with glazed carrots as per our waiter Chris's recomendation. IT WAS FANTASTIC. I'm not a cooked carrot person, but these carrots were cooked to perfection. They were sweet and the fish and capers were salty and it made such a nice combination. The fish was excellent. Highly highly recommened this meal to anyone. For dessert we had the lavender vanilla creme brulee and it was mouth watering! The lavender was such an elegant light flavor that worked perfectly with the vanilla. We will be back here ASAP. Amazing service,...

My partner and I are visiting Savannah for a celebratory weekend and we were excited to try Circa 1875. Our reservation was for 8pm. When we arrived they told us our table would be ready in a few minutes. About 5 minutes later they sat us in the very full, very loud dining room. The ambiance here is terrible. The noise in the dining is full volume to the point it's almost impossible to have a conversation without screaming. And I think if they could stack the tables on top of each other, they would. We were much too close to other diners for my liking.

Our server appeared to have every table in the dining room. We waited 10 minutes for him to greet us. Once he did we ordered a dirty martini, the onion soup and escargot. And then we waited. After 25 minutes we received a basket of bread, but still no drink. Our soup and escargot arrived. They were both excellent. The soup was ultra cheesy and the broth as rich and very oniony. The escargot was buttery and loaded with garlic. Very happy with them. But after half an hour I still didn't have my martini. Our server didn't understand that this wasn't an acceptable time frame for a drink order and instead tried to say the bar was backed up. Except I watched tables that came in after us get their drinks well before us. My martini finally arrived and was very well balanced. Their olives were a bit lackluster.

We also ordered the mussels and the steak tartare. Because of our orders we needed more bread to enjoy the rich, buttery sauces. This was a concept our sever couldn't wrap his mind around. We had to keep asking for the bread. I waited tables for years and any good server will preemptively know what their table needs. Instead, our server made us feel like we were inconveniencing him when we needed anything. The mussels were dropped off by a man I think may have been the manager. I informed him that our server was terrible and he was rude to me about it!

The mussels were some of the best I've ever had. The portion was very generous and the butter sauce was to die for. The steak tartare was the only miss. The meat was not uniformly chopped or cold enough. The dish lacked salt and could have greatly benefitted from good pinch of fleur de sal.

The 3 stars are because most of the food and the drink were really exceptional. Unfortunately the meal suffered because of such atrocious...