La Vie Est Un Bistro — Restaurant in Silver City

Since my wife and I discovered La Vie Est Un Bistro three weeks ago, we love it so much that we already eaten there six times, always for lunch as that is our main meal.  The relaxed ambience is such that it feels as though we are eating in a Parisian restaurant.  Chef Jason C. Pierre, trained in Paris, is so kind and welcoming that he begins to feel like a friend, as do the waitresses, who hail from such exotic places as Italy and Brazil.  It may take a little longer for the courses to arrive, as Chef Jason prepares everything from scratch, and each meal is assembled individually when ordered, with amazing results.  I believe that he does this because he truly cares that his customers have a genuine feeling taste of eating in a fine European restaurant. There is nothing else like it in Silver City.  Chef Jason has prepared delicious items just for us, on the spot, when he learns that we want them, and will do so if we let him know in advance. As for the food, our experience is limited to the lunch menu and specials.  We are immensely impressed by his delectable soups, perhaps the best we have ever had, including potato-leek, butternut squash with pine nuts, and cream of tomato.  He will make his incredible asparagus and goat cheese soup at our request for our next visit. His salads are delightful, full of so many fresh veggies, most of which are organic.  You will be glad you did if you add the optional generous serving of his grilled chicken to your salad.  As for entrees, we have had the Cajun chicken sandwich, the ravioli, the pommes frites avec poisson (fish and chips with three sauces), the beet cured salmon lox on everything bagel, and both the mixed green and the Greek salads, the latter of which, with the added grilled chicken, is enough for two people and includes dolmas (stuffed grape leaves).  All of these are exquisite. My favorite is the Cajun chicken sandwich, which is not what you might expect.  It is not at all spicy hot, but rather a superb melding of flavors that was indeed a wow moment when I first tasted it.  My wife’s favorites are either salad with the grilled chicken, and for both of us all of the soups we have tried.  The prices are very reasonable, too!  We are so happy and grateful that we have found this jewel of a place. Thank you, Chef Jason C. Pierre and your...

This restaurant was surprisingly bad. Let me start with the positive: The lady that served our table was very friendly and there's nothing she could've done better. She is the reason I am not giving this place a lower score for "Service".

The problem is, simply, that the food took forever to come, and it wasn't even good.

I know the stereotype that French cuisine takes very long, and I was prepared for a long wait. But as the restaurant was mostly empty, I think a 90 min wait is just really excessive, and at the end, you'd expect a meal that actually tastes good, wouldn't you? My wife ordered the salmon pasta. In all honesty, it was "meh", and no better than the pasta that anyone can make at home. My wife has a salmon pasta recipe I found online that she uses sometimes when she just wants to put something together quickly, and it is significantly better than what we got.

My meal was worse. I ordered a steak. My steak was small, and honestly just not very tasty. The flavor combinations were weird, and just not at all pleasant. There was just a tiny handful of veggies, the sauce didn't really go well with the meat, and it was just not good at all. Nor did it look like a thing that would take a lot of skill to do better at home.

Considering that this is also a fairly expensive and mostly empty restaurant, I was expecting to get a meal in less than an hour and that the meal would be better than what any random person could make at home on any...

I had high hopes for this restaurant because I saw the reviews... But in the end I was shamed for my order and then confronted in an unprofessional manner.

I ordered the cajun chicken sandwich with no bun and the owner was so upset (that I asked for no bun) my party and I could hear him talking to the waitress about it and then come to the table and attempted to mansplain to me how I was basically asking for a chicken salad (that was also on the menu), I had to explain I have a gluten allergy and that was why I asked for no bun but I wanted to enjoy the flavor of the cajun chicken with the veggies on the side. He seemed to be upset but left.

My friends ordered the ravioli and the french onion soup and no one really enjoyed their food. Every dish was strangely sweet for some reason... Especially the soup, it tasted more like bourbon than onion. When we were ready to pay the owner came to the table and confronted us loudly on "it seems like you don't like my food and you have negative vibes".

I truly have never had such an unconfutable dining experience in my life. I wasn't going to write this review originally but felt I needed to share the experience in case it has happened to others. It's possible I went on a bad day, but I truly don't recommend this place at all.

Overall the food is incredibly mid, the owner lacks any professionalism, and a cajun chicken sandwich even with a bun should...