Bistro 16 — Restaurant in Springdale

What a great place for NWA! Overall, we had a great experience but it wasn’t perfect. With a few slight tweaks and some attention to detail, I think this could be a gem that we have.

We had reservations for 8:30 but weren’t seated until well after 9:00. The start to our dinner was a little bit rocky. To be fair, they have a great lounge area and they did come ask us if we wanted drinks (after about 15 minutes of sitting there with nothing else to do).

The food was delicious. We got the Bouillabase, the short ribs, steak, and the Lamb along with the escargot, onion soup, and the Pate for our food. Everything was delicious. The pate was not what I was expecting because Pate is normally spread but this was not spreadable. It felt like a firm “loaf”…delicious, but not Pate (I’ve eaten pate all my life).

I think that what sets fine dining apart from just a restaurant with good food are the little details….

At the conclusion of appetizers, the server came and cleared 1 plate, leaving the rest of us with dirty plates sitting in front of us for a while. He finally came back and cleared 2 more plates. And a long while later, he finally cleared mine right before the main course was served. Crumbs and other debris were left all over the table.

The meal was presented and it was DELICIOUS. After the meal, we ordered dessert, coffee, and espresso and they boxed up what we were bringing home.

The to go boxes were nice but they just sat them piled on the table. They cleared the dirty dishes but left the table with crumbs and debris, and some of the small plates and the empty bottle of wine.

After our coffee order, we waiting a long while and finally another server came and took our dessert order. Espresso was presented in a coffee cup which feels and looks weird because there is so little liquid in such a huge cup…it’s like they weren’t expecting anyone to order one and they didn’t have the proper cups to serve it in. Why offer it if you can’t make it “right”? It was good a good cup of espresso though.

Dessert was presented with dirty plates left on the table, to go boxes piled up, and an empty wine bottle left on the table. They did finally come back and clear some stuff but some of it was left on the table. Dessert was delicious though!

All in all, we had a good experience. It could have been great. They did comp us the bottle of wine for our wait and that was really nice of them to do. But it’s the rest of it; the attention to detail that would make this restaurant great. I hope that they read this review and take all of that to heart because I think we have the potential for a hidden gem in NWA. We would definitely eat here again and hope that they make small tweaks to make this restaurant GREAT, not just good.

Things I would do differently: clearing all the plates and debris from the table between courses. New forks and knives with every course. To go containers bagged and set on the floor or presented before we leave. Espresso in little cups. Seating you much closer to your designated time or if you have to wait, someone at least acknowledging you and asking for drinks or at least water being brought to you much quicker than just letting you sit there with you twiddling...

My wife and I visited Bienvenue recently to celebrate Valentine's Day a bit early. I have to say, as much hype as I had heard about the restaurant, I found my experience to be incredibly underwhelming.

For starters, I would think that a restaurant that focuses on French fine-dining would focus more on French wines in their offerings (by the glass). I was a bit sad to see so many non-French wines offered to pair with the food. Not that the non-French wines probably aren't good, I would just think a restaurant that focuses so much on representing a particular region/food that they would want more wines from that region to pair with them.

The crux of my issue with my experience was the food. At best, it was a solid medium, not bad, but not mind-blowing (especially for the price we paid). We started with the escargot and the bread basket. The bread basket was about $9, which just seems odd considering many other fine-dining restaurants would just offer complimentary bread to start. This was my first time having escargot, but my wife has had it many times, including having them in Paris. The escargot tasted like dirt; to be clear, I mean they actually, literally tasted like someone had pulled them out of the ground like a mushroom before serving them. It was very odd. When I asked my wife, she said that the escargot did not taste like any she's had before, so we were certainly disappointed with that appetizer.

For our mains, I had the blue crab ravioli and she had the Fruits de Mer (Fruits of the Sea). My ravioli were certainly stuffed to the brim, which was nice, but the crab had an almost sour taste to it (it still had a nice sweetness from the actual crab flavor, though). I thought it might be the squid ink not sitting well with the ravioli, but after tasting the ink on it's own it tasted correct. Overall, the crab really didn't have much flavor and it just tasted like crab in a pasta casing; nothing special. The lardon (pork) that is served with it also seemed to really overpower some of the taste of the crab. The scallops that were served with it were actually quite good. I wish the whole thing had just been scallops. The lardon worked well with the scallops and with the ink. My wife's dinner suffered from the same issue. Though, her seafood was good (the octopus and the scallop were the best), the pasta and the sauce were somewhat bland .

As far as service, it was fine. Not outstanding, but not bad. The waiter was knowledgeable and friendly, but he would disappear for 15 minutes at a time before we would see him again to be able to finish ordering or grab more drinks. Also, it really wasn't that busy while we were there, but it got busier throughout our evening, so I can't really say it was because he was super busy. But, again, overall, not bad service.

I'm really sad because I have had many friends recommend this restaurant to me, but I can't say I would recommend it based on my experience. Is the food bad, no, not at all. Is it $150 for two people good, no, not in my opinion. There are other restaurants whose food I think is far better that I can have for a fraction of the cost. I hope that anyone else that goes here has a better experience, but, unfortunately, I don't see...

Wanted to try Bienvenue for a while and figured an anniversary would be the ideal time to do so; however, it was a disappointing experience from beginning to end. No host was present to greet us when we first arrived. After waiting a few minutes and several servers walking past us, we had to flag one of the servers to acknowledge our presence. After pulling up our reservation, we were seated in a timely manner. Despite having a few empty tables, some of which remained empty throughout the evening, we were seated at the worst table next to a crowded and loud bar. Upon request and after checking with the manager, the server agreed to move us to a different table which we were grateful for. The small bouquet and kind note placed at the table was a lovely surprise and the only highlight of the evening. Despite stating gluten free restriction on the reservation, we were given the standard menu and had to ask the server for more information. The menu differed from the one found on the website. The server was not familiar with the menu and had to ask the kitchen staff which was fine, but he only inquired about the large plates and not the small plates or supplementaries before walking away. A bit frustrated and also hungry, we opted to play it safe and simply get two small supplementarie options. The brussels sprouts were ordinary, cold and half not thoroughly cooked. The “trio” of beets only contained baby reds and a hint of goat cheese. The main course took about 45 minutes to arrive and the server never cared to check on us. Upon arrival, both dishes were rather cold. The duck was very inconsistent, a decent bite followed by a chewy one followed by a tough one. Similar to the goat cheese, we were fortunate to find a single mushroom. The striped bass was bland and plated poorly and some fell apart on the plate providing scattered protein surprises underneath the under-cooked potatoes used to substitute the gnocchi. The last few bites of the fish were raw, so yet another pleasant surprise. Towards the very end the server decided to pay us a visit, but we did not opt to order dessert since it was already 10pm and the meal or service had not been to our liking. We were “lucky” enough to get one soggy macaron with the check which we split. The manager on duty was friendly and made an appearance towards the end too. She offered to replace one of the dishes, but by this point it was too late so the item was discounted...