Pao Bistro — Restaurant in Springfield

I sent 2 emails to the manager about our experience and received no response after 2 weeks! So, I'm posting those emails here. To the Manager of Pau Restaurant, Springfield, Il: (Sent 10/30/17) I am writing this to you personally instead of posting a review online. Perhaps you were not made aware of what we experienced in your restaurant. I believe if you had, you would have made an effort to make things right. My husband & I and two guests dined in your restaurant on Saturday, October 28. Our reservation was for 5pm. We were treating my Aunt & Uncle, who drove up from O’Fallon, IL to spend the evening with us. The gentlemen ordered the Pau Steak, my Aunt ordered the Salmon & requested it poached due to dietary restrictions. She requested asparagus in place of the basmati rice pilaf. I ordered the scallops & shared the crab cake appetizer with her. The crab cakes were one of the best we’ve ever had & being from Newfoundland, both my Aunt and I were very pleased, I must say. And my scallops were cooked to perfection! Unfortunately, that is the only thing I can share with you that was positive about our dining experience. Our waitress came to the table without introducing herself so I have no idea who she was but she was kind & polite. When asked if there was a sommelier who could help us with the wine list she told us she didn’t know what that was. After I explained it to her, she told us she was “new” (which was obvious as she reached across our table in front of my Uncle to pour my Aunt’s water) & that she would ask the bartender what he would recommend. We thanked her but declined. We ordered the Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio. She brought our wine (again pouring my Aunt’s wine from across the table) & set the bottle on the table. I assumed most restaurants knew that cold wines & champagnes are served with a personal wine cooler. We had to ask for ours. As we picked up our salad forks to begin our dinner course, both my Uncle’s & husband’s steaks were too tough to eat. They were ordered medium-rare. My Uncle did not wish to make a fuss but my husband sent his back & requested a new one. It was somewhat better than the first but still not tender. He ate what he could not wishing to spoil any more of our visit. Neither my husband nor my Uncle finished their steak. My Aunt’s poached salmon was raw on the inside & was sent back for further poaching. I would think that a well trained chef would check this before plating. The asparagus was perfect but the cauliflower was overdone & mushy. After our first plates were served, our waitress came back to check on us once (when we returned the salmon & steak), once to fill our waters & to see if everything was still ok, once to take our plates, once to bring dessert which we had to request a dessert menu, & once to bring our check. This would be considered the bare minimum of service required for any establishment. She was very sweet & kind but considerably lacking in fine dining service etiquette. We ordered coconut cream pie for dessert & it was wonderful. The most disappointing part of our evening was…with all of the issues we had during our evening, especially having to send back not one but two meals (three should have been sent back), I would have expected a manager to come to our table to make contact with us & discuss the problems we had experienced. I would also have expected our dinners to be of a higher quality as reflected by the prices than what we experienced. The menu prices were acceptable for a high quality restaurant…we expected the food and service quality to reflect those prices. They did not. Message: (Sent 11/1/17) I left this off of my previous email. We were overcharged for our meal as well. Salmon is listed on the menu as $16, we were charged $19, scallops are listed as $25, we were charged $29, Pau Steak was listed as $16, we were charged $34 for two. That's a total overcharge of $9.00. My receipt info is: CHK#5, TBL#43, Katherine, #721, 10/28/2017...

Meh. Everything was just "meh". While the presentation was excellent, everything else left a lot to be desired. The lemon drop martini wasn't bad, but the double Buffalo Trace whiskey on the rocks was easily 4 shots. While I'm not one to complain about the extra alcohol, that's negligent and over-serving for the top tier level of restaurant this is supposed to be. We started off with the crab crakes and calamari. The presentation was great on them, which is reflected in the two stars. The crab cakes themselves were so bland it was disappointing. We ended up using the sweet chilli sauce that came with the calamari to elevate the flavor. The calamari was saltier and less crispy than that of any other calamari I've had. As mentioned, it came with the sweet chilli sauce and cocktail sauce which was odd in my opinion but the spice of the cocktail sauce helped cover the saltiness. Next was the deviled eggs. The menu stated to ask for the special of the week with them so I did. Our waitress stated it was a pear and whiskey deviled egg. When our waitress brought out the eggs, she stated they changed the eggs on her, and they actually made a Mexican street corn deviled egg. Cool, not what I ordered at all, but I guess we're here now. Would've been nice had she double-checked with me first before assuming I wanted them or at least not charging us. The sushi/nigiri order was slightly changed from the menu as the Dynamite roll was requested to be made without the wasabi paste that was included on most rolls. All the presentations on the rolls were good. Not the greatest I've seen but at least it made for pretty pictures. The crunchy shrimp roll was the best but if I had the choice of having that again compared to other sushi places in town, Pao would not be what I'd pick. The other rolls were all warm, not cold, chilled or cool like other sushi I've had. Seems like they may have been sitting somewhere or accidentally placed under a heat lamp. I made the comment I wanted to take most not my roll home and refrigerate it and see if it tasted better once it wasn't slightly warmed. I was also surprised by the disposable wooden chopsticks. I had expected nicer non-disposable chopsticks given the vibe of the restaurant reflects that of any fancier and more expensive option than some other sushi restaurants locally. Our waitress asked if we were interested in dessert but after the multiple disappointing dishes we decided that we would rather go get dessert somewhere else that we knew would be full of flavor so I'm unable to speak on the dessert at all. The ladies' bathroom seemed to match that of a less expensive restaurant. The half stall doors seemed like something I'd see in a bar bathroom. Overall, the experience was disappointing, and I highly doubt we'll...

We haven't eaten at Pao in more than 5 years. My wife had a mixed green salad with goat cheese, and a vegetarian pasta dish. She was pleased with both, especially the salad which was fresh and crisp. I started with the fig, onion, and goat cheese sliders. I thought the three sliders would be just that, but they had tiny burgers as well. They were terrific. My main course was grilled divers scallops with creamed leeks and roasted asparagus. It was also terrific, as was the creme brulee for dessert. Chelsey, our server, was attentive and knew the menu; she recommended the scallops rather than the Chilean sea bass special. In sum, we had an excellent dinner. The room was loud which made our conversation difficult at times. My biggest gripe -- call me an out-of-date curmudgeon or a snob -- was a man who kept his Cincinnati baseball hat on while dining. Many people don't dress appropriately -- scruffy jeans and t-shirts seem the norm -- and such dress really sets me off. But we'll return to Pao for another excellent meal.

11/5/2024: Returned for dinner. My wife had a green salad with goat cheese and cajun pasta (vegetarian). I had the calmari, sea bass, and orange creme brule. Everything was made perfectly. The creme brule was unusual and a nice change from the standard recipe. The restaurant wasn't busy, so we could easily carry on a conversation. Gabe, our server, was excellent. We weren't rushed and savored our meal over the almost two hours we were there. Yes, it's a bit expensive, but we got what we paid...