Bistro @ The Porch — Restaurant in The Plains

There moments that is was good. I will start that we visited on Valentine’s Day and were super excited. We have heard good things and wanted to try it.

It is a small restaurant that has recently changed ownership. When we walked in and went what appears to be the check in area, we were ignored for 2-3 minutes. I ended up asking a staff member where we check in. She said with me, she had already walked by the 2-3 times. We should have left then.

The restaurant had a fixed menu with great options, at $95 per person. Our waiter brought us water and menus. We order our drinks. I ordered a “faux” drink and it was wonderful. My husband’s was okay. We ordered our apps, dinner and desert all at once. Then we sat…. It took about 30 minutes or so to get our apps and had to ask about the drinks. I had the lobster bisque and my husband had the lamp lollipops. The bisque was more of a thick rue (picture) with no flavor and 2 small tough pieces of lobster. It was also sitting under a heat lamp as it had a full skin on top. It was not good. The lamb on the other hand was very flavorful and was good, even cold. Now we waited for dinner, another 30+ minutes. We both got the prime rib, and were excited. We had ordered them medium and got them well done, like leather. At this point, I was just lost. I asked to speak the chef, who was walking around. He assisted 3-4 other tables until I got up to talk to him, as he did not appear to want to talk to us. Now at this point they were running out of food, no more prime rib, chocolate covered strawberries and scallops. We had to change our entrée. The chef brought us the shrimp app and the 3 meat entree. Thankfully it was hot. The filet was good, the scallop potatoes were yummy and the rest was okay. The waiter asked about desert and we reminder him, chocolate flourless raspberry torte and bananas foster. Well, nope all out. 35 minutes later we got 1 chocolate mousse, mind you 3 other tables had ordered after us and got theirs before us. It was good, but not what we wanted.

The good news, or okay news was we only paid for drinks and 1 meal. I think I shouldn’t had to pay for that but wanted to leave. I originally thought it was the kitchen but honestly believe the restaurant and staff are not equipped to handle large scale events. We were there 2 hours and left with frustration and not a great Valentine’s...

If I could give this zero stars, I would. My parents and I dined here on New Year’s Eve and sadly I have to leave a negative review. We have come to this establishment for years for a variety of occasions and we have never had a bad experience until now. We had a reservation for 5:30 and didn’t leave until after 7:30 and it wasn’t because we were just hanging out enjoying ourselves. We had to flag a waiter down multiple times for a variety of reasons and we felt very ignored. At one point someone checked on us and we were told that our “waitress got lost in the weeds” - unacceptable. We had a reservation as I assume most everyone in there had -- unless there was a staffing issue this should never happen. We sat without drinks for the majority of our meal - we were drinking the melting ice in our cups while waiting on refills. My dad was served a rib-eye with no steak knife and we waited 10 minutes for them to get one for him. The food was not at all the quality I would expect for the price we paid. My mom’s bisque was like pudding, the mac’n cheese they subbed out for us was lukewarm and tasted very artificial, the chicken in my pasta dish was so dry that I couldn’t eat it, it took at least a half hour (maybe more) to get bread that we had ordered and our table was never properly cleared. The customer service here was awful - as we left we were told “I hope everything was great!” And when we expressed our frustration we were met with shock. The staff even tried to argue with how much we paid because we split the bill and applied a gift card that was given for Christmas. They offered a gift card for us to dine here again and we declined. I will never eat at this establishment again and honestly - I believe we should get our money back. This is not the Porch we once knew - the staff is not at all the same and that warm inviting feeling to the establishment is gone. I will happily go across the street to Girasole from here on out and spend the same kind of money for quality, homemade and authentic...

Sadly, when it used to be called The Front Porch, we spent every New Year’s Eve there with friends and enjoyed ourselves tremendously. The food was always well timed, delicious, and the staff was extremely professional. Under new ownership, it has totally collapsed. Right from the outset, my Baileys was curdled. Our entrées were stone cold, and the orders were not even fulfilled as we had ordered them. I did not order mashed potatoes and the fact that they arrived cold was awful. .We were the first diners on New Year’s Eve at 5 PM so the place was not even busy. . Our waitress was completely unprofessional starting with the way she was dressed. I don’t appreciate a wife beater T-shirt, with large breasts exposed, and an oversized jacket, which was taken off and promptly tied around her waist. Or her ripped jeans, Or tatted arms Come on!! Do you not even have a dress code for your staff? It was New Year’s Eve.. We never had the courtesy of having our plates from the previous course removed before they brought out the next one. So our table is piled high with dirty dishes and I finally had to ask a waitress if she could please remove them so that I didn’t have to look at my leftover Prime rib while I was trying to eat my dessert (which turned out to be inedible) The chocolate mousse tasted like chocolate Pepto-Bismol and I almost had to spit it out in my napkin. It was ridiculous. Also. why were we seated at the table in the bar when there was no one in the entire place when we checked in? Unfortunately our guests were already seated by the time we arrived so we just accepted the fact that it was going to be noisy and loud.. When I found out that this meal cost an exorbitant $200, I had to write this review. I could go on about waiting for my main course while everyone else was already on their dessert, but I won’t. We will never go to The Bistro at the Front...