Aperitif Bistro Wine Bar — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

I'm vegetarian so French cuisine is not best suited for me but I am French so men and friends always want to take me to a French restaurant... When this happens I order a nice green salad with goat cheese and fine croutons, or an onion soup if it's made with vegetable broth (La Baraka's onion soup is all vegetarian), what I really like most having at a French restaurant is a great cheese plate with wine of course. So I ordered the cheese plate at Aperitif but when it came in I was horrified. First, none of the cheeses were French, you'd expect a Roquefort, Comte, Camembert or Brie at the very least, here none of that at all, it was chedar and other hard plasticky tasteless cheeses. Not only cheeses were not French but they were served with a honey coulis on top with grapes and fruits - I've never seeen that ever at a French restaurant. The bread was hard and horrible, I wanted a nice soft from the inside and crusty outside French baguette, well this was not going to happen there! My boyfriend and I left on this and we went to a great local diner instead, which was far much better than this restaurant. Aperitif is a nice place when it comes to the visual immersion, it looks great, you can tell they invested money in design decoration, the whole place transports you to Paris but unfortunately the food is atrocious. This place is just like one of those disappointing high budget sci-fi movies, great special effects, poor story content. The best French restaurants in Long Island are all old-school places such as Chez Noelle, La Baraka, Chat Noir, La Coquille, ok they don't look as good, their clientele is older because unfortunately people under 35 now go for visual experience over what's in the plate. Avoid this type of commercial chain restaurant with a French theme if you truly like French food but if you're into looking at Eiffel Towers all over the place and food is secondary for you, Aperitif is the...

I found everything fine but not enough food items in the upper level to give a higher score. First off my waiter sounded like a eastern European based on his heavy accent and thought he's attemps at humor to be condescending would really understand a French accent at a Bistro even in Amercia. Bus Boys where very attentive and more professional then my waiter for sure.

Came with my wife and daughter we started with Buffalo chicken meatballs appetizer and found them with the right Buffalo flavor but a but dry but ample sauce made up for it if you keep returning to dip in the Buffalo sauce.

My wife had the beef Wellington my daughter ordered the Scallops and I ordered the Lamp Chops for entrees. The beef Wellington was cooked to order and the beef was the star of the plate tender and flavorful would have liked more from the pastry wrap as it just seemed to there. It sat on mashed potatoes which where fine. Can't really comment on the scallops as I don't eat seaford but my daughter did enjoy them very much. As for my baby lamb chops one of which was not trimmed well and left me biting into a random small bone which surprised my teeth very rudely. Roasted potatoes and vegetables came with the Lamp Chops and where tasty but I found the portions very small and the plate felt like three tapas then an entree but flavors where very good.

We chose chocolate mousse, apple bread pudding and the crepes suzette. The mousse had different intensity in chocolate which didn't suit me and the crepes had a rubbery texture which felt like a microwave reheat which I hoped it wasn't for fine dinning. My daughter enjoyed her bread pudding very much.

Ultimately do I return? Yes for one more try but if the experience turns out the same I would definitely look for a new experience elsewhere especially for...

Came here on a reservation. Wait staff is amiable and on point.

The charcuterie selection was very limited in selection and meager in offering. Out of the things listed on the menu, from a meat and cheese selection, of the 5 initially picked, they were lacking the chicken liver pate and duck charcuterie. A sore point, because if you cannot get this kind of offering in a French restaurant, where else would you go to sample these specialty items? All the other things, like the prosciutto or the chorizo, is stuff you can get at your local supermarket nowadays.

Coq Au Vin and the beef bourguignon, was on the salty side. It was not balanced, and it feels like the wine reduction was skimped out. So the sauce was somewhat dull. Scallops were just mediocore and also slightly salty, but better than the other two. I get the impression, that the chef they hired was really not trained in the French culinary tradition. Or is this typical of French bistro? I give this sort of commentary because I make French food myself, and the reductions you get from a good wine, and a healthy helping of it, is apparent in the final product.

The furnishings in the dining section reminds me a bit of the Old World, not excessively provocative, mostly shiraz blended with nut brown, tones of wine and earth. But based on the food, it feels like paying for...