Gustard's Bistro — Restaurant in White Sulphur Springs

I wanted to give this restaurant a great review. It is a new restaurant in White Sulfur Springs, WV. But a second visit has not improved my impression. The service is painfully, and unnecessarily slow. We were there for 2 hours with only 2 persons in our party. We ordered an appetizer with our beverages (a soda and a glass of wine), Prosciutto and Parmesan Palmiers (no photo). This comes with 6 tasty little wheels but I couldn't detect the prosciutto, only the cheese. We shared a salad which we received after over an hour of putting in our order. The salad would have been tasty with its mixed wild greens, craisins, and pickled onions but it was so overdressed I couldn't appreciate any of the flavors except for that of the dressing. Neither of us was able to finish it and having split the salad, our portions were small so finishing it would not have been a problem. I guess I should have ordered the dressing on the side so that I could have controlled the dressing. I am a believer that the dressing should enhance the overall flavors of the salad, not drown out the salad itself. After having ordered an hour and a half earlier, our steaks finally arrived. Fortunately, they were both cooked to our specifications and the flavors were nice. The steaks (one ribeye and one tenderloin) were served with mashed potatoes and roasted root vegetables. The mashed potatoes were smooth but nothing else special about them. The roasted vegetables were both under and over roasted. There were baby turnips that were under roasted ( still crunchy with strong sulfur notes) and delicata squash with a flesh that was sweet and creamy but the skin could not be chewed. As I mentioned at the start, this was my second visit to this restaurant. I believe this establishment has great potential that it has not yet tapped into. But I think the first thing they need to address is the ridiculously...

Ate twice in 2024 at Gustard's. Food was very well prepared and I salute the care of sourcing quality, local sources. But it's expensive. For example, all sides (fries, slaw, veg) are extras at $5 each. (Goodness!) Or adding protein to my salad costs an extra $6 to $12. (Yikes!) That's really pushing my expendable budget and rather outside of the U&C in the region! Between prices and the wait staff's lack of attention to duties makes me hesitate about a third visit. Very friendly greetings but otherwise traditional and expected level of attention is very sketchy.  Examples: requested items forgotten (sauces, beverages) on both visits. I had to repeatedly wave my arms to flag down my waitstaff's attention for beverage refills or other items because... a lot of the time she had her back to the seating area talking, talking, TALKING to kitchen or other staff.  Also please check the cleanliness of dishware and utensils before placing on tables.  (Lipstick or debris on and in glasses/cups, remaining foodstuffs on flatware.)  Having been a waitress in a VERY popular Wash., D.C. cafe and a "slamming" suburban restaurant, I know what it takes: CONSTANT WORK performing assigned duties of the position hired for. The décor is fine (strong/bold colors, casual). I would prefer more interior light. One is blinded by the daylight from the pleasant large windows and reflecting "hot spots" off of parked cars' windshields/chrome, yet my eyes are trying to adjust to the dark interior. Maybe more lighting to more closely match the bright sunshine streaming in? I don't recall experiencing the nuisance of too-loud music; I think my friend and I were able to converse,...

We stopped in tonight to eat. We are from out of town visiting this area. The place was really crowded, but it did not take too long to be seated.

Our waitress was super busy so it took a bit to get our drink order, but we totally understood. We asked the waitress for a few suggestions. We ended up with going with the crab dip as an appetizer which was delicious.

My hubby ordered Fish and Chips and I ordered the Brick Chicken which came with sautéed mushrooms that was amazing, some sort of potato and sautéed greens underneath! All the food was delicious.

Here is where it went wrong. As I was eating, I tasted something stringy and said to my hubby it felt like a hair I was eating, but used my napkin to spit it out. I never looked in the napkin. We went on about our dinner. I thought it might be the greens, but I did not have my glasses on and did not look in the napkin.

Well when we got back to our hotel, I was going to post my Google pictures of our food and right there in the picture was the hair!!! I could not see it when they delivered my food because it was dark in there but my camera caught it!!! It was NOT my hair because I had a sun visor on with my hair braided. So now I am totally sick that I was eating someone’s hair.

It’s unfortunate because the food tasted amazing. So now, I cannot...