Chef's American Bistro in San Souci

[Porsche944turbo]

My mother warned me. I should have listened.

First Impression:
As others have mentioned, we were seated elbow-to-elbow, and right in front of the "Chef's Table," so I couldn't hear a damn thing my boyfriend, or even the server was saying. The server didn't card me, and I'm only 22.

Food:
We ordered the Escargot as an appetizer, which was okay, but not the best I've had. For my main entree I ordered the Bacon Crusted Salmon. For one... it looked more like breading than bacon, and I certainly didn't taste bacon. Secondly, it was smothered in this raspberry sauce. I hate raspberry, and the description on the menu said absolutely nothing about it. What if I had been allergic? It looked like BBQ sauce, which would have been considerably tastier.

Service:
We couldn't eat our Escargot for about 15-20 minutes because they were still in shells, and of course hot, because we weren't given tongs to hold them. Our server didn't come back, and we asked another server who said he'd bring them out immediately. Never did. Finally our server comes back and gets it to us, but seriously... I waited 20 minutes for my food to come out to the table, and another 20 looking at it before I can eat it? Screw that.

Conclusion:
EPIC FAIL

I agree on all points.

Not to sound snobby, but for those that are not used to a "high end" restaurant, this place seems good.

The Chef has not lived up to his buddies/former co workers from Tavern as they are doing much better with The Tides and Blue Wind.

But if this place is open to new ideas and some re working, it could still do very well.

 

[kris31280]

Not impressed. I think a better location, better host staff and real menus would make a lot of difference.

The food is amazing, but the service remains slow months after they've opened.

 

[rush]

Very hip and gastro-bistro-ish

The food is amazing, but the service remains slow months after they've opened.

Finally, found out the location of Chefs Bistro with a couple of friends from La Plata tonight, the restaurant is a gastro-pub/bistro and very well design with a mural in @ bathroom.
Food and service very good with food been excellent, i have had this Chef's food before at the Tides and was elated at the flavor plus combinations and price point of the selections, i had the colorado lamb rack with a dijon mustard herb crust, lyonnaise potatoes and fiddle head ferns and n=my friends had the bacon wrapped aged filet mignon, rotiserie chicken, and pizza magharita,escargot,bacon crusted salmon with a pinot noir reduction. All i have to say is that at these prices the chef is a winner and with the flavor and thought into executing each dish the restaurant is a winner, our server william was professional and helpfull at every step of the service. Wine pairings was excellent and i very much liked the audacity of the chef doing a totally open kitchen for us to see that all of our food comes out fresh and clean..
I cannot wait to come for thefree cooking classes the chef promised.
Chef's American Bistro is a winner......

 

[SpecialEd]

While this is an old thread, it ranks high in Google when searching for "Chef's American Bistro" so I'm posting a review as of 14Nov09.

We had a disappointing experience on Saturday. While the food was certainly good (when it was finally correct) we had problems with service.

We waited by the maitre de's stand for about 15 minutes before finally being told we'd have to wait 15 minutes for a table. We sat down at the bar and waited at least 30 minutes before we got a table. The bar was out of limes and Rose's lime juice.

There were many items on the menu that weren't available - including "splits" on champagne, several "by the glass" wines, carrot cake, and at least one other thing I'm forgetting.

The crab dip (which was tasty) came with less than 3 inches of bread. We had previously asked for bread (having noticed it on other tables) but it never came. When we asked for more for the crab dip our waitress eventually brought out 4 crackers (yes... four) and told us that the bread was in the oven. I got excited thinking about fresh bread. But alas, it was a pre-cooked roll (about 5") that was merely being warmed/toasted.

In the "you've got to be kidding me department"-- my first bite of crab dip included about a 1.5" x 1.5" piece of what appeared to be wrapping paper for butter. When we pointed it out to the waitress her only comment was, "it looks like a butter wrapper." There was no apology or offer to make amends.

The two ladies in the party ordered the seafood pasta (which included a customizable selection of seafood.) One with red sauce and shrimp and one with white and muscles. The kitchen mixed up the orders-- red sauce with muscles and white with shrimp. That was eventually corrected. Both dishes were supposed to include scallops-- one plate had one scallop, the other had none. Both dishes were supposed to include crab-- neither had any crab.

The calamari appetizer was fantastic. My blackened salmon was perfect.

Since Chef Ahmed was in the kitchen all night, there was no member of management among the customers ensuring that everything was up to par.

In summary, while the food was good there were numerous problems with the quality of the service. We won't be going back until we've heard of significant changes from other diners.

 

[Jigglepuff]

The food is amazing, but the service remains slow months after they've opened.

It is still one of the better places to eat in St. Marys. The only thing I would stay away from is the Lobster (whenever they serve it); it seems to be a little over done. Everything else is fantastic.

We have hit a few patches of slow service since we have started going there. Luckily it wasn't bad enough for us not to return.

 

[Cokie]

We really wanted to like this place..........but

I have been here on three separate occasions and have had totally different service and food each time. The first time I took my wife and 13 year old son. I ordered the Onglet (hanger steak) my wife had Pan Seared Rockfish, and my son ordered Pizza Margherita. I love the open kitchen because we can see everything going on in the back. Ten minutes later I see a pizza go up in the window and get covered my a plate under the heat lamp. Ten more minutes go by and I call the waitress over and ask if that is my sons pizza under the heat lamp, under a plate waiting on my my food. She goes and asks and comes back to let me know that it is my sons pizza. I then ask if she could bring it out because it has now been sitting there for ab out ten minutes and will be pretty mushy if it waits any longer. She does and my son likes the pizza. He eats his entire pizza and my wife and I are still sitting there looking at one another trying to figure our where our dinners are....50 minutes of sitting. I call the waitress again and ask if our food was being prepared, she goes back and brings out our food which I saw sitting in the window for at least 5 minutes. I "tried" cutting into my hanger steak and well, it was one big piece of tendon. I could not even get the knofe to go through the steak. I again call the waitress over and ask if I can order something else because the steak was not edible. She takes teh steak back to the chef and I watch as he cuts into it with his chef knife adn shakes his head, turns around, looks at me and shakes his head...WOW....She comes back and I order the Pan seared Salmon. We are not 1 hours and 15 minutes into this "dining experience". 15 minutes later this thing comes out on a plate they they call "pan seared" salmon, again I watched the cook make it!! IT WAS POACHED IN WINE UNDER A BROILER....Not pan seared as I ordered...still raw!!!! I passed on the fish and had nothing for dinner. The wife said how about we try a dessert..why not..kinda hard to mess up dessert. Boy was I mistaken... we ordered the tableside Bananas Foster. 20 minutes goes by, once again I call the waitress over....We ran out of bananas and the chef sent someone to the store to get them. OK, 10 minutes later again, are the bananas here yet? No! Ok, we will pass on the dessert!!! Almost two hours later we leave the restaurant and I have to stop by CD Cafe to pick up a to go meal on my way home!!
Second time my wife and I went for lunch. We sat in the front by the bar area. We ordered one meal, which was Roasted chicken and to be honest it was a really nice piece of chicken. We had really good service and thought to ourselves maybe they just had a REALLY BAG night a couple weeks ago.
The third time I took two of my employees there for dinner. We had sushi for an appetizer and it was fabuloous!!! W had Steak Frittes, Alfredo carbonara, and Roasted Chicken....Steak Frittes was again tough, but edible, Carbonara was pretty good and the chicken was again very good. The service was very slow, took almost an hour to get the meals. The server was not very attentive, left drinks empty, did not clear plates, so we did not order dessert and went to Ritas for dessert afterwards!!

I know this was a long drawn out review, but when you are trying to pull off this menu and ordering substandard meats so that you can stay within your clienteles menu budget then maybe you should rethink the menu item? There are some really good hanger steak out there, but this was not one of them. Would I go here to eat again? Most likely I will not, and to be honest after the chef turned around and rolled his eyes at us the frist time we went there I should have never returned...There are a couple restaurants that I would much rather give my money to. I have also written this months after I have been there because I have been stewing for a long time about how to go about writing something about this restaurant!! Btw, the kitchen is bigger than the dining area with tv's in the kitchen, maybe that is one of the problems? I will give it one huge plus, it is a really nice looking place inside!!

Still hungry for a nice hanger steak anyone know where to get one around here?

 

[mAlice]

Cokie, this is typical for Chef's. He treats his employees like ####, and doesn't pay them on time, probably because he drinks his profits. Sending someone to shoppers for something that the kitchen is out of is an every day occurrence.

I know someone who works there.

 

[Bean]

Wildly disappointed. Food was terrible.

 

[Bonehead]

Wow

I certainly won't ever spend a dime there, not with these reviews.

 

[Jigglepuff]

We were there a couple months ago for lunch and it was good. I know there have been intermittent bad reviews of this place, but we have never had a bad experience other than it taking a long time to get food (which was once). Has this place gone down hill since two months ago? It seems like the bad reviews are picking up.

 

[rush]

Unbelievable

We were there a couple months ago for lunch and it was good. I know there have been intermittent bad reviews of this place, but we have never had a bad experience other than it taking a long time to get food (which was once). Has this place gone down hill since two months ago? It seems like the bad reviews are picking up.

I agree with you jigglepuff; this is by far still one of the better restaurants in Southern Maryland. I have been eaten at least once a week for lunch or dinner and i have experienced some slow service at lunch a few times and that was only when there were a couple of large parties. The food and atmosphere is always exceptional and the Chef has been always polite to us, he even cooks a five course meal at the Chef table counter open to the kitchen for his customers and i have always attended his monthly wine dinners.
Who does a review 3-4 months after visiting a restaurant, and i have never known the restaurant to serve sushi..Somebody really has some competition problem.
I hope people will try it and make their own judgement, because i still think it has fresh good and affordable food.

 

[Cokie]

Rush

The sushi was an appetizer special........Sorry you missed it because it was the best food's I had there!
I am not in competition with this restaurant, nor do I own or work at a restaurant. My review is 3-4 months out, but I do think I specified that in my review, with a reason for it. I am very happy that you like and enjoy the restaurant, get good service with outstanding food each time you go in. I did state in my review that lunch was good, as has most people. Dinner is the issue. Unfortunately, from the reviews you are one of the few who feel that way. This is why when I give reviews I give open and honest reviews. When I said I really wanted to like this place, I really meant it. They have a great menu, but when you cannot pull it off then you will have issues, plain and simple.

I also hope that people will give it a try.......Like I said in my review, maybe they had a couple off nights? Or Murphy follows me into Chefs Bistro? I'm not sure, give it a try. This is just one persons review and you can take it with a grain of salt, please read other reviews and it tells the story. I apologize for offending anyone for giving an honest review. Here are a few restaurant that are better than good IMO.... CD Cafe, Casey Jones-The Crossing, Ouzo's, Kadori-Japanese-Korean, Thai-Inter.

I am not promoting just telling the truth about where to spend your hard earned cash on a quality meal.

 

[rush]

Cokie

The sushi was an appetizer special........Sorry you missed it because it was the best food's I had there!
I am not in competition with this restaurant, nor do I own or work at a restaurant. My review is 3-4 months out, but I do think I specified that in my review, with a reason for it. I am very happy that you like and enjoy the restaurant, get good service with outstanding food each time you go in. I did state in my review that lunch was good, as has most people. Dinner is the issue. Unfortunately, from the reviews you are one of the few who feel that way. This is why when I give reviews I give open and honest reviews. When I said I really wanted to like this place, I really meant it. They have a great menu, but when you cannot pull it off then you will have issues, plain and simple.

I also hope that people will give it a try.......Like I said in my review, maybe they had a couple off nights? Or Murphy follows me into Chefs Bistro? I'm not sure, give it a try. This is just one persons review and you can take it with a grain of salt, please read other reviews and it tells the story. I apologize for offending anyone for giving an honest review. Here are a few restaurant that are better than good IMO.... CD Cafe, Casey Jones-The Crossing, Ouzo's, Kadori-Japanese-Korean, Thai-Inter.

I am not promoting just telling the truth about where to spend your hard earned cash on a quality meal.

I was not specifically attacking you, I am just stating a fact, that this is one of the best restaurants in SM. I work on base and i am from Florida, I have sampled a lot of good restaurants in the United States...I know for sure Chef's is a better restaurant than most of the independent or chain restaurants in ST: Marys and they have always given me good service and food including most of my associates I sent there to dine especially at dinner.

 

[mAlice]

I was not specifically attacking you, I am just stating a fact, that this is one of the best restaurants in SM. I work on base and i am from Florida, I have sampled a lot of good restaurants in the United States...I know for sure Chef's is a better restaurant than most of the independent or chain restaurants in ST: Marys and they have always given me good service and food including most of my associates I sent there to dine especially at dinner.

Your facts are subjective. Obviously not everyone that has dined there has had a good experience.

 

[Cokie]

Then again some people think that some restaurants I would never even think about eating in are the best. It's all in what the person likes and dislikes. I dislike ill prepared food, lack of attentiveness, long waits for food, restaurants kitchens that are larger than their dining rooms so the customer has to rub elbows while eating?.....maybe I'm wrong?

 

[Bird Dog]

Then again some people think that some restaurants I would never even think about eating in are the best. It's all in what the person likes and dislikes. I dislike ill prepared food, lack of attentiveness, long waits for food, restaurants kitchens that are larger than their dining rooms so the customer has to rub elbows while eating?.....maybe I'm wrong?

It does sound like you have a grudge of some sort.

I eat there about once or twice a month and have found it to be one of the better restaraunts in Lexington Park, but it is not hard to be one of the better restaurants in Lexington Park as most are horrible.

I have had good food, good service at a very reasonable price.

Even the jazz groups they occasionally feature are enjoyable.

JMHO

 

[mAlice]

It does sound like you have a grudge of some sort.




JMHO

Everybody else who has had bad service there must have a grudge of some sort, too.

 

[Cokie]

To some, that is good food. I agree! A lot of people in SOMD do not know what "good" food is. The quality of the restaurants here are not very good in general. Good food to most of "US" is beating a crab and eating its meat, opening an oyster, stuffing a ham, (btw,there is no reason to stuff a ham anymore we have refrigeration now a days) and making buying chicken nuggets from McDonalds! My experience at this specific restaurant on the specific times that I went there were not that good, in fact on one experience horrible. It happens to the best of them!!

 

[kom526]

To some, that is good food. I agree! A lot of people in SOMD do not know what "good" food is. The quality of the restaurants here are not very good in general. Good food to most of "US" is beating a crab and eating its meat, opening an oyster, stuffing a ham, (btw,there is no reason to stuff a ham anymore we have refrigeration now a days) and making buying chicken nuggets from McDonalds! My experience at this specific restaurant on the specific times that I went there were not that good, in fact on one experience horrible. It happens to the best of them!!

What does stuffing ham have to do with refrigeration?

 

[aps45819]

What does stuffing ham have to do with refrigeration?

Stuffing kale into a preserved ham keeps the cooked kale from going bad