Blue Talon Bistro

Reviews 5

HO

horbinsr

I rarely review restaurants, but this one deserves some comments. I ordered the Liver and onions with smoky bacon, Asparagus, Yukon gold smashed potatoes in a Shiitake mushroom Madeira sauce. My wife, who loves Ribeye steak, ordered the most expensive offering on the menu ($33), a 14oz medium - medium rare prepared ribeye topped with chive butter, complimented with an arugula -strawberry salad and maple glazed carrots. The first "oops!" were in my liver being raw and my wifes steak being way too rare. I immediately brought it to the attention of our very pleasant waitress and she rushed them back to the kitchen. The wait for them to return, we thought, was way too long. When they did return, my liver was done properly and although the flavors of the individual components of my dish were tasty, the copious amounts of sauce, unfortunately, made the livers flour covering quite mushy, the not-so-smoky bacon soggy and flavorless and overpowered the more subtle taste of the liver.Perhaps not the best compliment for this dish. The asparagus, however was quite good. My wifes steak came back somewhat better, although this time it went from medium to well, effectively reducing the 14oz to around 9oz, as the well done was dry and getting tough. If that wasnt disappointing enough, the maple glazed carrots were either old, dried up or overly microwaved, as they were more like sweetened leather than anything edible. She did say the salad was good and the strawberries were excellent. I found it quite curious that the chive butter never did melt on top of this freshly cooked steak. We also observed that the noise level was not really conducive to a quite relaxing dinner. Perhaps encouraged by the high energy "music" being played in the background. I think we will dine elsewhere next time.

---

JA

James Cook

I came here under the recommendation of a friend and expected a welcoming atmosphere and delicious food.....instead, we walked away extremely disappointed with the poor service, attitude, and empty restaurant. Our experience started on the empty back terrace which overlooks a parking lot...not exactly a "Williamsburg experience"! After being ignored by our waiter for 15 minutes (although there were no other customers) I asked if we could see a menu. He replied that our party would have to go around the building and go through the front entrance again in order for the hostess to reseat us at the same table and be given menus. Realizing how ridiculous this request was and given that there were no customers to begin with (now I can see why), we asked the waiter if he wouldnt mind bring us a menu. After waiting another 10 minutes, I went around the building and through the front door to the hostess stand to find that the waiter didnt even bother to ask for a menu. Rather than apologizing, the hostess scolded me that they need to keep track of who sits where and showed me her clipboard which showed a restaurant with empty tables. Huh? Then she showed me back to the same table, gave us menus, and then informed us that they were only serving a cheese plate since they stopped serving lunch even though on the menu it was printed that they served lunch until 4pm. We were at the restaurant at 3pm. Were they trying to discriminate against us or were they just poorly managed? The reputation of this place must precede itself because every other restaurant nearby was packed with customers except for this one. We went over to another place nearby and were treated perfectly and the food was delicious. I suspect that this place is on its way down....the service certainly shows it!

---

CL

Clark Gaylord

Classic bistro fare with the most mediocre execution imaginable. This place bought a few Bistro cookbooks, determined what was "classic" to put on the menu, and then got drunk and paid no attention to actually preparing the dishes. If you like bad food with attitude, this is the place for you. I had: escargot (poor, seasoning over powers snail, over cooked); confit salad (decent, hard to screw up, confit wasnt stellar); steak frittes (fries were awful; steak fine); ice cream (excellent); espresso (barely acceptable). Altogether, an uninspired and incompetent execution. Pomme frittes were so poor, I sent them back -- and frankly I would have sent the replacements back too if I didnt feel they just werent going to get good. Salad was decent -- congratulations, you can pick out the dead leaves. And the steak was decent -- even these bozos cant screw that up (they just charge you far more than a skirt steak should cost). That seems to be the extent of the talent of the kitchen. Also, the burnt sugar ice cream really was good. But anything that required the kitchen staff to have a brain was poor. If you want a great French bistro, it is worth the hour drive to Richmond, where there are several excellent choices. If you want decent bistro type fare without that drive, go to Waffle House instead. WIth that said, I think the review that said "good for a nice bottle of wine and a charcuterie plate" is probably valid. I will add ice cream to that as well. You dont have to trust the kitchen with those choices. If I had done that, I am confident at least three stars would be warranted. But as far as its pretentions at being a great restaurant, it just isnt.

---

WI

William F.

We went here for my girlfriends birthday about a week ago. We had a reservation for a table of 4 but one of her friends was in the area and stopped in to get dessert with us. There was plenty of room at the end of the table and when he came we asked if we could slide a chair up to the table . Our server told us no because it was a "fire hazard" so we asked to speak to the manager. The manager told us he could not sit at our table even after we showed that we were able to slide our chairs in to make room for another chair out of the "fire lane" . Not only did she not come up with a reasonable solution , she was rude about it and ended up making one of us go sit at the bar alone to make room for our 5th person. I served food for a living years ago and i know that we would have never demonstrated such lack of respect for our customers. My manager would have probably been fired if she had treated customers the way we were treated the other night . And the food was nothing special .... if your service is going to be so terrible please at least serve food thats good enough to compensate for it . Since it was my girlfriends birthday I just kept my mouth shut and rolled with it so I figured I would say something now. I will never be going back to this establishment .

---

IS

Israel Padilla

I went to the Blue Talon for breakfast and my experience was not very good. We didnt wait to be seated even though it was Saturday morning and there was a long line at a restaurant across the street. They have just a few options on their breakfast menu and the combinations are strange. I had the omelette and my wife had the waffles. The food was ok, nothing special. I expected a lot more for a $12 omelette. Ive had better omelettes at IHOP! The worst part was the coffee...they tout the fact that they serve Illy coffee and charge $3.50 for a regular cup...thats more than Starbucks!!! This was the WORST cup of coffee Ive had at a restaurant point blank. They must have reused coffee or used way too little. I told the waitress the coffee was terrible and she stated that the filter might have slipped. She brought us coffee from a new pot and then seemed to try to avoid us as if she knew that the second cup would not be much better and it wasnt! When I told the waitress that the second cup was not much better, she gave me an embarrassed look and didnt offer to take it off my bill. The coffee is a huge part of breakfast and this totally ruined it for me, and unfortunately, I wont be going back to the Blue Talon.

---

---