Bistrot Pierre in Altrincham is a french restauraunt in the centre of the Greater Manchester town, having been impressed by their menu selection including the fact they label gluten-free online, which is usually uncommon for a small brand of restaurants, I was excited to try it out here especially being a lover of all things french - well nearly all things french, based on my experience here today I can't say I'm anywhere near to a fan of Bistro Pierre.
Starting with the service, it was pretty slow, I get the place was rather busy with it being a Saturday just a couple of weeks before Christmas but it didn't seem overly busy nonetheless and there still remained a good number of empty tables to the level a restauraunt, especially with so many staff, shouldn't have struggled to cope - yet sadly they did.
When I was seated (after a confusing wait), I was given bread on the table which even after saying I was gluten-free the staff member didn't think to remove from right in front of me until I then questioned why she hadn't removed it only to get a half-hearted apology.
For my food, I ordered the steak frites, again I was upset the staff member seemed unhelpful she didn't seem to regard my allergy in a respectful and serious manner and felt like I was taking a chance eating here as the food I ordered should be naturally gluten-free anyway and it was stated to be fine on the menu. The staff member told me two things
1. My steak as it is thin had to either be burnt or pink and there was no in-between
2. They were not doing the lunch menu even though I visited at a time where various other restaurants would still offer this. The only menu they had was a set-menu and it stated the price for two courses after I asked if I could just order one she said "Yes it will be around £10 to £12", again she refused to give a price which made me uneasy. It did end up costing £11.95 which is reasonable but still, I don't understand why they don't have one-course printed on the menu as they do for the lunch.
The whole menus on its' own are rather confusing and make little sense, for example, they offer breakfast lunch and dinner menus - so far so good right? However, nowhere on their website, the menus or even the staff could tell me what menu is served when which surely should be common/easy knowledge as the set menus are virtually all they do so I can't help but feel confused and uneasy about the whole situation.
I hoped after a bad start the one saving grace would be my food, which although it did take a considerable amount of time to come with no apology for my wait - I just hoped Bistro Pierre, a place which impressed me in terms of interior and exterior decor, gluten-free menu labelling and menu selection would at least impress me on the food but sadly they just didn't.
My chips were so greasy, I thought they'd been seasoned with vinegar, they looked wet and tasted wet and to make it worse - they were bland, tasteless and unseasoned. They had no flavour or crispiness other than dripping oil. The steak also was bland and unseasoned, the steak was also a little chewy and to make it worse the slight bit of garlic butter they did include was hard and it wasn't buttery at all, being one small blob leaving the good majority of the steak bare.
I was really excited to try out Bistro Pierre for a number of reasons, in every one of those departments from service to menu to food quality and speed and even the handling of allergies, I was really shocked, disgruntled at how poor it was, which really made me regret not calling in Nando's nearby.
UPDATE: I was sent a reply to my email not long after this review was published where the business told me the actual times so I thought I'd had it here, but the overall food experience was so bad my rating still stands
Breakfast: 9:30 am till 11:30 am
Lunch: 12 pm till 4 pm
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