Wow, what an amazing and unexpected culinary triumph! I had the best shrimp and grits I've ever…read moretasted here - by far! Creamy, spicy, and crisp. Perfect!

This year we tried to call on Le Bistro once more for Thanksgiving, but something has gone horribly…read morewrong in their operation. Maybe it's the absence of now former co-owner Dakota Maddox, but nothing seemed to work. When my wife and I arrived at noon to pickup our order, we were met by a medium sized group of fellow befuddled customers. Some had been there since 10am, when they were supposed to be picking up their holiday order. The story as it was told to me was the first set of customers arrived to a locked and dark restaurant. Upon being let in by a former employee, they found that no orders had been prepared, proteins weren't cooked, pies were not baked, and there was no master list of orders to be found. Despite all of this, even two hours in there was only one person trying to manage the operation and he didn't even work there. The owner had been "on his way" for the better part of an hour. After spending 1.5 hours trying to get a handle on the situation, our 'fella took everyone's phone number and said he would call when the orders were ready. So my wife and I left, presuming we'd be called back in an hour or so. When 3:30 came and went I tried to call their main number. It rang, went to voice mail, and then a recording told me the mailbox was full and promptly disconnected. At 5:30 my phone rang. It was the former employee - now identified as Luka - calling to say my order would be ready in 20 minutes. My wife and I headed back to town. When we arrived at 6:10 our order still wasn't ready. The owner, Chris, finally decided to make an appearance. He asked if we wanted a drink while we waited, then disappeared to the back again. At 6:30 (6.5 hours after the pickup time) we were finally given our food, minus several items that they either ran out of or didn't have at all. Luka said the owner would refund the items that were unavailable - a saintly gesture. Chris never reappeared, and didn't bother to offer an apology or an explanation. When we finally got the food home we found that the rolls were store bought King's Hawaiian with a small amount of garlic butter haphazardly smeared on top, bone dry turkey, lumpy mashed potatoes, and beef tenderloin that - even after cooked - smelled spoiled. I would say that these items were so sad they must have been seasoned by the tears of Chris' employees, but that would be wrong as tears contain some amount of salt. Standing in the chilly restaurant surrounded by burnt out lights, mostly empty liquor bottles, and a bathroom whose soap dispenser was nearly falling off the wall you get the sense that you're standing in a once great restaurant desperately passed its prime. It was the culinary equivalent of the most recent Mike Tyson bout.