Instead of going to any of the restaurants I painstakingly researched before coming to Lyon, our travel buddies decided to ask our hotel to make reservations for us. This is what led us to Le Bistrot de Lyon and it's incredibly bad food and service. We were sat by a very nice woman and there seemed to be good potential. I was wrong. Service here is abysmal, even among French standards. We ended up just getting up and taking silverware from other tables and water that was staged on the bar for servers to take to tables. The place is decorated well with interesting décor and furnishings. It's very old world French bistro and that's pretty cute. I wasn't very hungry so I just ordered a salad but was pressured by the server that it wouldn't be enough food. Maybe if they hadn't removed the olives they placed on the table literally 3 min before (and I had 1 olive), I wouldn't need extra food. I'm a grown adult and know how to eat but I succumbed and ordered the white asparagus soup to go with my goat cheese salad. It wasn't a salad btw, it was a wheel of goat cheese sitting on inedible leeks with a few pieces of diced tomato and mache. Luckily the croutons that came with the soup paired well with the goat cheese because they forgot to give us bread until the last couple minutes of eating. The asparagus soup was disgusting. Terrible texture. Absolutely zero flavor. I added so much salt and it still tasted of nothing except for the rancid nuts/seeds on top. She also told me it was going to be a cold soup. It was hot. Another glaringly gross item we got was the tartare. I've never had such a bad tartare in my life. And it was hard to eat without bread but like I said before, they only brought it when we were about to complain. I would absolutely not recommend coming to this place. read more

See all

During a week long visit to Lyon, France for work. This place was recommended by a colleague. I chose to go with the set menu offering which is similar to a "prix fix" menu so it makes the selection easier. You get a starter, entree and dessert. I chose the veal shank and the chocolate brownie. The salad never came so we had to ask for it. It could be that they misunderstood because I didn't actually ask for the salad because I thought it was included and all I had to do was select the entree and dessert because there were options under those categories. Either way, the meal was just ok. I have to agree with the other reviewers, it was not flavorful, in fact I know I didn't finish anything on my plate and don't really recall the meal. Service was just ok too. read more

See all

3.5 Stars - I LOVE Le Bistrot de Lyon for their sorbet. It is probably the best that I've ever had, and when I've had sorbet after the fact I'm always comparing it to here. We tried every available flavor they had at the time and I truly couldn't pick a favorite: raspberry, blackberry, lemon, and passion fruit. Rich colors, bold flavor, and super refreshing. I took away a few stars because the service wasn't really great and we were seated in a very cramped spot. I know France bistros and cafes are small, but our back was to the wall with a fixture and my friend almost hit her head a few times. Our waiter didn't seem to know much about being a waiter or maybe he was having an off night! Not sure. They were as attentive as they could be. My friend had the ratatouille with their homemade sausage and wasn't a huge fan. I also had a taste and the vegetables were ok, but the sausage was a little too homemade for our taste and just didn't look appetizing. Not a huge fan of their drink selection here either. Our waiter made a few recommendations but he missed the mark a few times. Great for dessert, not so much for food! read more

Le Bistrot de Lyon - Pelforth, not my favorite - Brasseries Near Me - Lyon, 69

See all

Excellent service, friendly and curteao Good local cuisine Great interior deco Highly recommend read more

Tasteless French onion soup. No idea how this place won any awards. Waiter ignored us

I've tried Le Bistrot de Lyon several times now and always end up not being impressed. The restaurant looks nice and old from the outside and inside is very appealing too but I'm always disappointed with the food. Dishes seem prepared in advance (you get your first dish a few minutes after you place the order) and I suspect they are not even made at the restaurant. Service is also just ok. Overly pretentious for the quality of food that they serve. Looks more like a tourist trap than a place with truly great food. read more

See all

This was a favorite amongst others but not me. I was shoe-horned into a bunch of other tables and practically had to do the limbo to get in and out of my chair. The service was really second-rate and the food was very poorly flavored. I had the quenelle and was not overwhelmed, by far. The wine was eh, as well. I too believe it is a tourist trap in other respects, and didn't, and won't go back. read more

Overall, it is a 3 star place. It is a bouchon of mediocrity. I had a steak (beef) tartare and it was good. It wasn't a 5 star dish, but it was absolutely acceptable. In the US, I would give this dish at least 4 stars. Salmon was overcooked - 2 stars at best. Salad Lyonnaise - 3 stars. Assortment of cheeses - meh. They probably didn't have more than 3 ounces of cheese on that plate. The service is 2 stars. The waiters are unfriendly and slow, they will forget items and never come to check on you. For example, my beef tartare was supposed to come with fries (potatoes), but I just got it with a salad. Since getting the waiter to pay attention to me appeared to be a mission impossible, I just eat it that way. You will wait forever for your order to come out. Same goes for drinks. I wouldn't come here again. read more

I am a local born and raised in Lyon and was very excited to finally bring my American boyfriend to experience great the great food Lyon is known for. Boy was I disappointed! The food was tasteless and I quickly realized that most of those places on Rue Merciere who call themselves Original Bouchon had become tourist traps. The setting is beautiful and was clearly enough to lure us in but I will never go back. As a Lyonnaise, I was offended that they would even dare to serve such plain food to the anyone, especially the people visiting our town. read more

Rude and nasty service. Didn't let us sit at empty tables outside and didn't offer any alternatives.

Food was ok, but service was apalling. Not appropriate for a Rick Steve's recommendation.

This is one of our favorites on this trip to Lyon, but the food, although good, was not good enough for five stars. I'd definitely eat here again. read more

Reading the other reviews on this place it does come to show the poor waiter service is what's letting this place down. Our main waiter was funny and had good people skills but the other waiters were terrible. For example when our food came out the waiter just put our food down and walked away. I said the steak was for my sister and he didn't correct it. I had to swap our plates which is unexceptable. The food was good with good presentation but I still left an unhappy customer. read more

Me and my family (dad, mom, sister and myself) were looking for a place to eat in Lyon and we chose this one over the others, since it seemed to have good reviews and a great menu. Turns out that we were wrong. We go in, they asked how many of us there were (we told them four in french and english) and so they made us wait for ten minutes so they could set up a table for us outside. We sat across the table after the wait and noticed that there was one extra place within the table. We didn't mind that at this point. We look at the menus and decide what we're going to eat. The waiter comes to our table to ask us what we wanted to eat and as we're ordering THE HEAD WAITER COMES TO OUR TABLE AND STARTS YELLING TO US AGGRESSIVELY ABOUT THE FIFTH PLACE AT THE TABLE. He keeps accusing us that we told him five people were coming (which was not true at all since there were four of us) and we ask him politely if the fifth place is a problem for him. He keeps looking at us like it was the biggest deal. My dad asks him again and says that we can leave if he wants that. He doesn't give us any answer, we don't know if he wants us to stay or leave and so we get up and leave that place. WHO THE HELL DOES THAT TO THEIR CUSTOMERS?? IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO MOVE ONE SMALL TABLE 10CM AWAY FROM THE OTHER AND MAKE A TABLE FOR TWO!? We don't know what his motive was, but he was being extremely rude and unpolite. I truly hope no one else has to go through such arrogance and BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE. No thank you! read more