Bistrot Pierre - Birmingham Reviews

I went to this lovely place, and the food was really tasty, nicely presented, and there was plenty on the plate (which I appreciate). I had a starter, main course, and dessert, and honestly, I was stuffed. The only thing they could work on is the timing of bringing out the dishes – having more consistent gaps and serving things in the right order would make it even better.

Dined here with four family members on 10.03.2024 on Mother’s Day evening (a Sunday) and had a very disappointing overall experience. Despite booking a table for 6:30pm, we were told to wait in the bar and weren’t seated until 10 minutes after. We presumed this was just because they were busy but once we were finally led to our table, we were taken to a completely empty room with no other diners despite there being four/five tables other tables. The room had no atmosphere and felt cold. Thankfully, a couple of other parties arrived after us. We ordered drinks and my pint of Mahou was room temperature at best and pretty uninspiring. The starters were good, and my chicken liver parfait was tasty and a decent size. Likewise, the chocolate mousse dessert was good and well presented. However, what really let the food side of the meal down was the beef bourguignon, which four out of five of our party ordered. Thinking it was a French restaurant, we thought this would be a safe bet. How wrong we were. The mash potato had the texture of something that had been microwaved and the beef was sadly lacking (as you can see from my photo) — three small chunks and it was definitely not slow cooked like bourguignon should be. It was tough, fatty and not like any I have ever tasted. All four of us who ordered the same, reported the same feedback so it was hugely disappointing. I then heard the waiter ask the table next to us how their meal was, to which one of the ladies responded “hmm, very gristly beef” so I’m going to presume they had ordered the same. On to the staff, it was a dark haired slim chap serving us and to say he was rude and disinterested would be an understatement. At one point, my partner went searching for the toilet and asked him where she could find them, and his response was extremely surly. Every time he delivered a plate, it was practically thrown at us and he made no attempt to engage other than handing us our food or taking our orders. When we asked to take the service charge off our bill at the end and explained why, there was no apology, no reaction, nothing. He clearly didn’t want to be there and it rubbed off on his diners, who didn’t want to be there either. When you are paying those kind of prices, you expect better quality of food and the decency of a friendly server. Unfortunately we didn’t get that tonight at Bistro Pierre, Birmingham. Far better French restaurants around.