Pistou Review

      On a brutally cold night, we decided to walk from Church Street down Main street to try a newcomer on the Burlington dining scene, Pistou. Opened by a young couple, Pistou serves French/American creative food. The space is dimly lit, and inviting, with a semi-opened Kitchen, ( you can see the chefs but not really the preparations). Perusing online, I noticed they have a very small menu that changes almost daily. I like that idea, as it means you are always getting the chef's freshest ingredients. Little did we know that, that very small menu shrinks even smaller on Sunday evenings, (we went before the Mama Mia show), down to 3 appetizer and 3 mains for a set price on $28.00 for one of each.This makes the Bluebird's 3 course Sunday evening meal for $30 a bit of a bargain, though you have NO choice in your courses, nor on this particular Sunday were they listing on their website what the courses were.

      Anyways, back to Pistou. We were seated immediately, DUH, as we were the only people there. In fact, the entire time we were there, 5:30 to 7:30, only one other couple came in. I think Sunday evening service may not last long. I will have to say, service was really lacking on this particular evening. Not in efficiency, our server was VERY efficient, but not a genuine note of friendliness was to be had. This is the type of server, who when he asks you how your food is, has already turned and headed back to the bar before you can answer. And considering how friendly I had heard the young owners were with previous reviewers, neither of them came over to the table to say Hi or ask what we thought of the food, again we were the only two in the place for over an hour.

      By now I am sure you are all dying to know how the food was. And here we hit almost all the marks. Food, preparation and presentation are all excellent. An amuse bouche of parsnip puree soup served in a shot glass was excellent, (Wife says best part of the meal and she wished it was offered as a bowl). Why don't more places start you off with an Amuse, this puts the diner in a great frame of mind, to get something from the kitchen as a prelude to the meal.  We started with a beet salad for the wife and a scallop and shrimp appetizer for me. Both had great flavors, the seafood was done perfectly and the burrata cheese that came with the salad was smooth and creamy. For our entrees, we both went with the seafood stew.  Again presentation and flavors were great. It came with a grilled piece of bread covered in a soft potato puree. The big problem with this dish was the amount of potato. Between the multi colored offerings in the stew (red, purple and regular) and the puree on the bread, this dish was 65% potato. I would of really liked more seafood and less starch.

      For dessert, the pain perdu, with chocolate ice cream and homemade peanut brittle. This was the one big clunker of the meal, the bread was DRY and flavorless, the ice cream cold and flavorless, the peanut brittle was GREAT. All in all, not a bad meal but once again closing in on $100 for two, is there no reasonably priced restaurants in Burlington serving great fresh food???

On a scale of 1 to 5;

Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.
Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing

 Price,                And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     3.50  Very nice food , though a bit too heavy on the starches and not heavy enough on the proteins. Dessert was a total miss.
Beer and Wine,    3.0  Nice beer and wine selections, list is small and expensive.
Service,                 3.0  Is there some kind of class where servers are taught efficient but aloof. Come on people, be a bit friendly, it will help your tip tremendously.

Ambiance,             3.5  Nice space but the location seems to be a death knell for local places.
Price,                     3.0  VERY pricey, but the excellence in taste and presentation almost make up for it. Definitely a special occasion place.

Overall                  3.20 I really, really wanted to like this place. It's everything I can hope for in a Burlington area restaurant, locally produced food, innovative preparations, comfortable and stylish interior. BUT something just didn't set me on fire. Maybe it was the indifferent service, the extremely high pricing, or the lack of selection, but I just wasn't blown away. Maybe we will give them another chance at a later date and report back.

Bluebird Tavern Review

      UPDATE; This review and visit occurred before Bluebird moved to their new downtown location. We have not had a chance to visit the new location but look forward to visiting soon.

      We have had a strange relationship with the Burlington areas very first gastropub. Our first experience was that we were seated and left for 25 minutes until we got up and walked out, (even then nobody said anything to us). After the owner heard, she was nice enough to comp us a $75.00 gift certificate and we tried again. Service was marginally better but the food was only so-so and unbelievably expensive (gift certificate didn't even cover half the bill and we left hungry). So we walked away from the Bluebird and waited for its eventual demise.

      But then we heard of a shake-up and that a new chef had taken over. Having eaten at the Daily Planet during his short stay there, I knew he could be innovative but still give you something recognizable to eat (really its nice you can cube chorizo to microscopic proportions but I actually like to TASTE my chorizo, thank you very much). So we mustered up our courage and went back, WOW, now this is what a gastropub should be like. Don't get me wrong  it was still ungodly expensive, but this time we both left full and very happy.

      So for my birthday, I was asked where I wanted to go and since the new menu at Bluebird featured bone marrow (OK, I may be obsessed with this and you just don't find it on very many menus), I said let's go back and see what's new. We had a 6pm reservation and they weren't quite ready for us so we had a seat at the bar and I had that oh-oh moment of, was this a mistake. The bartender gave us a drink menu and then forgot us for about 10 minutes. She finally came back to us and really wasn't the friendliest person in the world, though she did answer my questions about the different Hill Farmstead beers. Quick aside, I don't believe you can buy Hill Farmstead, (brewed in Greensboro), anywhere but Vermont, but if you ever see it in your local bar, BUY SOME. Just delicious.

      Once we received our drinks we were summoned by the hostess that our table was ready. And oh-oh moment number two. First the tables at Bluebird are VERY close together and the couple seated next to us did not seem to be having a good time. I found out later that they thought this was still the old Mexican place when they came in, well DUH one look at the menu should of cleared that up, Anyways he hated the burger he ordered and walked out leaving his poor wife to finish her meal by herself. There are serious jerks everywhere. Now at this point I must say that the oh-oh moments stopped and life became great. Our server was wonderful, the menu looked incredible and the beer ..oooohhh the beer. Hill Farmstead, I started with the Abner, (all their beers are named after relatives), an Imperial IPA, which was incredible and then with my meal had a George, an American brown ale, both beers were just superb and went well with my meal. The dear wife had a couple of glasses of wine, the first, on special, was a Leo Hillinger Zweigelt, what a great and unusual choice, full of full of great cherry and chocolate flavors, and the 2nd glass, Le Pinot Noir from France,,matched perfectly with her salmon.

      And on to the meals, I started with the aforementioned bone marrow, served with shrimp stuffing over the top and sitting in a deep pool of roasted garlic sauce with chunks of garlic, leek and carrot. An incredible melding of flavors and our server was sweet enough to rush over another helping of grilled bread, as this sauce could NOT be wasted.  Wifey went with the butternut squash bisque, laced with an herbed oil and cocoa nibs, YUM, and I am not even a fan of squash, hearty and delicious.

      For our entrees, I went with stuff stuffed with stuff, specifically pork belly and quail, stuffed with a stuffing made of pork, quail and mushrooms , served over french fries with an incredible gravy. GOD this was good , like the most unreal Poutine ever, (Canadian dish of french fries, cheese and gravy for you non-Quebecois). For her entree, the wife went with wild salmon over chestnut risotto and fried strips of parsnip and this also was just incredible (or so she says, as I was only allowed a very little taste). We both were extremely satisfied and also STUFFED, so an over all great meal.

On a scale of 1 to 5;
Food,                Quality means much more to us than quantity.
Beer and Wine,  Based on selection and pricing

Service,             Speaks for itself
Ambiance,          Does the look fit the food and pricing

 Price,                And finally does the pricing equal the results we had.

Food,                     4.8  Totally inspired, ridiculously good. One tiny quibble, stuffing was a bit dry
Beer and Wine,    4.5  Nice beer and wine selections, list is small but well thought out and highly unusual.
Service,                 3.5  I knocked it down by .5 for the poor service by the bartender,everyone else was superb

Ambiance,             3.5  Nice exposed brick but tables for two are packed in way to close to each other.Bar area is nice but its COLD back there.
Price,                     3.5  VERY pricey, but the excellence in taste and presentation make up for it. Definitely a special occasion place

Overall                  3.96  I have to say this is probably my favorite special occasion place in Burlington. You are guaranteed to have a superb meal with expertly prepared ingredients. There just seems to always be one little thing that stops me from giving Bluebird all 5's, and it seems to always be something in the service. This is probably the last time we get to go to Bluebird at its current location, as they will be moving to downtown very soon and a new barbecue place is going to spring up here. Downtown is much more inconvenient for us but we will certainly check out the new space and we will try the new barbecue place once it reopens. Stay tune for more updates and please if you love innovative, unusual and well prepared foods, don't hesitate to visit.