Bistro Schmistro

We dropped Luke off this afternoon at my brother and sister in law's for a sleep over with his cousins. Delighted to have an evening to ourselves, a romantic dinner, and some quiet time in our toy-free (read: picked-up) living room, our expectations for fun, reconnecting and relaxing were on the high side. Really all we wanted was a nice dinner, some dessert to share, maybe catch a movie, maybe not. We arrived at Luisa's Italian Bistro a little after 6pm. There were many empty tables, we didn't have a reservation and were not in any hurry but they showed us to a table in the corner off the room, near the door and bar, it was cozy and we didn't care. We were out alone, which is rare, we just wanted to chat and laugh. We were given waters quickly and ordered an appetizer. The app came and was awesome, we ordered our dinner and gave the "waiter" our salad dresssing choices. All the tables began to fill up as did the bar. It was getting louder and darker and we were whispering and laughing and not caring what time it was. Our salads weren't coming but we thought, eh, we're not on a schedule, it's nice that we're not being rushed.

Then one by one everyone else not only had been served their salad but they were onto their main entree. Our waters were empty, no one seemed to notice us, they just walked by us non-stop without a thought of checking in to see how we were doing. John tried to stop the "waiter" and he gave us an "I'll be with you in a minute" finger. Totally freaking rude. Finally he came back and we asked if our salads were on the way and could we get some more water?? Oh, he said, hadn't anyone been by to take our order? Um, YOU DID! I said. Apparently he told whoever our "actual" waiter was what we wanted and well, that guy lost the order so, um, it would be out really soon.

It was now 8pm. I had to pee. I made my way through the crowded bar and back, and when I sat back down this rush of freezing cold air was blowing on my back. What the hell? John said that they had come by and opened the windows...it wasn't hot in there, what the hell? So I stood up to close it and John said that actually the people sitting behind us had asked to open them. GRRR. I put my coat on. Happy birthday to me. This was beginning to suck.

Our salads came. They were good as we were starving. We switched seats since my teeth were chattering, John tried to shut the window but it was stuck. Still no service from the "waiter". Luisa herself made the rounds at all the tables and asked us if we had eaten yet and I said, actually no we haven't, we've been here for two hours though. Oh, well did you tell someone, she asked. UH yeah!

The "waiter" never made eye contact with us. I stopped him and asked if our meal was on the way. He wasn't sure, he'd be back. He came back a few minutes later and said it'd be next. We saw more food delivered to other tables and finally it arrived. I asked him if he could also shut the window.

Oh, sure. Sorry. This was our first "sorry". He tried, it wouldn't budge. His answer was that we would have to move as he was the strongest worker there and if he couldn't move it, no one could. So we moved seats.

Ironically once we moved the waitress girls were all over us, but when we were in the corner we got nothing. I looked over at our old chilly table and there was and older couple noshing on salads already. OMG.

John had wanted to leave 90 minutes into the dinner (with no dinner), but I was sure our meals would more than make up for the wasted time and really it wasn't wasted time, we were having fun despite being forgotten by the entire staff. Well the food pretty much sucked. I had a seafood special and it tasted as if they dumped out the salt shaker on the food, I couldn't eat it. John had the lasagna and it was really sub-par. Not really much resemblance to lasagna as in it wasn't really layered in anyway.Just kind of a ton of hamburger in pasta sauce with one lasagna noodle and some cheese on top. Odd.

So no apology for the 3 hour tour, the fact that they ignored us and forgot about us. and then the food didn't even redeem the experience. We were really burned. We hardly treat ourselves to anything more than Panera Bread or a lunch date now and then, this bill was over $60 and while not outrageous, it's a major treat for us.

The company was priceless, the conversation wonderful and that of course made up for the disappointment. We left a tiny tip, a suggestion for better service on the bill and headed for downtown Glens Falls for some dessert.

I'm still baffled that they didn't offer us anything or throw us some kind of bone to make up for it. Oh well. Now we know.

Thanks for the date hon, regardless the main course of conversation and laughter was a 10 out of 10.