We were looking for a place to go to for Valentine's Day via Restaurant.com and decided to try out Bistro 88 which seemed to have good reviews online. It is supposed to be a Asian Fusion restaurant of the East-meets-West variety. We called ahead and they said they would be having a fixed course menu for Valentines but they haven't decided yet and would call us back with the menu. They never did but we called again and the the menu sounded interesting we decided to give them a shot.
It was a bit hard to find Bistro 88 on the dark Bee Cave road but luckily our GPS got us there in time for our reservation. Once inside the restaurant you notice the sushi bar right away and also a cool glowing aquarium with fake moving neon jellyfish. We were lead to a table inside a room with french doors which seemed romantic at first glance. However later on we noticed that the room seemed more like a former classroom with the ceiling tiles and the glass windows with glass door leading to the outside.
It took a long 40 minutes before our appetizers came out. We had the crab asparagus soup and the smoked duck salad. The duck was terrific though a bit fatty. It reminded of a good Peking Duck. The asparagus soup was creamy but the amount of crab on top was literally a pinch- a pinky pinch. You couldn't really taste it. It was a good asparagus soup, but definitely not good "crab asparagus soup".
The second course took another 30 minutes to come out. We had Beef Short ribs and "Daniel's Seafood Combination". The the shortribs were very good- very tender though a tad crusty on the outside. The "Daniel's Seafood Combination" was probably the worst dish on the evening. It was several shrimps with cucumbers and some thinly sliced octopus. It had very little taste, the cucumbers had gritty sand between them like they were not washed.
Another at least another half hour, our main entrees came out. We went for the Grilled Miso Sea Bass and the Filet Mignon. The Sea Bass was a bit fishy but was cooked well and was tasty. The Filet Mignon came with a nice pepper sauce that was pretty good. The meat was well cooked.
For dessert, which did came out only about 15 minutes after our dinner plates were removed, we had a chocolate ganache and a raspberry topped cake. They were both decent but were not anything special.
Understandably the kitchen was swamped for Valentines, but still the food took too long to come out for our liking. It was not unacceptable but it was nearly so. The service was decent- our server forgot to bring us lemon and did not seem too friendly, but nothing more to complain about there. Would we go back to Bistro 88? The answer errrr- NO. The value and taste just wasn't there for the $58 a head price they charged. With tax and tip the meal for two was at $150. The portion sizes were those of very fancy restaurants but it just didn't FEEL like a fancy restaurant. We were also annoyed that they refused to honor their $25 Restaurant.com coupon which did not say it was invalid on Valentines (or any other day, for that matter). So if you ever want to try out Bistro88 with a Restaurant.com coupon, be sure you call ahead and make sure they will accept it.
On a scale of 1 through 5, my review for Bistro 88 is 2 out 5 Stars.
Bistro 88 Restaurant Info
Address: 2712 Bee Cave Road Austin,TX 78746
Phone: 512-328-8888
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