Steven N.
Yelp
My party decided to give Bar Bistro a try as we were meeting up in the Tacoma area to celebrate my friend's birthday. This location is not near downtown and is a bit of a drive inland to reach.
The outside of the restaurant gives off an uninviting vibe with all the windows being covered up, there is no indication of any lights or activity going on inside besides the neon "Open" sign. Upon entering, the vibe is much better and the restaurant was busy with almost every table occupied. We arrived at 8:45 PM on a Friday night and were seated right away.
A note on service: My girlfriend and I like to scan the menu and decide together what we want to order so we can try different items which sometimes takes a bit longer than usual. After our server came by a couple times before we were ready to order, they did not come by again for 30 minutes. I can understand that it was coming close to closing time and they wanted to turn guests out the door but we didn't get our order taken until after 80% of the seated guests had left the building so it felt like we were being ignored.
The food: My friend and I both ordered the American Wagyu Burger with smoked gouda and fries. My girlfriend ordered the Seafood Paella.
All the food came out at once. My friend and I agreed the burgers were way over salted. We ordered the patties cooked medium but they were more on the rare side. Because of the saltiness, I couldn't taste the beef flavor very well and felt like I should have just ordered the regular angus beef burger which is a few dollars cheaper. The fries were very good! Probably the best part of the meal. They have a battered texture and taste delicious when dipped in the spicy ranch sauce. Oddly, my friend's burger was served with noticeably more fries than my portion (about 2x more).
The Seafood Paella was served with a nice spread of halibut, mussels, prawns, snow crab meat, scallops, and Portuguese sausage. The halibut, prawns, and crab were stars on this dish. The rice was cooked well and had nice texture but lacked any distinctive spices or flavors. There were maybe 4 small slices of Portuguese sausage and felt like it was not part of the dish. For the price of $33, I would have expected a more generous portion of seafood.
Overall, I wanted to like Bar Bistro but, because it is tucked out of the way and my experience with the food and service was not great, I will pass over this spot the next time I'm looking to eat in the Tacoma area.