Barbecutioner K.
Yelp
meh. the place looks nice but i've never really been impressed with anything i've had here, and the menu is kinda small, there's nothing on it that really grabs me and makes me want to come back
I've drank here a couple times and it's a little pricey, which is to be expected at a hotel bar, but the mixed drinks i've had here were not enjoyable, so I'd suggest sticking with beer. I've only eaten at the actual restaurant once, but I've had catering from the hotel twice, which is probably from the same kitchen, so look up my review for the doubletree for more details on that. ok so now onto my meal from river bistro.
I went for restaurant week because the menu looked interesting, lots of places tend to step it up for restaurant week. the waitress seemed friendly and she kept up on the water refills. there were pacing issues throughout our meal but I don't think it was her fault. my friend and I both started off with the crab cake appetizers. there was a lot of crab in it, not much binder ingredients so there wasn't much of a crust. it wasn't the best crab cake i've ever had but it was decent. there was a blood orange sauce with it that tasted good on its own but it got lost in the mix when added with other ingredients. our entrees were then brought out before we were even done with the appetizers. my friend got the gnocchies, I tried a couple and I liked them. Actually, I liked the more than she did haha. I got the braised short rib and it was disappointing. It was done with a bbq sauce and the rib wasn't smoked, but I wasn't expecting it to be. when you don't smoke or grill ribs the fat flavor makes the dish too rich, so the flavor wasn't very good, and the texture was a little tough. it tasted like it had been sitting in sauce too, and when meat sits in sauce both the meat and the sauce seem to lose flavor. the ribs didn't seem seasoned too well either. I didn't like the kale that was served with it, but I'm not a fan of kale anyways. my friend tried it and she thought it was fine. the best part of the dish was the cornbread pudding, which was just a smear. the best part of my entree was a freaking smear. great. so then after our entrees we waited for what seemed like forever for our desserts to come. I got the chocolate bread pudding. the flavor was just alright, I was expecting it to be super chocolatey but it was more like a chocolate chip cookie. the texture is where it loses points here. It came out super hot and it was tough. obviously it was microwaved. sigh.
I travel a lot for work and I spend a lot of time in hotels. So after a busy day I know once you get back to your hotel room you don't feel like going back out, and if that's the case then maybe you can find something satisfying on the menu here to take back to your room. but as a local, there's nothing really that would make me want to come back.