The Downtown Bistro - Lancaster

On my first visit, I attended a family gathering to discuss our family tree. We were seated outside in a lovely atmosphere, and the staff quickly set up a patio umbrella for us. Shortly after, our waiter arrived with menus and inquired about our drink orders. I opted for the house salad with homemade blue cheese dressing and a beef Gyro. The salad was generous, packed with tomatoes, garnishes, and more than you’d typically expect. My Gyro was authentic! Having traveled to Europe, I can confidently say it would easily win any comparison to the restaurants I've visited there. It was perfect—loaded with meat and veggies, and served warm. On my second visit, the service was excellent once again! If you're looking for a wonderful dining experience, I highly recommend giving this bistro a chance to impress you. All the dishes are delicious and there’s a great variety. I’ll definitely be bringing more friends next time I visit for lunch or dinner! What a treat! I would give them 6 stars!

I 'd like to preface this review with the fact that I have never given any establishment a one star review. As a former service worker I always tend to be understanding and forgiving of service slights but The Downtown Bistro failed us on almost every level possible. A friend and I were excited to stop here on our way to Hocking Hills for lunch having researched places on our way in. The establishment wasn 't very busy when we walked in. The hostess seated us without a word, I said Thank you so much! when she placed our menus down but she didn 't acknowledge me and just turned around and walked away. Our waitress came over and took our drink and appetizer order. I ordered an old fashioned which turned out to be the only decent thing about my experience. For my appetizer I had the crab cakes which was more like breadcrumb cakes with barely even a hint of crab. I also tried the stuffed mushrooms my friend ordered and while she enjoyed them, I didn 't find anything special about small 13 dollar mushroom caps. After a disappointing appetizer and a strange interaction with the waitress when inquiring about their daily specials (one she claimed was simply chimichurri , I decided to just order their lobster bisque. The menu says they only serve it on Fridays and Saturdays so I thought it must surely be good and fresh! Well it was neither. The Lobster bisque had no lobster and wasn 't even a bisque! It was some sort of tomato broth monstrosity. What was even more horrific was the steak that was delivered to my friend. She ordered it medium rare but what she received was some sort of rare, pre-seared, boiled looking, unappetizing piece of meat (please see photo . When the waitress eventually came back over my friend told her, I didn 't care for this. The waitress simply said, ok and took it away. No apology or sincerity (which was her general disposition, odd for someone who expects to be tipped . She seemed generally annoyed and bothered by us throughout the entirety of our stay. The Downtown Bistro is lacking in both edible food and halfway decent service and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this was the worst experience I 've ever had at a restaurant.

Went to this restaurant because it was rated with 4 1/2 stars. Was disappointed with the slow service for a hamburger french fries. Just so so. Had some clear misses with things like a no-name brand ketchup. Fish was a frozen lower quality piece of salmon. I don't think that I will be going back.

Stopped by for lunch on the outside patio and everything was great so we decided to return the next week for dinner. We called and they said they were short staffed and patio was closed. We called the next evening to see if it was open. They said yes with weather permitting. It was a beautiful evening so we went. We asked for outdoor dining and the host went directly to a server to ask and she said no it's just too hard. I don't know how it's too hard to walk thru a door. So we went to the Ale hose and had a nice meal on an outdoor patio. It will probably too hard for us to give the Bistro another shot.

We were checking out the Hocking Hills area and saw the comments about the overall quality of this restaurant and had to try it. It was great! I share the concern about not getting an answer when we called to check on a reservation, but we were early enough to get a table. We had a couple appetizers and dinners and everything had great flavor and quality. Top this off with GREAT service from Elaine, even though it was clear she had a bunch of tables. We will definitely return when we come back to this scenic part of the State!