Just so I can ask the staff - what’s your friend’s IG account?
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Lolol just get on the line at Bicyclette and you can find out!
Had a memorable dinner last night - memorable for all the wrong reasons.
I hesitate to even write about our experience, suffice to say it was so bad, that I’m nauseous thinking about it. I won’t be back.
Nauseous from the food or from other elements of the experience? I’ve been eager to check this place out, so would be glad to hear other opinions (everything I’ve heard so far has been uniformly positive).
Here goes:
Two of us, so we decided to split everything: Caramelized Onion Tarte, Baby Lettuces Salad, French Fries, Short Ribs.
The Onion Tarte is probably one of the best flavor experiences I’ve had in my life. The goat cheese takes it to another level, and is a surprise in every bite. The pastry is perfect, not at all soggy, but light with a crisp.
Salad also great: if overdressed. Dripping with dressing, but flavorful.
Short Ribs: Here’s where everything goes south. Flavor is outstanding, then, I see my aunt spit out her bite. Then it happens to me. We try again. Same. This isn’t just a fatty piece of meat, it’s full of hard, impenetrable, gristle. So totally disgusting. No knife can get through it - which I used to test the rest of the meat. Hard, like a piece of rubber from a ball.
I signal the server, I show her with my fork that it’s impenetrable gristle, she says, as she whisks away the plates “let me show the chef”. We wait. In the meantime, we’re eating the French fries that we ordered to come with the meat. We wait. We wait some more. Ten minutes later she comes back “did you decide what you want to do?”. She’s French, perhaps insulted we sent the food back, perhaps something got lost in translation. I said "what do you mean, I thought a new Short Ribs dish was coming?? She says, I kid you not: “The chef says they’re all that way, he won’t serve it to you again”. I said it was not a normal piece of meat, they can’t all have that gristle - we’ll take our chances. And on that, she walks off (never to be found again).
I get a manager ten minutes later, after realizing the server was not coming back. Manager was very very nice, very apologetic. Said she hadn’t heard a word about any of it. Agrees that we should be served a new order of Short Ribs and sets off to the kitchen. Comes back and says “the chef says they’re all that way, he won’t serve it to you again”.
She suggests the Steak Au Poivre, makes some concession about taking care of us - she never did. Our bill was $185. The Steak was in the $65 range - and only 5 or 6 ounces. Nothing served with it, and our fries are now gone from the waiting over 25 minutes. And it, also, was not good. It wasn’t tender, but actually dry and hard to chew. And, very salty. The kind of salty where it hurt my mouth throughout the night.
I wish we had contested the bill, but we really wanted out of there after THREE hours of this nonsense and poor treatment.
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That sounds horrible. Is it worth contacting the restaurant to describe your experience? And why in the world would 3 (4, I guess) dishes take THREE HOURS? 
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Wow that is not OK IMO. You definitely should have said something when the bill came though I get that it’s super uncomfortable to do so.
Was it chef Manzke in the kitchen?
Took 3 hours because the server kept disappearing for ten, fifteen minutes. We tried to order another main three separate times. Each time, she’d leave and come back again to ask what we decided. Each time, we said we wanted the short ribs, she’d leave. Wasn’t until the manager came over that we were talked into the steak.
I hated last night. Really awful experience. No interest in calling I just won’t go back
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I can certainly understand your frustration and disappointment. Having been to Bicyclette several times since the very open, I do notice decline in quality. Yet it is hard to make a reservation, so perhaps they got to be too popular too fast. Yet, Chef Manzke has a great track record in this city, and I think it maybe worthwhile to let him know, and see if he can make things right for you. On the other hand, one can easily move on without stepping foot into Bicyclette ever again.
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I can certainly understand why you’d want to erase it from your memory and not contact them. Hopefully, someone on the board who might know the Manzkes can point them to your post. That kind of experience is just not okay, esp for that price.
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Too bad you don’t want to contact them because that is a very descriptive and believable report. I would email that report to them and copy Republique management. The Manzke’s would probably want to know that the authentically French staff they hired possibly comes with an authentically French ‘tude. But! I understand if you want to wash your hands of it. That was pretty bad. Thanks for sharing.
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@PorkyBelly could attest, this place does its research and takes notes in its customers…
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not free bread, duck liver mousse, thomcord grape gelee
the bee’s knees #purpleisafruit
burgundy escargots en croute, garlic parsley butter
piping hot 
caramelized onion tarte tatin, drake’s family farm goat cheese
maine sea scallop a la grenobloise, cauliflower puree, lemon, brown butter
sauce was a bit too salty
liberty farms sonoma duck leg confit, braise cabbage, baby turnips, shinko pears
I was hoping for the breast, the skin on the leg was super crispy but the meat was dry. cabbage was really salty.
creme caramel
passion fruit, italian meringue tart
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But were you invited to tour the kitchen?
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Great pictures as always. Thank you!
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Was this a 4 hour meal?
exactly 2 hours.
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But as for the kitchen tour…
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Anyone have a pic of the most recent menu?
Must orders? Seems like duck breast and onion tart?
