Venue Bistro

I sampled 4 appetizers, 4 entrees and 4 deserts. Apps and entrees were fantastic. Go somewhere else for desert. The service was exceptionally slow. We ordered a well paired wine for the appetizers, it was gone before they arrived. We ordered a wine that would work well with our eclectic entree choices. The wine was wasted because it was gone before the entrees arrived. We gave up on wine. I actually had time to leave the restaurant and check out neighborhood shops while waiting for our very average desert. After 30 minutes with no food, drinks or water on the table, we couldn't take it anymore. I had to go to wait stand, hand my credit card to waitress and ask her to get us out of restaurant. I don't want to give the impression that the staff is slackers; everyone seemed busy, just very inattentive and poorly managed. I am totally down for the make a night of it dining experience, I do it frequently. However, the ambiance of Venue is not conducive to a 3+ hour service. The tightly packed dining area has extremely uncomfortable chairs and it was at least 90 degrees in the smoke filled dining room. If you are willing to spend 3+ hours in a sauna, and leave smelling like you worked in the kitchen, this place is for you. If you are not, go to another venue. If you decide to give them a try, I strongly suggest you request and outside table. more

Expect to be treated differently than a full boat paying customer, if you use a Groupon, Living Social or similar pre-purchased deal. Not in a good way either. My experience with other restaurants has been they work hard on the Groupon/Living Social clients to encourage repeat visits. \r \r First the food. Excellent but a little too much butter for my taste. I just don’t think it’s necessary if the chef is truly talented. The grits and shrimp were fun. Trout dish was a very small portion, but not unreasonably so. Decent wine list, but would like more selection in certain categories. Salad was flavorful and mussels good but not nearly as good as Le Central. Half as many for double the cost.\r \r Service was stressed. She was so up-tight it spilled off onto us. Dining should be a calm lovely event. When your server is freaking out frantic and is unpleasant, not able to take the time for calm conversation over the menu, it grates on your nerves. The restaurant was overbooked. Odd, seems like a simple task to budget a certain amount of time for the tables. \r \r Décor is bland boring and acoustics poor. \r I recommend for the price range you skip it. \r more