Bravo
If you are lucky, when you write a blog the information flows two ways. I write about lots of restaurants, so sometimes a reader recommends a new place to me. Lorin Waxman has been telling everyone about his new favorite, Bravo Bistro, so tonight I took the evil twins there, for dinner with Ed and Clara Stokes.
Bravo Bistro is in Concord, across Willow Pass road south of Sun Valley Mall. It’s a fairly small place, nicely decorated as an old-fashioned Italian restaurant with dark colors, Andrea Bocelli playing on the sound system, thick carpets and table linens. The parking situation is terrible, but they have a free valet to solve the problem. It is the second in the restaurant empire of the redoubtable Habib, who we first met as the chef at Nibblers. He then founded Fiore in Concord, and now Bravo Bistro.
The early word on the place is “good food, poor service”, and that fairly well sums up our experience tonight. We had a reservation for 6:30, but they didn’t have a table when we got there. There we were, sitting at the bar, but no bartender, no server willing to make eye contact or give us any help.
Eventually, a bottle of wine was procured, and even more eventually, a table. The bar person then wanted us to settle the bill for the wine, and didn’t seem to understand the concept of just sending the tab to the table.
Okay, so we get to the table and check out the menu–and things were looking up. The menu is impressive in it’s affordability–lots of things you want to have, and most priced about $16.
An enormous caprese salad
Portions are large, and the presentation is first rate.
Gail loves carpaccio, and this was a good one
Ed enjoyed his lamb shank
SR is a big fan of scallops.
To finish, a beautiful lemon tart
Bravo Bistro is a fine local restaurant. The food is good, not great but good. Prices are more than reasonable. The service will get better and they’ll figure out how to move a check from the bar to the table. I like it, and we’ll go back.
Thanks, Lorin
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