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Balkan Bistro & Bar
Category: Restaurants American (New) American (New)
1003 W Main StCharlottesville, VA 22903
(434) 202-0916
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street, Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Wi-Fi:
- Free
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Quiet
- Ambience:
- Romantic, Classy, Upscale, Casual
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Caters:
- Yes
Rune H. said: "3 stars on this reviewer's absolute scale of awesome international dining, 4 relative to what's available in Charlottesville. Heavy investment on training, operations, and decor lead to a dining experience that lets the customer focus…" read more »
6 reviews for Balkan Bistro & Bar
6 reviews in English
-
Review from Judy S.
Faber, VA
Sorry to see all the negative reviews here. We had a wonderful dining experience here for dinner. The service was very friendly and helpful with suggestions, the food with beer pairings very good. The Meza was interesting and a perfect start to the meal. We both ordered the Cevapi which we thoroughly enjoyed. Mascarpone cake and Croatian waffle topped the meal off nicely. We will be back for more wonderful food.
-
Review from Ayon J. R.
Baltimore, MD
10/18/2011 1 Check-in Here
They have nice "white tablecloth" sitting arrangement, and fancy menus. Next to the tables, a pool table and loud TVs? Do you want to be an upscale restaurant or a sports pub?
The food is just average.Comment from Daniel P. of Balkan Bistro & Bar 5/10/2012
Check filtered reviews below??? Yelp is removing all good… More » -
Review from Nick M.
Normal, IL
10/30/2011
Bottom Line: Food and inside ambience were ok, service and coffee were horrible, even by Charlottesville standards.
HOWEVER, above and beyond the food, I am disgusted by the persistence of underhanded trickery designed to inflate the review of this restaurant. Not only have some "unknown forces" created a duplicate entity and wrote fake 5/5 scores for it, but, as of March 2012, there have been a total of 54 fake reviews removed by yelp moderators related to this place. Whatever you may think of the food, this kind of behavior is simply unacceptable. I would look with great suspicion on any 5/5 star reviews for this restaurant (such as one can still find on the google reviews page for this restaurant).
I pointed out in a review update (since removed by yelp moderators because it did not contain a new firsthand consumer experience with the business) that "unknown forces" supporting this restaurant were engaged in some shady business. After pointing out that the existence of deceptive practices designed to inflate the restaurant's score on yelp, three new profiles were created which are copies of mine. One posted a message on the restaurant website with a fake apology. The other two appear to be posting negative reviews on local restaurants. All three have since been deleted by yelp moderators.
Check it out for yourself:
My yelp profile (http://dear-leader.yel...)
original fake (http://www.yelp.com/us...)
fake 1 (http://www.yelp.com/us...)
fake 2 (http://www.yelp.com/us...)
The question remains, who is behind this nefarious activity? This is a good candidate for a made-for-youtube movie. If these unknown individuals spent half the time they have spent engaged in yelp trickery on offering improvement to the restaurant then maybe this situation would have been resolved.
Ridiculous!!!
Food: Had brunch with a friend. I liked everything well enough, compliments to the fresh vegetables.
Coffee: So bad that I can't even describe it. To the management: please ensure the wait staff can make coffee before allowing them to do so.
Service: Our waitress was the single worst server I've ever encountered in Charlottesville, and one of the worst in the US. She was totally unfamiliar with even the most items on the menu. I wasn't sure if she had a terrible attitude or was actually that clueless. To the management: I think you can probably figure it out, find a replacement.
Ambience: We started off outside, which was a mistake. Cheap artificial turf and wobbly tables did not do much for us. Granted, there is little to be done with the midtown location, located next to an abandoned garage, but maybe some screens to keep the tables separate from the empty lot next door? Inside was fine, even nice.
I would never eat here again.Comment from Daniel P. of Balkan Bistro & Bar 5/7/2012
This person is sick, and Yelp is probably behind this. More » -
Review from Mitch F.
Charlottesville, VA
8/25/2011
I'm not one to write reviews but this place p----ed me off.
We bought a gift certificate from a promotional website. It was for $25, you had to purchase $35 worth of food to use it, which we did. When we tried to redeem it, they said they weren't taking those anymore because too many people were trying to use them. Really?
So basically they are using this promotional website to bring people in and then not honoring their end of the agreement. Borderline unethical if you ask me.
I wouldn't be as upset if the food and service were good but neither were. It took forever despite not being busy. The food was fresh but not flavorful or anything that I couldn't have made at home in less time. I could have gotten a LOT better meal at iHop for $15 less.
I wouldn't be surprised if this place is out of business by the end of the year. Weak in every aspect.Comment from Daniel P. of Balkan Bistro & Bar 5/10/2012
Check filtered reviews below? Yelp is removing all good… More » -
Review from J C.
Charlottesville, VA
8/4/2011
Went for Saturday "brunch" with my girlfriend a couple weeks ago. Before even listing the points of complaint I'll just summarize with: I have honestly had better food at Waffle House.
1) Every brunch item had eggs, more like an unusual breakfast menu. (This is the least of the complaints in my opinion, and even slightly nit-picky).
2) I ordered coffee, it came out in a "to go" cup, luke warm, and had more grounds than actual coffee in it. I could have gone down the road to a gas station for better coffee.
3) My girlfriend ordered "eggs over medium" to which the waitress looked absolutely puzzled. Granted I can't cook eggs over medium, but I wouldn't attempt to deliver still runny scrambled eggs as a substitution (which they did...)
4) My girlfriend's sausage was also burnt very badly. Water was necessary to eat it.
5) I ordered an omelette with proscuitto, salami, and other fillings. It came with salami and cheese. On top of this the inside was burned to a lovely black finish. Apparently so long as the burnt portion is hidden from view you won't be able to taste it, or you wouldn't roll the omelette out to see why it tastes so horrible.
6) Water was never refilled. Much like an above post it was drained within minutes.
7) Coffee was never refilled -- albeit this was actually a positive considering how horrible the coffee was.
8) The one good thing I can say food-wise is the bread that came with the meal was actually very tasty. It could be that this was only in comparison with how horrible the rest of the food was.
I wanted to stay and tell them about the horrible service and horrible food, but my girlfriend was disgusted, annoyed, and simply wanted to leave. So we gave the waitress 15 minutes after we were finished eating to bring us a check, then just left a $20 on the table and walked out when the waitress didn't stop by again.
Hindsight indicates the focus of this establishment is to be a trendy night scene, since they asked what type of alcoholic beverages we would like at 11 am. It isn't that trendy, or good in any sense. I would definitely never go there again to eat. I would consider going there for a drink if it were $1 micro brews. Even then I would take Taphouse hands down.
In short, avoid this place if you are hungry. With the quality of food I doubt it will last long in Cville even if it is trying to be a trendy bar scene since ~50% of sales need to be from food items to have a liquor license.Comment from Daniel P. of Balkan Bistro & Bar 5/10/2012
Balkan Bistro never had Brunch on Saturday. Check filtered… More » -
Review from sydney t.
Charlottesville, VA
7/31/2011
I've never written a bad review before but I simply couldn't let this go unsaid. Not a single thing went well. Here are the issues I had in order of appearance.
1) not well air conditioned enough
2) bad ambiance
3) took forever to bring water
4)suggested the balkan coffee, didn't tell us it wouldn't arrive until AFTER the meal (and honestly wasn't that great)
5) never refilled water once (and it was empty after the first 5 minutes)
6) asked for a favorite dish, Mediterranean was suggested and ordered. Then she brought the WRONG dish, a more expensive dish that my friend couldn't even finish. we may not even give the sausage to our dog it was that bad.
7) asked if the eggs benedict had canadian bacon with it as usual. after she said no I asked, "oh so no meat? it's vegetarian?" she said, "right, no meat." 2 strips of bacon came with it AND the poached eggs were totally solid throughout.
8) menu only had around 12 dishes total. the 2 we were given were awful. It wasn't even busy and during a totally normal time. No excuse for service AND food to be this bad.
9) even after asked for check it took forever to come.
would've complained while there but honestly we just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. SO many better breakfast spots in town. Don't even bother with this one.Comment from Daniel P. of Balkan Bistro & Bar 5/10/2012
Check filtered reviews below??? Yelp is removing all good… More »
