On a mobile device? Try our mobile site, optimized for faster browsing.
Loading...
came here with the family a couple nights ago, and we were all happy with the food and service.
i had the bistro burger which was great... very juicy, and delish toppings. the fries that came with it were a little wimpy, but still good. i tried the chicken dish my mom ordered, which was good. dad also enjoyed his risotto. the house salad that we all got was also pretty good, although nothing special.
the drink menu seemed a little limited, but still had some good choices. in the end, our bill was more than i expected, although i think this was primarly due to the booze.
the service was great. we were there on a monday, and it was surprisingly busy, but our server was still able to take good care of us.
Best food, chefs, staff, location in Western Washington.
We always stop here for dinner when we come to Whidbey Island.
Well worth the drive from Seattle!
They even do gluten free and the staff is very knowledgeable about dietary restrictions and food allergies.
Our personal favorite is the Nicoise salad with Ahi tuna steak.
We love it here!
Picked this place to take my mom to lunch during a scenic drive around Whidbey Island. She has lived in the Puget Sound area since 1971 and had never been out on the island--pretty neat to show her around. I went completely off Yelp data with this pick. Not sure I have done that before. Cool!
It's a nice, clean, well-lit place upstairs in the lovely and quaint tourist trap of Langley. Tasteful decorations, spacious patio with a nice variety of shady and sunny spots. Lots of good views of Possession Sound, indoors and out. Wine cellar built right into the shelves of the dining room wherever it'll fit--lots of interesting bottles on display.
Service was a little bit on the obsequious side, but not to the point that it got in the way of the meal at all. Food was really good. Mom had half a sandwich and a mixed green side salad for $8 that completely filled her up. It looked more like a whole sandwich, and garnering her praise isn't something that just any ol' reuben can do.
I had the chicken caesar, which had beautifully prepped hearts of romaince--bright green, crunchy, tidily cut. Beautifully plated salad. Lots of cheese, very little dressing, perfect grilled chicken, one anchovy. Essentially an ideal lunch caesar. For $15.50, though, it had better be.
Place looked very promising as a dinner spot as well. I can't say it oozed a unique personality, but they do everything really well.
One great thing about Langley is how much friendlier the locals are than in town. Everyone from kids to grannies looked at you until you made eye contact, then smiled. Lovely!
There were a couple of overdressed types who had no pleasant greetings to offer, one who had two little high-dollar yap dogs on a rope, but they're never friendly no matter where you find them, and there are a lot of mega-mansions freshly blocking the local's views around Langley, and I'm fully ready to blame the owners of those houses for being the miserably grouchy exceptions to the rule of friendliness around Langley.
Love, love, love it! The food is very local, the staff is so friendly and while I do not drink, all my friends rave about the wine menu. The burrata cheese, brussel sprouts, lyonnaise salad, burgers and any dessert are my faves but I haven't had anything I wouldn't order again. And if you are lucky enough to be their on a night when the Chef makes his hand made sausages, you will be in for a real treat.
Wonderful good, very poor service. My husband and I have eaten here about three times and have always enjoyed the food, but the service has gone steadily downhill. On our last visit, the service was so bad that we almost walked out half way through the meal. Granted it was a busy Saturday night, but we had to ask (and remind) our server for everything from water, to bread, to our second glass of wine, which he never actually brought. By the end of the meal I was so frustrated I didn't know whether to scream or laugh. The food is really quite wonderful and I want to see Prima around for a long time. I hope they can train their servers better and increase their level of customer service.
I really liked Prima Bistro. While not all of the food was 100% amazing, it was all well-prepared and there were a lot of wonderful choices on the menu. The wine list was pretty extensive, and reasonably priced, too.
I'd definitely go back if I was anywhere on South Whidbey and looking for a nice meal.
(We had a bunch of specials, so I don't know if they'll be there next time, but I'll tell you what we ate for the interested people: raw oysters, a fried razor clams special [good but not great, these were a slight disappointment], Caesar salad with grilled prawns, an amazing halibut special with morels, vanilla bean creme brulee.)
It's not often that I feel compelled to jump on yelp and write a review for a restaurant the day after dining there. Prima Bistro is the exception. I'm not sure if it was the conclusion to a nice Saturday afternoon we had exploring and shopping in Langley while there for the weekend or perhaps I was just in a really great mood or maybe the restaurant completed a great day... all I know is that I had a great time and am glad I went (isn't that all we really want from a restaurant?).
My happiness is a collaboration of a few different factors. First was the environment. Warm, small town charm, enough privacy not to feel as if I am part of my neighbors conversation. Second was the food. I had the steak frites and the filet mignon was cooked a perfect medium rare as requested. The caesar salad wasn't bad, not the best I have ever had. The creme brulee was cooked correctly and a great end to the meal. Third was the server. Gabriel (and I make a point to mention him by name) was one of the best servers we've ever had. No exaggeration. Timely, extremely polite, conversational, noticed me looking at him when I wanted something and didn't make me wave my hand or sit there, he even went the extra step as to comp one of our desserts when we mentioned we were in Langley for our first anniversary and never said a word about it... I just noticed it on the bill. One of the few times I walked out of a restaurant and said to my wife " that guy was good!" Nice job!
Overall I would recommend Prima Bistro as a great place to dine while in Langley and will make a point to go back next time I am in town.
It was one of those few warm, amazing days in Seattle. We were driving around on Whidbey Island and discovered a little cute town on the water: Langley. It was a perfect stop for dinner and we found this great spot. We had the mussels and the Fish Frites and both were fantastic. The mussels were very fresh, cooked in a tasty butter/white wine sauce, it was perfect. The Fish & Fries were nice and crispy, simple but done just right. The outdoor area of this bistro is nice and cozy (they have heaters and blankets - for those cold Seattle days!) but on this day we didn't need all of that. Perfect dinner with a great view and atmosphere!
A warm, sunny day and nothing to do but lounge around outside at a bistro, eating oeufs en cocotte.
That's right. I ate some oeufs. AND I ate the cocotte, too! So there!
The staff was friendly and welcoming, despite the fact that we showed up half an hour before their post-lunch closing time (they close at 3pm, then reopen later for dinner).
We sat outside, which was very nice and very bistro-y. They had an extensive wine list, although sadly many of the wines-by-the-glass were not available. This is what happens when you have a day off immediately following a jazz festival in town! All those jazzers drank them out of house and home!
They have really tasty shoe-string style French fries. Crisp without being crackly crisp and nicely salty.
The only downside is that I wished my oeufs had come with some bread. A bit o'crusty loaf would've gone nicely with the cocotte. A baguette with butter. Something.
Beyond that, however, it was a great meal and I'd love to go there again.
Thank you fellow Yelper that recommended this place to me.
It was a wonderful experience.
The interior was friendly and warm yet modern (that Local island feel) the staff were friendly, the food was delicate and the price was just right!
I had the Quiche of the day and Panna Cotta for dessert and both came in good portions and the flavors were well balanced.
Its not over the top decadent food, but its a unexpected find in a small town.
FYI. Its located on the 2nd floor off the main road in Langley. If it helps it was right between/ on top of the "Star" Grocery & Local goods store.
I should start out by saying that I grew up on Whidbey Island and I actually knew this restaurant when it was under different ownership and known just as "the Bistro". Growing up my family never came here because the food was over priced and mediocre but after a trip in June to the Island, my fiancee and I decided to give it a try.
Where do I start?! The food was absolutely AMAZING! my fiancee and I went to the island to celebrate his birthday and we were promptly seated at an al fresco table over looking the Puget sound. Our server was attentive and helpful as he explained the French inspired American cuisine. We both ordered the bistro burger and were in awe. The burger was juicy, tender and was topped with red wine soaked sauteed onions and had a lot of flavor The dish came with shoe string fries that were unlike any I have ever had, they were so flavorful and perfectly fried and naturally cut. It was his birthday they gave us a complimentary dessert and we soon became bistro fans.
We had such a great experience we decided to return and have our engagement dinner for our family here. We made reservations for twelve and again we were promptly seated and served. Because our party was half his family and mine we were on different checks and I guess they don't split checks for large parties (which they did not tell us at reservation) so the manager came out personally and apologized and agreed to split our check. Our food was wonderful and again we got a complimentary dessert for our engagement!
This is a WONDERFUL restaurant with amazing roof-top views and small-town charm. This is now our Whidbey Island go-to place and I highly recommend it to friends, family and anyone wanting a unique dining experience!
This place has really come a long way since they first opened. The food is excellent, they have done a great job at making the space inviting and comfortable, the wait staff is professional and friendly, and the menu is about as interesting and sophisticated as it gets in Langley. I will definitely be going more often.
A cozy spot that my husband and I visited on a recommendation from the staff at our B&B. They had great beer on tap, the service was casual yet attentive, and the food was wonderful! I had a small house salad and their amazing scallops. My husband had a lamb special (cooked rare) that was excellent as well. Nothing but accolades for Prima Bistro!
I met my BFF Evan when he left a semester of high school to attend a sushi academy in California all by his lonesome, officially making him the most awesome punk rock certified itamae ever what with his rainbow colored liberty spikes and all. When he graduated and got back to Whidbey Island, he started his own catering company. Which is impressive, considering he was at the ripe old age of 17. He also worked at Braeburn, an awesome American diner in Langley, for some time.
Evan loves his craft and is so dedicated to it, that at times, it's weird. Sometimes, even, creepy. For starters, he has a half sleeve of various mushrooms tattooed on his upper arm (http://www.flickr.com/...). Whenever there are cool ingredients in his kitchen, he poses for pictures with them for his iPhone and posts them onto his blog. When we drive by roadkill, my immediate reaction is "AWWWWWWW *tear tear tear* :'(", while his is, "Would it be okay for us to flip a bitch and pick it up for dinner?" Whenever I send him gorey pictures of dead bodies, or crime or accident scenes (I swear I'm not a necrophiliac or one of those weird sex freaks), or in particular, one where someone's brains were scattered all over the sidewalk for shock value, his response was, "Is it so wrong that the first thing that popped into my head was how delicious that would be fricassee?"
I guess he's a necrogastrophiliac? Here's the thing about Evan: He will cook ANYTHING and it's guaranteed that he will make it DELICIOUS (I just have to remember to keep him away from my beloved tree frog, Ferdinand (http://www.flickr.com/...), out of fear that one day, I may come home to a delicious smelling meal cooked by BFF only to go "...FERDINAND????" when I see it).
So where was I going with this?... Oh yeah, besides being an amazing person and awesome friend with a sick sense of humor who has sushi, diner, and catering experience, it also turns out that Evan is also quite the French chef. Evan is a sous-chef at Prima and he is truly _amazing_ and totally the *shizzle*, automatically making Prima Bistro truly _amazing_ and the *shizzle* by association. Prima Bistro opened about two years ago, and though Evan didn't have any previous experience in French cooking, the owner saw something in him, so he was the first employee on board and he has been there ever since.
Evan took me here for brunch on Easter Sunday. This was the first time that they had had a special brunch menu and I had the pleasure of trying it. I dined with a few acquaintances of the restaurant; family members, former employees and regulars, and everyone was lovely, kind and most definitely hilarious.
For some reason, everyone ordered Bloody Marys. Is that a Washingtonian brunch thing to do? I guess it's a good hangover cure. Some of them even requested *bacon* to go in it *shudder* (http://www.flickr.com/...) To go with the alcohol flow of things though, I ordered myself a Midori sour :) The whole table shared a couple of fluffy, buttery, ~*heavenly*~ croissants for apps topped with... NORMANDY BUTTER! Which was probably my most favorite part of the meal.
Here's the thing about Normandy butter: It's a gazillion times fatter than regular American butter, making it much more heart-attack inducing, thus creamier and more delicious! Prima Bistro added their own special touch to it though and mixed in an insane amount of honey so that it tasted like ~*frosting*~. The best frosting that I've ever had, that is.
Everyone else ordered eggs benedict except for me, and I kind of regretted it after seeing how good it was and hearing them all rave about the Hollandaise sauce. However, when my brioche french toast (http://www.flickr.com/...) came out, all regret subsided. It was so perfect and fluffy, and it came with a side of fresh fruit! We still had all that Normandy butter left over and it would've been a shame to let that amazingness go to waste, so I smothered my french toast with it and some of the others scraped the Hollandaise sauce off of their biscuits to do the same. Craziness!
Needless to say, Prima had me in snail trail heaven for the rest of the day (but just in case you wanna plug up your snail trail-creating hole, there are tampons available in a wicker basket next to the sink in their frou frou bathroom).
Whidbey Island is such a lovely little island and Langley is such a lovely little town that Prima Bistro fits perfectly into it. Everyone should go visit it and have my BFF, or one of their other amazing chefs, cook them an amazing French-American fusion meal! And if you get the chance, sit on the deck! Unfortunately, I was unable to enjoy the deck because it was freezing on Easter, but when I'm back in the summer, you'll be sure to find me there!
Whidbey Island is charming already, so a nice place to eat is just icing on the cake. A friend and I split two meals: deep-fried tilapia (they had me at "fried") and the good 'ol fashioned hamburger. Both entrees had shoe string french fries -- which we'd both been craving -- and they were F#$%ing GOOD. (Well, if you like your fries crispy as I do.) Nice beer selection, too, and we all know how a nice cold pint is essential for washing down fried food and grilled meats. Mmmm.
Stopped here for lunch with a friend and had a good experience. We shared the heirloom tomato salad (yum!) and I had the morel mushroom and pea risotto (small portion) and she had the fussilli with shrimp and crab (small portion, but it was pretty sizeable, would hate to see the large!) Service was excellent, I will definitely be back if I am up on Whidbey Island...would love to try dinner there and take advantage of the deck with it's views (and heat lamps).
I was here again last weekend. Like an incredible book, I never wanted the meal to end. We started with the freshest of fresh OYSTERS. The LYONNAISE salad was fabulous. I wanted to curl up for a nice snuggle with the incredible BURRATA, spread over warm toasted bread. The MAC & CHEESE was the ultimate comfort on a cold winter night. The whole meal was so wonderful and comforting I wanted to curl up under the table when it was over-- it's amazing I made it home!
I love this joint. I've been back a few times (to include one of their amazing prix fixe wine… Read more »
I think maybe went here on a bad night. Our scallops were so overcooked they tasted like rubber and covered in a brown Mornay sauce (looked really gross), steak was overcooked and the special my husband ordered had him up half the night with a stomach ache (too much mustard sauce I guess). Seemed like most of our dishes had something wrong with them and the dinner was not cheap. On the positive our server was lovely, the wine list was great and the dirty martinis we ordered were sublime not enough to justify the $100 price tag. I'm hoping the chef was on vacation? This place needs a little Gordon Ramsey bitch slap (simplify and no more sauces).
This place was a dream come true...we had a steak, a hamburger, and a salad between the three of us. Each stood out in it's own right and we're absolutely delicious. The steak was tender, juicy, and had a tasty blue cheese dip to accompany it. The hamburger was juicy, lean, and bursting with savory flavor with each bite. They had a decent beer selection including a local Amber. Price wise this place was great, we paid less than $60 for a meal for three people with drinks.
I'm going to rave about the service too. The waitress came by at the perfect times, the water glasses were always full, and when we requested something they were always happy and cheerful to accommodate us. Look forward to going back next time I visit Whidbey Island.
Langley, WA
Category: Greek
Freeland, WA
Category: Food
Langley, WA
Category: Hotels
Some of my favorite place to eat on South Whidbey…
The restaurants that my BFF took me to in WA.…
