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Tartine Bistro
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street, Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- No
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
8 reviews for Tartine Bistro
This is an excellent date spot. I am reserving the 5th star for a 2nd meal there.
It reminds me of Paris!
im littering my profile with five star ratings, but i have to give tartine a five. this place is sooo cute and trendy. we had mussels, which were cooked perfectly, so tender and subtly flavored. my boyfriend and i shared the duck confi tartine and the pork tartine. I couldn't decided which i prefered, and i don't think he could either. the owner is friendly and walks around, glass of wine in hand, making sure everyone is happy. not many places have such warmth.
love love love tartine.
J'ai mange a Tartine avec mon cher chou, aujourd'hui. No, I'll stop. I don't want to review a good restaurant with bad french.
THE FOOD: We started with the medjool dates and the foie gras. I was horribly dissapointed. The foie gras was seared on the top and otherwise STONE COLD. They also didn't bother to remove any of the veins. Just Awful. Quelle dommage!
The dates were delicious-- bacon, and dates stuffed with goat cheese. Instead of the usual preparation-- the dates wrapped in bacon, the dish was served as a plate of stuffed dates topped with crispy bacon crumbles. If you got a bite of date and a hearty bit of crumble, it was well balanced, otherwise the dish was too sweet. Perhaps they should stick to the traditional way of preparing this.
So after the dissapointing appetizers, I was not hopeful about our entress. Luckily, I was surprised and overwhelmed by the excellent food. I had the roast pork tartine with gruyere. Mon Dieu! The tender, juicy roast pork was intensely, but appropriately flavoerd with herbs. It sat atop a very crisp slice of french bread smeared with dijon mustard and aoili. The vivid flavors were well balanced. Joyeux!!!
The grouper atop a lobster frisee salad was tres bien. The grouper was nicely seared on the outside, but the standout was the salad. The peppery, delicately dressed frisee accompanied by tiny bits of lobster were a facile blend of textures and tastes-- crisp, tender, peppery, creamy. Magnifique!
Dessert was a croissant bread pudding with dried cherries. Quelle cerieses parfaites! The bread pudding was soft, eggy and creamy. The sweet/tart cherries provided a nice counterpoint.
THE SERVICE: Well informed staff. Attentive, but not intrusive.
THE ATMOSPHERE: Malheureusement, this place will never get 5 stars from me because of their no reservations policy. This is a tiny, charming popular place. It is decorated like a dark little bistro with a large bar dominating the space. However, no matter how charming the space, I do not like having to wait for a table for what could be an hour and a half or for twenty minutes based on the whim of my fellow diners and the popularity that night. The food is good, but this policy seems like a game to increase the hype. I'm too old to remain so giddy at the prospect of getting a table that I will wait, spaniel-like, at the bar for however long it takes.
Despite the fact that the place was packed to le top last night, all the parties ahead of us were large, and there was one small table available, so we were seated within 15 minutes.
The crowd is a mix of well off older couples-- very thin women in animal print tops and prominent jewelry and men with shining groomed hair-- and well off twentysomethings. Everyone was respectful of the fact that their fellow diners were seated very close by.
Tres, tres bien all in all, with a few flaws.
When you write a review, the first thing you wanna do is be a jerk to establish your credentials. So here! Have two things absolutely WRONG about Tartine Bistro!
1) The purple potatoes were slightly overdone.
2) The medjool dates were actually more of a dessert than an appetizer.
There. Have I established myself as A Man Who Knows Fine Cuisine for you? Will you believe me now when I tell you my tale of good food?
Call me Ishmael.
Seriously, though, for a little wine bar/restaurant, the place has excellent food, great service, and an okay atmosphere. I started with the medjool dates, which were stuffed with goat cheese and topped with bacon in a very light port wine sauce, and they were superb - sweet, just a little flake of crunchy, and finely textured so that you could taste the layers of food within them.
Then I had a wild mushroom and truffle flatbread pizza. The crust was a tad too crisp, but fortunately the freshness of the cheese and the tastiness of the wild mushrooms (done just right) and the shallots and the cheese made up for it. I ate the whole thing and then regretted it, for my tummy was full.
I am not a wine person. I drink beer. Good beer. This means I suffer in Cleveland. But my friends seemed to like the wine, and made yummy noises, even as they thought it was a bit tarter than advertised. THERE! ANOTHER THING WRONG WITH TARTINE BISTRO! +1 TO MY CREDIBILITY SCORE!
In the end, we got the check, and for about $25 per person we'd had a fine meal with appetizer and wine. That's pretty decent, honestly. The only serious ding I'd give it is that it was crowded on a Wednesday, which made it a little harder to talk because there were so many people. Still, considering how many restaurants go out of business, I can't find it in my heart to scorn them for, you know, "having clientele."
Recommended. Go forth and medjool date.
Still loving Tartine. They are still changing the menu regularly. The mussels are extraordinary. I think we have a keeper.
3 Previous Reviews: Show all »
-
11/11/2008
Tartine update! Cheeses on the yummy cheese plate today were: Saint Andre, Primadonna, Bucheron,… Read more »
Went here on my holiday visit to Cleveland with my bff from high school.
The space is adorable and the food was delicious. Service was good. The best part though? The bill! We got a tartine (duck confit with fig jam and brie), a pizza (peppers and sausage), dessert (flourless chocolate cake), half a carafe of wine, and a glass of dessert wine for less than $50.
I can't wait to come back on my next trip!
Tartine opened just a couple months ago and is already doing thriving business. The atmosphere and decor are French bistro-style without getting kitschy - the space benefits from a bare brick wall and pressed tin ceiling. The seating is comfortably spaced, with a nice patio area and large doors that open to give an indoor/outdoor feeling in pleasant weather.
But the food is what you want to come for. The preparations are lively and the ingredients very fresh. My husband started with the medjool dates stuffed with goat cheese, which were outstanding - so sweet that I would consider ordering them as dessert. The salad frisee with bacon and a poached egg was perfectly dressed and delicious. We each had a pizza: he, the wild mushroom and goat cheese, which was savory and delicious; I, the bacon and peaches - a seasonal offering - that had just the right balance of sweet and savory. Our friends both had the Fillet Mignon, accompanied by a medley of purple and Yukon Gold potatoes, which they pronounced delicious. The only nitpick of the evening was that the purple potatoes could have been cooked slightly longer. The prices were very reasonable and the wait staff extremely attentive. We will definitely be returning, and are looking forward to the seasonal changes in the menu.
The food was amazing. We had the medjool dates with goat cheese, lardons, and port wine reduction; a "tartine" (french open-faced sandwich) made with roasted chicken w/ apples, swiss cheese, and cranberry aioli; wild mushroom, goat cheese, leeks, and black truffle pizza on whole-wheat crust; for dessert a tart with ricotta. Every thing that we had was delicious -- no complaints on anything food related!! As the other reviewer wrote, ditto on the cannot wait to come back to try basically everything on the menu. We really had a hard time deciding what to order. We also had some house cocktails -- blackberry whiskey sour and basil lemonade something or other. I don't even like whiskey or SOUR, but I could drink those blackberry whiskey sours all night; they're made with fresh blackberry puree and house made sour! Our server was extremely helpful and attentive. The patio was very quaint and it *almost* feels like you are not in Rocky River (my only complaint)...maybe one more blackberry whiskey sour and I can ignore the crowd!
