Sonoma Bistro and WineBar

Our first time in, will definitely be back.

We stopped in to hear a local musician, and decided to go early for dinner.  The menu was extensive and the entrees looked delicious, but we were in the mood for hamburgers and such.

I had a cheeseburger and coleslaw and they were both great.  I can't remember what my husband had, but he really enjoyed it.

They have a large selection of IPA beers, which our guests really enjoyed.

Looking forward to returning.

Meh. Hostess and waitress were welcoming, cheerful and helpful. Drinks arrived quickly and were both creative and tasty. Unfortunately, our experience went downhill from there. Scallops appetizer smelled so overpoweringly of the refuse pile at an outdoor fish market that I was only willing to venture one minuscule bite-enough to recognize that the minty fresh crest flavor of the weird sauce was rather disturbing. To her credit, waitress immediately notice our distaste and immediately removed from the bill. Unfortunately entrees were only marginally better, with the "fresh mozzarella" described on one recommended pasta dish lost in the strings of onion that outnumbered the pasta.  Penne with vodka sauce was pretty good, although the waitress' offer of "fresh ground cheese" turned out to be a shaker of parm courtesy of Kraft. The waitstaff here deserve a better kitchen...

You may notice sometimes I'll do a "split review" for lack of a better term, within which I will break out the service and food aspects as they were completely out of synch with each other. I never thought I would have to do this with Sonoma.

My husband and I have become something of "regulars" at Sonoma, having gone nearly weekly since our first visit. I should note that the restaurant is broken into 2 sections: the dining side and the bar side. Until this week, we had consistently sat on the dining side and never had anything short of stellar service and quality food. But apparently once you cross over the threshold into the bar area, you transport yourself into some sort of alternate universe.

We joined a couple friends at a table in the bar area, and were greeted by a young lad who shall remain nameless in this review. Let's call him "Doug".

"Doug" seemed to be way off his game, like "had the munchies" off his game, if you catch my drift. He was nice enough, but extremely dazed and slow. On a Tuesday night in a relatively empty restaurant and sitting NEXT TO THE BAR, there's no reason to wait 10 minutes for a diet coke refill, or another beer...

Anyway, we proceeded to order dinner which "Doug" so valiantly took without writing it down. In high end restaurants, it's generally accepted that the wait staff does not take notes and they are utmost professionals. "Doug" was not, and I wanted him to write it down. But alas, he didn't.

Fast forward, one of the people I was with is gluten-free and ordered a gluten free pizza. The chef came out and apologized that there was an issue with the crust and would accomodate her as best he could. He was nice enough to whip something up that was off the menu. Crisis somewhat averted.

Once all the meals were ready, "Doug" brought them to their respective orderers. So far so good. Until he got to my dinner. He had entered the order for my dinner on the GF crust and my friend's on the normal one. So, what I had before me was not what I had ordered. And what was worse, had the GF crust not broken and gotten mixed up, my friend would have gotten terribly ill. "Doug", take notes!

"Doug" apologized and put my order in again with the kitchen. You could hear the chef now yelling at "Doug" - this did not sound like his first mix up of the evening.

By the time my food came out, everyone else had finished their meals. I had to order a to-go box to accompany my dinner.

At the end of the day, the restaurant made amends and comped both my meal and my friend's meals. And while the experience was sub-par, I'll still go back as I know they can and will do better next time!