Pomegranate Bistro

I don't know what everyone is talking about?!?! We've been there several times, with and without kids. The service is wonderful, and the food is great! We were just in last night - I was able to over hear 2 different tables requesting particular servers...they were obviously regulars! So there's a clue - it must be good! I would absolutely recommend it!!! Pros: Viewing the catering kitchen! Cons: It's a little bit of a wait for the food - but worth it! more

I normally give people and places the benefit of the doubt but this time I just couldn?t let it go. I wanted to take my mother out to a nice Mother?s Day brunch so I thought we would try a local restaurant that had received good reviews in the newspaper.. Oh boy?were the reviews wrong! As I had made reservations 2 weeks in advance, we were seated promptly, but that is where our experience started its downward spiral. The server did not offer us coffee, tea or juice that was listed on the pre-selected menu, nor explain any of the dishes on the menu. We had to ask TWICE before we received a cup of coffee?about ? hour after we were seated. The restaurant was only half full at this time so wasn?t because they were busy. We were seated on a bench seat with a chair across and two families of six with small children seated on either side of us. I have nothing at all against children, but I could hear the conversations clearly on both sides, actually reminded me a bit of Denny?s not a restaurant I would end up paying a $75 brunch tab for 2 people. The server was inattentive, never checked on us or asked us how anything was and acted annoyed when we asked the server at the next table if we would be getting dessert anytime soon since we didn?t know where our server was. I guess since the 18% gratuity is automatically included, even for a party of two, the quality of the service doesn?t matter. Not to mention the fact that they included the tax when calculating the gratuity and then added a gratuity tax on top of that, so rather than 18% gratuity you are really leaving 21.5% gratuity which is completely deceptive, especially for some of the worst service I have ever received. The food was good, but not worth the price and definitely as on overall experience it felt more like being in a brewery than the nice Mother?s Day brunch I was looking for. I will never return and would not recommend this restaurant to anyone I know. Pros: Parking Cons: Service, Gratuity Included more

I agree with the poor customer service rating. On a recent Wednesday night, two-thirds of the resturant was empty, two of the four of us were in the parking lot, ""sorry we can only seat complete parties"" we explaine they were in the parking lot, we were tired and hungry and couldn't figure out the isssue. As it turns out the rather snotty head waiter chose policy over customer. We walked out and went to Frankies instead, interesting thought, the Frankies wait staff was pleasant and through the course of the evening they heard what we were complaing about, their comment, we hear that a lot. Lisa, get a clue about customers! Pros: thumbs down more

If it's just you and the girls for a ladies-who-brunch date, by all means, sit on the wee chairs, at the wee tables, in the bleeding edge bistro, get the wee brunch plates and a delicious mimosa and soak up the 'we're here at the new bistro'ness of the experience. \r \r However, if you're taking your father out to brunch, forego this place and take him someplace where the chairs are comfortable and where there's a place for his hat by the table. This place is small.\r \r Overall, the food was disappointing. My breakfast sopes were rock hard and arrived without the lime sour cream I thought I saw listed on the menu. When I brought it up to the waiter he said, ""I think they come without it at brunch"". Not having a menu handy, I let the matter drop, but on checking once I got home, the online brunch menu does indeed say that ""lime sour cream"" comes with the sopes.\r \r It wasn't a horrible experience, but neither was it the best. I give this place a year or two, tops.\r \r more

I am a person that eats out most nights and am well versed in fine-dining. Pomegranate Bistro offers an extensive menu full of amazing foods and mouth watering deserts. Having eaten there several times, I can assure you that every dish is exceptionally made - some with a pomegranate glaze that is devine. It is noteworthy that the Pomegranate-martini is mind blowing as well. The service is outstanding, they treat every customer like they are VIP status, and are friendly and incredibly customer service oriented (a rare quality to find). I would recommend Pomegranate Bistro to anyone that wishes to have a truly unique and delectable experience. Pros: Unique, delicious, service, parking, beautifully decorated Cons: They need a downtown Seattle location more

I had to be convinced to have dinner in Redmond, but after a long day sometimes you don't want to have to cross the bridge for a decent meal. I met the rest of my team at the restaurant and had to wait for the rest of them to arrive (Redmond traffic can be brutal) Those of us that had arrived already had a glass of wine and were about to get a second when we were seated. All I could say was wow!! I admit that I was skeptical, but the calamari and firebread (their version of pizza) were fantastic appetizers. We decided to share most of the entrees as most of us had not been to this little gem of a location. The steak was perfectly prepared, the pork chops with the pomegranate glaze was delicious, the sopes while interesting was not my favorite, but the scallops (which I ordered) blew everything else away!!\r I will say the surprise of the night was finding a bottle of Quilceda '03 for $150!!!! You don't even want to know what it is going for on Ebay.\r All in all, the night was fantastic. Our server was extremely busy but still very attentive. The food, wine, and dessert was devine. If people want to DINE in Redmond they finally have a place to go. I will leave the larger portions and cheap entree prices to the restaurants in the mall. I will be back. I can see why this place is so popular. more

My party didn't experience any problem being seated quickly since we were a large party with reservations already made. I found the atmosphere more like a nice lunch diner than a place I'd go for an expensive dinner. The clientele around me seemed to be mostly professional, upper class people. It was crowded and I can only guess it's because it's a new place in Redmond, which doesn't happen often. For now, I?m guessing its ""trendy"" to go there. The menu looks good but the main courses are WAY overpriced. A New York steak is $29 and comes only with a mound of mashed potatoes. I can't say if it was worth $29 since I didn't order it. They have a corkage fee of $25 which is more than some of the bottles of wine they offer and twice what most other places charge. I eat out quite a bit at fairly nice places and couldn't believe they felt they could get away with this. On the plus side, they do have small plates available which are more lunch fare than anything. They were priced more reasonably and my sandwich was decent but not exceptional. The Pulled Pork sandwich was somewhat bland however the fries on the side were good. Service was quite slow and not overly friendly. They also would not split the check. For large parties, they automatically add an 18% gratuity onto the bill which is not unusual. However, it was calculated and added to the bill AFTER sales tax was added. This is a sly and devious practice. I don't even think it?s legal! Up till then, I didn't see a compelling reason to return. After the deal with the gratuity, I don't plan to ever return. There are so many other places that are much better and treat their clientele as more than deep pockets walking in. Pros: Good for lunch. Good selection to pick from. Cons: Slow service. Overpriced. more

If we had been attending a 200-person, $60 per plate dinner, I would have rated the service as efficient and the food as outstanding. Quick, no conversation, one course after another, creative dishes...However, we were attending a two-person, $261 (!!!!) Valentines Day dinner out. What are they thinking? This restaurant is in a Redmond business park -- no view, no atmosphere. The prices are ridiculous. The server was efficient, but offered only terse explanations of the wines and never a word about the courses (however, we had a printed menu card, as we would at a corporate dinner). The lobster fennel soup was incredibly salty. The first two courses were served at about 12-15 -minute intervals (again, great if you've got a party of 200 to get out the door). The baby mache salad with chevre and beets was a bit tasteless, but really, there are no other complaints about the food. Wines were the best part of the meal, and we'd have liked to hear a little more about them. We had an 8:45 seating -- maybe they were just trying to close at 10pm. There was an 18% gratuity tacked on, as well. Something we'd expect for a larger party -- not for two people. There was a clever Valentine poem printed on the flipside of the menu -- but after the service, we sort of expected it to be delivered by a dull CEO in an after-dinner speech. Lots of hype; big letdown. Pros: wines, great if you need a caterer Cons: not a relaxing dinner, way overpriced more

We went here after hearing great things and doing some research on a fun new place to try for a Saturday night dinner for two. The decor is very colorful and bright with bright lighting. The atmosphere is definitely great here. However, there are a few things that I would look for before I return. One is that the tables are so dang close that I could hear every word of the couples sitting on either side of us. I literally felt like the lady next to me was about to jump into our conversation a few times. That's my personal pet peeve. Secondly, the food needs some improvement before I will return for dinner. While the portions were huge, the calamari and my wild greens salad were pretty standard. In all honestly I think what really tainted the experience for us was my husband's caesar salad. The dressing was honestly terrible - it tasted like watery mayo and had no garlic, pepper or lemon that we could taste at all. The croutons (bread, not the oyster ones which were an option) could break your teeth and also had no flavor, and the lettuce itself had several large chunks of the center of the head of lettuce that were just inedible. It also had baby tomatoes, which is not something that is typically in a caesar. It was just all wrong! Lastly, the server was friendly and knowledgeable but completely inattentive. Our water glasses remained empty throughout our meal, and since she never checked on us we were unable to ask for the salt and pepper we desperately wanted for our salads. In all fairness, the table next to us had a different server who gave them great service, so maybe our server was just having an off night. All in all, it's refreshing that Redmond finally has a restaurant that's new and hip and isn't part of a large chain. I like to support that but they need to get a caesar salad right and keep water glasses full. They do have a fun atmosphere and yummy chocolate mints on your way out. Hopefully our experience was just a kink that they will work out! Pros: ambience, wine list Cons: crowded, food more

Living in Seattle, I definitely did not want to cross the bridge just to go to dinner but one of my friends who lives on the east side insisted that we give something on his side of the state a try. I was skeptical - even more so when we pulled up to a business park. Bright colors and an open kitchen shock you when you walk in the door. We did not know you could call ahead to put your name on the wait list so it took about an hour for us to be seated. We had cocktails while we waited which definitely helped pass the time.\r When we sat down the waiter came right over, asked us if we had to wait long and then recommended one of their signature firebread to split. It was just enough to take the edge off, but after I received my scallops entree I wished I had not eaten so much. The scallops were FANTASTIC - perfectly seared with a great sauce on the side. My friend had the steak and to fight me off with his fork. I scored a small piece - it was well worth the struggle. Unfortunately, we had to pass on dessert - we were just too full - but I will definitely be back even for just appetizers and dessert - it's good enough to cross the bridge.\r Pros: Great food, service and cocktails Cons: Tough to find parking when restaurant busy - smaller place means a longer wait more

came to dinner on a rainy thursday, which made the warm, hearty food all the more welcome. restaurant atmosphere is nice and colorful - but very noisy. we were seated right away and ordered a bottle of wine. it took a while to come, and, frankly, was on the verge of turning, which was disappointing. for a starter, we split one of the signature firebread salads with chicken, napa cabbage, buckwheat soba noodles and the chili lime peanut dressing. the salad had great flavor, especially the dressing, and texture. the firebread was not good - it tasted like someone had deep friend a paper towel and then left it on the counter for two hours before serving it. our entree of new york steak was fantastic and done to perfection. the sweet potato mashers were great, and the vegetables -zucchini and yellow squash - were steamed and flavored with herbs perfectly. for dessert we ordered the coconut cream banana pie. the flavor was too much banana, when i would have preferred more coconut but we finished every bite. Pros: menu selection and food flavors Cons: noisy atmosphere more

After reading all the great reviews about this restaurant, I decided to take my in laws from out of town there. We waited over half an hour for a table, and when I realized that we were the only party left in the waiting area, I decided to inquire with the hostess. I discovered that they had seated another party that registererd on the waiting list after us. Naturally I was very upset and sought an explanation. The hostess tried to explain that she seated them first because there were three in their group and we were a party of four. Well, I didn't buy this excuse because the party that had dined at that table previously was a group of four. Then she said she wasn't sure if everyone in our party had arrived. Shouldn't she have asked me first before making that assumption? Afterall, our group was sitting together right next to the party of three that she seated, literary two feet away. I can only speculate that the other party was given preferential treatmeant because they were regular customers or friends of the hostess or restaurant staff. Either way, it was not a very satisfying reason for me. I'm sure I am not the only person who has experienced this unpleasant treament in a restaurant before, but I did not expect it from a supposedly nice, friendly neighbourhood restaurant. I am very disappointed and will not be returning any time soon. more

It seems like there's always a wait for a table, and the restaurant will not take reservations for parties under 6 or seat you until your entire party is present. We called ahead to get our name on the list and still had to wait (on a Wednesday night!). But once we were seated, we had a very enjoyable dinner. The halibut was excellent - perfectly flavored. The experience was pretty good for Eastside dining, and I'd probably go again, but there are places comparable in quality in Seattle where it's less of a hassle to get a table. Pros: great food, original menu, professional service Cons: wait for table more

Went with a group of fifteen people, and had amazing food and service. Everything on the menu looked so good, it made it hard to choose a dish. The staff kept our drinks full and managed to bring our meal out without anyone having to wait (all our dishes were still hot!). Pretty impressive for a large group. The long, beautiful tables and high ceilings gave it an open, inviting atmosphere. I would definitely come back! Pros: can accomodate big groups, plenty of parking, great service Cons: remote location more

Pomegranate Bistro has the best Pork Chops I've ever had, in fact, overall the best food I've had from any restaurant in Seattle / East Side. The menu is creative and changes seasonally, great specials, unique cocktails, a great wine selection and some of the most customer service oriented and sincerely friendly management & staff I've met. I've never had a bad experience and highly recommend it to anyone! Brunch on Sunday morning is amazing as well (try the firebread breakfasts...). Pros: Amazing food, unique menu, great customer service Cons: hidden away in office park off Redmond Way (can be easy to miss at night) more