Bistro Z
455 South Broadway
Tarrytown, NY 10591 (Map it!)
Attendees: Shelley, Jeffrey, Sylvia, Reid
We’d been talking about going to Bistro Z, located in the Tarrytown Doubletree Hotel, for quite some time. We all love a good breakfast buffet, and the website for Bistro Z seemed to promise a spectacular one. In a large font at the top of the website, it is proclaimed “Bistro Z, the upscale modern American bistro at the Doubletree Hotel in Tarrytown,” and then continues in smaller font, “is quickly becoming the premier destination restaurant in Westchester County.” A little further down it mentions that BIstro Z is “located just off the Doubletree’s lobby.”
Well, they weren’t kidding. Because Bistro Z is not really, as it turns out, a restaurant in the traditionally understood sense of the word. It’s just a partially walled-off section, literally right off the lobby, with tables and chairs in an arrangement that could be called restaurant-like. The breakfast buffet struck me as neither upscale nor modern. Lest you think I’m a snob, it’s not the case that I only eat upscale and modern fare. Quite the contrary. The Patio is one of my favorite breakfast spots. It’s just that I had a certain image in my mind of Bistro Z, a certain upscale and modern image, and what I found was just an average hotel breakfast buffet. Perfectly acceptable, but just average. You have a choice of the continental buffet for $13 or the full buffet for $17. There are also a la carte items on the menu (like french toast, pancakes, etc.) I decided to go with the full buffet. It was what we had come for and dammit, I was going to have it.
I went up to the buffet to do some reconnaissance and first gathered a plate with some assorted pastries and fruit for us to munch on while we waited for Jeffrey and Sylvia’s meals to come out. (They had both chosen to order off the menu.) The pastries were fine, with some cute mini-croissants (who doesn’t love a mini-croissant) and a bran muffin being my pastries of choice this morning. There were some other types of muffins and also some mini (again) danishes. So adorable. The fruit offered was berries (strawberries and blackberries, I believe), pineapple, and some melons (honeydew and cantaloupe). I oh so generously shared the pastries with my hungry fellow WBCers.
During my second trip up to the buffet, to gather my main meal, I was a bit excited when I saw there was a platter of lox. However, Reid snapped me back to reality by pointing out that the lox looked…well, it didn’t look good. So, instead I took a generous helping of scrambled eggs, a generous helping of potatoes, and some sausage links. I passed on the bacon, waffles, and biscuit sandwiches. (I at first thought the biscuits were plain biscuits–great!. But then was disappointed when I saw that they were, in fact, biscuit sandwiches with eggs; I didn’t need more eggs. It was a morning of such highs and such lows.) I rounded out my plate with some more fresh pineapple and strawberries and another small croissant.
Now, I will say that the food was prepared well. The eggs were well cooked, not a drop of runny yolk in sight. Perfect for me! The sausages were average (probably the frozen kind), but were nonetheless flavorful, with just that hint of spice that I like in a breakfast sausage. The potatoes were quite good, large wedge cuts of potatoes mixed with generous (word of the day, I guess) scoops of red peppers and onions. I just got some ketchup on my plate, but the buffet offered a nice variety of condiments to suit a range of breakfast tastes. Want a Mexican breakfast? There was salsa, shredded cheddar cheese, and sour cream available. Want a kick to your stomach? There were adorable mini (again with the mini! second word of the day) bottles of Tobasco sauce. (Helpful hint: If you fidget with one of said mini bottles of Tobasco sauce too long, chances are good it will leak in your hands, leaving you with an unpleasant Tobasco smell embedded in your pores for the rest of the day.)
I also had some tea and orange juice. Sylvia’s already talked about the presentation of those beverages, so I won’t be repetitive. Read her review if you want to know about the drinks.
We split the bill evenly and our contribution was $24 each. A bit steep for what we got, which was an average assortment of breakfast food, even if it was unlimited. While it was disappointing that Bistro Z wasn’t as spectacular as its website led us to believe it would be, it was, all in all, a fine breakfast. I have no complaints about the quality of the food except that it wasn’t spectacular, which isn’t really much of a complaint. It’s not worth making a special trip to Bistro Z for breakfast, but if you’re a guest at the Doubletree Hotel, Bistro Z serves up a fine quality breakfast just steps away from your room.
Bistro Z? More like Bistro Y should I waste my time? This place is nothing more than a standard hotel breakfast with more comfortable seats. It’s a standard hotel breakfast buffet with the usual scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and home fries all kept warm in those dome food holders. The pastries seemed interesting. Shelley decided to go the buffet route and got some pastries, and I stole some of them off her plate. Me, I decided that I should try and push Bistro Z into serving me something better than the buffet. Steak and eggs! I ordered my eggs sunny side up, in fears that if I asked for them scrambled, the servers would just grab some scrambled eggs from the buffet line right before they served my meal to me. I’m sure that’s what they did when they were plating my potatoes. Oh well.
The food came out rather promptly, and by that, I mean Sylvia’s food. Sylvia and I were the only two who ordered from the menu. Reid and Shelley had the buffet. My food was taking a smidge longer, but the waiter noticed this and told me to snag some food off the buffet table. He said he wouldn’t tell. It’s nice to know the staff and probably the management understands that if everyone orders something, it’s probably okay to let some “illegal” buffet noshing slide. Or, I just got someone fired. Sorry man.
You know, I suppose I shouldn’t be so critical of this place. As far as breakfast buffets in hotels go, this place is pretty good. When Reid was going to order French toast and a side of bacon off the menu, the waiter pointed out to him that you could request French toast from the buffet, and that it would be cheaper to just get the buffet (which would include bacon) rather than ordering French toast and bacon off the menu. Service wise, I’m impressed. From what I had of the various pastries I snagged from Shelley’s plate, I liked them. Not fresh baked, but nothing to complain about. The steak was nice and juicy and the eggs were cooked fine. There was also some nice Saturday morning cartoon entertainment!
In a way, I had some hopes that this was going to be more than the usual hotel breakfast. Bistro Z markets itself as a competitive force on the Westchester dinner market. So maybe, I thought, the restaurant also puts that much effort behind its breakfast offerings, perhaps a way to differentiate itself from all the other hotels along the Route 119 corridor of hotels. Or perhaps not so much.
As we walked in, I was half expecting Bistro Z to be an actual restaurant on premises. Instead what we found was a partitioned off area.
For breakfast, diners had a choice between one of the breakfast buffets (either continental or full), or ordering off the menu. I hemmed and hawed for a while over whether to get the buffet or order something from the menu. I checked out the buffet, and it offered the standard choices in covered chafing dishes, and for the most part, everything looked fresh, and the eggs weren’t greenish gray. That’s a great sign. It looked tempting, but I wasn’t feeling so great that morning (touch of a cold), and I didn’t think the buffet was a great idea. So, I settled on a smoked salmon crepe from the menu. It had a little Bistro Z icon next to it, so I assumed it meant it was special to Bistro Z. To drink I asked for a tea (it was Lipton, but I did get my own small teapot of hot water), and an orange juice, which came served in a very nice stem glass. So classy so early in the morning!
The smoked salmon crepe was not what I expected. It was literally chunks of smoked salmon cooked in eggs omelette style and then placed in a crepe. There was no physical connection between the eggs and smoked salmon and the crepe. The eggs were a little overcooked and the salmon felt more like salmon with a smoked flavor, as opposed to actual smoked salmon. It tasted fine, but not really the crepe I had in mind.
The dish was a bit pricy, and came a la carte. I rounded out my meal with some sausages that Reid so kindly shared with me from his buffet run. The sausages were run of the mill, but good.
The czar says: The a la carte dish was way overpriced for what it was. The next time I get my car serviced at the Honda dealership across the street, I think the Eldorado West diner is the better choice, value wise. At least there I get some potatoes and toast with my omelette. But no fancy glass for my orange juice. Oh well…
The Case: Bistro Z v. The Westchester Breakfast Club
The Venue: The Doubletree Hotel in Tarrytown, across from the entrance to I-287.
The Facts: Boy, was this a stunning disappointment. Having driven by this Doubletree, with its large sign boldly proclaiming the existence of Bistro Z, I was given the distinct impression that, you know, Bistro Z was an actual restaurant and all. What the WBC found was, instead, best described as a lounge off of a hallway with a makeshift breakfast buffet set up where the stand with the small brochures for local tourist attractions would normally be.
The quality of the food and service reflected the august nature of the surroundings. The bacon was passable, no more, and the French Toast I ordered was bland and chewy. I will give credit where credit is due, however; the fresh fruit was both fresh and delicious.
The Verdict: If you don’t mind paying $19 for all-you-can-eat fruit, go for it. Otherwise, skip it.