Pomegranate Bistro

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Scooter1969

Joined 5 years ago

Great Seasonal Menu. I love this restaurant. I love the fresh, seasonal foods. It's exiciting to walk in and know you're going to enjoy something different, something you can't necessarily make yourself at home.

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Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

This friendly Redmond bistro packs in happy crowds for three meals a day.. The Scene
Warm colors and simple pomegranate-themed art turn this cavernous spot into a friendly bistro, complete with a sizeable wall of wine, an open kitchen, and a coffee bar featuring wooden bins of tempting pastries. You'll find groups of coworkers, teenagers on dates and young families all dining happily together in the bustling space. On busy nights, a welcoming host handles beverage orders for folks waiting for their table.

The Food
Plenty of housemade seasonal touches and local ingredients are highlighted on the menu, particularly breads and vegetables. Featured on sandwiches, pizzas and a crisp, cheesy appetizer, the firebread is a thin, bubbly flatbread served piping hot. The menu includes a number of southern touches, like grits cakes, pulled pork and Creole shrimp; the small plates are perfectly sized for a comfortable lunch. Don't skip dessert--the cakes and pies are classic treats worth their calories.

Hits: The subtly insulated ceiling helps keep the noise to a dull roar.

Misses: Many of the servers seem inexperienced, resulting in missing sides, empty glasses and an occasional long wait.

Doesn't Recommend

joscelyn

Joined 6 years ago

Don't Bring Your Own Bottle! It'll Cost You!!. We brought a bottle of wine and called ahead to make sure that they would still be open by the time we got there (around 9:15). The woman on the other line said "um, yeah we stop serving around 9:30 or 10." Well, which one is it? Are we going to be served and rushed, or not served at all? The time on their front door said they closed at 10... hmmm? Feeling rushed, our server came by three times, consecutively, to see if we were ready before we even had a chance to tell her we wanted to open the bottle we had brought. She returned to tell us that corkage would be $25!!!! Purple Cafe charges $0 dollars for the first bottle, Daniel's Brolier charges $15, Ruth's Chris charges $23 and Canlis charges $35 (thye also charge around $100 a plate). These are established and distiguished places that serve an array of very high quality wines- they don't gouge, why does Pomegranate get to? I understand that restaurants want to encourage people to buy from their menu, but why would one make corkage so high that it puts people off? We decided to go somewhere else. Not because we're cheap, but smart. I've been in the restaurant and wine industry for years and this restaurant's fee is just silly. It's too bad it went this way too, I didn't even get to see if the food was any good.

Doesn't Recommend

lehn

Joined 6 years ago

good menu, poor execution. We visited Pmegranate for dinner on a Friday,11/30/07. We were greeted and seated without too much of a wait which was nice. The room is bright and well lit with fun holiday decorations. The menu has lots of choices - different dishes that all looked good. The trouble started with our server who was nice enough but didn't seem really tuned in. I ordered a cheeseburger, medium rare and it was very well done, my husband's fish stew was also overcooked and underseasoned. Both dishes were not hot when served and our waiter forgot my side order of vegetables. When those arrived they were both dry and greasy at the same time which is quite a feat. They were supposed to be a mix of three vegetables and only two showed up. Also not hot. Our waiter forgot to bring the drinks we ordered with dinner and by the time they finally arrived we had almost finished eating. For dessert we shared a key lime merinque pie which was pretty good. The bill came and they had charged us for an item we had not ordered or received which is no big deal but in this case was just the icing on the cake. We felt the meal was not a good value for the money and will not be going back.

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robyntrapp

Joined 6 years ago

First time visit - Two thumbs up!. We recently moved to a Sammamish neighborhood and have passed this place daily for 3 weeks. We decided to give Sunday Brunch a try. We arrived shortly after 9 am (when they open for brunch) and our timing was perfect. Five minutes after we sat down, there was a line and wait list! The decor is "industrial cozy" - high industrial ceilings with exposed pipes and vents, but the room didn't sound hollow. Bright colors abound. Huge picture windows provide a view of the enormous kitchen so you can watch the behind-the-scene action. Service from Peter was excellent. The menu provides "small plate" and "large plate" options. We had the Shrimp with grits and scrambled eggs (OMG good!!!) and the Breakfast corn tortillas with eggs and sausage. Both were very good, but we favored the Shrimp with grits and scrambled eggs. Talk about comfort food!! Hearty and flavorful with a cajun flare... a real stick-to-your ribs meal. And, of course, they make lots of baked goods. We brought home a cinnamon bun for the teen and he ate it all immediately! We'll definitely make this one of our favorite neighborhood haunts.

Doesn't Recommend

2smoothe

Joined 6 years ago

Won't go back..... Very disappointed. Servers were rude, slow and messed up about 1/3 of our orders on a Sunday morning Breakfast. Menu options were okay, but I would agree with others that it was overpriced considering the quality of food as well as the poor service. What I've seen several times that I've been there is quite a cult following. The only reason I've been back is because I have friends who go and everytime they go in small groups they have great service. That might be the problem. I've gone several times in groups of 8-12, never as a couple. That said, I'll never go back. Too many chances for this place and absolutely nothing delivered on.

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maxnlucy

Joined 6 years ago

It's GREAT!. 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!!!

Doesn't Recommend

washingtonnative36

Joined 6 years ago

Awful Service and Overpriced Food. 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.

Doesn't Recommend

frequentreasturantuser

Joined 6 years ago

Poor customer service. 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!

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anonymousreviewer

Joined 7 years ago

Style over substance. 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.

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.

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.

It wasn't a horrible experience, but neither was it the best. I give this place a year or two, tops.