Good Visit
I was passing through and decided to dine at a pan-asian restaurant right downtown. It was called Bonsai Bistro and let me just say the atmosphere there is amazing. Food can be a little spendy, but you get what you pay for with the quality of food and service. They have a great sushi bar there as well. A must try if you head that direction.    [02 Dec 2007 21:21:24]

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Recommended Dishes: Catepillar Roll, Mongolian Beef

     ­Anonymous   

Bad Service, Mediocre Food
With a Sunday night appetite for sushi, the wife and I decided to try the sushi bar at Bonsai Bistro.

We parked in the Bonsai lot and entered to find no greeter and no real indication of what we should do. Should we sit? Should we wait? We decided not to decide and ambled up to the sushi bar.

A woman came over to take our drink order and we ordered water like we always do. Then one of my dining out pet peeves: The server’s smile vanished and she left without saying anything. Clearly, she was not happy that we were just drinking water. I could almost hear her say “cheapskates” in my mind.

As we waited for our water, my wife and I tried to converse. But it was to no avail. The kitchen noise was so loud that we had to shout to make ourselves heard. Banging of dishes, shouting of cooks, and the general sound of cooking? This wouldn’t do.

Another young woman brought our water and some sushi menus and then disappeared before we could ask for a table. After my wife and I spent five minutes trying to talk with each other about what to order our waiter came to see us. We asked if we could have a table, although I had to ask twice to make my meaning clear over the kitchen clamor.

We did finally get seated at a table but without sushi menus, so we had to order from memory. Our fourth server came to take our drink orders. Still water. Same annoyed walk away from the server. I sensed a pattern: If you want to take the family for a meal and pull out all the stops, I’m sure the Bonsai servers are friendly and efficient. If you want to pop in for a few rolls of sushi, forget it.

Even from our seat away from the kitchen the noise was still distracting. The sushi took a long time to get to us. We ordered a spicy tuna roll, which was good, an ordinary tuna roll, which was mediocre, and a northwest roll, which was pretty bad. The tuna was not of the best quality, and the salmon was not nearly as good as at other restaurants. It lacked the bright orange color and buttery flavor that makes it so good.

So I wouldn’t recommend the restaurant. We had bad service. The atmosphere was not at all what I expected. The noise really kept us from enjoying our meal. And the food wasn’t great.    [25 Feb 2008 19:55:08]

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     ­Scott Macphee, Coeur d'Alene, ID