31 Bistro

The staff is nice and friendly but they don’t know a thing about running a restaurant. If you are starving and everything else on Market Square is full this place will be empty and you can at least eat something. If you are looking for more than sustenance I’d absolutely skip this place.
I asked about the two draft beers featured on the chalk board beside the empty bar, and they had neither. I even made a joke about it to the server later and no one took the initiative to wipe it off or take it down.
We asked about the special, the Tyler Bray burger — $ 15, and neither the server or bartender knew what it was. Some guy from the kitchen told us it came with pickled okra, Benton’s bacon, some fancy cheese, and a few other buzzwords. Apparently Bray threw it at the restaurant himself because half the ingredients were missing including the fancy cheese… and the the bacon wasn’t Bentons.
My Grilled Garlic Basil Chicken — $ 16 was not grilled and mysteriously enough had neither garlic or basil on it. It looked like it had been cooked under a cinder block, on a griddle, at Waffle House and rushed over in time to have a day old Tupperware container of cous cous dumped out beside it. I’m talking about globs of cous cous still formed in the shape of a container… and it was room temp. The seasonal vegetable medley of Zuchini and Squash turned out to be only squash and it was still raw. They were at least nice enough to smear some margarine on it.
Seriously, I would stand in line at Applebee’s before I would eat here again.

Went with a total of 4 people on Sunday morning. Took 10 minutes for somebody to acknowledge our presence and then over an hour AFTER we ordered to get our breakfast. I ordered scrambled eggs with what were supposed to be roasted potatoes and 2 biscuits.
When the food finally came out, the eggs were lukewarm, the roasted potatoes were really burnt, chewy hash browns and 1 burnt biscuit. The waitress said that they were going to comp my biscuits since they ran out. I asked for ketchup and jelly for the biscuit. By the time she finally returned with ketchup, the rest of the food was cold and I was told that they don’t have jelly. I asked for butter, which she returned with drawn butter. Not sure what you do with drawn butter for biscuits.
When she brought the bill, it said «2 Biscuits — $ 1.50» I reminded her that she said the biscuits were comped since they ran out. She said they only charged me for one and that 2 biscuits were typically $ 3.00.
I will NEVER go back here much less recommend this place to anybody. Being on Market Square and having as much visibility as it does, I don’t expect this place to last long. Maybe they can get a decent restaurant in there once this place goes under.

Two stars for the drink specials. Please don’t eat here though. I’m from out of town and Tennessee has been great… Until now. Food was bland, service was bad and prices were high. Save yourself the time and eat and oodles uncorked, which is 60 feet from this place.
You will thank me later.

Went there recently and found the service to be terrible and the food to be average. Came home and saw a news report on a recent Knox County Health Department inspection that gave them a 60 out of 100 rating. The Health Department considers a grade below 70 as unsanitary.
Some lines from the inspector’s report: the inspector found shrimp thawing in a hand sink. To prevent the spread of bacteria, food is supposed to thaw in the refrigerator, where the temperature is 41 and below. An employee washed a knife in a hand sink. Again, that’s the wrong place. Utensils are supposed to be washed, rinsed and sanitized, which can’t be done at a hand sink. A server didn’t wash his hands when handling dishes. Chemicals were found improperly stored and food temperatures were off.
Stay away… plenty of better options in Market Square.

Nothing is worse to me than food that looks better than it tastes. At least when it’s the other way around I get the surprise of a decent meal. Instead, my 31 Bistro burger was good, but not great. The fries really missed the mark and were a rubbery mess. I think they died a slow, overfried death at the hand of a tired cook. When I strolled in at 9:45 the place was half empty. This was on a Friday night when Market Square was packed with people attending the Rhythm and Blooms festival. Despite that fact that the door claimed to be open «till close» on Friday nights, waiters promptly began telling walk-​ups the kitchen was closed at 10:00p.m. Of course that’s what this place does. They bring Dijon when asked for mustard too.
31 Bistro is in the spot formerly held by La Costa, but I doubt it will last half as long as that former Knoxville favorite. The service ranges from mediocre to poor, and the food has yet to impress me. I first visited 31 for my favorite meal of the day, brunch. I ordered the worst looking apple pancakes ever. They were burnt and very heavy on the apple syrup. I ended up leaving half of them on my plate and ordering nachos at a bar around the corner. I, however, have read better things about the food than what I’ve experienced. If I give this place another try, it will definitely be for drinks.

It’s like they aren’t even trying. The «house soup» — Black Bean Chipotle, was literally a can of stewed tomatoes dumped with a can of chili powder and some chopped onion. The grilled chicken sandwich was rubbery and undercooked. This was take-​out, and that doesn’t excuse the quality of the soup or the fact that the food was raw. Conveniently, they do not always answer the phones at lunch, thus I couldn’t call and let them know they were feeding people raw poultry.

Famished, and frazzled, I hurried to meet the boy at 31 Bistro for a late (8pm) dinner. As happy hour had ended an hour prior — I was left to choose between 3 dollar LIT’s (which I do not like) or several of their tasty looking (but more pricey) cocktails. Thankfully, our bartender/​server Benjamin assisted me with my conundrum and offered to make me a ‘variation’ of an LIT that he assured me I would like. I’m not quite sure what was in it, but it involved all the fixings of a regular LIT, minus the soda which was replaced with fresh-​squeezed orange and pomegranate juice. That simple act was enough to make me love this place but no worries, I will elaborate further on the rest of the meal.
We ordered the cheese plate (I sad it before, and I’ll say it again. I will NEVER pass up a cheese plate), as well as the bistro fish tacos and sweet potato burrito. The cheese plate came out first, accompanied with these little fried pita looking things, some pumpkin seed brittle. We asked for a small side of honey (cheese and honey… mmmm…) and dug in. We received 4 different types of cheese — in pretty large portions. This would probably have been enough food for me had I not been so hungry and it was very delicious.
We then received our entrees (per the menu, these are considered small plates. Perhaps a bit small for a whole meal, but accompanied with the cheese, a perfect portion). The fish tacos (blackened not fried w/​cilantro-​lime cabbage slaw, pico de gallo & spicy crema) were very fresh delicious. The boy requested some addition siracha sauce and he loved them.
My delectable sweet potato burrito (stuffed w/​roasted eggplant, blackened tofu, and goat cheese) was warm and savory. A perfect cold-​weather meal.
I cannot elaborate enough how fresh everything tasted. Farm to table indeed — you can truly taste the freshness in each item.
Benjamin was very attentive and helpful, and the ambiance of the small restaurant was cozy and welcoming. I will definitely be back partly due to the fact that I had a wonderful time and also because as I write this, I may or may not be slobbering on my keyboard thinking about my meal there… Just a little bit.

Not a good experience. The service, staff and food were all bad. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone.

Sangria was great, food was fantastic, but the service was terrible.
When we got there, there were a total of 4 other tables with guests sitting at them. (So not busy.) It took 10 minutes before we were even greeted at our table by a server. Then it took another 10 minutes before we got our drinks we ordered. My husband and I had both finished our drinks … our server didn’t come back to offer us another. We had to go to the bar to request another drink.
We had 2 friends join us and it took 10 — 15 minutes before they got their first drink as well. The restaurant was still not super busy.
Once we ordered our food, the service seemed to become a little better. The food came out in a timely manner and was fantastic! The hummus is outstanding!
I would recommend this place to others. I’m chalking our bad service up to a Wednesday night and our particular server we had.