Bronte Bistro

I have had several good meals over the years at this café, but our recent experience left me reluctant to try again. The turkey sandwich was dry, with no condiments and a mushy tomato. The bread was stale. The service was ok, but kind of slow and the servers not very friendly. Sad, because the bookstore is a gem.

Brontë Bistro has been a favorite of mine for 15 years. The new management has revolutionized the restaurant. The staff that is presently working have been there for years and provide excellent service. There is a wide variety of coffee drinks, great liquor selection, great moderately priced food and the staff always has a smile. The Assistant General Manager, Katie, always ensures my clubs and reservations are scheduled and well taken care of. Michael on the bar will always has great recommendations of drink pairings and new menu items! Lastly, Leah, in the kitchen, always makes sure every meal leaves the kitchen in top order. I only know her name from a single order mishap which she personally delivered the remake which was made to perfection. Whether your just visiting or a Lexington native this is a great choice for lunch, dinner, or weekend brunch anytime of year.

What a nice location and facilty, adjacent to Joseph Beth bookstore! Clean, nice view, impressive looking bar; unfortunately this is where it slows significantly.
The service was OK; there was a new server and another shadowing, and they did a decent job.
I ordered a beer, and received a cold, canned beer with a frosted glass. Recall the impressive **looking** bar comment… no beer on draft here. I can understand that this restaurant is in a book store, and they don’t necessarily want a sports bar atmosphere, but come on. A few of the tasty local brews on draft, perhaps?
So the food… half turkey and cheddar with a cup of a southwestern –style soup (can’t recall the exact soup name, but it did contain the name «spicy»). The soup was decent, but «spicy» should at least start the nose running a little. Zero spice flavor, in my opinion.
Sandwich was lunch meat turkey, with basic sliced cheddar, a piece of lettuce, and maybe a slice of tomato. Not bad, but just very basic.
Now I realize not every restaurant can afford to entice a top-​notch chef and kitchen staff. But this place is pretty nice, and if they made improvements on the food, the business and ratings would draw clientele in to eat there first and shop at the book store second, instead of the other way around.

Terrible, absolutely unacceptable service! The waitress was so slow and absent-​minded it was not even amusing. I asked for iced tea, she brought it without the ice, and, when I asked to bring the ice, she never did until we reminded her. Then, when she finally brought the ice 40 minutes later, I already finished my lukewarm tea, and she said there was no more tea left to bring the refill. The prices are beyond high for the quality of the food and the service. The seats are uncomfortable and the overall experience is blah. You constantly feel like you are bothering the personnel with your silly ideas like ordering food or drinks. Blah.

I’m not hard to please, I am even ok with mediocre if it’s convenient or has a nice view, this place had both of those. The food and drink, however, were awful. Raspberry tea? Red water. Bad water at that
.Not even a nice red color. Cuban sandwich? Burnt AND microwaved. How do you do that? Even the potato chips were microwaved. The napkins were nice. My wife had chicken salad on stale bread and soup, when I asked how it was she said «fine», and that means very bad in wife-speak.And then they charge you money. Lots of money. They should spend that money on a cookbook that’s just a few feet away.

We came here during our visit to Lexington from a recommendation at the hotel. Very disappointing. The coffee is the worst I’ve ever had, the restaurant is filthy so is the wait staff and they are not friendly or helpful.

I’ve eaten here once and it wasn’t very good. I asked for a Cuban sandwich and the bread was moldy! That’s enough for me not to want to go back.

We love Joe Beth booksellers and want to support this café, which we do a few times a year. It used to be one of our favorites, but some of the menu changes have not been positive. Nevertheless the quiche is always a great choice for a luncheon while you are shopping.

I’ve never had a bad experience at this restaurant. It’s kind of a Lexington legend, being in such a huge beautiful and well-​known bookstore which is a destination itself. The remodel of the café is fantastic. To someone who has never eaten at the bistro, I would say you are bound to find something on the menu that will delight you. They have everything to choose from, but it isn’t fussy or pretentious, and the price point is very reasonable. I personally LOVE the tiramisu, and have for YEARS. I was incredibly impressed with the white chocolate lavendar pepper latte from the bar! The staff is intelligent and friendly, not just your average. And this is a relaxing place to just grab a coffee and check your email if you want.

The service was soooooo slow! The food was nothing spectacular. I had a half tuna sandwich and the pear salad, it was alright. My daughter had the lasagna and it was pretty yuck! My son had a cheeseburger and it was okay he didn’t complain, BUT his French fries were good. What was supposed to be a quick bite to eat took over an hour! Our waiter was beyond terrible, he was slow and it just took forever to get anything! Prob won’t be back. The food was not worth the price, $ 47 for what I just told you we ate. Nope!

This café is perfect if you want something light to eat, though if you want a meal with more sustenance, I would suggest going elsewhere. I generally swing for the half sandwich/​half soup or salad option. The pear salad is amazing. The atmosphere is quiet, and I especially love being surrounded by books.

My wife and I love going to Joseph-​Beth is Lexington, browsing for books and then having a nice meal at Brontë. I try a different dish each time — The Olympic Salmon Salad, the veggie chili, the avocado BLT … but my favorite is the Alpine Baked Pasta.
If you want a nice day out experience Brontë Bistro and Joseph-​Beth are a great time!

Good atmosphere, good food, great views. Other reviewers should remember it’s a restaurant in a book store. Given that setting, I think this place was great. Same level of service/​food in a dedicated restaurant space and my score would be lower.

Worst tiramisu I have ever tried. Ever. And skunky coffee too… no wonder we are 2 of 8 people here at 6 on a Saturday night! I will not try it again!

I try to give this place a chance every time I go there — and every time I’m disappointed.
The service is terrible, they are slow and the food is overpriced.
10 $ for a cup of vegetarian chili that was the size of a small tea cup. Half of the chili was rice. Half was terrible chili.
Had the pear salad, and just wasn’t impressed. Needs work. Has so much potential!

I had a business lunch today at Bronte Bistro and it was quite good! I truly enjoyed the veggie burger; just a little bit of a kick. My lunch date had the tomato/​artichoke soup of the day. She said it was wonderful. Service was accommodating, but not bothersome. I’ll go again!

not very impressed. the food is overpriced, and several of the items just aren’t very good.
I got the chicken wrap and it was pretty much all Refried beans. my wife’s omelet was good, but her potatoes were charred black.
service was okay, but nothing outstanding.

Good food, but bad service and weird policies. There was a 45 minute wait, with at least 10 open tables? Also, a new policy that you cannot order sides that do not specifically come with your meal? A restaurant that has food it will not sell you? Really? In this economy. With rude service and policies that make the patrons feel unwelcome, I am afraid this place will go out of business like the rest of the dining in Lexington Green.

Had the Kentucky hotbrown sandwich. It wasn’t bad, I don’t even want to know how many calories it had. Turkey, ham, bacon, tomatoes on a piece of texas toast and smothered in Lots of creamy cheese sauce. The service could of been much better. I had to keep asking the waiter for a coffee refill. Did I forget to mention I found a hair in my food?
p. s. I just received an email from Unilocal saying this review was flagged and deleted from Unilocal for content by consumers. Something about it being under the bookstore and not the bistro. I think Unilocalers are much more intelligent then you think, If I’m talking about food, I imagine people are going to know I purchased it at the bistro and not the «book area». So, I’m reposting it and giving it one star! Delete it again and I will be convinced this is NOT the place to post and get honest reviews if they can be deleted so easily.

I’ve only eaten there once, and it was a disaster.
Now, I’ve visted Joseph-​Beth many times as a bookstore and am a big fan of the store as a place to buy books, CD’s, DVD’s ect.
I will never eat at the café again though.
I was in college and taking my girlfriend out on a date. We went there on a weekday afternoon, and business was slow. We were seated at a table when the café was almost entirely empty.
Our waiter was slow in coming up to us to take our drink order, we sat for almost 10 minutes before he came up to us and put down menus. We made our drink order.. .and he stood there and wanted us to order our food on the spot having barely seen a menu.
We asked for a little more time, and he gave us about a minute. Literally. He walked off then walked right back and stood there wanting to take our orders. We felt rushed and awkward and made our order.
The waiter disappeared again, and our food didn’t come out for over 20 minutes. When it finally came out, it was cold and soggy, like it had been sitting around far too long. He dropped the food off and walked off. He never checked back on us, he never filled up our drinks. We never saw him waiting on anybody else, as we were the only table at the time.
After far too long and our drinks sitting empty and our mediocre meals having been eaten, we sat around waiting for our check. He came by and slapped it on the table, and again stood there wanting us to pay it on the spot. I gave him cash and he went back and got change. Promptly this time, he returned with the change and quickly walked off again.
I left him a penny tip.
That wasn’t the end of it. My girlfriend and myself went into the bookstore proper, I was in the magazine section, she was way over in science fiction. Our waiter calls out from behind me «Was there a PROBLEM with my SERVICE!!!». He’d followed me out of the café, into the bookstore, and was now shouting at me, berating me for not leaving him a good tip!
I told him, point blank, that he’d never checked up on us, never filled our drinks, rushed us to make our orders, rushed us to pay, and the only time he was prompt was when he was taking our money. He got a fuming, raging look on his face and started screaming about how he’s doing this job to support a family and he can’t do it on penny tips, and how I better think twice about giving penny tips to the people who handle my food. All the time he is shouting so loud my girlfriend across the store can hear it, everyone in Joseph Beth could hear his outburst. He returned to the café, and we left the store immediately.
I called and complained to the Manager the next day, told her the whole story I just told here. I got a profuse apology, and from the sound of things the manager had already heard about the incident and was expecting this call. The manager implied he didn’t work there anymore. She sent me a $ 50 gift certificate as an apology, which kept me going back to the bookstore.
I’ll never eat at the café again though.