Café Bistro

My first experience with a Nordstrom eatery was Blue Stove and it was really fantastic… and Café Bistro didn’t disappoint. It does boggle the mind to think about a department store running a restaurant until you realize they put this huge food attraction at the top of the store, and you have to travel through their entire store (browsing along the way and wanting to buy all the stuff on display) to get to your destination.
Luckily, I am not much of a shopper, nor a wanter of stuff, just a big eater, so I have never left the store with anything I didn’t intend to buy.
Honestly, I always forget that this is an option because I don’t shop at Nordstrom’s. But the food is hella delish. I especially love the cilantro shrimp salad, and the flat iron frites (season shoestring fries are my favs).
Compared to the other food options at the mall, it is a bit on the spendy side, but well worth the splurge. The portions are definitely «right-​sized» which means a big eater like me will leave hungry.
Also there is no assigned wait staff to the table, and it’s a bit of self serve cafeteria style. It’s definitely takes some getting use to. Despite all that… the food earned it a 5 star. Highly recommended.

much better alternative than the food court. besides I’m already biased because of their cremé brûlée yummy!

Loved the shrimp risotto and the asian salad, my friend liked her ziti lamb pasta. The bread pudding was just ok. Wayyy too overhyped!
Waitress was a little pushy for us to leave. That gave the minus star.

First bite of the bistro club, all I could think of was the aftertaste of a cigarette, so, as someone who smokes from time to time, be careful, or you may just find yourself smoking Camel menthols. No, that makes it sound like this sandwich was horrible, when it was really a tasty, slightly crunch delight, with that smokey flavor of course.

I ordered the crab bisque instead of my usual french onion soup, and it tasted pretty good. Their white chocolate raspberry bread pudding is the reason why I come here, though. It might be a bit pricey but this is the best thing I have ever tasted. There was something odd that happened when I visited the place last week though; my friends and I asked for more bread before our meal came and the server said he would be out with more bread. He came back 10 minutes later with just an empty plate and left. It was definitely confusing and had us cracking up, but the food here is great.

Best restaurant at the mall. Never disappoints. Get something with fries and aioli dipping sauce. It’ll change your life.

Great food but service has been hit and miss depending on who our waitress is..

In the two decades that I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest, Nordstrom Café has transformed into the grand Café Bistro. Gone are the days where you scan the menu, order, and pay at the register. Now there’s a hostess that greets you, seats you, and wishes you an enjoyable meal before your server arrives to take over the rest. The food options have expanded from sandwich and soup to more elaborate salads, pastas, and desserts. It really has become more than a simple respite from hours of holiday shopping.
Nice ambience, friendly service, delicious food. You can get it all here. I have really been quite surprised by the quality of ingredients. The prawns in the cilantro lime salad are plump and meaty, the chicken in the angel hair pasta plentiful and tender. Just beware that many items have cheese in it and if you’re sensitive like me it can be too much to handle palate-​wise.
Bön appetit!

A really nice little café inside Nordstrom. A friend recommended it as a good place to meet for a visit, and I’m glad she did. My Asian chicken salad was delicious. Our server was lovely. A great experience on black Friday weekend.

Always satisfies! The tortilla chicken soup is out of this world just enough of a kick & flavors to knock your socks off!

One of my favorite restaurants. I have always had great food and good service. I am happy they have changed their format to a more traditional sit down.

I love Nordstrom cafes and their food. I believe this is the only «Bistro» location in Western Washington. I love every salad I’ve ever had here, but have been rarely disappointed by anything else they serve (crab bisque, steak, calamari). The main standing point about this location is they are the only one that serve the WHITE CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY BREAD PUDDING. I have driving 45 min to get this. It’s a fat slice of heaven. The bread is warm but crunchy on the outside. It is nothing like your typical gooey bread pudding. The white chocolate does not overpower at all. I seriously highly recommend this if you know for sure you want dessert. Don’t share. Lol

This star is for the crappiest service I have ever received. Elsa, I think her name was (dark skin and hair), was absolutely the opposite of what good customer service should look like. Very standoffish and unfriendly. Didn’t make nice polite conversation (like a good waitress does, it’s personable), and after we ordered our food, did not visit us once. NOT even after I found a HAIR in my risotto! I had to flag down another waitress to help me. Our waitress kept disappearing! It’s a small restaurant and I could not see her anywhere. She seemed to disappear around a corner and not be found for minutes at a time. And then trying to flag her down while she was walking by was impossible. Even AFTER the other waitress told her what happened (I could see them talking) she still never came over and talked to us and apologized. It was a good 20 MINUTES between getting our food and my friends finishing (and me flagging down another waitress to replace mine) before she came over and brought the check and in a passing comment said, «Sorry about that.» And handed me the check. Absolutely ridiculous service.
Now if you were to ask me to rate the food alone? ¹⁰⁄₁₀.

They probably make one of my favorite desserts ever. The white chocolate bread pudding is a must! For the main entrée, I haven’t really tried anything else besides the Bistro Club, but every time I get it, I’m always left satisfied. The Bistro Club comes with fries and this unique dipping sauce that’s pretty good as well. Since I live no where near Lynnwood, I try to come up here once every few months just to get my fix. This is probably a good thing though because I probably wouldn’t eat anywhere else if there was a Café Bistro closer to me.

So i wasn’t paying attention while looking for dinner– i glanced at the menu for this place and thought «sounds good!». As a result, i was confused and weirded out when i had to enter and wander around a department store to get here.
However, this place has some really nice food. Decent bread, tasty olives and olive oil as a free amuse bouche, very good kale salad (who toasts their kale? Amazing!) and delicious flat bread.
One star off for the ambiance of fluorescent-​lit shoppers just outside the door :) … but yay Nordstrom for branching into food.

I love all things Nordstrom, like their well curated collection of clothes, shoes, make-​up brands, and hello awesome return policy!
This café is another expression of the care they put into the products. We tried the Chinese chicken salad and the French dip. Both dishes were beautifully presented and delicious to boot. I loved that the bread on the French dip was warm and crispy — perfect for dipping into the au jus, and the cheese was perfectly melted.
It’s also refreshing that they care enough to use quality ingredients such as organic greens, cage free eggs and make sure there’s so trans fat in any of their products.

You really can’t wrong with anything you order here. If you were never a salad person before, you must try theirs. My favs are the chicken asian salad and the shrimp salad. The salad ingredients taste like they were fresh picked from the garden in the morning and they always give you jumbo size shrimp. Perfect place to eat in between your shopping day.

Man, this place is busy on weekends! Even close to 1 PM, the line waiting to order at Café Bistro went halfway down the BP section. I think we waited at least 15 minutes before we ordered.
What’s nice is that once you order, there’s waitstaff to direct you to a table. The café at Bellevue Square required you to find your own table. The staff are friendly, fairly quick to respond, and are all smiles. Which is pretty awesome for a Saturday lunch rush.
I had the crab bisque, she had the soup de jour (chicken tortilla– which they were sampling to the poor suckers in line, me included), and shared a plate of fries. The crab bisque was okay– not that much crab, nice and creamy, but with a weird taste — maybe a sweetness? — that kinda threw me off. The chicken tortilla soup was very good. The fries were skinny and seasoned with salt and parsley. They were accompanied by a kalamata aioli, which was very olive-​y. We also asked for ketchup.
Pretty good meal, solid service. Would love to come back to try more on the menu!

fruit & fig salad: literally the best salad i have ever enjoyed in my life!
entire experience is awesome too.

Probably one of my favorite places to go. The menu is simple with unique dishes, fast wait time, and delicious food.
Crab Bisque: YUM. It’s a creamy tomato base with bits of crab meat. Not a heavy seafood aroma but definitely noteworthy staple every time.
Club Sandwich: it’s rare a healthy sandwich can taste so good. It comes with avocado, bacon, string beans, etc. definitely worth a try. The fries that all the sandwiches come with are so good! Light and crispy, and well seasoned.
Margherita Pizza: No matter which nordstrom you at, the margarita is amazing. Simple and classic, however, nordstrom roasts and seasons their tomatoes adding a whole new dimension of flavor.
Bread Pudding: have you ever had bread pudding? Well you never had anything like this! So delicious. They slighting sear the bread pudding so it has crispy sides. With a delicate white chocolate semi sweet sauce and raspberry jam and whipped cream. It is like floating to dessert heaven. Sometimes I’m tempted to just come here for this.
Overall, great!

I can’t really put my finger on what it is that makes this place so special… I don’t mean it in a negative way, but more so. so simple, but yet so good!
It’s pretty much a what the heck thing.
Nordstrom café has really ordinary stuff, like sandwiches, pizza, pasta, and a few meat entrées. Somehow this food is just so darn good and you just devour the whole thing!
The sandwiches are excellent! Their soups are great! There isn’t much to complain about except for the prices and the occasional wait. I really do recommend this place over the dreary food court!
Just try it and you’ll see what I mean!

Honestly, this place is a nice little hidden gem at Alderwood. If the food court ain’t cutting it, the Nordstrom Café is a great quick stop. Came here for lunch with my dad one weekday afternoon (since he works nearby) and had no complaints.
We ordered some salad that had pear in it, and it was a great portion and had tasty dressing. We also ordered the mushroom pepperoni pizza and that was honestly really really good. Perfectly cooked, good portion of pepperoni, etc. Like I would come back here if I was in the area so I could eat it again.
Service is nothing special but always consistent, free soda refills, nice ambiance, etc. Food came out quickly so it would be a solid place for lunch if you only had an hour.

Not bad for a department store café. Actually, I really liked it.
I noticed on their website that not all the Nordstrom cafes are exactly alike so this is a review for the one in Alderwood Mall. The menu isn’t huge, but still will have something for everyone. I decided to go with the Margherita Pizza and it was great. The dough was freshly tossed and cooked in their brick oven. The ingredients tasted fresh and had enough flavor. My husband had the club sandwich with fries and he said there are no complaints. We shared the crab bisque and it was delicious.
The staff were excellent and couldn’t have been more friendly. A successful shopping trip all together.