Matisse Bistro

This place is across the street from my office and when we had some visiting colleagues last week, a group of us came here for lunch. Although there was 7 of us in our party, the ordering process went quickly. I ordered the Quiche Florentine which came with a side salad and french bread. Very good. The only glitch was that one of the people in our party, didn’t get her food. The staff remedied that quickly and presented her with a large cookie. All in all, a good experience.

Excellent salade Niccoise. Absolutely excellent. I can eat an entire one, but my GF can’t finish it when she order it!

Kevin and crew do a fantastic job with «from scratch» food and the hospitality is superb. This is my Go To place anytime I’m in the office for both breakfast and lunch. If you’re having lunch, don’t bother with the menu. The daily specials are always the best; value, taste, etc.

First time trying this place out, and it lived up to its expectations!
I placed a Togo order and within 4 – 5 minutes the sandwich was ready to go. I had the turkey aioli panini with fries. I’m usually a picky eater when it comes to deli’s but the bread was a perfect combination between soft and hard (if that makes sense.) You can never go wrong with turkey and aioli on a sandwich but the highlight of my meal were the fries! In my opinion the fries were made to perfection, crunchy /​seasoned /​skinny and long.
Overall great first time experience at this restaurant and would definitely recommend this to a friend.

Everyone I’ve seen behind the counter speak French. I guess this is as good as it gets. I’ve had the chicken soup, delicious! Fresh. The Greek salad looks organic lol, fresh tasty. They plate beautifully and their combos included 2 slices of tasty French bread and butter. I love it.

I’ve been eating lunch here almost every day since I moved to my new office in little italy. the staff is super friendly, the service is quick & the food is tasty! Our team had the pleasure of a catered brunch of their patio today. would definitely recommend anything on the menu. 5 stars all around :)

Best salads my husband and I have ever had. We still talk about them.

I got the crêpe to go and was very disappointed. They didn’t answer their phone so I walked there with a co-​worker to order in-​person.
The crêpe was completely cold by the time I got to my office two blocks away. The croutons in the side Ceasar salad were stale, and so were the slices of baguette. I gave two stars because I still ate it… it was $ 9.40.

Came here for lunch today and I ordered a half tuna sandwich and french onion soup. Both were delicious and I had a lot of cheese that covered my soup bowl. The total for everything was $ 8.59; right on the money for the quality and taste I received, I’m a fan.

This place has great food! I had chicken, potatoes, and veggies. Everything was cooked perfect. The only reason I didn’t give 5 stars is because the employees were not very welcoming and never came to check on us. But food was great!

3.5 stars haven’t had a full meal rather just an Acai bowl. I called and ordered it about 10 and said its be ready in 5 min quick! It’s on their breakfast menu so may not be available later. Taste was good not the best Acai bowl I ever had but good. Price $ 6.95 think it’s average but kinda high imo for smoothie like item.
They offer choice of topping regular strawberry banana or tropical with pineapple mango and coconut. I had regular!
Con or suggestion: a to-​go bowl for Acai bowl it’s not the same in a cup! (See pic)

I’m sick and tired of this place having posted hours and then closing early. Today they closed before 7pm and are supposed to be open until 8. I even saw a Groupon for them for a dinner special, but how are you supposed to eat dinner when you close before 7pm? This is typical for this place.

The perfect Bistro with an flair that only the french can give you.
You can get all the goodies there, starting, of course, with coffee and snacks, lunch, pastries, drinks.
Just an amazing place that makes you feel like you are in Paris.
The food is very good, the staff is extremely friendly. The design is nice. It is definitely worth checking out and trying one of their specialties.

I never knew what the name of this bistro was… my company is next door and we always cater sandwiches and salads here and I’ve came here several times, always thought it was St. Tropez but I tried Unilocaling it and couldn’t find it.
Decent sandwiches. I had a chicken pesto, prosciutto sandwich, and the salad with the strawberries and blue cheese. The sandwiches are alright. It’s decent. I don’t know if it’s really worth $ 8… they don’t have a lot of meat. It’s really for the convenience.

I come here everyone other week or so for lunch. I prefer to eat in and enjoy my lunch in their outdoor area, but sometimes I grab takeout and bring it back to the office. This time that is what I did and was sorely disappointed. I ordered the French onion soup and it barely had any cheese on it. I made a few modifications on the sandwich I ordered, and they got one and missed one.. Overall I like this place, but when I got back to my office and opened my lunch I was disappointed. I couldn’t go back to fix the situation since I had a meeting that I was rushing to attend so I had to just suck it up.

Ordered a lemon tart for a quick break. Oh man it was so delicious! It was perfect. The women working were really nice. The person before me was one of their regulars because she memorized their entire order, all they had to do was say ‘the usual’ please. I will definetly come back to try their famous salads and of course, another lemon tart!
…I came back to edit my review and take off two stars because Im sitting here trying to relax and enjoy my tart and the chefs in the back are YELLING at eachother in spanish and are EXTREMELY loud. I heard «pendeja!» And all i can hear right now is the chefs talking to eachother extremely loud in spanish and they just ruined it for me. I kept looking over like what the heck is going on? And the young french man saw me look over several times but didnt do anything. Now the girls are being loud talking to eachother saying «im so hungry!!! what should i eat» im Very dissapointed… they clearly do not care about what I think. Theres not a lot of people here but damn, show some respect. Even though im young, that doesnt mean i dont care about anything. They are acting if no one is in here. My experience is completely ruined.

I’m surprised that this place hasn’t gotten more Unilocal attention, especially when I think of all the buzz my «to-​go» salads have caused in my office’s break room.
It might be the location of this venue, to be honest. It’s hidden in plain sight along the trolley line. (I stumbled upon it when I was avoiding the Wednesday Food Truck madness about a block away.) Regardless, every time I have gone to Matisse it’s felt like some kind of secret lunch spot. No big lines, affordable healthy options, speedy service… That’s what I like to see!
Being vegetarian, my old stand by is the Mediterranean Quiona Salad; they also have plenty of delicious daily specials to consider. I wish I could comment on the breakfast choices and espresso, but sadly I have yet to find the motivation to get to work earlier *just* for breakfast.
It is a French place, so I keep that in mind regarding the wait staff. They’ve never come off as abrasive, but they’ve also never brightened my life while simultaneously taking my order. And you know what? That’s okay! It’s just lunch.

I stopped here instead of a Mexican restaurant because this place had fish tacos as a special and I didn’t want to walk anymore. I was a little worried about ordering fish tacos from a French place, but they were really good! The right amount of crispy, nice spicy sauce, corn tortillas, just the way I like them! And a good amount of food at $ 5.95. The other specials were around $ 10, so this was a steal! The black beans that came with the tacos were cold and not so good. I also got parmesan fries to augment because I thought the fish tacos would be small given the price as compared to the other items. The fries were just ok. Kind of like Rallys’ fries with that weird breading but thick cut. I couldn’t taste the parmesan. But I dig the atmosphere and the convenience. Service was quick and friendly!

I give 3 stars for the cute factor, location just besides the train station, with the possibility of people watching, spacious restaurant/​café, the French vibe, the cool Matisse name that makes you want to go and grab your watercolors and come here and have a coffee and a pastry while drawing all these characters going in and out the trains… But no, the food was mediocre, and they deserve to me only 2 stars (however, I plan to go back because the pastries looked really good and the coffee smelled good too).
My corn chowder soup came cold to the table and the half panini was also cold (it was supposed to be at least warm). The ingredients were not glue together. I was expecting the prosciutto having the cheese melted on top, but everything was like very badly put together in my opinion and not even the bread was tasty. I would not repeat the combo soup and sandwich and instead will try the sweet side of Matisse.
Customer service was not really welcoming. At least the service was fast.

I came here on my way to an Italian place down the road but saw the specials and decided to go here instead. Great decision.
Pros:
Friendly counter– helpful too.
Quick service
Had the chicken Parm pasta (I posted a pic) and it was delicious. Big portion with 4 pieces of bread.
Good price for the portion.
Clean
Offers wine and beer
Con:
My only issue was with the chicken. 90% was great but some of the edges seemed overlooked and rubbery. My guess is either they flatten it and those pieces got too thin before cooking or they microwaved it. (I did hear a microwave ding a few times)
All in all I would come here again and get the dish again. I recommend this place.