Coco's Bistro

I have been to Coco's more times than I can count over the past 5 years. I have always enjoyed their amazing hospitality and the wonderful food. Karen and her staff have built an amazing restaurant and I highly suggest you visit them.

Went there last Thursday. The host was too snoody and the food was not great, small portions and overpriced. Service and drinks were slow. Will not be back.

It was so CLOSE to being a 5 star experience.

Our server, Jason, was a personable, efficient, a true professional with an admirable set of sideburns. (Reading other reviews, Cocos must specialize in only employing the best!) A pet peeve of mine are servers who rush you to order, than plates come out before you are finished with the previous, ruining the pacing of the meal . To control the arrival of our food, we told Jason we'd order our entrees after the appetizer arrived, he was like, "Absolutely." I loved that!

The setting was pleasant, tasteful, the tables set far enough apart that you could enjoy conversation without others (or you!) eavesdropping. The flatware and plates were clean. (Spotty tableware makes me NUTS!) Our table was placed so that every time the front door opened, we were engulfed in a swoosh of cold air, but that was just bad luck. Conversation was lively but pleasantly low volume thru the restaurant. (Except for the 3 year old, but that's the parents' fault, not the management's). You could see that everyone was happy to be there and that's such an important addition to the ambiance of a restaurant.

We started with the Fried Brie that everyone rhapsodized about. Our entrees were the Cajun Grits, French Onion Filet, and the Brown Butter Tilapia. Everything had a wonderful flavor---my shrimp were perfectly cooked as was DH's filet, and my son's fish---although he inhaled that so fast, I didn't even snag a sample! BUT---here's where the it loses that Fifth star----everything was just barely warm. I expected to cut through the crispy crust of the brie to an interior of melty-gooey goodness---and it was just a yummy blob of cheese. And the accompanying toast had been crunchy at one time, but had sat long enough that it had descended to that kind of rubbery bread consistency old toast gets. Again, the Cajun Shrimps were full of flavor (I might have liked a touch of heat), the shrimp perfectly cooked, the grits creamy----DH said the filet was very good, especially the rub, and son loved his entree but he's seventeen and anything that doesn't eat him first is good---but everything just was barely warm. As I ate my entree, I thought if it was this good when cool, how fabulous would have been served hot, and DH said the same about his entree. As you can imagine, the cool fried spinach on my plate and the onion rings on DH's plate suffered from the lack of heat.

But let me emphasize---the flavors were GREAT!

Try Cocos again---you betcha! If they can make cold food that tasty, imagine if it's hot! We are just sorry it took us so long to getting around to trying Cocos.

Oh, and for those who wonder why we didn't complain----the restaurant had a huge party at one table---maybe 30 people (it IS holiday season) so we thought that probably affected the kitchen and my son dies a thousand deaths if we make any comments about food or service in his company. And it tasted good. We were just that one star disappointed, is all. I bet next time, I can give it five.

OH---and we had absolutely no problem finding a close-by parking space, so don't let other postings scare you off.