Black Walnut Bistro

Loved the Steak Stroganoff!!!
Grandmas Apple Cranberry cake was amazing!
No Coca Cola Products

it is very easy to find bar food in Hermann but this may be your only choice if you desire something beyond. Good food and nice, almost too friendly service. Lobster bisque is worth it! Seafood and pasta dishes for very good. Cannot speak to the steaks. Thanks for all the local tips too.

Amazing food and our waitress was great! Would recommend this place to anyone :) thanks for a great meal!

This restaurant is absolutely one the best we have ever eaten food wise. The crab cakes, salad and handmade pasta were superb. The service was excellent for Hermam. My thoughts are for owners, to open for lunch, during your busy season, or forever. Do sandwiches and salad because we ate at the Wurst (worst) sausage place ever, down the street for lunch. In having what we had for dinner, you can can compete. With what we we had for lunch down the street, no comparison. A absolute must go in Herman. A yes.

Went here for the French onion soup because of the pictures that were posted by people on Unilocal.
When they brought me my French onion soup and had no cheese on top. I asked the waitress why wasn’t there any cheese on top or in the soup. She told me they never put cheese on the soup… I pulled up the pictures on Unilocal and showed the waitress and she said that’s a different restaurant… WHAT??? And the soup sucked btw. So did the steak stroganoff. Too salty and the meat was like beef jerky. 60 bucks gone.

This is a wonderful little place in Hermann if you are looking for a real nice meal. We were in Hermann for a few days and had a hard time finding something other than bar food or appetizers and were looking for a nice hearty meal. I had a rib-​eye that was cooked to perfection and very flavorful and my dining companion had a pasta dish (homemade pasta) that had peas and chicken and some kind of divine white sauce. Our waiter, Joel was wonderful, funny and really made the experience a lot more fun for us. We really enjoy a good waiter and he delivered. He suggested the house-​made dressing for our salads, and being a «ranch on the side» kind-​a-​gal, I had my doubts, so Joel brought me both and his recommendation of the house dressing was beyond YUM. I will say that the interior of the place is very simple one room type place, no bar, not a lot of flair, but that all falls by the wayside because the staff, lighting and food are excellent.

Excellent Italian restaurant. The shrimp pasta is incredible and of course the lobster and bacon Mac and cheese is incredible. Great service also.

My boyfriend and I came here on a recommendation from the adorable gentleman at Adam Puchta winery who did our wine tasting. I’m so glad that we listened! Our service was UNBELIEVABLE! Our waitress was so nice and funny and gave us excellent recommendations, both for food and wine pairings. She even offered local wines, which weren’t on the wine menu. We started with the Lobster Bisque which was so creamy and delicious. Next we both had a pasta dish (Chicken Carbonara and Steak Stroganoff) and were in love with both. We split a side of fried Brussels sprouts with the bacon vinaigrette… I could live on that. It was incredible! We ended with a fantastic dessert, that for the life of me I can’t remember, probably because I was high on bacon vinaigrette. Everything was incredible and we have already planned our next Hermann trip, strictly to visit here for dinner. Did I mention that they have ½ price pasta dishes on Thursday nights?

Very POOR customer service. I called this place to book for my rehearsal dinner, and they treated me like dirt. I WOULD NOT recommend this place for any rehearsal dinner or events. POOR customer service on the phone and wouldn’t even meet with me and my fiancée in person although we were outside their restaurant and we were there just 45 minutes before they opened. We just wanted a quick tour, and nobody would come out and shake our hand. They took my call, but wouldn’t let me in. I live in Chicago, 6 hours away, so I will not be making another Hermann trip just to see their restaurant. I’m sure their food is great, but if you want quality customer service, GO ELSEWHERE.
This part is the best: I got a call two days later from Brittany, their manager, to give me additional information. I relayed the above to her, and just candidly gave her my frustration wit the lack of customer service and how that was to me and my fiancée. She gave no remorse and asked for my email address to send me «more information.» I confirmed availability and told her I looked forward to seeing how her restaurant serve us. I GOT FIRED. I got an email from Nick, their owner, about 20 minutes later. No apologies, just told me «We cannot accommodate your event any longer.»
I am glad I learned of their poor customer service BEFORE my event, not during. Learn from my experience!

I really love this place. We had a party of 7 and they were accommodating with our reservation as we had to change it and our payment. The service was excellent.
The food was great as usual– love their handmade pastas and flavorful soups. The menu has so many options that I want to order! And of course, local wine options.

Great food! It was recommended by our B & B at Captain Wohlt Inn. I had a rib eye grilled medium rare with mashed potatoes. The steak was grilled perfectly and very tender. My husband had crab and bacon Mac n cheese, also amazing. Very large portions– so come hungry! Our waitress was great and she was very busy.

My husband and I went here for our 1 year anniversary because of a recommendation from another restaurant that was booked for the evening.
The décor is very chic. The walls are dark and there isn’t much light so the mood is more romantic. Is was incredibly noisy from the people talking loudly. There was no music which could have made the atmosphere a little better. It felt like we were in a bar because of all the echoes screaming.
The service was not very good but once we got service it was better. We were seated immediately as we had reservation. Our waitress said she would be with us in a minute but did not even get us water for another 10 – 15 minutes. There was a large party of about 8 in the back she was catering too. Maybe a bit more practice with multitasking would be beneficial.
The food was a bit bland. We started with a pizza strips which were chicken strips with pizza toppings. There was a lot of sauce which was fantastic and there was plenty of food. I got the carbonara with chicken and added shrimp. The sauce was a bit flavorless and the bacon was over powering the dish. I like bacon so it didn’t bother me but for those of you who like a rich pasta sauce this would not be a good dish. My husband got the ragu meal. It had more flavor and was more robust but not wowing.
All in all, this was an average visit.

Visiting Hermann for the first time, my boyfriend and I were unsure where to go for dinner. We took a chance here, and were not disappointed. For an appetizer, I got the Lobster Chowder, and it was by far the best Lobster soup I’ve ever had. For the main course, I ordered the Margarita Spaghetti, and my boyfriend got the Bacon Mac & Cheese. They make the noodles from scratch, need I say more? The service was top-​notch and friendly. The food was so filling and rich. Completely recommend!!!

The food was delicious! I had a cup of the white cheddar mac n cheese and the maple bacon flash fried brussel sprouts. The only thing I wasn’t that big on was a very loud bachelorette party that was there and since the restaurant is one big room it was very echoy. The waitress was so nice and friendly and suggested to us some other places to check out while visiting Hermann.
Overall very impressive!

Located downtown on the main drag of little Hermann MO this bistro is a nice place for dinner. In fact its one of the few places for dinner in Hermann that isn’t a bar. Black Walnut Bistro is a modern looking restaurant with a nice menu. They have wine pairings listed on the menu under each entrée, many of them local wines. Their wine list has a lot of Missouri wines a few California wines as well. I enjoyed a pork tenderloin with a sweet potato purée and my husband had the bacon wrapped filet medallions. The food was very good here. The service staff was unsophisticated but they did an okay job. We came fairly late on a Friday night and the restaurant was very busy but began to clear out while we ate.
My recommendation for this restaurant would be to bring in some sound absorbing decorations. This place is very plainly decorated and VERY loud. I think some plants and textile screens or booths would be great to snaz it up a bit and break up the noise levels.
Because of the tourism drawn into Hermann to visit the wineries I think the town needs more nice restaurants like the Black Walnut and I think Black Walnut needs to step up their game a bit. A bit of training for the staff could go a long way.
If I were you and I had only one night for dinner in Hermann I would go to The Cottage. Black Walnut Bistro would be my plan B.

Definitely go here!!! Certainly one of the nicer restaurants in Hermann. My husband and I went for our first wedding anniversary. We’re big foodies and love out wine … We we’re happy to see CA and Italian wines on the list.
+ great service
+ flavor, plating, menu selection and taste … all amazing
+ family owned and run. We had the chef’s grandmothers apple cake for dessert and it was amazing. Just like you would expect from grandma … but elevated.
We shared lobster bisque which was superb. My only suggestion is to cut shrimp into bite size pieces … Hard to cut if you want a little bite with each creamy spoonful.
Chicken carbanara … I would consider requesting this as my last meal on earth. Melt in your mouth delicious.
Salads looked fresh … Very large.
We’ll be back!

Will I go back? Maybe. The food was outstanding. The pasta is handmade and outstanding. I had the Spicy Primavera. This was full of vegetables and had a tomato sauce made from sweet plum tomatoes. It was outstanding. The meal comes with a freshly made bread. This is not the traditional garlic bread but rather a soft loaf that was very tasty, especially with a little butter.
I can only give this an average rating because of the atmosphere. We called in advance to see if reservations would be needed on a Friday evening and were told that a reservation would be advisable. We made a reservation for 6:30. We called Friday afternoon to confirm and were told we could come earlier if we liked. We moved our reservation to 6:00. We arrived to an empty restaurant and were the only customers for the first 20 minutes before a second couple was seated. When we left there were three couples in the restaurant counting us. For this receiving such good ratings I was surprised at the lack of business on a Friday night. The emptiness made for an awkward situation and sapped the energy in the place.

Went here Saturday night for my birthday dinner with ten friends. The waitress handled our large party like a pro and was very friendly. She took everyone’s names with their orders to handle our multiple checks and got all our checks right the first try! Having said how awesome the service was… Let’s get to the meal!
The menu is thoughtfully composed by having a suggested wine listed below each dish. There’s also a wine list on the back. We went with a couple bottles of Apothic Red and a bottle of Hermannhoff Chambourcin.
Due to multiple good reviews, we tried the fried olive appetizer. It was good, the dipping sauce made it better. I was surprised how the blue cheese flavor was downplayed by the saltier olive flavor. Not sure I’d order it again but glad I tried it. On the other hand, I could have ordered more bowls of the lobster bisque, it was amazing. Came with a big fat lobster tail in the middle of it. I drool a little now writing about it.
For entrée, I went with the surf and turf (bacon wrapped beef medallions over shrimp risotto with a balsamic fig sauce). Oh dear, there aren’t words for how tasty this dish is. My bf got the garlic shrimp fettuccini, friends got the lamb ragu, filet mignon, seared salmon and others. Everyone sounded pleased with their dishes.
I see myself returning here for dinner anytime I’m in Hermann.

This family owned and operated gem is a relatively recent addition to the Hermann scene. It’s a keeper. Take a good look at the pictures posted by other Unilocalers. They are accurate, and the food is every bit as good as it looks. Contemporary upscale environment and a friendly staff (some of which are family to the chef) make this place feel a bit more unique than other typical upper middle class restaurants.
The food… I miss it. This chef excels at pastas. If you are a fan of olives at all, try the appetizer. These are all things that I could find myself daydreaming about.
Overall — Whether you are a local or a vacationer… go and experience this meal. You won’t regret it.
Service: ²⁶⁄₃₀
Food: ³⁰⁄₃₀
Décor: ²⁶⁄₃₀
Wine List: Short but deliberate, including the local labels.

I don’t know why this doesn’t have 5 stars… maybe the other dishes aren’t as good, but the spaghetti is literally the best spaghetti I’ve had in my entire life. And I’ve had spaghetti all over the world. The pasta is homemade but not covered in flour. And the plum sauce is seriously phenomenal. I ate the entire dish in under ten minutes and I’m usually a slow eater. So if you’re looking for some good spaghetti, you’ll find it at this gem of a restaurant in Hermann, MO.