Prima Bistro

I have mixed feelings. The service was great! Friendly, professional, and our server made good suggestions. However, after hearing all the locals rave about how good the food was, we were a bit disappointed. Cold bread and brussel sprouts that were mushy, practically burnt (beyond a typical caramelizing char), and too garlicky. I got the penn cove mussel and the broth was underwhelming. I’m hoping it was just a fluke.

The service was very good, prompt and friendly. The good was great. I had the crispy pork belly and duck confit, both some of the best I’ve had recently. The prices aren’t bad. And to top it off the view is spectacular, right across the street from the water.

Ask how many shrimp come in the shrimp cocktail. The ten dollar cocktail. I’ll tell you, 3. There are three shrimp in the «Shrimp Cocktail». Let’s go ahead and bump er up knotch…$$$$. However the food is good, it just might take $ 150 to feed a couple.

We arrived with six adults and six toddlers and babies and they were very accommodating and friendly to us. We weren’t sure how it was going to go since the kiddos hadn’t napped and it being a fairly quiet bistro, HOWEVER, they made us feel welcome despite everyone looking at our enormous entourage as we came upstairs. I will definitely come back! The lamb burger was Amazing and the frites/​fries were some of the best I’ve ever had. Also the French77 was a great tasting cocktail.

Very nice location with waterfront views.
Food was very good and service was cheerful yet professional.
We will most certainly return again and again!

We had a great lunch here. A very unassuming spot, upstairs a grocery and variety store. The mussels were fresh and delicious. Fish frites were excellent too. Service could use a little prod in the way of attentiveness but overall an excellent meal.

The only negetive… slow service. However, the food makes up for it ten times over. I enjoyed the Guiness with some Duck Fried Potato Fingerlings. Then I had a the Croque Madam which in short blew my mind. I just about danced a jig it was so good. Don’t be freaked out about the contents… it really was incredible when together!!!

Service: ⁵⁄₅
Food: 4.5÷5
Server was prompt, thorough, knowledgeable, and friendly. He gave recommendations and accommodated requests.
I had the lamb chops. Others had mussels and chicken. All the food was rich and flavorful. Lamb and chicken were served with fried polenta, which was delicious, but I would have like to have the option for a vegetable instead. Mussels were served with fries which were skinny and crispy just the way I like them. Other menu items looked just as good!
Atmosphere is pleasant.
Overall, great place to dine.

Normally I mistrust restaurants with great views, especially in tourist towns, because they have so little incentive to have good food. But incentives aside, Prima Bistro manages to excel in both categories at once. It’s worth waiting for a spot on the deck if you can, where you’ll have an amazing view of the sky, sea, and sunset. (They have heat lamps *and* blankets to keep you cozy from the sea breeze.)
And then the food is really very good all around — the snails, the sardines, the smoked salmon, and the caesar salad were a few of my favorites (you could do well ordering nothing but small plates). Oh, and the remarkably funky fermented pickle that tasted intensely of tarragon, apparently because «the chef doesn’t like dill.»
Disappointing desserts, and also stay away from the ham and parmesan «beignet.»

Guided here by the great reviews. Thanks! Went twice in past week for lunch and Happy Hour (after 3) menu items. Everything was very good and some notable items include mussels (both au curry and garlic wine were fabulous and the small order is more than enough for one), chicken liver mousse, lamb chops, beet salad, calamari, and like the reviews say — great burgers, esp the lamb burger. The «go to» place in Langley.

Stopped in Langley on a tourist day, ready for dinner, saw this place at the end of the street, decent reviews, so we walked in. Upstairs. Deck over the dry goods store was full. We were seated in the back near the bar. Not a view seat, but spacious and comfy for our party of four. Local craft on tap. Always a good start. Appetizers: fried almonds, Ham and Parmesan beignets, and charcuterie (home made). I have to say, they do love their smoked and preserved meats on Whidby. They were out of their home made pickles. Bummer. Entrees were Mussels, Clams and Chorizo, Fish & Chips and Honeyed Prawns. All local, ultra fresh and tasty. While prices definitely catered to a well heeled tourist crowd, it’s worth the visit.

We were trying to get into the grocery store down on the street, couldn’t find the door, and decided to get drinks up at the patio bar upstairs. Much better choice than a case of beer! This is a real bar that presses citrus, pickles veggies, and makes their own syrups. They have wines on tap, a nice list of libations, and a knowledgeable bartender who was helpful and pleasant. I wish we hadn’t just eaten because it smelled delicious in the room!

This place is the place to be in Langley. Amazing views, and amazing food. My bf, and our friends ferried over to check this place out as it was recommended by one of my colleagues.
At first the hostess was unattentive and after we were sat down we got no service for like 20 minutes, but after it was all sorted out we got the best waitress ever! So that actually didn’t sour the experience at all. The food, our drinks, the view and our waitress gave this place a 6 if possible.
We came in at happy hour and ordered a bunch of small plates. The veal meat balls I have to say were amazing as well as their calamari. It was a hot afternoon so drinks were in order. Andrew and I ordered the Back Yard lemonade which was fantastic and Jessica ordered a bloody mary which was just a work of art.
I could talk about this place non-​stop, but my thumbs are tired. I highly recommend this place if you are looking to spend a little more for an amazing food experience.

Servers were great. Very attentive and accommodating.
Food was very good. Seafood was fair and the burger was quite good.
The chickpea fries with curry mayo were a favorite.

Eaten here about 10 times over the years. Weekends in the summer a reservation is a MUST. Great roof top dining. Last night had the Wild Boar Ragout. good noodle texture and the boar was very good. Could have been a bit hotter. Kimberly had the Duck which was perfectly prepared. They serve Whidbey Island wines which are excellent. Winery is less than 10 minutes away, go visit!
Indoor dining is relaxed, tables are spaced well and the view of the town of Langley is always enjoyable.
Service is friendly, timely and the after dinner liquor and desert menu is very good.
If you are an Absinth fan… they have a good selection.

A cozy little restaurant.
I started out with a Moscow mule– yum. Then we shared some calamari which was very good.
I got a Cesar salad for my main meal. It was good but the dressing had a unique intense flavor at the end which I liked, but was different. My boyfriend got claims and cherrizo small plate and enjoyed it but said it was very spicy!

The hubs and I had four small plates here, and all four were delicious. The house smoked salmon was delicious, the Penn Cove mussels were very tasty, and a very generous portion for the «small»! I tried the roasted bone marrow for the first time, and WOW. So much flavor packed into such a small portion! Just. Delicious. Then we also had the chickpea fries with curry mayonnaise. Our server said that the fries were really just a vehicle for the curry mayo, and while the fries were incredibly tasty, the mayo was Delish! Note about chickpea fries: do not expect chickpea fries to be starchy in the middle like potato fries; they’re made with chickpea flour and will be creamy/​stodgy on the inside. Also, fun fact: chickpea fries are higher in fiber and protein than regular fries. Although, the curry mayo may cancel that out…
We dined outside on probably one of the last days of summer after hiking at nearby Earth Sanctuary. Ambiance was fantastic. Our server was very nice and friendly, although service did seem a bit slow. Perhaps this was because they were pretty busy, even at 3pm! Hopefully we will be back in the near future for dinner. I’d love to check out some more of their delicious menu!

Best restaurant on whidney island! I love their happy hour, its french so dishes are small but filling. My favorites are the duck, lamb and escargot.
They also have a patio for summer :)

The Penn Cove mussels were hands-​down the best mussels I have ever eaten anywhere in any restaurant in the world. I’m normally more of a steamer clam fan, but they were out of those, so I went with the mussels, and am so glad that I did. The friends that I took to Whidbey Island for the day were visiting me from New Orleans, Louisiana, and they loved the mussels as well. They also greatly enjoyed the daily special of coq au vin… I didn’t try it, but it looked authentic. Big compliment from natives of the Big Easy, where great food is cheap and plentiful and usually easier to find than here in the Pacific Northwest.
We found the service at Prima Bistro to be excellent as well. The expectation of my Southerner friends, unlike those of us who live here in Northwest, is that one will chat with everyone one meets, and this is especially true of waitstaff at restaurants. Everyone was very friendly to us at Prima Bistro, and didn’t even mind stopping to have a 3-​minute conversation with one of my friends about the iced tea.
Now, back to those mussels… You can can get them with either a traditional white wine/​garlic/​butter sauce or a curry sauce that appeared to include leeks and cream… curry isn’t my favorite flavor, so I went with tradition. You can choose between appetizer size and dinner size portions. We all went with our own dinner size dishes, because, well, mussels aren’t typically super-​filling.
The mussels were served in individual cast-​iron pots that they had apparently been cooked in. This was a lovely touch, and made you feel more like you were at a beach clambake than in a restaurant. It turned out that the sauce choice wasn’t very important, because the mussels themselves were so perfect that they almost didn’t need any sauce. They really tasted like they had been picked that morning, just down the street at Penn Cove. Each mussel was a perfectly tender, flavorful bite with just a touch of briny saltiness from the Puget Sound. I will tell you that I was so enraptured by them that I didn’t even mind that maybe two of them were still a bit sandy, and I normally loathe sandiness in shellfish… but in this case it just added to the overall effect.
A perfect dish for a perfect day on Whidbey Island. If you go there, get the mussels!

Prima B is back!
Delighted to provide a positive update — despite being a Friday night in peak-​season July, the food, service and ambience were all stellar! I also discovered a new pairing: the toasted almond appetizer and cold draft pilsner — delicious!