Z Bistro

Unasumming little place in downtown Springfield, which, by the way, does NOT have a plethora of eating options. We loved it! Both of us had burgers, me, a classic but without cheese. Wife had the bbq bacon cheeseburger. Both well done. Both done perfectly by the grill chef. One of the tastiest burgers i have enjoyed in awhile. They also have beer, wine, and oddly enough on the menu, Martinis! It’s a small place, the service was friendly and efficient. Small outdoor seating, like 2 tables or so. Menu has plenty of options if you don’t feel like a burger. Beer is bottled, no draft. Clean inside. So good we ate lunch here the 2^nd day, and had exactly the same things. Cudos to the grill chef, you know how to make killer burgers!

Really yummy burgers here! The service was friendly; it was busy with a lunchtime crowd and when our server, who I think was the owner, came to our table after not too long, he apologized for the delay. Not a fancy place but if you are looking for a good burger, head here!

This place is a hidden gem. Great service and friendly staff. I had a chicken sandwich with basil Mayo that was great!

Nice place to get a quick lunch. Typical café menu but both items we ordered were good. We ordered the Buffalo Horseshoe and a Chicken Wrap. The service was excellent. There was two waitresses and they were non-​stop the whole time checking on on their tables and greeting every person as soon as they walked in the door. Would definitely go back!

Gyro had no good taste.
And the fries were not as we ordered.
Crispy, came light and mushy.

This was a lovely, small, spotless restaurant with wonderful food and amazing service. My very picky husband got the Chicken Bruschetta and said it was one of the best restaurant dinners ever. I had the chicken caesar salad and loved it. The service was outstanding, very caring, but not intrusive. There was a couple at the table next to us that had the fondue and they were very delighted! We would definitely recommend that you try this establishment!

Had the daily special: taco salad. It came out quickly and hot. Great place to stop in a grab a quick lunch. People around me got various other items from their menu: horseshoes, burgers, wraps, etc. and I did not hear one complaint. This is a good place to come visit when in downtown Springfield.

Bad food, incompetent service. Went here today with a couple friends and we were eating outside. The lady brought out the wrong dish for me and one of my friends and didn’t come back to the table for 15 minutes. She didn’t even have an explanation. We both ordered the same thing and we both got the same wrong thing. We said it was alright and we’d troop through and finish what she gave us so as not to cause a scene but assuming we would get the meal comped. We got the bill and she still charged us for the wrong things. Not only that, but the lady was imposing herself into our conversation and telling us stories we didn’t give two shits about. I would vehemently oppose going back here and would not recommend it to anyone.

I rarely ever write reviews but this place is TURRIBLE (In Charles Barkley voice). I don’t even know where to begin. To put it simple, do not waste your time going here. Springfield has much better establishments near this area and throughout the city than this place. It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode «The Café» where Babu tries to open a restaurant with American food despite being Pakistani. No knock on the owner, but the burger I had was a frozen patty that I could have easily whipped up at home (no seasoning what so ever) and french fries that came out of Aldi. The service was TURRIBLE and you could tell through observing other customers eating there that they were extremely frustrated by the service as well. Its places like this that should give future entrepreneurs hope when thinking about opening up a restaurant because if this place can do it, a middle school culinary class could match it. They claim to be a bistro but their menu consists of a elementary school lunch menu. I recommend somewhere else to eat if you must.

*Only reason why this trash heap, which calls itself a restaurant, gets the coveted one star review is because there is no zero star option.
Let me preface this review by first saying that I am not one of those pretentious hipster foodies. This is also my first ever Unilocal review. Normally when I go to a terrible restaurant, and I use the term restaurant loosely, I just chalk it up as a loss and move on, but this place was truly so bad that it warranted a review. I also hate complaining and could probably count on one hand the amount of times I’ve sent food back. I worked in the service industry when I was younger, so I understand it can be difficult sometimes, but some people just aren’t meant to run a restaurant.
Firstly, this place has about 12 tables, 4 of which were piled 4 – 5 plates high, accompanied with glasses, leftover food scraps, etc. I thought that possibly the people just left and they didn’t have time to clean it yet, but that garbage wasn’t touched for the hour I was there. It got to the point that the waiter had to move some of the garbage out of the way so he could rest his tray down to serve the food. I love it when my food and plates touch other peoples used napkins. Adds flavor
Service– Miserable. The guy taking our order didn’t pick up the menus when we were done, following in the same pattern of not picking up anything off of the table, and he took about 10 minutes to bring us our drinks. So I asked him, politely, if we could please get our drinks, and he looked at me like I was crazy, saying «don’t worry its coming». The food took forever, and he did not one time come and ask us if we needed anything, any refills, how’s the food, nothing. Then when it comes time to get the check, we wait about 20 minutes until finally I ask another waitress to help us out and get the checks. And when you do get your checks, the experience isn’t over. You have to wait in line to go in the kitchen to pay on an outdated credit card machine. The whole process takes about 10 minutes.
Food– possibly worse than the service. I’d love to talk to any of these other reviewers who gave even an average review for the food. What did you get there? It certainly wasn’t anything we ordered. Ordered a gyro: the meat was uniform in shape, making it obvious that it was frozen and came out of a box. Lettuce was wilted, and the tzatiki sauce was actual sour. Just terrible. And my 7 dollar sandwich doesn’t comes with fries? Bro, potatoes cost fifty cents. If you’re gonna charge that much for a small and cheaply made sandwich, at least grab some ready-​made fries out of the freezer, stick them in the microwave for 30 seconds, and give them to me.
Overall, the only redeeming quality about this «restaurant» is I saved money on the tip. When you are on your lunch break and under a time crunch, you don’t want to spend over an hour at a restaurant, especially when half the time you’re playing a game of Where’s Waldo with the waiter. The only way I’d ever recommend this place is if A) Everything else was closed and you had a bunch of kids that want terribly made hot dogs and fries (which cost extra), or B) I didn’t like the person I was sending there, and/​or I wanted to play a practical joke on them.

My friends/​co-​workers came here for lunch and had excellent food. I had the chicken wrap with fries and my friends/​co-​works had a Springfield staple, the horseshoe with buffalo chicken, it was very delicious, I tasted it and loved the cheese sauce.

If you love frozen French fries on toast with canned cheese sauce, get the horseshoe!!! If not, try the gyros wrap or salads… just mediocre with very friendly staff. Open later on Friday and Saturday. Owner was willing to bring desert to comp, but too full of French fries to do justice.

Came with a party of 4…
Not one of us was impressed with the food, cleanliness or service here.
Definitely a one-​timer…

Wow.. EXTREMELY slow and food about what I could make at home. To be fair, our waitress was friendly.

The coffee is less expensive here than elsewhere and just s good. Unlike most places the refills are free. They are open 6 days a week 8 – 8. The food is good. The breakfast sandwich is a great start for the day on swirl rye. They have very good sandwiches and wraps. My favorite is not on the menu now but called «The Sandwich.» It has several things but chicken salad and bacon are 2 of the parts.

We were deceived by the name. «Z Bistro» is no bistro at all. Rather, it is a mom & pop «hotdog joint» at best. We saw the name and the fleur de lis symbol outside so we were expecting French food and a somewhat «hoity toity lunch». Nope. No French food at all. Z Bistro’s offerings were in the range of chili soup, hotdogs, fries, a «chicken gyro» which I ordered which turned out to be no gyro at all. It was just dry/​flavorless grilled chicken on a pita — which I ended up not eating because it was not good at all.
We were so hungry when we arrived in Springfield and didn’t want to go back out into the rain to find another restaurant, we just chucked it up and ate here.
The food was forgettable, service was ok (nice waitresses but a bit spacey).
I did like the way they cleaned the tables (with chlorine water — yes, I could smell the chlorine). Kudos on this, Z Bistro.
Suggestion, Z Bistro: Perhaps change your name to «Z Mom & Pop Stop» or something like that. Get rid of the pretentious fleur de lis symbol all over the front door, awning, and windows, and just replace it with photos of burgers, fries, etc. That way, unsuspecting Springfield visitors do not get fooled by your pretty façade.
I know. I know. Fool us once. Shame on us. Now, we know better.
2 stars for the friendly service and the way they cleaned the tables. Would not recommend because food was just not good.

The reason take away 2 stars is the confusing ordering process. There’s a lady waiting in front of the counter blocking your way to sit down and asking for your order before you even see the menu. I kinda feel sorry for her, because she’s put in the cross fire and doesn’t even have a podium to stand behind like a normal hostess. But, she isn’t really a hostess she is taking orders and doesn’t sit you and has to keep track of you when you sit down.
So, after you finally order, you’re giving a cup to go to the soda fountain and get your water, you sit down, eat and, then, they give you a check. The process is discouraging for new, unbeknownst patrons. As you awkwardly try to get the watiresses attention after you scarf down your meal and want to leave quickly. I guess this system is just a distraction from slow service.
Anywayz, the only veggie option, a veggie pita of some sort is surprisingly good. I give this place 3 stars, because of the convenient location, the front person dealing with the weird system well, it’s a small business, and because the veggie pita was worth the confusion.

I recently went to Z Bistro for a fondue dinner. I ordered Z’s combo which I found to be a great deal for the amount of food you get. I especially loved the scallops. My tip: save room for desert as it is amazing!

I’ve only been for dinner fondue. The décor isn’t anything special — but the food is good & moderately priced for fondue. They can be under-​staffed, so I recommend calling ahead for a reservation. You can order a full fondue meal, or by individual courses. If you go as a group, you can get several options of the dessert fondues.