Bistro 63 At the Monkey Bar & Grill

All 3 of us loved everything we were served, from drinks to dessert… And we loved our server Frida too! The lobster corn chowder was thick with little chunks of lobster, as was the seafood risotto loaded with tender shrimp and scallops… I even came up with a 2″ piece of lobster claw halfway through my bowl! Frida modestly described the appetizer «French pillows» as upscale fried mozzarella but wow! Fluffy cheese inside the most delicate, crispy breaded shell that was spicy/​savory with just a touch of heat. Also loved the Gorgonzola steak and lovely Portuguese stew, again crammed with shellfish and chorizo. We finished with a wonderful not-​too-​sweet almond– crusted white chocolate raspberry torte and excellent coffee. Well done!

Good quality, good service. Unique and classic dishes. Wide variety; comfort food. Special cocktails

Was here on Valentine’s 2016, to visit Amherst college the next day. I’m from NYC originally, so I know restaurants.
Service was slow. Place was a lot bigger than it seems, because it has a whole back room. The food, however, was solidly mediocre.
My partner and I both started with the Lobster Chowder, because it was soooo cold outside. Had a nice flavor but was very stingy on actual lobster. Furthermore, it came out only slightly warm, in room temperature porcelain. (Why not heat the plates?) It did not, sadly, warm us up.
Next up we split half-​and-​half the steak and the bistro pork.
Steak was nice (who messes up steak, anyway?), the Gorgonzola and mashed potatoes fine. The sauce, however, was nothing to write home about.
The pork was tender, but its «glaze» was flavorless, the «Apple compote» was just apple sauce, and the polenta was heavy and grainy (rather than creamy and smooth).
Again, the dishes ended up cold by the time you were halfway through them – which I might not gripe about, except that it was 5 degrees outside!
Finally, we decided to skip dessert. I would not go back.

My #1 favorite restaurant in Amherst, MA.
Great staff, AMAZING food!
I go for drinks and oysters, and the beet salad is a perennial favorite.
The bartenders are very knowledgeable, they always change-​up the menu to keep it interesting.
You simply cannot beat their oysters in Western Mass. So fresh, so yummy.
This is a great place to bring a date, or meet friends. This is a hip eatery, not a collegiate watering hole.

Came with no expectations. Very pleasantly impressed with great seafood meals (one was tuna/​Wasabi mashed potatoes, the other blackened scallops, with risotto). Plates were quite pretty as well. Service pleasant and prompt. Decent wine list. Extremely good value.

Great place! Happened to drop in on a Saturday night with a buddy for some drinks. The bar-​tender was very knowledgeable and engaged us in some great conversations about bourbon, our elixir for the night. The charcutterie plate was delicious!

I had high hopes for this place, but it didn’t quite deliver. The lobster corn chowder was served too thick and the cream had broken. Clearly it had sat too long or been cooked too fast and too hot, because it was more of a sauce, and a broken one at that.
They did redeem themselves with the mussels and clams, which was delicious. I would stay away from the crab melts though — I’m still unclear exactly what those were, and we sent them back. They did exchange them for something else at no cost, though.
Had a great sour beer, and their beer list was full of nice craft beers. So that was a plus.

Love it here!!! The management is very impressive. The hostess was attentive and friendly and always helping out everyone. From the moment we walked in all the staff were trying to help us out. Also our waiter (forget his name he was an older man) was very good and funny too! He helped give us suggestions that we really enjoyed. I got the salmon with risotto and my boyfriend got the steak Gorgonzola. I would definitely recommend the risotto. We finished everything. We also got the burrata for an app and it was yummy :) over all very happy and will be back soon

Over priced.
Friendly staff.
Drinks were way over priced and watered down with too much ice.
Food is ok, but for the prices…
We won’t be back

This was the best meal I’ve had all year. I’m almost speechless. The risotto was better than my grandmother’s, and she was Northern Italian. The focaccia, eggplant al forno, and gumbo — all exquisite. The only thing I recommend a pass on is the dessert. But the utter deliciousness of my main meal can only lead me to give this bistro five stars. Eat here.

Great food, service, and environment. Our server’s recommendations were on point, and the beer selection is almost unmatched for restaurants in Amherst.

Bistro 63 has been a staple in Amherst for a long time and it never disappoints! The food and service is very excellent. It has been recently spruced up with what looks like new booths and it looks lovely. My favorite thing we ordered was the shrimp cocktail. They were very delicious!

I have had suppers only, at this excellent downtown establishment on average, only about twice per year, for the last 15 years. The food has always been top notch. The staff has always been attentive, knowledgeable, and willing to customize their menu to accommodate your personal culinary quirks. The prices are reasonable too. So, why only twice per year? I don’t know why! Maybe it’s a self esteem thing. Something akin to not feeling worthy of being treated so well. I don’t drink alcohol either, so maybe a bar feel makes me skittish. I alway get a table or booth nowhere near the bar. Nevertheless, this place is a slam dunk for an excellent dining experience. And, being an excellent amateur chef myself, I’m hard to please.

In my humble opinion, the best restaurant and bar here in Amherst. The food is scrumptious, from the oysters to the lamb to the burgers to the… well you get the point. Is it a bit pricey?
Maybe? but not really… I mean you are getting quality and it is so worth it. The bartender… I forget his name… argh…he is awesome… very knowledgable and knows how to make a perfect drink. You can come with your family, your friends or just come by yourself, you will always feel comfortable and and satisfied :).

We had a party of ten after the UMass graduation last weekend (I had made a reservation far in advance) and Bistro 63 delivered a great dining experience for our large group. We had a table tucked in a quiet corner of the bar area. The server was efficient and attentive. The drinks menu had a good variety of wines, microbrews, and craft cocktails that we sampled from liberally.
The pâté‘ appetizer was a real winner, ordered by several in our party. I had the butternut squash ravioli as a main dish and it was quite good. My wife gave high marks as well to her sashimi sesame charred tuna entrée.
With a couple of drinks, appetizer, and entrée, the bill was about $ 50 per person with the 20% tip that was added automatically because of the group size. Everyone felt it was a great overall experience, from the adventurous foodies to the picky eaters (they gladly made a custom pasta dish for one of them).
Points to Bistro 63 for coming through on what is probably one of their busiest weekends of the year, and for a pretty high maintenance big party. We’ve been making the rounds of many of the Amherst restaurants while our daughter lived there the past four years, and this place was one of the best meals we had in that time.

lunch recently on a rainy day, sat at the bar, bartendress was pleasant and very informative, both our meals were excellent and the choice of liquors very interesting, of the perhaps 20 gins available i was only familiar with 4, thay also have flights of liquor if you wish… nice place, good food and drink.

Huge recommendation on the risotto, I went with chicken, mushroom, and spinach for one of the best meals of my life. The bar stocks Duchesse de Bourgogne which, the worlds best beer.

My husband and I stopped in here for a late lunch, and what a delicious lunch it was. We were the only diners in the restaurant so it might’ve been more fun if there was a crowd-​generated buzz in the air, but that almost didn’t seem to matter at all once the drinks and food were served. I started with the butternut squash soup which was piping hot (a *must* for me!) and savory, but with a hint of sweetness. For the main course we each ordered the caprese panini with prosciutto. It was quite flavorful. My favorite, though, had to be the FRIES! They were coated in a crispy batter with what looked to be Old Bay seasoning. We were just visiting Amherst for the day, but if we were to be back in town again we would definitely come here for another lunch, or even to try out dinner.

Visiting Amherst as a possible place to move to. We were wondering the streets on a Sunday afternoon and by luck, found this one.
Walked in and were unsure exactly what we were expected to do and it looked like nothing. The place was busy… very busy. The servers were milling around trying so hard to take care of everybody, but ignoring us to the point of irritation. We were left standing there for a good 5 minutes before anyone ever greeted us. If there is no regular host (ess) on duty but it is your designated job, you need to drop what you’re doing and take care of it. Leaving me standing and waiting to get a seat without greeting or acknowledging that I’m there, is a faux pas difficult to recover from.
Finally seated we were greeted by our server Jenna. When she had time she was pleasantly conversant with us and after talking for awhile about possibly moving there she said, «I really want you guys to move here. It’s such a great place to live.» Now, I don’t know if she was working the tip to make up for lost time or what. I guess it didn’t matter because whatever she was doing it almost made it ok that we were left standing.
From that point forward we were well taken care of. However, the time left standing on entering kind of lost them a star. I think we’ll go back and allow them to make up for it.
What I had I loved: Mediterranean Grilled Fish. They gave you a choice of Tuna, Swordfish or Salmon, and I had the tuna because there was no guarantee of the salmon being wild and it’s moot because it’s the east coast. Swordfish is never a good choice. I’m not sure you can get wild caught Pacific salmon there. I’ll just have to investigate that. The tuna was grilled & served over organic mixed greens topped with cherry tomatoes, capers, calamata olives, feta cheese & fresh basil. All those flavors were just meant for each other and when you top it off with a nice Pinot Grigio, well, there ya have it.
When we move to Amherst, and I soooo want to do that, I have a feeling this place is going to be a regular and I have every confidence they will redeem themselves.

We popped in for drinks in between events that we were visiting Amherst for this weekend. Our bartender, once we finally were given attention, was very knowledgable and helpful in making selections, especially after a drink we ordered on the menu wasn’t available. He mixed our drinks and then disappeared, to our dismay, since the rest of the staff could not be bothered to help us. I’m not sure if it’s because we didn’t order food that we received such treatment but, um, that’s why we chose to sit at the bar. The last drink I ordered, I had to practically beg the waitress to talk to us, after her banter with other staff members and loitering around the kitchen cracking jokes. In all fairness, it looked like the waitstaff also staff the bar but my sympathy diminished when I realized that you could probably assign a staffed person to each party and still have excess. This is to say it was not a busy time of day (it was that weird lull between lunch and dinner).
The drinks were OK — I ordered the Elderflower Fizz which was neither fizzy nor prominently elderflowered, and my boyfriend ordered some sort of custom margarita with mezcal since their featured spicy margarita (with a name that currently escapes me) was unavailable (no mango purée in house). I ordered the UFO Raspberry Hefenweizen and it tasted like it must’ve been at the end of the keg or something because it tasted a little too bitter/​skunky to be said beer. I’ve had it before and, in the past, it has been more berry flavored. I’m willing to bet that it was indeed almost over and waiting to be switched out as I noticed none of the beers had seasonally fall flavors except Oktoberfest.
The food looked very good — lots of seafood to choose from, especially a pretty good looking raw bar. The couple next to us ordered fish and chips and the portions looked pretty generous. If you’re going to try it out, I would suggest going on a day where you feel like being leisurely/​spending the majority of your time there, waiting. And waiting. And waiting.