Bistro 19

This place closed 6 weeks ago.

Another great downtown York place to eat. Lots of character and very cool décor. I had the burger and it was grilled exactly to my liking and on an fresh onion roll. We went for brunch with a group and everyone else had breakfast. My wife said her omelet was absolutely fantastic. Decent beer list as well. The server seemed very quiet at first but then seemed to open up and the overall service was above par. We will be back for sure!

Very cool list of fall beers, and the extremely sweet bartender let us taste when we were undecided. Great to sit in the window and look out onto the street. Did not try the food but loved having the place to ourselves in the afternoon after wandering around downtown. Neat old storefront just off the main drag. Wine list looked interesting, something to try for next time.

Bartender’s been friendly on the occasions I’ve been there, so I can’t fault her there. Though, I should mention, they don’t keep the bar very well stocked. Again, not really her fault.
Never had the food, not that I was terribly inclined based on reviews.
After the experience tonight, I’m pretty much done with this place. Some random staff member, maybe a manager (though, I saw him sit at the bar and drink, so who knows), was taking pictures of people who clearly weren’t happy about it, without ever asking anyone’s permission. We’re not talking performers. So, um, no.
Someone said he was posting the pics online too. Great.
Too bad, since they have a decent open mic and I was planning to check out some of their other entertainment.

Staff was nice and place was nice but the taco salad was more like a cheap bar appetizer then a 10 dollar meal… Everyone else in the group seemed to like there meals.

I ate at Bistro 19 last weekend. It’s a cool looking place with decent ambience and, for me, average food. I had the mahi-​mahi sandwich with fries. There was nothing noteworthy about it. A friend I was with had the tuna special of the evening. It looked much more interesting. He reported it was quite good. Our server, while efficient, was not at all friendly or engaging. I am rarely in York, and I highly doubt I will return to Bistro 19.

Can’t add much to what’s been said already. The menu is outdated, over-​priced and unimaginative. Ordered a grilled Caesar Salad [anchovies are not an option], but without a sharp knife was difficult to cut. It was tasty, however. My waitress was attentive and very nice. The overall speed of the restaurant, however, appeared slow as other reviews noted. This place could be a real gem.

Not well staffed for lunch. Waited and waited to be acknowledged never mind actually seated. I wasn’t the only one is this position either. The place even had open tables waiting. 1210hrs on Monday 07Jul14

Lunches are the best time to eat here. Most sandwiches and burgers are quite good and reasonable priced. The service is usually fine, the specials are good, and the beer selection isn’t bad.
Dinners are okay, though probably not the best value to cost ratio in York (unless you factor in live music — it adds greatly to the value.
Brunch is totally not worth it. While the prices aren’t bad the service was the worst I’ve had here and the food was just as bad — burnt pancakes, bland eggs, even blander potatoes. The brunch drink selection was pretty good though.
Overall I’d recommend coming here for lunch and happy hour drinks after work.

My girlfriend and I decided to try Bistro 19 for Restaurant Week tonight. We’re unfortunately now regretting that decision.
The ambiance and atmosphere were pretty nice and it seemed like a nice enough place. Our server Jennifer was phenomenal and we didn’t say anything bad to her because she was so nice.
I ordered the bacon wrapped scallops and they were delicious. The scallops and bacon were cooked perfectly. However, they were pointlessly placed on top of some spinach leaves which did nothing for the presentation. My girlfriend ordered the pork satay which should be renamed to «hell fire.» They were so spicy that neither of us could even stomach more than a bite. For being so spicy hot, they were surprisingly cold on the inside.
We both ordered chicken parmesean and figured that it would be pretty hard to screw something like that up. Boy were we wrong. The chicken was properly cooked but the cheese on top was overcooked so I literally had to cut through it numerous times before it finally separated with a piece of chicken. The worst part was the sauce though. It tasted like they took tomatoes and smashed them down and took the juices that ran out and used that as the sauce. It was the most watered down, tasteless sauce I’ve ever had. It really ruined the dish for both us. Neither of us finished our entrée and we ended up throwing out the leftovers once we left.
We were really looking forward to trying a new downtown restaurant and were pretty disappointed by what we got for our money. We definitely won’t be returning to Bistro 19 in the future.

We went to Bistro 19 for a valentines dinner with two other couples. The atmosphere was great. We had seats in a private section on the second floor. Had been in this restaurant when it was Fishers and was impressed with the layout then as well. The waitress did a great job. The food on the other hand was very hit or miss. We had to order from a limited menu which was a downer from the beginning. The apps. were pretty good. The main course was kind of a mess. We had two people that got the vegie pasta one of them had enough sauce on it, the other looked like it had none at all. One person got the chicken and it was dry. The pork tenderloin came out with no issues and the other two people had a crab cake with filet minion that was done well. For the money that was spent we could have gone down the street to the Left Bank and had a meal that would have knocked our socks off. This restaurant has great potential but falls short when it comes to the main part and that is the food.

Our friend’s band booked a show at Bistro 19 on a Saturday night so we took the drive up to enjoy a night of music. We came hungry planning to order dinner. The bartender chick was very nice and helpful. We ordered the calamari for an appetizer, salads and entrees. I got the risotto and chicken and my boyfriend ordered the rack of lamb. All the dishes on the menu sounded excellent so we were excited.
The calamari was chewy. Yuck. $ 10 or so pretty much wasted and it just continued from there. The fish was also mixed with zucchini (I think?). I’d never heard of mixing fried other things with a plate of calamari but apparently it’s a common thing. I don’t really support putting a bunch of filler in with what I ordered. but alright.
My side Caesar salad was okay. Nothing special. My boyfriend’s tuna salad was bad. Dry tuna and under-​dressed lettuce. Bleh. More wasted money!
So at this point we probably should’ve just complained to the bartender/​waitress. I just felt bad since she was really good. but we really should’ve had most of this food comped. Especially considering we were drinking there for hours.
On to the entrees, my risotto was decent but the chicken was bland. The asparagus was probably the worst I’ve ever had. It looked normal but tasted horribly burnt. I guess the «chef» was cooking on an unclean/​burnt pan or grill. Really sad.
Overall everything looked yummy but tasted bad :(Wish I had gotten a refund for most of the food. Almost $ 200 spent on an unsatisfying meal. Fire your chef! The menu sounds excellent but somebody needs to know how to cook it!
Good place to hang out and drink and listen to music but I would skip the food.

Love there weekend brunch. Would definitely recommend. & the service is always great, very friendly.

Checked into my hotel at Yorkshire Hotel. Asked the receptionist where I should go eat. He recommended me to this place, since it’s real close by (by the way, if you happen to go a bit further from the main street, the area gets pretty sketch).
So I walk in, was greeted by the bartender and she sat me at the table saying that I will be serviced by another chick.
I sat down by myself, and waited, and waited, and waited. Almost walked out and the waitress came. Gave me the dinner menu, which by the way was very sticky. The menus needs to be cleaned every once a while. Nothing on the menu looked appetizing or the price for the meal would have been unjustifiably high.
She gave me the bar menu instead and looked through it. I ended up getting the Italian something sandwich. Meh. It lacked any flavor or anything.
All in all, slow service. SLOOOOW service. York, PA doesn’t have much to offer in terms of cuisine. And unfortunately, I do have to make a visit out here once a quarter despite my business trips being not worth a dime.
SKIP.

Don’t you hate it when a night starts off with so much promise then comes crashing down like the plane from ConAir? It was boo’s cousin’s birthday and her BF was throwing her a suprise party here. Upon arriving I saw a sign that proclaimed $ 3 Troegs so at that point I figured this is already a win in my book.
The party was situated in the back of the restaurant between two tables. We had a group of about 16 – 20 people ranging in age from 28– 64 (it was a friends and family type thing). Everything was going great, the drinks were flowing we had several orders of wings going (decent wings, not great but good enough) when a manager came back and warned our group to stop smoking weed in the bathroom…
…oh word?
I wanted to pull out a little Steve Harvey on them and be like «we’re some grown ass men dog, ain’t nobody smokin’ weed in a restaurant bathroom». Mind you this is the bathroom for the entire place, not private.
Everyone just kinda brushed it off though and kept on enjoying the night. Less than a half an hour later the manager was back shouting at everyone to leave and creating a huge scene in front of the entire place accusing us of smoking weed again. He must have had his pull-​ups on that night because he was actually verbally confronting some of the guys in our party. He must not have realized that one was a Special Forces veteran that could have folded him like a pretzel. He must also not have realized that he was a manager of a restaurant and that we were customers patronizing said restaurant.
We moved a block down the road to a different bar and had a blast. Apparently Snoop Dogg hadn’t followed us because we didn’t get anymore accusations for the rest of the night.
Boo and I don’t live in York but many of the people in the party do and I’m fairly certain they won’t be returning.

I have to say I was impressed with the food at this little place in downtown York PA. It truly is a cute little place that seems very inviting.
We had the BBQ pork egg rolls as an app… and let me just say, what a pleasant surprise. They were really good and better than I had anticipated. My husband had the tomato bisque too… and even though I am not a big fan of tomato soups of any sort, I was indeed a fan based on the few bites that I had of this. As far as lunch… I went with the basic cobb salad. Was not interested in being too adventurous, so I cannot speak for the rest of the menu. Given the choices I made, I was very happy with the meal.
The only complaint that I have is that there was one person serving the tables who was also manning the bar. This made the service quite slow and it made it harder to get refills on beverages. If they do something about this, I would take it up to 4 stars (or maybe at least 3.5 if I could).

No way in hell the salmon I ordered was wild (even tho it was advertised as such).
The berry and nut salad was good. My friends pork tenderloin was yummy too.
In general not a bad meal but I don’t think I would return.

My wife and I are hanging out in York for a few days away from Long Island… why York, you may ask… why not? Bistro 19 is right around the corner from our hotel (The Yorktowne, which is pretty cool, if I may say that on Bistro 19’s review) so we walked past some sort of political protest going on in the square to grab some dinner.
The vibe inside is pretty cool. It reminded me of some places that we have been to in Portland, Oregon and Chicago. Our server was helpful, and pretty insightful about the dishes, and we ordered the chicken cheesesteak egg rolls, the brook trout special, and the Bayou Shrimp and Crawfish (which our server was especially enthusiastic about).
The egg rolls were tasty, and had plenty of melted cheese and sriracha to make them even more delightful. They were wrapped in an onion ring which made for an excellent presentation (I am a sucker for good presentation). They were tasty, and we enjoyed them (c’mon melted cheese and sriracha, what’s not to love?). Full disclosure, I will probably order something a little different next time because they are a little heavy for an appetizer (but seriously… you do need to try them).
Next came our salads… they were small, with a REALLY good housemade balsamic vinaigrette.
Ok, about the entrees… the Bayou shrimp and crawfish was pretty tasty… had some andouille sausage, a great etouffe sauce and some polenta. This was pretty dang good. It says it is spicy, but it was more of a pleasant and flavorful kick (my wife liked it, and she doesn’t do spicey). My wife’s brook trout was pretty impressive. the fish had crab meat and other stuff on top and it was quite tasty (I might have finished it off for her later than night in the hotel). All in all, it was a nice meal, in a cool little place. This is definitely worth a visit.
One side note, in case the management of Bistro 19 is reading these reviews. Our server mentioned that waitstaff is not allowed to order the specials. While I understand why that might seem like a good idea, might I suggest you at least put out a plate that would allow them to sample it? My wife was a little nervous about the special and asked our server if she had tried it. Solid info from the server would have been a huge help for her. Just sayin.
Bottom Line: go, eat, enjoy.

Was doing some business downtown and dropped in here on a spur with the wife. It was a bit early for the typical lunch crowd so we had no problems getting seated and served. I like their untypical beer selections, better than you normal watered down stuff you get at any chain place.
I ordered the pretzel sandwich and she ordered the Philly roast beef. Both were surprisingly flavorful and each had a different touch to them to make them something else than… boring. I was seriously impressed, so much so that a couple days later when I was back finishing my paperwork I made it a point to come back here for lunch again.

I really like the ambience of Bistro 19. I especially like what I call «The Courtyard» which looks like a little city courtyard with a 2-​story ceiling, skylight and a balcony overhead. But you go to a restaurant for the food, right? It’s okay. It’s not the best, it’s certainly not terrible. Last time I was there, I had the cheesesteak egg rolls which really were excellent. My sandwich was beef tips on a ciabatta. It was good, but I thought it was overpriced for a smallish sandwich with some fries. I think it was $ 13 or $ 14.
I just checked their menu and it seems they updated it. It’s much smaller than the last time I was there, in early April. I think that’s a good thing. The chef has skills, they just need to be better focused.