Bistro 1600

The Bistro 1600 is a hotel restaurant with pretensions toward being really fancy. This means that it jacks up the prices and serves things like steaks, but not hamburgers. It’s not bad, don’t get me wrong, but man I wanted a hamburger here. Also there was no beer on tap available, just bottles. It just seemed all very strange to have some things available and some things unavailable. The waitress took a little too much time to take my order, but after that, the service was very good. The steak was fine, nothing spectacular. The bread rolls that come when you arrive are piping hot and very good. I just wish I coulda got a burger!

This is the restaurant that is located inside the Marriott in Pewaukee. As far as hotel restaurants go, it is pretty decent. I had the roasted chicken and it was pretty good — so juicy that it seemed like it was brined. Not many places have that perfect combination of crispy skin and juicy insides. Their steak was also cooked to a perfect medium rare. The buffalo wing appetizers were pretty standard and well done retaining a nice crispiness. Some of their other dishes could be a hit or miss. The burgers were a bit mediocre and were always overcooked. We had asked for it medium rare and it came back well done. We sent it back and the new one came back medium well — at this point we just ate it since it was too much trouble. The worst dish I had was the pork chop. It was so hard to cut through that my hand ended up cramping from the death grip that I had to put on the knife. The pastrami reuben is surprisingly decent — nice flavor and a moderate chewiness. What makes this place pretty decent is that their prices are relatively moderate considering that it is in the hotel.
Although there were some inconsistencies in the food preparation, some nights were really good, and others could have been better, overall it makes having a meal at the place you are staying, enjoyable. I don’t think that I would go out of my way to eat here but is a good alternative if you don’t feel like going out elsewhere.