We visited Neah Kah Nie Bistro last year and it was much better than this year’s visit. They were really short-staffed, meaning one person working the floor and one in the kitchen so any walk-ins were turned away and service was tremendously slow. It’s a small place with some outdoor seating, although the tarp over those seats was gone. I felt for the server but they should have canceled some reservations or notified guests. This was horrible. We didn’t try for a cocktail and instead were thankful to finally get to sit down. We also didn’t try for multiple courses, it took so long to get our wine and then it was the wrong bottle and vintage too. She took it back to try again but finally came back with what we drank and said they’d been delivered it by mistake. (The bill tried to reflect the charge for what we ordered and we waited to have that corrected as this wine was half the price of what we ordered – and was awful). They have a small parking lot but lots of street parking is available. Music was in the background and there was lots of light from the windows in the room to supplement the low lighting. Even so, you could tell the menus were well used and no daily specials were available. I’m sorry to say I can’t recommend this place.
Set-Up
Food
We both tried the Shrimp Pasta which was made with Wild Gulf Tiger Prawns sautéed with garlic, onions, artichoke hearts, tomatoes and spinach then coated with a sauce of cream and Italian cheese on fresh fettuccini noodles. You could order 4 or 6 prawns, at $8 a prawn. I asked the server if these were different than the prawns also on the menu that were 2 for $14 or fried at 3 for $12. She replied yes they were the same. I didn’t want to hassle her with all she had to do but it seemed odd. Even so, we both bit the bullet and ordered 6 each. First, let me say these were not Wild Gulf Tiger Prawns and when the cook brought out the plates he apologized that he didn’t have enough prawns to make the plates so he threw in some bay shrimp instead. These baby fresh water things were mushy and awful. They only added to the gloppy gummy texture of the plate. I still have no idea what the green liquid was on the plate but tried to avoid it. I hate to complain so but this was totally unacceptable, especially for a place that had been fun and tasty last year. We didn’t even get offered dessert since we turned down the box offer to take with what was left on our plates.
