bistro elephant

terrible restaurant experience, awful service. wow, this had to be the worst restaurant experience i have ever had in my life. this is a restaurant with 5 star prices and 1 star service.

my wife and i were here for our anniversary and were seated to our table. after 10 minutes of no server coming to take our order i waved down a near by waiter and told him about the situation and he said "ok i'll take care of it". thinking that this was problem solved i continued to look at the menu expecting our waiter to come any moment. after another 5 minutes of the table next to us (who were seated 8 minutes after us) being served we had enough. i flagged down the waiter one more time, told him how disgusted i was of their awful service and all he told me was (pointing to hostess) "talk to her she screwed up.". wow i couldn't believe my ears that a supposedly classy restaurant would not even try to make things right.

we left that restaurant and went to the nearby pastabilities which will be a less fancy restaurant gave us great service.

i couldn't recommend against this restaurant more. awful service and attitude!

one of the best kept secrets in town. fine dinning at its best. highly recommend!

hidden gem in syracruse. in town for easter, we happened to see the restaurant sign down the block. they have two menus due to their sister restaurant, so you get a steakhouse menu and a thai menu. the ambiance and decor is top notch and they had live music in the bar (a bassist and violin i believe). we had the berkshire pork, a ribeye, the famous tamarind duck, and the scallops special. everything was absolutely gorgeous on the plate and delicious. we tried a few things off their drinks menu, including honey whiskey which was smooth. the desserts were what put this experience over the top. the "lady's slipper" and the "red balloon" were extravagant and playful. the lady's slipper was literally a piece of cake formed to a high heel, with chocolate ganache and dark chocolate formed into a butterfly to garnish it. the next table asked if they could take pictures of it as well. the red balloon is sorbet that has been frozen in liquid nitrogen, so you have to break it open to eat it. just stunning. i highly recommend this restaurant, and can say it was one of my all-time best dining experiences. i travel the country for destinations like this, and it was lucky that we stumbled upon this one with no research or referral. i will be back. our waiter was tops, and handled our many questions, phototaking, and constant drink-ordering with a smile and a nod.

roasted, then stewed, this pork belly was rendered down and luscious, with a hint of smoke flavor and a nice jus. it was served with chili tamarind sauce and little fried buns a la bao but with a bit more flavor and texture due to the frying technique. they had a light crispness outside, but were much more pillowy and fluffy inside than another other asian steamed buns i’ve had. thumbs up.