So it was a dark and stormy night, and the beautiful and lovely K and I found ourselves with an available night for a little date. Actually, it wasn't dark nor stormy, but that was a good enough lead in to grab your attention. And having an available night was totally planned as we conned Daddyo and Ma into keeping C-Monster and J-Train. And by conned I mean simply asked. So with a nice night and a planned date, K recommended we try a place called Bedford Bistro. She had been there before with some friends and thought I would love it. To get there you basically have to drive through a neighborhood and then boom, you're at a restaurant. It is right in the middle of Bedford off of Falls of Neuse, so I guess it literally is in the middle of a neighborhood. We had called ahead to make a reservation for two, which may have been the most confusing ordeal I've ever had while making a reservation. The first guy acted like he didn't know what a reservation was, but took my name and details before handing me off to the guy who does reservations who also took my name and details. By this time, I'm sure they knew exactly who I was. When we got there, it was fairly empty, but I still told them we had a reservation. Apparently they didn't know who we were because they were confused until they saw my name taped to the counter. Whew, that was close. Also, sarcasm is hard to relay when written.
We sat down at our table and were greeted with menus and a very friendly waitress. They had a bar with a decent beer and wine selection so K got a glass of red wine and I got a People's Porter beer. Apparently this beer was billed as an English style beer, so I ordered it in honor of the royal wedding. After all, we have an American in the royal family now, so we'll be taking them over for the inside. On the eve of Independence Day no less! They brought us out some of their delicious bread to snack on while we scanned the menu. This bread is kind of a buttery, parmesany tiny breadstick kind of bread that comes with two delicious dipping sauces. Almost worth coming just for the bread. Just as a heads up, the first one is free but if you want another, it is $2.50. I'm not going to say we got a second round, but I'm not going to say we didn't. The menu here is pretty extensive. They have everything from sandwiches and burgers to pastas and entrees all the way to pizzas. Amazing how they can be so diverse. Of course, I was drawn to the burgers. K was torn, as she planned on having something nicer and fancier. Since she had her heart set on the grilled salmon, so we went with the culinary version of the mullet and split our dishes. We would start with splitting a first course of business with the grilled salmon, and then finish with a party of burger on the back side. So with a compromise in action, K ordered the grilled salmon and I went with The Day Breaker burger. The grilled salmon is, well, grilled salmon while The Day Breaker has Applewood smoked bacon, fried egg, American cheese and Sriracha mayo on a pretzel bun. Burger ordered medium, per the usual.
The food came out promptly and looked fantastic. The salmon came with a side of asparagus and tiny little potato pieces while the burger came out looking like a burger with a side of homemade chips. We started by eating the salmon and I must say, for something that is not red meat it was fantastic. Grilled and seasoned perfectly, and the sides were amazing. K even said we should try to grill it at home. She has too much faith in me. I can barely catch a fish any more let alone grill one. Don't worry though, I will not be starting a salmon blog. That would be crazy. After we finished off the fish, we moved on to the real reason you guys have read this far through my ramblings. We split the burger in half and we went to dig in. It looked so good that I was excited, but had baited enthusiasm. The blogs are much more entertaining when the burgers are bad than when they are good. I'll suffer through a bad burger in the means of entertainment. That's how much you all mean to me. It was cooked almost medium, maybe a little bit too much on the well side of medium, but not too much. Then we bit into the burger and angels sang and doves flew overhead. Well, not quite, but it was really darn good. The buttery pretzel bun offset by the runny fried egg and the Sriracha mayo was the perfect combination. I had feared that the burger might be slightly dry due to it not being legitimately cooked medium, but it still had plenty of juice and was far from dry. K even gave me a bite of her side of the burger, just to be sure both sides were equally quantified. Surprising to no one, they were equally delicious. So how does this burger stack up against the competition? This one is a definitely competitor. I might actually have given it a 4 Angus Barn burger rating had it been cooked more medium. Stacked up against the other 4-rated burgers that were cooked perfectly medium, however, we had to dock it half a burger. So this burger gets a 3.5 Angus Barn burger rating, but it is on the high side of the rating. I might even give it a 3.75 rating if I wasn't too lazy to make up a new graphic. I do highly recommend Bedford Bistro though. It had a good atmosphere, friendly staff, and excellent food. We'll definitely be going back. Don't worry though, you don't need a reservation, there will be a seat waiting for you.
Bedford Bistro & Bar
3607 Falls River Ave, Ste 101
Raleigh, NC 27614
(919) 720-4482
http://www.bedfordbistroandbar.com/
