Pierre Bistrot, Harrogate: customer service may not be the primary objective

22nd August.
With my first choice restaurant turning out to only serve lunch, it needed a short search for an alternative, and a call to Pierre suggested that they could take us at 8pm the same day. Also located in Cheltemham Parade (according to the address), we took heed, and allowed plenty of time to park, which turned out to be not necessary. It was good that we turned up early as the entrance was not in the stated street, but round the back, above a Thai Restaurant, but judging by the crowd when we arrived, that was something all the locals knew about. It was packed, and there was a line standing in the bar to be seated. I don't play the game of 'why not have a drink from the bar whilst we prepare your table'. However, we were early, so we toughed it out, and were sat pretty much on time. After placing our order, we had to wait 30 mins for food, and it was just as well that there seemed to be an unlimited supply of crusty French bread and butter. The people on the next table were moaning that the portion sizes were small, so that was an incentive to scoff the bread. There is a web site on http://www.lebistrotpierre.co.uk/food-and-drink/our-food showing it is part of a small chain of ten restaurants in the North and Midlands, and in August was already pushing the Christmas menu. Fitted with the wait that we experienced. When our orders were taken, even at 8pm, we were told that they had run out of chicken.
I had Scallops to start, which were tender, cooked in a French style and most acceptable, scoring a 7.9 on the CHOF scale.

For main course, I had the porc roti plate

Pan-fried pork with braised savoy cabbage, smoked bacon lardons, thyme and a light grain mustard sauce served with seasonal vegetable as can be seen. They had turned the lights down by the time main course arrived, so the picture is a bit dim. Again this was very French tasting, well cooked and most enjoyable.  Portion size, whilst not huge, was acceptable for the price, and we certainly did not leave hungry. Again a 7.9 on the CHOF scale, and may have even warranted an 8, but as many of the diners had left by the time our main course came, the kitchen should have been able to get its act together.
At the end of the meal, the patron engaged us in conversation apologizing for the wait. He said he had requested extra staff for the day, but the locum staff had not been able to get hotel accommodation locally because of the GCSE results (?????????????). They gave us a loyalty card with a couple of compensatory extra stamps so that we could get a free something if we ate there ten times. That went straight in the bin.
This was actually a very good meal, and tasted French. It was also hot enough. However it was let down by the attempt to squash in more covers than the staff could cope with, and clearly it was a triumph of turnover over customer service. They did not seem to have a shortage of customers. We were not impressed, and as we do not like to think that our eating venues are doing us a favour by allowing us in, will not hurry back. However, if you are lucky, and want a good French tasting meal, you could do a lot worse. Pricewise, it was high average, and a meal for two, with two courses and 500ml of wine came to about £50.