Le Petit Bistro

06/23/11

rude, poor food, dont go

by richinmind

This place has deteriorated . The staff and owner are loud and rudely talk at the bar. THE BRANZINO WAS SOME OTHER FISH AND NOT GOOD AT THAT. IT TOOK FOREVER TO GET THE FOOD AND MY LAMB WAS SO FATTY I BROUGHT IT HOME TO THE DOG.This place had no one there less than 60 and the energy level was that of a nursing home. This place was great but its over. The owner doesn't care anymore and the celebrity clientele is gone.As it should be.

02/01/11

Worst dining experience ever!

by Gregory Plotkin

I have been coming to eat at Le Petit Bistro since the day it opened around 15 years ago. I would say my wife and myself have been to this restaurant over 50 times. Besides, we must have recommended this place to over 200 friends, who recommended it to their friends and so on. Everyone seemed to like it, until about 3 weeks ago, when six of us came in on Saturday at 5:45pm, since we had a show to catch at 8pm. We were the first in, and were seated on the patio.

First thing I did, I came up to the owner of the restaurant, who was inside, near the bar, talking to his employees. I apologized, and said that my wife was allergic to shell fish, and since she wanted to order fish for the main course, it was important to notify the chef to use a clean knife and a cutting board, so my wife would not get the allergic reaction. We have been dining in LA restaurants, as well as everywhere else (Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, etc.) for years and this has never been a problem, as long as we notified the chef about the problem.

This time, the reaction from the owner was totally unbelievable: He raised his voice at me in front of all his employees saying: "If your wife is allergic to shell fish, then she should not be ordering fish at all! I am not going to be responsible for her problems. I am not telling my chef anything. Let her order meat!"

This was unexpectedly rude and obnoxious.

I went back to the patio and sat down with my friends, telling them about the owners response. In the meantime, the busboy turned on the heater above us, and in 1 minute it became so hot, that 6 of us could not breath. There was no one on the patio but us, and I politely asked the waitress to shut off the heater. She did. In a few minutes the heater was turned back on, and it felt like in a sauna again. The owner came to the patio himself and I I addressed him once again, stating that it was so hot that we could not breath. His response this time was: "Well, you are not alone in the restaurant, and other people are cold and want the heater on". I said: "There is no one else on the patio at the moment, and besides we will be finishing pretty soon." The owner, very rudely responded: " Well, I don't care if you are hot or not, I am not going to have my other customers leave because you are hot. I am the owner, and I am making decisions here!"

Well, the owner's behavior was unheard of. I have no idea how one as rude and obnoxious like this can be in a restaurant business, regardless of how good his menu is. This is a typical arrogant French attitude, only this time we were not in Paris, but in Los Angeles. From now on, I will let hundreds of my friends know that Le Petit Bistro is one restaurant they should stay away from. I will also write reviews in various newspapers in my community, and on the web, sharing my awful dining experience with restaurant goers in Los Angeles.

08/20/08

Great lamb chops!

by PaulSalas

This place is really good and the prices aren't outrageous like at other French restaurants. It has valet and onstreet parking, if you're lucky. They have good french onion soup and lamb chops. Good drinks, too!!

• Pros: good food
• Cons: crowded

05/15/08

Best salmon, chicken picata and world famous fries. The wines good too!

by GaryBergevin

Anyone who doesn't like this everyday bistro is nuts. We go there 2 times a month and the food and service is top notch. Lunch is great too, but the service part is a bit lacking during the day. Fav's are the blackened salmon over greens and the chicken picata, I usually order the plate with their fantastic fries. The house wines are great and a huge pour. It's noisy, bright and very much a French bistro, but we love it.

• Pros: Fries, Fries, Fries
• Cons: Hard to get in

03/23/08

What A Mess

by shannalynn1

My friend had his birthday dinner here last night sat 3/22/08. There were 15 of us and apparently were invisible. The first of us arrived 5 ppl and were seated at our table. The first 3 people i asked for wine menus couldn't understand what i was saying-a tiny bit of english would be helpful in a restaurant. Our waitress was taking one drink order, leaving, getting the drink, come back, take another order and so on 5 of us. After our whole party was seated it took about 20 minutes for us to get water and menus and that was only because several of us had to ask. The bartender had no idea how to make a a cocktail ie greygoose on the rocks with a splsh of water was served to me in a highball glass with 2 pieces of ice mostly water no straw no garnish- my boyfriends makers on the rocks was also served in a highball with water-why? i dont know. She also served rotten/brown olives in my friends martini. If go here and you see the btender has long blonde hair speak very slowly to her so she gets it. The manager was about 80 years old and had no clue what was going on. How you can manage a place and allow 15 people to have to repeatedly ask for water, wheres our waitress, more bread-is beyond me. I understand waitresses have sections but when you see 15 people trying to get the attention of someone, i know we're not your table but please dont stand there with your arms folded across your chest starring at us. I bartend in w hollywd and i dont want to be there half the time either but i give great service. After we finished eating blah food that when delivered was shouted out to us 'who had the lamb?' seriously? im not at Astroburger at 3am our bill $900. We were then going to order 1 more drink but the bartender was sitting r stuffing her face. We split the bill to 3 credit cards and we had to get up and physically walk to the back of the restaurant to hand her the check book because she was sitting slumped over on a table next to the bar

• Pros: i got to leave
• Cons: service, management, food, bartender