Pinot Bistro

Recommends

PatinaFan

Joined 4 years ago

Great Food, Lovely Atmosphere. We had a great time at Pinot Bistro. The food was wonderful. My 10 year old nephew was with me and he tried snails for the first time. Surprisingly, he loved them! The experience was positively memorable. We were luck enough to meet the Sous Chef, Steven Mary. He has a wonderful personality, warm and knowledgable. He even sent a surprise dish to the table. He made the experience priceless.

Recommends

revfood

Joined 5 years ago

Fantastic meal! Deserves more love; it's back on my radar!.. I hadn't been to Pinot Bistro in a LONG time (maybe, 10 or 12 years) but i wanted to take my girlfriend out for dinner and ended up there somewhat randomly. Both of us loved! It's unassuming and romantic, and the only real French place I've seen in a while that isn't stuffy. Wine list is amazing and the kurabuto pork belly blew my mind. Stopped in a week or so later with some friends, couldn't get a table so sat at the bar and drank and ate...once again a great time....i didn't even know they had a bar. Anyway, thanks Pinot Bistro!

Recommends

diamondbar

Joined 4 years ago

VALUE, QUALITY, SUPERIOR SERVICE!!!. "Little Gem" of Studio City...Cozy and romantic with dark rich wood paneling, beautiful bar, where you can start your evening with a chilled to perfection St.Germain martini or a refreshing glass of French rose bubbly. International selection of wines by the glass, ($9-14) welcomes singles to strike up a conversation with friendly, attentive and knowledgeable servers. There is just no attitude here!!! The only "authentic" French Bistro this side of town...with fabuolus choices of quality ingredients and great value as one would expect from a neighborhood Bistro. Try the Rustic Country Pate, ($11) - laced with foie gras, served with country toasted bread and pickled veggies. Their "Frisee Aux Lardons" or otherwise known famous Lyonnaise salad ($12.50) with spinach, bacon, with sherry vinaigrette and poached egg is the best I had in LA. On the lighter side, they offer fresh chilled seafood platter and the goat cheese salad is excellent. If you love cheese, go for the classic baked French onion soup, or try their daily Casseroles such as:

Bouillabaisse, Rabbit Stew, Cassoulet just to name a few. From the sea: Scallops with Candied lemon zest, Steamed mussels with Dijon mustard and white wine or Salmon Filet with herb Gnocchi in a light

spring garlic sauce,($26) or a Filet of Rainbow Trout with leeks and shitake mushroom($28) cannot be missed. For carnivores there is a 9oz. tender Hanger steak, ($19.50) or perfectly grilled Rib Eye with choices of classic sauces such as: Brandy peppercorn, Choron, Bearnaise or Truffle Butter. Saturday night highlight is the Short Rib with bone marrow and horseradish sauce ($28) or try the Kurobuta Pork belly with lentil. If you have any special request, the waiters managers, as well the chef are very personable and accomodating!

For a finale order a Brioche chocolate Bread pudding complimented by a glass of port or

move to the patio to sip on an XO. cognac or enjoy your favorite cigar. You?ll be glad you came to Pinot Bistro

Doesn't Recommend

mattc2333

Joined 5 years ago

Overrated Restaurant. Food was ok (average), I tried different main dishes but it's definitely overpriced. I been to many Patina Group restaurants in LA or Vegas. I really really wouldn't recommend this restaurant. You can definitely get the same food with cheaper price elsewhere. The waiters and servers are really nice and very pleasant. However, the managment at that restaurant is terrible and have a bad attitude (in which I wouldn't go into detail cuz I know someone there) Enough said, I wouldn't go there again and definitely wouldn't recommend this restaurant to anyone.

Doesn't Recommend

ssss01

Joined 5 years ago

Bad Waiter/ Luke Warm Food. My husband and I were looking for a good French bistro and were very excited to try Pinot Bistro. The ambiance seemed fine but our waiter (shaved head/bald, French man) was a huge disappointment. If you end up going to Pinot Bistro regardless of this review and get this man as your waiter, please ask to be seated in a different server's section. I've read many reviews on CitySearch and know as well as you do to disregard some. Also, I've never left a review on a website. However, I was compelled to share my story so no one else is caught off-guard by this restaurant. The food was fairly good. However, my husband's lamb was luke warm though the plate was piping hot as were the vegetables on my plate. The thing that upset us the most was that the waiter never asked us how our meal was or seemed concerned in the least regarding our dining experience. After our appetizer, we were clearly finished (utensils at 4 o'clock) and he passed by twice looking straight at us before thinking to remove our plates. I know I might sound obsessive but when it's so easy to appease someone with an easy "how is everything" I just don't understand why it is so hard to do.

The food was fine but there are so many French bistros in the area, I don't know why anyone would waste their time with this one.

Doesn't Recommend

oliversudden

Joined 6 years ago

Service and Food SoSo - Stay away from the "Quail". For my uncle's 85th birthday celebration, we decided to go to Pinot Bistro after having heard good things about it. We walk in and they usher us to the smallest table in the restaurant. They took a small table for four and squeezed five seats in and stuck it in a corner. The seats were so close together 5 Paris Hilton's would have been cramped! And there was hardly anyone in there at the time. My uncle had Paella, which he liked. My aunt's salmon wasn?t good. My cousins crab cakes and Caesar salad was really good. I ordered the quail based upon the waitress recommendation, and the fact that I'd never had it. BIG MISTAKE. It looked like 2 bats on the plate! Awful! And tougher than a breakfast steak at Norm's. I liked it about as much as I like Dan Quayle.

Usually restaurants bring a gift dessert for birthdays.

My uncle got 3 very small scoops of bland sorbet. Not the best PR move.

All in all, it left a bad taste in our mouths.

Wouldn?t go there again.

Recommends

Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

The more casual Valley-based offshoot of L.A.'s famed flagship Patina Group eateries.. The Scene
"Bistro" is an abused term these days. But in terms of atmosphere, Pinot Bistro actually deserves the title. Walk past the maitre d' and you're in the Latin Quarter, circa 1920--all tiny black-and-white tiles, oversized clocks and plush leather banquettes.

The Food
The menu is a mix of bourgeois cuisine and bistro staples, with equally mixed results: A stunning starter of sea scallops offset by salty, thick-cut bacon precedes a bland salmon fillet. A matchstick-dry duck confit is inedibly bitter, but the heap of parsley-flecked fries that follow are remarkably addictive. Desserts cap things off consistently--they're all terrific. The banana-studded crepe, wrapped luxuriously on its side around a mound of white chocolate filling, is an ode to Gallic greatness.

Recommends

bette1stl

Joined 8 years ago

Expected MUCH more from a Patina group restaurant.. Meh. For a Patina group restaurant I expected MUCH more (read my review of Patina and you'll know why). We went on Sunday and the service was great at the beginning and slowed greatly after a larger party came in. The food was really not that great. The mussels appetizer was probably the most wholly pleasing thing of the night. My entree was steak and garlic frites...the mound of fries (which was the biggest part with no garlic whatsoever present, only some salt and dried falkes of parsley). The steak was good, but there was like, 4 tiny peices of it. Really, maybe 3 ounces at the most. Dessert (which took a long time to come) was a lemon tart, the crust of which was the best part of the night. Although nicely tangy, it was a little too egg yolky, and not set/firm enough in the middle. The mascarpone cream on the side was a nice touch. I did taste my friend's crabcake which was good but not extraordinary, and my girlfriend was extremely dissatisfied with her fish (which, truth be told, I tasted, and it was at least edible). For the price, they shoul have a complimentary parking lot (I loathe being forced into valet when the entire expanse of los angeles lies before me, brimming with already-parked cars). And frankly, it just wasn't that good. Skip it and hop over the hill for a lovely dinner at Nook instead.

Doesn't Recommend

andrewswood

Joined 6 years ago

Dreadful food (in a charming room). Don't waste your money on the absolutely pathetic "chain" food cuisine!. Very nice room, fine enough service. Horrible food. This place once was considered the best in the valley. But it's now a really awful chain restaurant. It was taken over by a group that operates a restaurant in a Macy's back east. Which would explain the dreadful food. Had the sliced steak recently. Oversauced. Amateurly done. Was so sick that night, I couldn't sleep. Figured it was an off night for the kitchen. Went back to give it another try (it's in the neighborhood). My God. The food was so terrible, I couldn't believe it. Had the roasted chicken. Overcooked. Dried out. No taste. Nothing. Friend had the lobster ravioli (was described as bigger than an appetizer, smaller than an entree). You got a plate the size of a saucer with five teeny tiny ravioli in a sauce that tasted like it was made with Nutrasweet. Hideous! To paraphrase the Woody Allen joke, the food was so awful and the portion was so small. We laughed when it was brought to the table. I've never had food this bad in a restaurant that was at one time noted for their cuisine. Don't be fooled by the charming decor. This place has lost it. Big time! Big, big, rip-off coasting on former glory.

Doesn't Recommend

zgy9714

Joined 7 years ago

Avoid this restaurant!!!. I went to this restaurant with my girlfriend and a friend, and it was one of my most disappointing restaurant experiences. We had reservations at 8:00p.m., we were on time, and we had to wait 15 minutes to sit at our table. It took another 20 minutes or so just to order some drinks. The environment was cold, so you couldn't help to feel anything but bitterness. Basically, the service was terrible, the waiting time between courses was ridiculous, and the food was very dry, bland, and not hot. I thought that perhaps we were the only ones getting bad service, but all of the tables in the restaurants were waiting at least 15 minutes per course, and no, the place was not short of staff, nor was it packed with customers. On a good note however, their pino noir was quite delicious, and the bus girl was very attractive. If you like to waste your time and money on below average food and service, then the Pinot Bistro is the perfect place to dine. Just remember to bring a jacket in the fall and winter, because it gets pretty cold in there.