11/01/09

Service - Gracious Food - Wonderful

by Vicki Harbath

They treated our children with respect (even though they were the only children there,) the food was wonderful and everyone there was having a lot of fun. Very comfortable atmosphere. Our waiter, Parker, was alway attentive, friendly, and service oriented. He made great suggestions on menu items. We had a wonderful time.

09/29/09

Ricotta Blueberry Pancakes

by FFanatic

I saw 'The Best Thing I ever ate' in Foodnetwork show and it was recommended for the Ricotta Blueberry Pancake at BLD. We went there on Sunday morning and ordered that with their thick bacon on a side. Well, the pancake was huge but I did not taste any Ricotta and the frozen blueberry was lost too. I wished they could make the pancake a little smaller but add more quality. The texture was better than IHOP. However, the bacon was awesome. My recommendation to the chef is to make it look like it's name...where is the ricotta?

04/28/09

DID SHE WAS HER HANDS?

by Passionateaboutfood

Had to wait 15 minutes for a food server whom we were told was in the BATHROOM! Couldn't they have assigned someone to assist? How about a manager stepping in. The food was wrong when we finally got it and they took another 15 minutes to bring us KETCHUP!... We has to ask for her twice! For a breakfast entree that is $18.95, the service should be as high! So disappointed. We will not return. MY RATING IS ZERO STARS!

• Cons: SERVICE

03/13/09

what happened!??

by IvanaSolei

The management or the chef must have changed or just got lazy recently!! A little over a year ago I used to come here every week because of the amazing food. Being a chef myself makes me very picky of where I dine. I ordered the chorizo breakfast potatoes because they were one of my favorites and the server brought me something black and bland with one charred lump of chorizo in it. I didn’t even think it was the right dish so I asked the server what it was and if it was supposed to be that color. He said he would bring me a new order and within 30 seconds brought me a plateful of the exact same thing, except darker. The breakfast pork sausage link was also dry and the food over all just a lot more lame than I remember. My girlfriends’ chicken sandwich was dry and bland and the bread was too hard to bite into. The chef needs a kick in the a** or the one from a year ago needs to get hired back along with the manager. He should be more aware of what is coming out of the kitchen!

12/16/08

Amazing food very reasonably priced.

by runsysrun

The food at BLD is excellent! The quality and freshness of everything was very surprising. I was recommended to go to BLD by a friend, I read reviews here first and was surprised at the negative reviews. My experience was fantastic. The staff was very responsive and knowledgeable, the food took a reasonable amount of time to order/serve... probably about 15-20 minutes. At the end of the dinner I commented to the waitress about reading some negative reviews on citysearch etc and quickly followed up by saying how amazing my experience was. She told me that they got a new Chef in October, maybe the negative reviews were because of some transition in Chefs, or management?

I think my entree was $20 and my date's was about the same, we got a few glasses of wine, appetizers, and desert and the bill was around $120. I think that is very reasonable, I was expecting to pay more.

I would recommend this restaurant to anyone I knew, maybe not a "food snob" because you can never please them.

• Pros: Service, ambience, quality delicious food
• Cons: my date, but that's not their fault.

11/18/08

The Perfect LA Brunch

by MrMoritz

I've been going here with my toddler daughter for our routine Saturday Morning "Club Dad" outings since she was a baby and it never disappoints. Okay, its not the cheapest brunch on the block, but using your KCRW membership card for a discount (15 or 20%, I don't recall exactly) brings it into the reasonable sphere. Super thick bacon, fantastic brioche french toast, even crepes. If you get get eggs or anythng else that comes with a side, get the homefries but be forewarned that they have chorizo in them which, depending on your outlook, is either heaven on a plate or vegan hell.

• Pros: Very kid-friendly, superb quality, great staff
• Cons: Go early, gets crowded.

10/01/08

comme ci comme ca

by tbrennan1010

This place is hitt or miss. If you love pork, then this is the place to go. The ambiance is ehhh...nothing to write about. The service is mediocre. I would definitely try it again - maybe for brunch.

08/12/08

Cheese plate!!!

by serviceprincess

This place is really great and so well priced. The wine list offers wide variety with affordability and the food is fantastic. Service was average but the cheese plate made up for any shortcomings. I will return and highly recommend this place to others. Great for a date or even a business lunch, the atmosphere is simple and classy, and everything I tasted on the menu was delicious. Thank you!

• Pros: Great prices, winelist, food
• Cons: Layout of tables will leave some guests feeling awkwardly seated (in the middle of restaurant). Nothing luxurious about tables/chairs.

08/03/08

food is pretty good but the prices are too high for what you get

by maybell

Went there for dinner and was left feeling a little underwhelmed. For how much they charge we would have been better off going to a more upscale restaurant where you really feel taken care of.

I like the dinner menu because I found a lot of interesting choices and you can construct your own meal with a choice of protein and two sides.

Our server was nice but somehow I still felt like I was at more of a breakfast/lunch spot then a dinner one.

My entree alone was $27 and for what I got that seemed exorbitant and honestly a touch greedy.

I think if they are going to be charging those prices they should step it up a bit with the food and by instructing their servers to make a mental note that their customers are paying high end dinner prices so to wait on them with a little more flair.

• Pros: Interesting menu, decent food
• Cons: overpriced

06/02/08

Disappointment

by ghs

I was excited to be in LA for business and to try out some fab LA eateries, however BLD was a disappointment . I wish I had been able to preview the menu ahead of time which would have been a partial warning. For the prices, I should have gone to Grace (or elsewhere). I had a snap pea salad, and was excited about delicate flavors and innovative pairings, but instead I received a huge plate of lettuce--half of it frissee--with a few peas chopped up and no seasoning at all. I had to add salt and I never add salt to restaurant food! This tasteless roughage cost $15.00. I could have and do make better salad on any weeknight at home. The polenta cakes were more like what you might find at a basic Italian restaurant-- doused with red sauce and mushrooms, and the dessert menu was so pedestrian I skipped it. The bartender was trying to be nice, I think, however he lacked the finesse needed for this price range --seemed like he would have fit in better in a sports bar than an upscale eatery. I was told by others afterwards that breakfast is good here and lunch is OK, but dinner doesn't make it.

• Pros: Nice ambiance
• Cons: over priced for what you receive