08/31/09

One of my favorite neighborhood spots

by hvandyke

Canele cooks some of the best fresh, seasonal cuisine in the area. It has a rustic, casual, French-Californian bistro atmosphere with an open kitchen and small wooden tables side by side. The food is always packed with flavor and surprisingly affordable. Great for a budget neighborhood date-night!

• Pros: free treat on your way out, lots of free street parking
• Cons: small, close tables

03/02/09

mmmm!!! i'm trying out facebook connect & city search!

by fightshark

loved canele. awesome service. great food. and they give you a little cake treat when you're leaving. hey city search! stop telling me how many characters i have to write in a review or i will just do this this this this this until i get to 100 characters.

• Pros: near my house
• Cons: a little bit pricey.

02/01/09

Hoping Canele can improve service & food to earlier greatness

by RJ2009

We've visited Canele numerous times and loved it--late night, early evening, brought guests from out of town--we've considered it a gem we could count on. Two weeks ago we arrived late and our waitress, a tall and skinny blonde woman, proceeded to huff at us and do her best to ignore us throughout the dinner. She made it clear that our very presence annoyed her, although we don't think we asked very much of her nor did we want to get in the way of her serving other guests. It took a long time to order drinks and it took even longer to receive them. It was shocking to be treated so poorly, especially at such a beautiful restaurant.

Unfortunately the food matched the service that night. With the exception of the beef, everything was mediocre. The uninteresting food didn't merit the price.

We're hoping Canele can improve so we can come back. It appears previous reviewers have mentioned a similar service problem. We hope it can be addressed soon.

12/17/08

Fantastic food, great vibe

by amykhoney

I love it when you can go have an amazing meal either dressed up or in your flip flops. Wonderful neighborhood bistro type of place. French inspired - but eclectic and interesting. Save room for your canele at the end! Open kitchen provides a lovely, cozy warmth to the space.

• Pros: Delicious everything. Not pretentious at all.
• Cons: Not exactly in my day-to-day price range - wish it was!

08/19/08

A small place with big flavor!

by UrbanBruin

A communal table and stemless wine glasses?what more reason did I need to like this place? The food! We went there for dinner a few nights ago and we had a great time. The atmosphere (much like a small neighborhood French bistro) was fantastic; service was prompt and the food was delicious. Yes, at the end of the day we go to restaurants to eat, and EAT we did. I had the salt-roasted Branzino (full fish), my wife had the Seafood soup special, we topped it off with a Lemon Tart which was awesome. I?ve never visited this part of the city but I?m glad to have found someone else?s neighborhood treasure.

• Pros: Food, atmosphere
• Cons: Could be difficult for large parties (+8)

06/25/08

Delicious Treasure in Eagle Rock

by Paris33

Had a wonderful dinner at this charming little restaurant, very much like the restaurants in San Francisco. The service was impeccable, food delicious and prices very reasonable for the high quality of produce. I love this place and the caneles are scrumptious! They give you one before you leave at the door- a wonderful way to end your evening. Great for a romantic evening. Reservations recommended.

06/23/08

Terrible Experience....

by Zander0039

Ok, So long story short...We have been to Canele before... Had a good time...But this time. Forget it. Too much Silverlakey attitude for us Atwater Village residents.

Me and my wife walk in with 2 Starbucks for Sunday morning brunch, because we were waiting for them to open and we get "Do you believe these people, coming in here with Starbucks"... wow..It came from the obviously hasn't had enough sleep female blonde, bitter cook.... Funny cause my wife let the hostess know we heard her, because the place has a open kitchen..way to go chef...Any Ketchup with those words you just ate?? Hey Canele, have your publicist do damage control on her, after all they got u in LA magazine...

Atwater is a great place to live, its more small town feel then Silverlake and not so many single people. alot of couples who own houses and invest in their community. Safe to say we won't be reinvesting in Canele anytime soon.

In my business (the restaurant business) they say, "satisfy a customer he will tell 10, upset a customer he will tell 100".....O well, good luck.

Its a good thing we were introduced to her (the cook) 2 weeks earlier while eating in there by a friend of a friend..Otherwise she might of thrown a knife at us... what a joke. Try smiling, "the HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY????

• Cons: The bitter, blonde brunch cook, who talks about u as u walk in....

04/20/08

Great addition to the neighborhood

by Taaahna

I've gone here several times (mostly weeknights, to avoid waits) and been consistently impressed. The cozy, intimate scale of the restaurant is very East Coast, with a crowd that feels comfortably interesting instead of self-consciously hip. The winter squash soup with dates was amazing and not overly rich; my lamb main couse was well-seared and tender. My only wish is that they would change the menu more frequently so that I could try new things more often -- I've sampled most the menu now and am eager to see what else they can do! I have been here three or four times and have yet to have a bad dining experience. The growing crowd waiting outside on weekends tell me that others agree.

• Pros: Food, cozy, good value
• Cons: No reservations, waits on weekends

10/27/07

Excellent food

by Snootykitty

8 of us went here tonite. They don't accept reservations so we had to wait about 45 minutes. (ick). However, the food made up for it. The wintersquash soup with creme & dates was AMAZING as was the Coop omelet. Yes, the omelet. All it had was eggs, salt and pepper with some sort of green leafy thing on top, but it was the best egg thing I've had. I had the beef tenderloin which was moist and salty to perfection well complemented with potatoes and spinach. Stay away from the beef stronganoff-esque plate. It is bland w/o any taste whatsoever (3 people had this plate at the table, all said it was boring). Oh, and be forewarned the fish comes with the head and tail unless requested otherwise. I also had a cappuccino which was great. The service was good too! Go and eat a yummy meal here!

• Pros: Food, good service
• Cons: No reservations, beef stroganoff thing, fish heads

10/24/07

Then again... Maybe not

by kasparhauser4u

I?d been looking forward to checking this neighborhood restaurant out. Finally, last night, I got the chance. Unfortunately, I don?t plan on returning. While the staff was nice, the service was extremely slow, with no culinary pay-off. The appetizer, a blend of fish and a cube of butter in a dish, had a pleasant Old San Fran flavor, reminiscent of cocktail hour for the Mad Men set. It had 3 slices of bread stuck in the side, baked in butter: soft, chewy and dripping. The rich fish flavor, although pleasant, annihilated the taste buds. Luckily the acidity of the syrah managed to cut through the dense wall of grease. The other dishes I tasted, a clam spaghetti number with more oil and some Italian parsley was serviceable, and a plate of pan-fried snapper with peppers, green tomato and yet more Italian parsley tasted, like, well, pan-fried fish with a tepid Mediterranean salad.

The wine moderated the prolonged and overpriced gastronomic voyage, which was toped off by a complimentary canele upon walking out the door. It was a chewy stale muffin-like affair? Sigh. You can?t win them all. I?d probably go back before going to say, Gordon Biersch or Olive Garden, but then again, dollar for dollar, it might be a toss up.

• Pros: Location, Nice Servers
• Cons: Lackluster food, slow service