Cafe Bizou

We just love this place. Easy valet parking. Beautiful gardens and nice restaurant décor. Drinks are like happy hour prices all the time. Corkage is $ 2.00 so BYOB. All entrees can come with soup or salad for a dollar extra. They even have a price fix menu to keep costs down. I start with Tuna/​Salmon tartare. It is a hearty portion of super fresh fish. Wife gets a salad. I get Sweetbreads with Potato Pancakes & wife gets Basalmic Chicken. I am usually pretty full by then. The staff take really good care of you here. This has been in our regular rotation for years.

The weather is starting to get nice and warm again! Café Bizou has a great patio courtyard to dine in and bask in the beautiful sunshine. *puts on SPF 80, face visor, and arm gloves*
The service was great and my Seared Ahi Tuna Salad was fresh, light, and flavorful. The ahi was seared perfectly and the sesame dressing and ginger did not overpower the delicate fish.
As I was sitting out on the patio on a Wednesday afternoon, eating my salad, having casual conversations with my boyfriend, and taking in the beautiful weather… I thought to myself, «This is soooo Santa Monica.»

Had a little post-​holiday dinner here last night for a party of 8.
I will start with finding this place. Awful signage! This restaurant is located in the Water Towers multi-​building complex on Colorado which I believe is a few blocks wide. Massive! There is absolutely no signage in the parking lot which is also gynormous (my own person word for über big). Since the Water Towers is a ‘business’ complex there’s not that many people around at night but we found a few lingering about and asked where to park. Then after we got to the ground/​street level the same problem — where is this place??? We finally found it and all I could think about was I cannot wait to Unilocal about their lack of signage for people who do not work here, come at night and are not familiar with this complex! Just CrAzY!
As for their cocktails, we were there early enough for happy hour prices and their martinis are $ 8 till 7pm. The lemon drop was very tasty but also very light on alcohol! But their cosmo was like fire water. I’m glad I had the lemon drop and only tasted the cosmo. I also moved the candle away from my friend! lol
With 8 people we had an assortment of dishes. I tried to order the crab cakes and they were already out for a 6pm dinner reservation. Another at my table tried to order a glass of riesling and they were out of that as well. Hummm… not a good start. So I ordered the steak frittes with their $ 1 romaine salad with dinner which is optional. Skip the salad or order a separate salad. Not even worth that one measly dollar. The steak was fine and asparagus was a bit under cooked. I’ve had better and worse but those fries were amazing. OMG! I could have had just a plate of fries. They were absolutely perfect. The others seem to enjoy their meals.
Now onto the service… all in all it was pretty good with a nice attentive waiter. Only negative throughout the meal with regards to service is when it came to dessert and coffee. The coffee came was after we finished dessert — not exactly the way I’d prefer it. But otherwise all was good.
Lastly, for being in a business complex they do seem to have a regular crowd which I will mention was very old. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — just sayin’…

I came for lunch during dineLA.
I had the stuffed mushrooms. They reminded me of stuffed mushrooms with crab meat, except the spinach mousse did not have a strong spinach flavor as I was expecting. They were good. Sweet with the balsamic, salty and gummy mushrooms.
I then had the grilled wild alaskan slamon nicoise salad. I love the charbroiled and smoky flavor of the fish that passed on is smoky flavor even to the mized greens. Nice upscale twist on the typical tuna nicoise salad.
I tried the parmesean crusted sandabs, which defientely had a lot of flavor and was comforting. The fish was very delicate and nicely cooked.
What dropped this review to 3 stars was the dessert. The tiramisu was just creamy and did not have the complexity of flavors of normal tiramisu. And the flourless chocolate cake was just terrible. It was bland and crude. The whipped crème on the side was the only thing enjoyable on the dessert plate.

I’ve been here twice now. The first time I got the chinese ckn salad which was pretty meh, and the second time I ordered the carrot soup (which is actually pretty good) and a caesar salad.
What ruined the experience on 01÷21÷13 at lunch was this:
I sat at the bar. There is only 1 option for plain caesar salad on the lunch menu, the other option is a bigger more expensive salad with chicken. I ordered the plain one which is pretty cheap. The salad was just ok, but it was big and I had leftovers which i boxed up to go.
When I got the bill, I saw that I had been charged for the big salad minus chicken instead of the the little salad which I had asked for. When I explained to the bartender who was serving me, he literally took my boxed salad away and put it behind the bar before he changed the price back. WTF? It was such a spiteful action. It was his fault that he didn’t clarify which caesar salad and now he would rather waste the leftovers than see me walk out with them. I’ve been a server and this is NOT how you treat your customers.

I tried Café Bizou for the first time during Restaurant Week, and was very disappointed by the service. I enjoyed the food, but it wasn’t the best I’ve ever had.
First Course:
The lobster bisque was good — but not the best I’ve ever had.
Stuffed mushrooms were underwhelming
Second Course:
Lobster pasta was unavailable, even though that was our first choice.
Salmon salad was great — fresh greens and the salmon was cooked to perfection.
The Parmesan Crusted Alaskan Sanddabs (misspelled on the menu) was the best part of the main meal. The fish was tasty, cooked well and served over delicious mashed potatoes.
Dessert:
Flourless Chocolate Cake was very good — light and fluffy like a ganache, not heavy and rich like most I’ve had.
Tiramisu was great, actually. Very soft, and had a nice liquour flavor.
But the service was awful. We saw our server when he took our orders and when he brought us the check. We had to ask the busman for beverage refills.

Quite delicious.
Great courtyard, wish there was outside seating.
Came for Dine LA lunch…
Lobster bisque, burger, salmon salad, sorbet and flour less chocolate cake-​yummy!
Service was good, just a little slow despite the not so busy crowd.

So I went there on Saturday for a friend’s birthday party. Outside didn’t seem to be like classy dinning, but inside appears very nice and romantic. Its situated within a business campus. The customers in there appears to be an older crowd that day. I didn’t expect much in the beginning, and didn’t expect much in the end. Our server had pungent body odor. I notice it because I only smell it when he comes by. But he was very courteous and attentive to the party.
The menu seems nice. Typical fusion American/​California food. They even have a fixed 3 course to make it look fancy. They brought out bread that was cold and not that fresh. I enjoyed the oil and vinegar that my friend requested better than the bread. I wasn’t very hungry so I just orded the Salmon with citris salsa. It suppose to come with eggplant, but everything appears to be julienned and piled up in the middle of the plate under the salmon. The «salsa’ didn’t taste citrisy at all. Not sure how to describe the taste, stale? old? My salmon seems either under cooked or the fish wasn’t that fresh. it had a slimy texture at the thick end of the salmon steak. I thought it was under cooked because the center tasted colder than the outside. Luckily I didn’t get sick :)
The good thing is that everyone had a great time. My friends bought great wine so that was a plus for our party ^_​^. I won’t go back there or recommend the restaurant to anyone. I rather recommend a local Denny’s over this restaurant.

This place is excellent in every way. The food was flawless. I had the lamb that was so tender you could eat it with a spoon.
We even had our quarterly sales meeting here in the back dinning area. The service was impeccable as always. The CEO and COO of our company, who can be very picky when it comes to restaurants hold our meetings in, were rightly impressed.
Good Times.

The surrounding area is quite romantic. Lovely place to go on a stroll in my opinion — just a little intimidating due to the corporate offices that surround the ponds. This restaurant is dimly lit so it’s a fairly intimate setting.
I had the escargot which was surprisingly good. Once you get past eating a snail — their garlic butter sauce is to die for. I nibbled on my friends’ stuffed mushroom which exploded with flavor! For the main course I had their seafood pasta. It was pretty good, but nothing for me to rave about. I think my pasta standards are currently through the roof. I finished my meal with the trio which was mediocre. Subtle, just mediocre.
The waiters were very friendly and checked up on us accordingly. I looked at the regular menu and the prices range from 13 – 40. It doesn’t seem too bad of a place, but I doubt I’ll be back anytime soon. Also they require you to go to the bar for happy hour and won’t allow you to take it to your regular seat /:

This place is OK.
I think it’s more of a regular lunch joint for older people, where it’s great to come and know all the people and they know you and they give you great service and you don’t mind paying the price-​tag.
I got a chicken sandwich and it wasn’t bad. But I can’t remember what it tasted like, so that means it wasn’t amazing either.
So yeah, pretty forgettable restaurant. Probably wouldn’t come again.
Oh well, at least it satisfied my hunger that day.
Meh.

Came here with my roommates for a DineLA deal and had a pretty good time, even though the food wasn’t super dazzling.
I had the Steak au Poivre, which was good, don’t get me wrong, but nothing too out of the ordinary either. I liked the brandy cream sauce and the mashed potatoes and spinach it comes with, but for around $ 20 for that entrée, I’m not sure if it’s worth it. 3-​color sorbet was good, but again, tiny, and not sure if worth the price. I did however, really enjoy the lobster bisque. Our waiter was also pretty nice and kept trying to joke with us.
tl;dr: Food was good, but expensive. Not sure if I would come here again for the sake of coming here, but I wouldn’t be entirely opposed to it either.

I’m seriously baffled by why this place has such moderate reviews! I had the best experience and best 3 course meal. I should mention that I went for a DineLA event in which they had a specialized menu.
I went with a group of 22, yes 22 people! I was actually quite shocked as I we pretty much took up the whole side of the restaurant, but that alone impressed me that they were able to accommodate such a large group (given we had to split in half which wasn’t too bad).
I at first had the mindset to choose off the DineLA menu, but my friend showed me the 3-​course meal in the main menu — I couldn’t pass it up! Rather than $ 26 for DineLA menu, I opted for the $ 28 one. Why you may ask? The selection and portions seemed way more to my taste than the other menu. I got tuna/​salmon tartare, filet mignon, and tiramisu. I think I was transported to an oasis because these are my favorite dishes (I know I have expensive taste, but I can’t help it!). The dishes were so fresh and delicious that I wish I could just eat everyday.

A series of events and appointments led me to LA during dineLA week. How convenient!
I had initially wanted to check out the Pasadena location during this dineLA round, since it was closer to home, but I happened to be right by Santa Monica, so things worked out. What did NOT work out was us trying to find this spot. We learned the hard way ($ 7.50 for walking aimlessly for half an hour in the scorching sun in the middle of winter) that the Yahoo! Center is ACROSS the street. The Water Gardens Plaza, where Café Bizou is located, is much more scenic by comparison.
We arrived at the restaurant over half an hour late, but we were still seated right away in a semi-​round booth. Our waiter Josh was very cordial and helpful throughout our meal. He even stopped us when we were paying, to make sure we were not American Express cardholders. (dineLA and AE have a deal where you get 5% back… or something to that effect)
Our food was solid… generous in portion sizes, good quality, and tasty! The lobster bisque came with plenty of lobster chunks. The baked mushrooms did not stay together very easily… the chicken and spinach patty fell off the mushroom base, so i ate them separately. The lobster, scallop, and shrimp pasta was delightful… the tagallini went well with the ingredients… the texture reminded me of soba noodles, and there were more lobster chunks, scallops, shrimps, and mushrooms than pasta. The Bf’s Surf & Turf dish was also really good. The meat was tender and richly marinated. The dish reminded me a bit of a kid’s meal though, because it came with shoestring fries :) The bf finished his meal with a Tiramisu, I with the raspberry & mango sorbet.
Having the option to substitute either my appetizer or dessert for a glass of house wine is a nice touch. I was very tempted, but successfully resisted by convincing myself that 2pm was a little too early to be consuming libations.
Overall a great experience. Doubt I would exclusively make a trip out to dine at the restaurant, but definitely a good stop if I am ever in the area.

It’s the same menu and aledgedly the same food as the Sherman oaks location but that’s like saying a hot dog and steak are both meat. The Santa Monica location was really so-​so on my recent visit. I had just been to the Sherman Oaks location a few weeks before with friends and on both ocassions ordered the lobster bisque soup and the ahi tuna main course. In Santa Monica the soup was burnt, (I send it back) and the tuna tasted blah. In Sherman Oaks it was fabulos. Same owners, go figure.
About the only good things I can say about the place is the bartender made a decent martini and the staff was resonably nice. Otherwise, big disappointment all around.

DineLA @ Bizou last Friday evening. My friend and I parked downstairs, took the elevator up. Concierge directed us to the west wing. So we walked down the hall and saw a white door with an Exit sign on top. There was no sign indicating this would lead to the restaurant. We walked in, the host acknowledged us a couple mins later and led us to a booth a long the wall. Food:
Lobster bisque: 3.5÷5 good broth and I found lil bits and pieces of lobster on the bottom of the bowl.
Steak, one scallop (not s), two prawns, baked potato: ⁴⁄₅ steak med/​rare was superb! Prawns were a healthy size, scallop was undercooked, potato was ok.
Tiramisu: ⁴⁄₅ very rich, tons of filling.
Service: everything was fine except for the waiter spilling water all over my friend. Yes accidents happen and he apologized a couple times.

My wife and I dined here on a Thursday night during the DineLA week, and both of us came away with very mixed emotions. I was the only one to order off of the Dine LA menu and I thought that the lobster bisque, the steak au poivre and the sorbet were all reasonably tasty. My wife had the salmon salad, and both of us were pleasantly surprised at the quality, as well as the makeup of the salad (tons of salmon, nice fresh papaya on the side, light vinaigrette). The sorbet was preformed in the dishes, but I thought it was nicely tart and sweet.
However, the service was pretty bad… after taking our orders, our drinks lagged for at least 15 minutes. It was only after we pestered the food runner and another server to check on our drinks did it come. And this was after I had already finished the bisque.
Food followed sometime after that, although I lost track of just when. I did figure by the extreme temperature of the plates that the food sits in the exposition window for a long, long time. Speaking from experience, plates should not get that hot unless they’re placed in a Salamander oven (open fire oven from the top that melts cheese), and it’s not like we ordered nachos or anything. It was unsettling to hear the food runner also warn every table around that the plates were «extremely hot».
Getting to the place also was an extreme chore. Other people have remarked that they couldn’t find the place until security directed them to walk through an unmarked white door, and this was exactly the scenario for us. I joked to my wife that some of the most best and most secretive restaurants in the world lack signage for exclusivity, but in this instance, it was just annoying.
I will say that all signs point to the fact that the dining room was woefully understaffed that night. My wife noticed our server literally fanning the sweat off of his bald head with a menu in between his duties. I only saw 3 servers and one food runner in the entire restaurant, with at least 20 tables, so perhaps a lot of the delays and dangerously hot plates could be attributed to that.
Knowing it was probably not his fault, I gave our server a standard 18% tip and I’d give the place a try again… after all, it’s not his fault that someone called in sick or worse, the management is not staffing the floor at an appropriate level. Will definitely give this place another go on a non Dine-​LA week and see if we encounter the same problems.

Came here for their DineLA menu.
The fixed price dinner was $ 26
For the appetizers we got:
Lobster Bisque which was good. It tasted a little bitter, but I liked it. Although, there was only 2 chunks of lobster in the bisque. :P
Baked Mushrooms stuffed with chicken and spinach mousse in a balsamic vinegar sauce was alright. It was different. But out of the two, I liked the lobster bisque more.
For our Entrees we got:
Lobster Pasta with angel hair pasta topped with chunks of lobster and tossed with tomatoes and mushrooms in a lobster vodka sauce. Normally I don’t like Italian food, or pasta. but this was actually really good. The pasta wasn’t so thick, that all you could taste was carbs, carbs, and more carbs. The sauce was enough, so that you didn’t just taste the pasta either. And, there was enough mushrooms and lobster in it. I liked it.
Steak, Sea Scallops and Jumbo Shrimp — grilled filet mignon in a brandy cream sauce with pan seared sea scallops and jumbo shrimp served with baked potato and grilled tomato. I was only able to try the scallops out of this dish. They only gave you two scallops and 2 shrimp. The shrimp seemed nice and juicy. The scallops were delicious. I only got half of one because Frank M was being stingy! So, I had to piece them out to make them last longer.
For Desserts we got:
Flourless Chocolate Cake — It was alright. Really dense. I am not really a fan of flourless chocolate cake. Although, the cake was soft.
Homemade Tiramisu was good, but I felt shortchanged. It doesn’t look like what you get in the pictures here. Although, I would blame luck, or most likely our waiter for that since everyone else who had Tiramisu at the restaurant seemed to get better plates.
Service was extremely SLOW. And, while our waiter wasn’t horrible, it seemed like he was more interested in socializing with other workers. I probably would not come back here.
Parking: There is a huge garage underneath the restaurant. The restaurant is located in one of those big business buildings. They validate for 3 hours.

This place gave off a strong «executive luncheon» vibe. I felt obligated to «suit up,» eat a filet mignon and drink a glass of cabernet sauvignon with my corporate buddies. Then maybe follow up with some brandy and a cigar.
I guess this is in part because the restaurant is at the base of an office building (but also largely due to the leather and old people).
Anyway I guess I was influenced by this steak and wine vibe. I ordered from the Dine LA prix fixe meal. Got a steak, shrimp, scallop entrée with a stuffed mushroom appetizer. Also, make SURE you take advantage of the $ 2 corkage fee. We brought along a nice earthy cab.
The entrée was amazing, highly recommended. Everything was cooked perfectly. The appetizer on the other hand was a strange combo of flavors. Spicy salsa-​topped endive leaves. Very tasty mushroom stuffed with egg and herb. And bathing in a sweet/​sour (almost like hoisin) dark sauce. The sweet/​sour sauce and spicy salsa didn’t jive. But the mushrooms were great.
The wait-​service was very well-​mannered. A bit fake, but that’s OK as long as they’re attentive.

Food at Bizou is Ok. I dined there a couple of time.
1. The first time I had a seafood pasta, the pasta was way too soft… kind of gross.
2. The second time I had a tuna salad. It actually was quite good.
It has parking validation service, a meal here is cheaper than paying for the parking at the water gardens (Daily rate is at around 25 bucks!) … With that in consideration, may as well grab something to eat to get free parking.