Pinot Bistro

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.

Pros: Sous Chef came out to the table to talk to us

Cons: nothing I can think of

Posted 06/18/09

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!

Pros: Some of the best food I've had in a long time, anywhere.

Cons: The music... it's THAT bad, but a little outdated...

Posted 05/31/09

"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

Pros: Quality, Value, Ambience, Service

Cons: Although on Ventura blvd., not very visible from the street

Posted 02/24/09

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.

Pros: pleasant waiter/server

Cons: parking, management attitude, overpiced food

Posted 08/29/08

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.

Cons: Service

Posted 06/27/08

Went for a banquet this weekend where we had reserved a "room" which turned out to be a cramped alcove. 16 seats shoved up to a table that ought to seat 12. Servers were apologetic, but the woman we made the reservation with, Kira, was conveniently not on duty. Turns out they were technically correct, the contract specified an alcove as opposed to a room but this wasn't made clear in any of the many conversations we had. On the plus side, the staff was pleasant and apologetic, the food great. Just make sure to keep these guys on their toes and things will go well.

Pros: at least the kitchen knows what they're doing

Cons: go over your reservation with a map and find out where you're sitting

Posted 10/06/07

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.

Pros: Good wine list, Paella, Caesar salad

Cons: Service, Birthdays, Quail

Posted 07/30/07

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.

Posted 03/13/07

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.

Posted 02/11/07

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.

Posted 11/23/06

This place is so cute and so tasty. Everything I've eaten here is fantastic and they have started serving a lovely looking cheese plate that I can't wait to try. Great for dates.

Pros: Food, atmosphere

Cons: A little pricey, but worth it.

Posted 11/20/06

I took my wife to this establishment and was very pleased with the food and price, not to mention the excellent service. Will make a point to go back there in the near future!

Pros: romantic setting, excellent food

Cons: parking

Posted 08/20/06

I just took my girlfriend here for her birthday. We started with scallops in brown butter and seared foi gras.....unbelievable! After that, we shared an arugala salad with hot french onion soup. For dinner I had seared duck breast and she had halibut, both were perfectly prepared and the courses were perfectly timed. Our waitress was able to recommend wine for each dish, and she sent out a small dessert with a lone candle at the end. Once the room filled up, it did get a bit noisy, but we had a corner table that kept us close enough together to talk. All in all, a great experience for both of us who don't usually get to go to places like this!

Pros: Service, Food, Expertise

Cons: Noise

Posted 05/11/06

I've eaten here 3 times over the course of 6 years and have been underwhelmed every time. It's baffling that this place is still in business considering its pedigree, and it's always packed with people who apparently don't mind paying high-end prices for low-end cuisine....not great, not awful; the epitome of average...

Posted 04/23/06

What a great place. Four members of my family ate at the bistro for Thanksgiving this year (2005) and what a delite. The service was terrific, the food was to die for. There were no lines, no waiting. The courses came right on top of one another and each was a unique meal.
No complaints. Only rave reviews from our family.

Posted 11/26/05

We were seated promptly for our 7:15pm reservation in the back corner of the restaurant next to a window looking out at the alley where the valet parked cars. We asked to be moved, but we were told that the remaining good tables were reserved for friends and family of the restaurant owners. We finally settled on a table slightly better than our original and hoped the food would compensate for the bad seating. I received a dirty plate for my bread. About one hour and ten minutes later, we realized that half (4) of the "reserved" tables were still vacant. This, along with the extreme loudness of the retaurant and mediocre table caused us to forgo dessert so we could just get out of there. We are not part of the "Hollywood crowd," but I have never been to a restaurant that really made me feel so unimportant.

Pros: food quality, prompt seating

Cons: noise

Posted 07/27/05

We just went to Pinot Bistro for my birthday, and it's the first time we've ever been. We read the negative reviews, but since we're in the neighborhood, we thought, "why not?"

First of all, the room is beautiful. Our waitress was outstanding, as were all the other employees, from the hostess to the busboys. They timed our meal perfectly - my tomato bisque, salad and halibut were simply delicious. My husband was pleased with his French onion soup and pork.

Pinot Bistro is now our favorite of the Pinot chain, and we will surely go back again!

Pros: beautiful room, expert service, great food

Posted 05/03/05

Don't go here to celebrate or to get a feel for PARIS. No. This is very ordinary and a quite loud restaurant. I am not that fond of it. The food is not that french. It's OK but not more. I don't understand why I should go again. Especially as they don't even know what steak frites is; the staple dish of any bistro in Paris.

Pros: Location

Cons: Not French really

Posted 03/05/05

My wife and I ate here to celebrate our 1st anniversary. We had heard so much hype about the "Pinot" restaurants, so we thought we'd try one. All started well. The atmosphere is charming and the appetizers were amazing! We had crispy goat cheese gnocchi and a great French onion soup. Unfortunately, the main courses were very bland and uninspired. On top of that, I had to have mine heated up in the kitchen twice! The service was mediocre at best. Don't think we'll be trying any more of Mr. Splichal's restaurants in the future. Not worth the price.

Pros: Atmosphere, Wine selection, Appetizers

Cons: Bland main courses, Mediocre service, OVERRATED

Posted 08/16/03

For the price of the meal and the "pedigree" of this establishment, it was surprisingly mediocre. My boyfriend and I were looking forward to a romantic treat, but the food was bland and the atmosphere felt like grampy's country club (not warm or inviting, very frigid and proper).

Posted 01/22/03

I don't have a problem with spending a lot of money for very high quality food/ingredients that is carefully prepared. At this restaurant, we spent a lot of money, and the food was very good, but not great. The service was good, not very good. The menu was nice, but not inspired. The wait was short (15 minutes), but not when you consider we had reservations and arrived on time...

Posted 05/16/02