328503 Sun Sep 24 16:22:10 -0700 2006 2 2 Los Angeles Area 0 1898553 Just a check in--review? I'm more interested in eating than reviewing--on Bistro K, which I see from searching has been written about here up and down. I made it for the first time last night, on a later seating on a busy Saturday night. I will confirm what I've been reading, for those who are bothered by this: the restaurant is an intimate operation, like a small, innovative bistro in France, and you will have to wait for food, or even for them to take your order. We had a very slow start, I think to pace the kitchen, but once started the rhythm of our food arrivals was fine. We were seated at 8:15, but didn't order until 9 pm. So that first special bottle of wine: was consumed as aperitif, with the very nice bread and tarragon butter. I had a hard time here. So many of the dream dishes, the dishes I dream about, on one menu, it wasn't like it was obvious which direction I would go. I needed the 45 minutes to choose. I changed my mind about 10 times (I never do that). I had the oxtail terrine, which was incredible, flavored with star anis, and with artichoke and carrot cooked in its depths, and served with beets diced very small (with chervil?) and baby carrots sluiced with serrano chile "infusion." Really unbelievable. And then I went for the sweetbreads and kidneys, with asparagus and chanterelles on a chick pea paste base. Even the kidneys in this dish were singing. I had a vivid memory of an all-time favorite dish from a bistro in Paris that I love, Astier, a special that night, an intense but too-short one-night stand, of sweetbreads and chanterelles. To find you again, my dear, in South Pasadena: it was heaven. Friends had: foie gras, dungeness crab (served in a champagne glass, delicious but small), the frisee salad with the notorious (on this board) selle sur cher aged by "Nicole"; the monkfish (my wife still keeps saying this morning that it was delicious), the loup de mer covered in fried zucchini flowers, the squab (it was rich, as is right, and delicious, but small in my experience, I would have preferred the duck if it was my dish). Cheese course had like 6 cheese on it: livarot, camembert, a blue, a goat, St. Nectaire, and one I'm forgetting, plus half of the innards of a sweet corn tamale (!). Food coma began to ensue. Molten chocolate cake, amazing. Lavender creme brule tasted great, but wasn't cooked right (the cream wasn't set nor cold). After tax and tip, $200 for four (yes this is because of BYOB, but still...). I will be back as soon as the Fall menu kicks in (they estimated another month). Never mind the low price, it is the best French bistro I've found in LA. I've looked. Its improbability (so small, attached to a local theater, coming from WeHo you feel like you are in the country in the dark, quiet South Pasadena streets) made it even more like a French bistro -- the good ones always feature an adventurous chef, the best of French food pushing at its limits, here toward the Asian and Mexican flavors that the chef brought to most dishes). Getting there late has its advantages: I was driving, but my lush companions clamored as a joke after more wine, and suddenly it began appearing, as the waiter started bringing us the half-finished bottles from tables that had left! Thank you, my fellow diners. Sun Sep 24 16:22:10 -0700 2006 14859 George 1 1898556 George, I should have been there last night! LOL - I just posted about mixing up Bistro 45 with Bistro K... Sun Sep 24 16:24:34 -0700 2006 1898553 17675 Clare K 1 1898559 Yeah, I just read your post! I would have gladly consumed your wine! Sun Sep 24 16:26:35 -0700 2006 1898553 14859 George