The first day of dineLA started yesterday guys! It’s going to be 15 food-filling days all the way up to January 27. For the first day of dineLA, I decided to re-visit a dineLA favorite of mine called Cafe Bizou in Pasadena. Every year I visit this restaurant for their generous lunch menu filled with lobster options. For $15, lobster bisque soup and lobster panini or lobster, sea scallops and shrimp pasta makes lunch super cheap and fulfilling at the same time. You get the good stuff for $15! 

Last night I finally tried their dinner menu; a tad bit more expensive but a larger selection of lobster and meat choices. For $29 a person, you get a romantic candlelight ambience for dinner and lobster, rack of lamb, filet mignon and braised short ribs for you and your partner to share for the entrees alone! Totally worth for a cute little French restaurant in Pasadena yes?! I think so. 

Here is our dinner menu. Note: I love that these use REAL candles. 

Their complimentary French baguettes with butter was hard to resist while waiting for my appetizer. The baguette was crisp and warm; the butter cold. There’s just something fulfilling about cold butter on hot bread for me. 

For an extra $3, I opted to eat their escargots. It’s rare to find a restaurant in the Pasadena to serve escargots so why not? It includes special round clamp to help you hold the shell while you fork out the little seafood. It was coated in warm butter and garnishes. 

For an extra $5, I got to eat their tuna tartare. Even though there were only 3 pieces, the servings of each tuna tartare was generous. The bread was crispy, makin it serve as a perfect plate of toast. The cucumber was refreshing. The tuna was smoky. Feel free to squeeze some extra lemon on there for some zing! (It was in a special wrap for you to cleanly squeeze with your bare hands; I love their attention to detail). 

Here we have our trio of meat, which includes from left to right: braised short ribs with a potato pancake in a burgundy wine sauce, petite filet mignon with spinach and tomato in a brandy wine sauce, and a rack of lamb served with au gratin potatoes served in a mint lamb jus. The braised short ribs were surprisingly really soft and tender (my favorite meat). The filet mignon was perfectly medium rare. The rack of lamb came off its bone easily. All of the sauces complimented their meats perfectly. 

 

My favorite dish of the day was the lobster & lobster of course. This dish included 3 slipper lobster tails and a 6oz Maine lobster tail served over shrimp saffron risotto and asparagus in a lobster sauce. The Maine lobster tail was coated in a very creamy and buttery sauce and was cooked perfectly. The slipper lobster tails were coated in a slightly more salty shrimp sauce. The risotto was so flavorful that it was such a delight to eat as a carb! 

Their tiramisu is always a good dessert to pick there. It has alternating layers of very soft cream with the slight coffee powder taste. There is a light layer of cherry sauce underneath to sweeten the cake. 

For an extra $4, you get their bread pudding, which is essentially a hot cake topped with their caramel sauce and served with ice cream.

I must say my first meal for dineLA this year was a success and off to a good start! The restaurant was packed with many groups of families and many, many more couples. This would be a good deal to bring a special someone on a date while still getting that romantic, dim ambience. And did I mention good food?! You get steak and lobster! Be sure to make reservations because this place fills up fast!