The Bazaar

Los Angeles, CA

This is like dredging up your worst memory and reliving it. Welcome to my culinary nightmare. Before I get into the details, let me start off by saying I was extremely excited to dine here. I admit, I bought into the hype and since then have promised myself to never, ever fall into the glitz and glam of LA food hype again (a la Red O). The yelp reviews were pretty good, chowhounders loved it, voting it the second best restaurant in LA (behind Providence) in their 2009 poll, but there were comments about the poor service. I didn't care.....at the time. My dinner here inspired me to write my first yelp review. So without further ado...the Bazaar.


Chu-Toro and I had 8 o'clock reservations and arrive 15 minutes early. Upon arrival the hostess greeted us nonchalantly and informed us our table would be ready in short period. Well, it turned out to be over a hour, not a good start. We tried to be very patient and asked politely every 20 minutes or so about the status of our table, but were basically brushed off by the very rude hostess. Once I saw other groups who had arrived after us, being seated before us, I berated her with a real complaint and she apologize and sat us within 2 minutes at an open table that had been available for 15 minutes. There were four open tables in our section when we were seated. She also told us we would receive a free appetizer, a reoccurring offer that many tables received because of the long wait times. 

Our waitress attempted to be very considerate to us and overall did a decent job. However throughout the meal, servers would drop off plates in a hurry without any explanation of the dishes at all.  Overall it was the worst service i have ever had. And I'm not overreacting, the table next to us even left within 30 minutes of their meal because of the poor service and food (spoiler). Let's move on to the food....

Our complimentary dishes were sweet potato chips ($10)and watermelon and tomatoes skewers ($8). The chips were fine, nothing special, nothing inventive. The Watermelon and tomato flavors did not blend well. My philosophy is that the creativity in food is judged on if the sum of the components is greater than each individual item's flavor. In this case, it was not, I would've preferred a simple slice of watermelon. 

Sweet potato chips and Yogurt sauce with tamarind & star anise

Watermelon tomatoes skewers, Pedro Ximénez reduction & lemon dressing

The next dish was the canned mussels ($8) with olive oil, vinegar, pimentón, the one positive of the night. Known as Latas Y Conservas, the seafood is canned to preserve freshness of the seafood and was adopted by Spanish, created by the French in 1810. The flavors were integrated well masking any fishy flavor and providing a refreshing citrus blend into the item. 

Mussels olive oil, vinegar, pimentón

The next item was Jamones Y Embutidos, a Catalan style toasted bread with tomato spread. We ordered the Jamón Serrano Fermin ($16), a dry cured ham which people on reviews raved about. 

Jamón Serrano Fermin

Well, it tasted like stale old meat. The bread it was served with that tasted like day old leftovers didn't help.  I don't think I can ever be convinced to like Spanish cured meats after trying this.



Next was the 'Not your everyday Caprese' ($12) with cherry tomatoes and  liquid mozzarella. Was it an interesting concept with the mozzarella ball pop and liquefy?  Absolutely. Did it taste good? Nope. If you want to be creative as a chef, how about understanding how the flavors work before trying to get fancy with them. 

Not your everyday Caprese

Then came the Braised Wagyu beef cheeks with clementines ($13). Two out of three pieces were extremely well cooked. However, there was no special flavor to them. They tasted like if you were to put them in a pressure cooker yourself. 

Braised Wagyu beef cheeks

The final dish was cotton candy fois gras ($10). Again interesting concept, but poor flavor, especially the quality of the fois gras. 

Cotton candy fois gras

I chose to come here despite my better judgement, so please don't waste your time. Is it hip, trendy in a beautiful setting? Absolutely. But the food is a terrible gimmick and the service staff is the worst one I have ever encountered. Save your money and time and go somewhere else.


Rating 1/10
December 28, 2009