Café Bizou

4/5 PickyRatings

We’ve gone through most of the Chinese eateries in the Los Angeles area, but in this post I travel to Pasadena, CA.  Home of the iconic Rose Parade, it is home to many gourmet restaurants and sophisticated cuisine.  Café Bizou is just one of the restaurants around the block in Old Town Pasadena, which offers standard Americanized “French” food.

So let’s get right into reviewing.

I ordered multiple things for my appetizer.  The escargots are deserving of mention.

The liquid surrounding the snail shells is made entirely of butter.  So unhealthy!  Well…that’s just Western cuisine…

These escargots are made with the traditional recipe.  As usual, they are tender and not too salty.  But as you can see, they are quite difficult to grasp using a mere fork and spoon, so use the clasp they provide for you to eat them.

They also have a special deal where you can add a soup to your entree for only one dollar.  To take advantage of this, I ordered the soup of the day which was the tomato bisque.

Looks like lobster bisque.  The plate is spotted if you look closely

I was expecting more of a balance between sweetness and tomato flavor, but this soup tasted more like tomato sauce to me.  In fact, it was pretty sour.  I do understand that my expectations are pretty high, but I would still say that the soup was not too good.  It’s still refreshing for your taste buds though.

Before I review my entree (which was the lamb rack, my second post with this entree), I’d like to say that aside from the lamb rack I had, this restaurant also has daily specials along with plenty of Italian, French, and American classics.  The daily specials can vary from chilean sea bass to beef tenderloin.

Looks like an oversized kids’ meal

I personally like how they really took the time to cut up all those lamb pieces into neat, bite sizes.  Overall, this lamb was really good, being not too salty nor gamey.  The meat was cooked to a nice medium rare, just the way I like it.  The lamb was also very soft and easy to chew.  As I savored my dish, I encountered little to no fat…take that Masons!

Undoubtedly the best lamb I’ve had so far (emphasis on so far).

The most anticipated part of the meal is dessert, except for diabetics.

Chocolate cake with tiramisu at background

As you can see, I ordered the flourless dark chocolate cake.  When you bite into the cake, a rich chocolate taste fills your mouth, and it is extremely tasty and sweet.  It goes along perfectly with the whipped cream at the side of the plate.  Warning diabetic people, if you eat both the chocolate cake and whipped cream, your blood glucose will skyrocket.  It would be nice if they made the cake with Splenda.

The service makes you forget that you’re in a gourmet restaurant.  Rather, you feel like you are at a diner.  Let’s not go into details…

Overall, I hope you enjoyed my first post of Western cuisine in the US.  (You must be thinking, that’s ridiculous).  It is quite ridiculous, since I posted mostly Chinese food in the US earlier.  Wait…no…please don’t press that unfollow button!

In conclusion, Café Bizou is a quiet, comfortable location in Old Town Pasadena for business interviews or just casual family outings.  If you want a decent, basic meal when you are visiting the impressive town of Pasadena, CA, you should come here…just do not expect traditional gourmet French cooking.