La Cachette Bistro

It's not common for me to dine out on a Sunday night, but doing so has a distinct advantage in that most restaurants are typically less crowded than on Fridays and Saturdays. Prime-time reservations are easier to come by, and some restaurants showcase special Sunday-only deals to lure diners from the comfort of their dining rooms. So when my wife, Fonda, offered up the chance for a Sunday night dinner with her coworkers, I not only obliged with a resounding Yes, but I also sent her group a list of some 5 or 6 west-side restaurants that I thought we should try. (And when I say "we" of course I really me "I")

Amongst my carefully crafted list was La Cachette Bistro, a French restaurant in Santa Monica that recently moved from its original location in Century City. I had been in the mood for some good French fare lately, and with La Cachette Bistro getting solid buzz from other food bloggers, it was an obvious addition to the list. As you can probably tell by the title of this posting, La Cachette Bistro was the restaurant Fonda's coworkers ultimately picked, and thus our Sunday dinner plans were set in motion.


Fonda and I arrive with our friend Lynn for our 6:30pm reservation, and as expected the place was wide open, although the bar was quite the happening scene, presumably with hotel guests from the adjacent hotels. La Cachette Bistro occupies prime real estate along Ocean boulevard in Santa Monica and has a heated and fully-covered patio overlooking the busy boulevard. Once seated in the patio, we placed our cocktail orders and began perusing the extensive menu.

I probably don't need to tell you what drink I got:


But I will tell you that this might be the last Manhattan I order from a restaurant because just like the previous Manhattans I've ordered recently from other restaurants, this one was simply too weak for the price. The big exception though is the Manhattan from Vito, an old-school Italian restaurant in Santa Monica that happens to pour the best damn Manhattan, period.

Lynn orders a Cosmopolitan:


She says it's too strong and summons our waiter to bring a glass of cranberry juice to lessen the taste of the alcohol. She seemed happy after diluting her drink. I wished our waiter could have also brought a complimentary glass of Bourbon to magnify my drink's alcohol taste, but that's just not how things work. Fonda goes for her standard issue flute of Champagne, a fine choice given that we're in a French bistro.

Our two other dining companions, Jose and Marie-Josee, both of whom are Fonda's coworkers visiting from France, arrive fashionably late and immediately place their drink orders. I can't remember what they ordered, so to distract your attention from that mishap, here's a nice picture of us toasting to our Sunday night outing:


Another 10 minutes or so passes by and our group of five comes to a consensus on the appetizer orders. First up is a crab and avocado tower, with tomato, lemon olive oil and cumin dressing:


The presentation is interesting and attractive, and I could really taste the freshness of the crab and avocado, but unfortunately the dish was woefully under-seasoned. You could taste the fresh crab and avocado and that's about all, as the lemon olive-oil and cumin dressing were basically no-shows in terms of tastes. A few of us at the table agreed it needed something--anything--to move this appetizer from the forgettable column to the memorable one.

Provencal tart with black olives, tomato, onions, rouille and pesto:


I was expecting a thin-crust flat bread with charred edges and burnt-on cheese, similar to what you might see at Church & State, but what we got resembled a baked puff-pastry with some produce and pesto layered on top. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I was a bit underwhelmed with both the presentation and the taste; truthfully I think I missed the point with this appetizer. That said, I'd have a hard time believing that this would be a popular item, and I certainly wouldn't order it during a future visit.

Homemade duck rillettes with cornichons and dijon mustard:


This is very similar to a duck confit though I believe this is much fattier. It has deep, rich taste with a texture that's slightly dense but still spreadable for the toasted bread. It's one of those foods where you definitely know you're eating something sinful. The provided cornichons (pickles) help cut into some of the richness.

Smoked tomato and shitake mushroom soup:


As suggested by a fellow blogger, I ordered this tomato and shitake soup for myself--though of course I shared with Fonda--and it did not disappoint. The thick consistency of the broth and the explosive taste of the fire-roasted tomatoes made this one of the best tomato soups I've had in recent times. Fresh shitake mushrooms somehow held up well in the broth and retained their flavor and texture. As I got close to finishing the last few slurps, the busboy mistakenly assumed I was done and made an attempt to pull the bowl from the table. Oh you should have seen his reaction when I exclaimed I wasn't done.

Now on with the mains. La Cachette Bistro has a wide range of meat and seafood entrees and so it took us some time to make up our minds. Of course I always order last to make sure I order something no one else selects.

My dish, coq au vin (dark meat) with veal bacon, carrots, onions, English peas and organic potatoes:


The meat was very tender and fell off the bone with little effort; I actually just applied a little spoon action to separate the substantial chunks of meat. The nicely cooked vegetables held up well in the thick sauce, which I found to be just a tad too salty. Nonetheless I finished it and enjoyed every bite.


Hawaiian Ahi tuna “a la Plancha” with tomato and red bell pepper piperade and harissa emulsion:


I had a few bites of this and I thought it was very good. The tuna was perfectly seared and paired very well with the sauce, which had some nice kick to it. The accompanied roasted vegetables were very robust in flavor in freshness. This was Fonda's dish and she loved it, and overall it gets high recommendations from the two of us.


Lightly smoked Alaskan true cod with house-made organic salmon sausages, fennel sauerkraut, and fennel lemon sauce:


I didn't have any of this but Jose claimed it was a bit lackluster in flavor. I would have ordered this dish for myself, but rules are rules.


Lynn orders buffalo short ribs with coffee rub, potato gratin and Cabernet jus:


Tender pieces of meat with a wonderfully rich sauce made for an excellent rendition of this classic. I only had a few small bites but they were heavenly bites of rich, tender meat that melted in my mouth. Nook Bistro in West LA used to serve an epic short-rib dish, and based on the sampling I had of La Cachette Bistro's version, I think they are about equal which is a very good thing.

Lynn also ordered a lobster bisque:


I love the presentation with the artfully-constructed bowl. I didn't get to sample any of the bisque, but Lynn really enjoyed it.

Marie-Josee also ordered the tuna; yes I realize it's a duplicate order but I am certainly not going to force anyone to order something else. So, since this is a food blog, here's another picture of that same dish:



Chapter 2. The Dessert Fiasco.

With the mains and appetizers behind us, it's time to move to the dessert portion of the night. We place our orders for four desserts: rhubarb-strawberry shortcake, Nutella crepe, tiramisu, and creme brulee. The waiter, however, later informs us that the chef burnt the last of the creme brulee and asks us to select another dessert in its place, and so we went with a strawberry tart. He also asks us to select a fifth dessert to be provided on the house, which we chose to be a chocolate cake. When the five desserts show up, we ask the waiter to differentiate the strawberry tart from the rhubarb-strawberry shortcake because we're not sure as to which is which, but he tells us that there is no rhubarb-strawberry shortcake on the table and then quickly dismisses himself as though nothing odd had just happened. Our table is left wondering what happened to the elusive rhubarb-strawberry shortcake--which was actually my pick. Although I really cared less and in fact I was already going all nom-nom on whatever dessert was in front me.

The waiter reappears a few minutes and points out the tart and the shortcake, apologizes for the confusion, and then departs. But wait, there's more drama. About 10 minutes into our dessert fest, a sixth dessert in the form of an apple tart makes its way onto our table and no explanation is given as to why this was brought to us. The waiter isn't sure as to how this happened, and assures us this won't be on our final bill. So without further delay, here are the four desserts we ordered, the one provided on the house, and the one that just simply appeared on our table:








From top to bottom we have tiramisu, chocolate cake, Nutella crepe, strawberry tart, rhubarb-strawberry shortcake, and the apple tart. They were all extremely decadent and very satisfying. La Cachette Bistro clearly makes all its dessert in-house and these were mostly big hits with our group. My particular favorite was the rhubarb-strawberry shortcake which was filled with a dense cream and a generous serving of rhubarb and strawberries. The flaky, buttery crust was baked to a perfect crumbly texture which melted effortlessly in your mouth; I finished this mostly on my own and I would gladly order this during a return trip. The Nutella crepe and the strawberry tart were also quite memorable, with the chocolate cake being my least favorite but that's mainly because Fonda's chocolate and orange essence home-made cakes are simply to-die-for and incontestable in my book. At about the 20-minute mark into the dessert course, the rest of the group waved the white flags of defeat, but I did my best to clean house and left just few large crumbs here and there.

The total bill for the five of us was $285 before tip and that included 4 cocktails, 3 appetizers, 2 soups, 5 mains and 4 desserts (with 2 additional desserts on the house). Despite some hiccups with service and a few misses with the menu selections, we enjoyed our overall experience at La Cachette Bistro, mainly due to the solid effort of the stand-out dishes and to the otherwise genuine effort put forth by our waiter. Another nice draw was the wonderful patio with its candlelit tables overlooking Ocean boulevard. I noticed couples dining and larger groups celebrating; everyone appeared to be having good times. With its standout dishes, rich desserts, and wonderful scene, La Cachette Bistro just might lure us back someday, perhaps even on a Saturday when I'm sure the place will be much busier.



La Cachette Bistro
1733 Ocean Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90401