La Baguette French Bistro — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

Let me start by saying I don’t think 3 stars is particularly bad, but I am a professional chef myself and I would hate a 3 star review so I get it.

My wife and I visited today for lunch service. The restaurant was fairly busy right around noon. My wife ordered a quiche and I had the French dip. We both split a bowl of onion soup.

The atmosphere was really nice and we loved the decoration. We sat in the booth next to the bookshelf where I noticed a copy of Thomas Kellers “Bouchon”. Excellent taste!

The menu was very much what one would expect of a French bistro and seemed to be authentic.

The soup was okay; I actually really liked the flavor of the properly caramelized onions. So many restaurants miss that. Other than that, though, I thought it definitely need salt and maybe more herbs.

The quiche was fairly bland. C’est la vie, j’ai pense.

Same thing with the French dip. I personally prefer a jus to be very rich and flavorful. This is especially true if the roast beef is bland. Once again, I think it could have been solved with some salt and letting the jus reduce just a bit.

I’m more accustomed to sourdough baguettes, and I don’t know if they make these in house or not, but they kind of seemed like a Sysco or US Foods product. They weren’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but if the restaurant is going through the trouble of baking that much bread, I would really love a darker crust and a more pronounced ear.

Service was exceptionally slow, which I understand they were busy and probably short staffed, but we waited probably about 40 minutes for our food - all dishes that should have been pre-prepped and realistically just heated up or assembled.

The waitress was really nice and we had a good time.

I will say that I was disappointed that none of the staff we interacted with seemed to speak any French, which is not a knock against this place. I just wish more people spoke French.

If it were my restaurant, I would probably reduce the menu a bit and focus on offering fewer but higher quality items. That’s just my personal opinion.

I think for the price, I would expect a bit more flavor, but everything in Colorado seems more expensive than in Texas or South Louisiana, so if you’re not from here, expect to pay more.

Would I go there again? Probably not for lunch, but maybe for brunch or dinner. In fact I probably will do that while I’m here or next time I come to...

My SO and I moved into an apartment in the area the other week, and we decided to treat ourselves to what we expected would be fine dining here. I'm sorry to say our experience was lackluster at best. We went on a Friday, and almost every table in the place was occupied, so we want to believe they were just swamped.

We will return, but only to check whether they're consistently poor. I'll update this review after we've done that. In the meantime, if you're looking for a similarly priced meal in the area, La Bella Vita is just east of La Baguette on Garden of the Gods Rd. They're guaranteed to be great. While they are an Italian restaurant rather than a French one like this, the experience will probably be better.

Our server was really good about bringing us more bread, but at times they brought it without butter. The bread itself was only warm once. The texture was alright, but I've honestly eaten better from chain grocery stores.

We ordered vichyssoise as our appetizer. My SO had never had it, and I've had someone who studied under an American chef prepare it for me before. I thought my SO would love it. La Baguette serves it traditionally, which is to say chilled. The flavor just wasn't there. I could hardly taste leek, and it was missing that savory quality that defines it. My SO didn't want to finish it, but he eventually did.

Because the soup and bread were a little disappointing we decided to share a caprese, our favorite salad. The waiter apparently misheard and brought us two $16 salads we were just trying to sample together. My SO confirmed that he doesn't like arugula in his caprese, so I was left to finish his when he couldn't eat more. The two plates tasted completely different. His had hardly any balsamic, and the amount of blood orange infused olive oil was overwhelming. Overall, I think the way they made their caprese covered up rather than enhancing the simple ingredients. The tomatoes also...

One of if not my favorite restaurant in Colorado Springs.

Family owned. The owner is always present. Which is a great sign! Moving onto the review.

Upon walking in I’m always greeted immediately. They have booths and table seating. They always let you pick where ever you want to sit. They ask you before they try to seat you. The ambience is very calm, relaxing and enjoyable. The decor isn’t cluttered, is clean and upscale.

Moving onto the food. I’ve had a few things here. But one must have anytime you go is the French onion soup. Perfectly caramelized onion and not overly salted broth. A lot of places make a salt bomb broth and that ain’t it. This one however is a perfectly example of traditional French onion soup. Btw the owner is French.

I’ve also had the French dip. Your average dip. But always on a fresh baguette. The bread is amazing here.

Croque madam sandwich. The béchamel is very light and has a sweet hint to it. Not overbearing like others I’ve had. Either to much flower or to much salt. This one is light tasting, just right. The ham is very tasty, the bread once again is fresh. I highly recommend this sandwich. Or do it without the egg for a croque monsieur. Either way it’s a go to for me!

So would I recommend this place? Most definitely. No issues with how this entire place operates. Thank you to the owner for always making the experience always wonderful. And the food is always consistent.

If you’re going to get French food in Colorado Springs. Only go here and you won’t be disappointed.

Staff: no issues very professional and helpful.

Decor: modern clean no issuesz

Food: above average without question.

Bathroom: N/A haven’t...