Bianca — Restaurant in Culver City

We came here for dinner. Ordered leek soup, beef shank lasagna, and branzino in white wine.

Pros: Cute place, clean. Pleasant atmosphere. Music in background not overbearing

Took COVID seriously. Table were outside, appropriately spaced apart. Waiters were wearing masks, face shields, gloves. Menu was a QR code. Strangely the wine list was still on paper? You would think you would just put all of it online if that's the route you're going.

Really good service for our meal. Waiters checked in on us, but not too frequently. There was an older man (I think maybe the owner?) who came and conversed with everyone. He was smiley and made a joke and I had to pretend to act like a normal human being for a second and laugh at it. Normally this kind of thing is an anxious burden for me, but during these times it felt like a welcome respite from the loneliness of working at home.

Cons: Bread is normally my favorite part of the meal... sometimes I just fill up on my bread and take whatever I ordered home. But the bread here... I had mixed feelings about it. They said it was cooked a la minute, and the temperature on it was really good. It released steam when we tore into it. The texture was really good. Good crust, good crumb, good chew. But the amount of salt on it... it was a big salt lick for me.

The food... I really wanted to like it. But I couldn't get past the salt. Everything was so salty. The leek soup and the vegetables on the side, the few things we had that weren't too salty, tasted under-seasoned just because everything else we had was so salty. I think I would have enjoyed the soup otherwise. The vegetables were an afterthought.

The gold-colored cutlery is a little tacky.

The host was kind of weird. When he came over he kind of just stared at me for a moment. He seemed puzzled at having a customer. Maybe I had something on my face. And then we got seated and we were just sitting there for a while waiting without menus, and there were waiters just sauntering around back and forth right in front of us with their hands clasped behind their backs, not doing anything? I mean, even Denny's starts you off with menus. It was really weird. Like everyone was on drugs for ten minutes or something.

Tbh, I'm giving this a 4 because if I spent $140 on a meal and gave it anything less than than that, I would feel like a big ol' dope. I think maybe this just isn't the style of food I like. It wasn't a bad experience, I like the person I had it with and the waiters were friendly, so that helped a lot. I don't think I would come back, though. Maybe I'd check out the bakery...

This restaurant sold me a $100 gift card and then proceeded to allow their staff to use it.

I called and purchased a $100 gift certificate for my sister and her husband for Christmas in 2022. The restaurant said they hold the gift certificate there and when my sister came in to eat she would get it. Well, my sister and her husband are very busy professionals and never got around to using the gift card. But California Law states that gift cards/certificates to restaurants don't ever expire, so I wasn't too concerned when my sister explained that she hadn't found the time to go yet and it had been over a year. I had a planned trip to visit LA so I called the restaurant to make a reservation and let them know we would be using the gift card I had purchased. Someone who claimed to be of authority there got on the phone and said that they did in fact still have the gift card but there was only $9 left on it. I found that to be interesting as my sister had never even once set foot in their restaurant. And I live in Hawaii. I explained that regardless of what he told me was supposedly left on a gift certificate we've never seen we will expect the $100 valued gift certificate I purchased and never used when we come in to eat. Then this guy proceeded to argue with me that we had used it. Why would my sister go there, use only $92 of a $100 valued gift card, and then leave said gift card at the restaurant? As someone with close to 20yrs in the restaurant business myself, it's pretty obvious what happened here. Our gift card sat in their drawer for over a year and an employee took it and used it. And then put it back. ‍

I'm absolutely blown away, not because someone used our gift card, but because whoever this person of authority was argued with me that we had used it and didn't just own up to the fact that someone there used it. He should have simply apologized for that, and assured me our gift card would be there waiting for us with a full $100 balance on it.

Absolutely horrendous customer service

I will be in LA and Culver City very soon and they can expect me to stop in for a bite. And you better believe I'll be using my $100 gift...

The place looks nice, and food is pretty good, but if you care about customer service or the integrity of ownership, I would look elsewhere.

I showed up yesterday for brunch around 11am and the restaurant was completely empty. Not a single guest inside We asked for a table, and the server goes “the host is outside” and points outside.

We explain we wanted to sit inside, and the server repeats “the host is outside”

Confused, we ask “do we have to go outside just to say we want to sit inside, and then come back inside?”

Finally, after this awkward exchange, we are sat at a table for two, my girlfriend was on the bench, and I was in the chair. Once we sat down, I moved the chair to the side of the table to get the sun glare out of my eyes, as I have a visual disability, and to sit closer to my girlfriend. The chair was moved maybe 10 inches, and was not in any walkway.

The waiter then comes up, and before even offering a menu or drinks, he demands that I move my chair back “to make space for other guests” Again, we were the only guests in the restaurant at the time, so we were confused that this the first “service” they provide. I offer to move the chair if other guests come in, are seated right next to us, and somehow don’t have space to sit. This wasn’t satisfactory, so I asked to speak with a manager or owner.

The owner stares at me from across the restaurant, walks up, and again says I have to move my chair. Again, this is an empty restaurant. I explain that I would gladly move my chair to make space for other guests, but there are no other guests currently, so why is this an issue?

The owner responds by condescendingly asking me “where did you find the chair?”

At this point, we got up to just leave. As we walked out, the owner was walking very close behind me, acting like he was “kicking us out”.

The owner is rude, doesn’t know the first thing about good customer service, and is oddly obsessed with chair positioning

He might make good food, and design a nice cafe, but he should stay away from the dining area when customers are present as to not hurt...