121 Artisan Bistro — Restaurant in Lake Charles

• UPDATED REVIEW AT END

I was unsure if I wanted to write this review or not. I'm writing it in the hope that it can be helpful to the restaurant. We Have been there numerous times and even met the owner a couple of times. We usually like our experience. Last night we sat at the bar, which we always do, and we ordered apps and dinner. My husband ordered a different sauce on his pasta. The bartender even repeated the order back, but it was delivered with wrong sauce. The bartender offered to bring the right sauce to put on top of the wrong sauce. We didn't want to do this. Bartender offered to re-do the pasta, but my husband likes for us to eat together vs waiting for a new order while I already had my food. Another issue was that as we sat there for a couple of hours, by our choice..not due to service, there was not one dish bused. The entire bar top had dirty dishes from several customers for our entire stay, including our appetizer dishes and empty beer bottles. We addressed this with the bartender and he told us that he could not get a bus boy to come to the bar. Bartender was sincerely apologetic and took items off of our check to try and compensate for the issues. On the way out of restaurant, my husband asked why a manager never came to talk with us...the Bartender then informed us that he was the manager. He had not mentioned this before. We really do look for a higher level of service at this price point. My husband was so disappointed in the service and the excuses given, that he didn't leave a tip. This has happened only twice in 30 years of dining out. I think the Bartender tried to do what he could to make us happy and we would like to return to this place. Hopefully the owner sees this and finds it helpful.

UPDATED REVIEW* I wanted to update my review. As you can see in first review, the owner asked us to contact him personally. We did call and agreed to accept his invitation to return to the restaurant. We arrived and spoke to owner in person regarding the original review and how he wanted to be aware of issues so that he can make improvements. We sat at the bar and had a great experience. The staff were attentive to everyone in the bar area, the bar stayed clean and our food order was perfect. We like the homey feeling of this place and will...

Ive never given a bad review but, we tried 121 for the first time. We made a 645 reservation. Got there at 625 and decided to go in and let them know we were there if something came open earlier than 645. We were told our table was being cleared and it would be ready in 5 minutes. At 647 we went and asked if it was cleared yet and they seemed confused to find our reservation. We were told it was almost ready. After hearing people with 7 oclock reservations being ushered to their tables we went back to ask if it was ready. We finally got a text saying our table was ready. We then stood for about 5 minutes waiting to be shown to our table. We ordered 2 cocktails. When the first one came out it was mine but the server gave it to my wife. We finally got both drinks and ordered an appetizer. After about 15 minutes we got bread and our appetizer. Both were good although my wife liked the house bread better than the dish we ordered. When the waitress came back she started telling us about the crab cake something and I stopped her and let her know my wife has severe seafood allergy. When she finally came back to take our order we both ordered steaks. Mine medium and wife medium rare. Wairess again tried to talk my wife into getting crab meat topping on her steak. We both explained the seafood allergy again. We got our food in a timely manner for a Saturday night but mine was given to my wife and hers to me. We swapped plates, no big deal. I cut into my steak and it was rare at best. My wife cut hers and it was beyond well done. We arent ones to complain so we swapped steaks as I like mine cooked more than she does. I was able to get about half of it eaten before just eating the rest of the house bread to fill me up. After talking to others since then it is very mixed opinions so I'm guessing maybe the day of week affects service or maybe we just went on a bad night but at 187 dollars for 2 people to eat (and we still left 20% tip ontop) we were expecting to talk about how great it was on the drive home. Instead we talked about all the possible reasons it could've been so far...

Overall a positive experience, but not as impressed as I hoped I would be. Went at 315pm on a Tuesday and it was dead (only 3 other small tables occupied).

Atmosphere: cozy, comfortable. Not white table cloth, but it is nice inside. Casual/office attire is fine. There are many tables, and a bar area (didn't see any booths).

Location: easy to miss. Plenty of parking. Pulling in/out was easy.

Food: good variety: calamari, fried mozzarella, mushrooms, pizza, pasta, steak, fish, lasagna, salads, etc. Price is a little high for the quality of food. We ordered the calamari ($13) and it was a little over cooked, but the flavor was good. Also ordered the ribeye ($41) and while it was cooked as requested (medium rare) they did NOT trim or render it. The steak had alot of fat on it that my fiance had to cut off bc he couldn't eat it (think slimy, gooey and chewy fat, not the melt in your mouth fat). My fiance ordered asparagus with his steak and it was not cut properly- the ends were inedible. My fiance also ordered the killer kale ceasar salad and he liked that. I ordered the Mona Lisa (shrimp and lump crab meat pasta with a cream sauce) ($20) and I enjoyed it. It was flavorful and I was full after eating half. I do wish there were big pieces of crab (it was shredded crab meat). We paid $94 for calamari, steak, pasta, small salad, tea and coke. Overall, it was good but not $94 good.

Staff/service: friendly and welcoming. A little distracted even though there were only 4 tables dining. There were 2 other staff members just walking around, but not really doing anything. The chef could be seen from the dining area and he seemed/looked bored.

Know before you go: they charge 4% to used a card when you pay. However, they do have an ATM onsite that charges $1.25 to use. If you pay cash, you won't have the 4% card charge added to your ticket.

I dont think I would go back. We have dined at equally expensive restaurants in the area that have better...