Bar Le Côte — Restaurant in Lompoc

Located in the old Sides Hardware and Shoes location in Los Olivos, this newer restaurant is a standout in the local restaurant scene due to its number of seafood offerings. Their standard seafood fare includes oysters (two different offerings on the night we were there), and chilled Jonah crab claw and peel and eat shrimp. Their not so standard seafood includes sea urchin, mussels with garbanzo beans and striped bass served with eggplant puree.

For our first time there, we had the oysters, sea urchin, arugula salad, saffron buns, garlic fries, striped bass and mussels. Everything we tried was exceptional and beyond expectations, save the mussels. The oysters were fresh, meaty and from Maine and somewhere unspecified on the West Coast. The mignonette was excellent and how I believe oysters should be served. They also come with cocktail sauce, but you don't need that unless you don't care for mignonette, but you need to give that a shot...you will not want oysters any other way after that, believe me. The sea urchin was delicate and danced across the tongue. The saffron buns were light, airy, and tasty and came three to an order.

The garlic fries were plentiful. More than enough for four people to share as an appetizer or side dish with your entree. If you need to watch your sodium intake, I would pass on these as they are well seasoned. The aioli enhanced the flavor and balanced out the saltiness. Our entrees were well portioned. The striped bass was flaky, had crispy skin on the bottom and was served atop a tasty eggplant puree. The mussels were served paella style, in the cooking pan, with garbanzo beans, lemon wedges, and what appeared to be vermicelli (it was actually fideo). It had an interesting blend of flavors, and a slightly sweet and tart flavor that maybe came from some undisclosed spice. The olive oil cake was light, moist and the pomegranates were a great addition to add a little sweetness and tartness at the same time.

Overall, I would highly recommend Bar Le Cote. Our meal was a little on the pricey side overall if you have a budget. I actually thought the pricing was rather interesting as some items seemed inexpensive (bowl of fries for $8 and giant salad for $12) while a few others were certainly on the pricey side (sea urchin for $21and oysters for $24). If price is no object or you are celebrating a special occasion, Bar Le Cote is...

*Update from December 2022 visit

Increased rating from 4 to 5 based on our visit during happy hour on a Friday evening. The food was excellent with the Morro Bay oysters being very fresh and while not particularly large very tasty as were the peel and eat shrimp. The star for us was the Day Boat Scallop Crudo which was outstanding (note there is one scallop missing from the photo as we tasted one before the photo 😁)

• Original review is below

Being a fan of Bell's in Los Alamos my wife and I had an early dinner at Bar Le Côte on their grand opening.

We were greeted by a friendly hostess and seated quickly though did find it strange we were asked for our phone number as there was no waiting.

The decor is lively with bright colors and greeted soon after we were seated. They don't have their beer/wine license yet so the drink selection is very limited so we opted for still water.

After reviewing the menu and discussing some of the items with the waiter we ordered 4 items

Crudo : found it well balanced a wonderful start to our meal. With a light avocado sauce on the bottom of the fish, nice amount of saffron oil, and a radish on top, the combination we thought worked well together.

Tartare : Being a fan of tartare we tried this dish as it was different with oysters on top. While the oysters were a hit the rest of the dish had flaws in our opinion. The hand cut beef appeared not to be well trimmed as many bites had hard bits in them. The horse radish creme was not well mixed as there were times when it overpowered everything.

Striped bass : well prepared with a crispy though not burnt skin and two sauces that worked well together though would have enjoyed a bit more of the Germolata.

Halibut : the espognole that the halibut was placed in was wonderful however not fans of the effect of the serrano had on the halibut that it was wrapped in.

Lastly we decided to get an espresso (wonder density with a nice nutty flavor with little bitterness), the olive cake, and vanilla ice cream with sherry and glad we did as both were great though thought the vanilla sherry combination really hit the mark.

Overall a nice meal especially for an opening day and will try...

Bar Le Côte in Los Olivos.

This is a restaurant that would stand out anywhere in the world but like many central coast standouts, it’s sitting a bit incognito on a side street in a small town.

And it’s by the folks behind Bell’s so that raised the probability that it would be something special.

Attentive friendly service (thanks Felix). Kitchen kept dishes moving and spacing was great.

A menu with a wonderful mix of seafood, tapas, and expertly prepared fish await you (along with a short but not to be missed dessert menu).

We started with a mix of east and (Morro Bay) west coast oysters and (Santa Barbara) sea urchin on ice. Nice presentation with the typical accoutrements.

We were intent on desserts so we added two small tapas to our mains but there was no shortage of great options for us to go after next time we head down in that direction.

Mains:

Skate Wing with brown butter and oyster mushrooms. I only got one bite of it but it was nicely executed (which explains why I only got one bite).

Whole dorado with a nice chunky romesco sauce. Buttery fish with an unreal crispy skin and really cleanly deboned to make the ‘eating a whole fish’ experience enjoyable instead of a minefield of little needle-like bones

Sides/tapas:

Saffron Buns (from the pastry chef at Bell’s).

This is what a bread service should be. Bread with enough crust for good chew and a fluffy buttery saffrony inside. No butter needed, great for dipping in whatever sauce you have from your other dishes.

Broccolini. Blanched enough to take out most of the bitter but left a bit behind to pair with the sauce it’s sitting in. Really well done.

Desserts:

Dark chocolate pot de creme. If you love chocolate this is everything. The description in the menu doesn’t do it justice.

Citrus olive oil cake. The pomegranate sauce with plump arils makes the dish. The cake is good enough but the crunch of pomegranate fills in the texture.

Drinks:

Saffron Lemonade (because saffron should be worked in wherever possible). Good lemonade with the nice chewy ice with the saffron infusion making it exceptional. Add a rim of tajin for...