Bavel — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Hightlights: The food was pretty unique and tasty. I got food poisoning from eating here. It was so yummy it was possibly worth it, though. If you're vegan, you're not gonna have a good time

Cons: Valet is $13, and there's no other easy parking options. They're firm on not seating you until your whole party arrives There is a 4% service charge independent of gratuity. You can opt out, but you'll probably look like a butt hole. They don't do substitutions at all. If you're vegan, you have very few options to eat. You can't eat any of the entrees and desserts. I got food poisoning from eating here. I am not sure what it was: it could have been the raw fish, the lamb chops, or the ribeye. Maybe it was another dish? I would avoid ordering undercooked meats here going forward. They don't really do anything special for your birthday. They don't even sing. They just say, "Oh, happy birthday!" 🙄

Pros: The staff is very friendly and attentive. They refilled our waters very quickly and took away empty plates quickly. They also swapped out our dirty plates for clean plates. The staff are aware of how painful it can be if you have dietary restrictions, so they'll do their best to mark the menu and help you find what you can eat Most dishes were unique, tasty, and reasonably priced for a "nice" restaurant.

Details: Duck hummus: meh. The duck flavor isn't really that strong, so it overall just tastes like normal hummus. Bluefin crudo: they had bluefin tuna crudo that day as an alternative option available to the dry aged trout crudo. This actually tasted amazing: the sour and slightly sweet sauce that accompanies it perfectly complimented it. It was not bad for $32, but the portion is small. I think this is probably what gave me food poisoning. I still might recommend it despite this - it was that good. Roasted sprouting cauliflower: This was not bad. It had some herbal taste that reminded me of soap. My vegetarian wife loved it. Oyster mushroom kebab: This is a must try, and it's (vegan?). Everyone, including the meat eaters, loved it. The seasoning and texture were perfect. It was neither dry nor soggy, both of which can happen often to pure mushroom dishes. There was supposed an avocado puree, which might not have been dairy free, but we got all sauces on the side, and this mushroom disb without the sauce was perfect as is. Portion is not big, and it was a little pricey at $26, but I highly recommend it. Grilled Prawns: another must try. The sauce is deliciously sweet and spicy, and the shells are mostly removed for you. The flesh was slightly overcooked. It's a little pricey at 5 prawns for $33, but I highly recommend it. Grilled Dorade: This was amazing! The seasoning reminds me a little of those cumin meat skewers from Asian street foods. It's slightly sweet and slightly spicy. They add some oil to it for richness and texture. They leave the head intact if you enjoy eating that. The meat was tender and mild. It's a little smaller fish than I expected, but it's actually pretty decently priced at $48. I loved this dish, and I highly recommend it. Lamb Neck Schwarma: The presentation is great, and the portion is huge. It's served on a giant flabread. Good deal for $54. It has a cinnamon taste that kind of reminds me of desssrt - it might not be desirable to everyone. The meat is very tender, and it's fun to rip off some flatbread and grab the meat with it. Beef Cheek: The meat was so tender. The flavor kind of reminded me of Taiwanese stewed beef for spicy beef noodle soup. The actual portion of beef is not large for $49, but you could probably dip some flatbread in the beef juices to get the most of it. I didn't care much for the beets in the dish. Lamb Rack: This was cooked perfectly medium and seasoned perfectly. I don't really like lamb rack, but this one was prepared perfectly. The portion for this is HUGE, so it's priced fairly at $89. Bone-in Ribeye: disappointing. We asked and were told it'd be medium cooked, and it came out medium rare. The...

Unfortunately a VERY mixed experience 3/3/2023 at Bavel. Arrived to be greeted by an awesome host who let me pick between two tables and hooked our group up with an awesome table. The roaming female server who brought me a glass of wine while I waited for the rest of my party was great, and recommended an INCREDIBLE Italian red ($24/glass, more on that later...) My party arrived and we were seated.

Our waiter came over and took drink orders from the rest of the group and another glass of wine for myself. This is where things started going downhill rapidly. We wanted to order / try A LOT of food. I asked if we could put in quickly for some hummus / baba / tabouleh / pita while we enjoyed our drinks for a second and considered all of the appetizers + entrees we would be ordering.

Our waiter, quite rudely, told us we had to give our entire order at once. I understand this policy and the reasons behind it, for synergy with the kitchen as well as making sure people don't hog a table for too long. I respect these policies. But after ordering already $150 worth of drinks I kindly asked again if he would please consider firing the hummus / baba / tabouleh again and we would QUICKLY be ready with the rest of our order. Again, he refused. Again, I asked kindly. It takes the kitchen 30 seconds to plate these dishes, I understand the waiter might be under strict orders to not allow this but there needs to be some wiggle room with simple dishes like this. Again I asked, this time slightly more annoyed and he said he would speak with the manager, okay. After a consult with the manager our request to have some hummus / baba / tabouleh brought out was granted. Our waiter was very annoyed and let it show. He could have put this issue behind him but unfortunately his poor attitude persisted through the rest of the meal.

We ordered much more of the lovely Italian wine, asked for 3 more glasses and the same waiter came by and was popping the cork on the bottle to pour them. I said, "hey, we might as well take the entire bottle since you are just opening it", he became really flustered and said he'd have to call the somm over. Oy vey. I said, dude, forget it just pour the wine don't worry about it and he proceeded to pour 3 VERY short glasses of the $24 wine. We had one more glass of the wine later in the evening which was poured by a somm I believe, and the size of pour was quite noticeably different. We ending up spending an extra $50-$60 on wine (per glass price) because or waiter wasn't quick enough on his feet to figure out to just leave the bottle on the table he had just popped and charge us the bottle price.

Our waiters' bad attitude persisted through the meal even though we made every attempt to lighten the mood and assure him the ordering process was fine and we really appreciate everything he had to go through to get us those spreads before we put in for the rest of our meal and that all the food coming out was excellent.

Long story short, food was excellent, all the aforementioned spreads, the mushrooms, octopus, prawns, oxtail, shawarma, the donuts and the pink lady were all excellent. And the wine was incredible.

But the cloud hanging over the meal and the waiters' bad attitude was tangible unfortunately. I hope to see the waiters trained to have a little more wiggle room / understanding when a party just wants a few spreads + pita put down when they arrive and already have $150+ worth of drinks on the table.

All in all, excellent food, some great interactions with some staff, but a huge damper that made the evening fall flat. With a tab of $500+ I expect a little more well rounded service.

My advice to future diners would be to have your order ready before you arrive, maybe write it on the back of your hand so you are ready to give your ENTIRE order at once, and don't risk asking for a couple quick appetizers and risk annoying your waiter.

Will return happily if I hear this policy ever changes.

Toda...

I wanted to love this place so much and sadly I was let down. I took my first trip to LA last week. I done extensive reasearch prior to my visit and found Bavel to be very highly recommended. So I made a reservation for the night of my birthday (August 21st). When my boyfriend and I arrived we were greeted and they acknowledged my birthday at the counter and the waiter acknowledged at the table.The first issue was with our waiter. He gave his recommendations. I appreciated that, but since it was our first visit I wanted to try a few different menu items. He said "Wow, that's a lot of food." Which I felt like was rude to say to woman especially considering the environment. But I didn't address it and carried on. I ordered an ARIA to drink which is described as a tropical cocktail. There was entirely too much nutmeg and I couldn't drink more than the first sip. There was nothing tropical about it. A better description would be "forest" it tasted like I would imagine a pinecone to taste. I ordered BABA GHANOUSH as my spread. No complaints at all. I enjoyed it. For appetizer, the GRILLED PRAWNS were the absolute star of the meal. They were cooked and seasoned perfectly. The tzatziki was a great pairing with it. I could have eaten a dozen. Also got the oyster mushroom kebab, it was ok. Not as good as described. Not much flavor, but not bad. My boyfriend had the waygu ox tail. They were great. No complaints on the flavor, but when he asked for an extra bowl of rice the waiter stated "no, we don't do that." I mentioned that we didn't mind paying extra, that he just wanted a bowl of rice. We were told no again. At this point, I was upset but I tried not to show it because I wanted us to enjoy my birthday dinner. I had the lamb neck shawarma. It was good, no complaints. I took most of it to go. I then asked for our food to be placed in to go plates. The waiter made a remark, "I'm sure you guys don't need a dessert after all that, right." I felt like that was very rude and would expect better service from a restaurant at this price point. My boyfriend did order the pavlova and neither of us were fans. One bite each. The bottom was chalky consistency and not much taste. and the buckwheat was just weird. I hate to be this person, but two other guests received a dessert with a candle to celebrate their birthday (one was at the table directly beside us) . I did not. I did not go here expecting a handout or anything free, but that is part of the experience on your birthday. The service was subpar to say the least. We received better, friendlier service at places in LA on a much lower price point. My boyfriend was upset and was going to ask for a manager, but I asked him to please not and let's just go. The food not as expected. The only food that was amazing was the prawns and ox tail. I would 100% recommend those two dishes. Our total was $240, which I expected. Based on the service alone I would not go back, but would definitely order the prawns or ox tail to go. lol. I only write this review in hopes the owner reads it and addresses the issue so no one else has this experience. I expected...