Rouge - Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Los Angeles

It’s been years since I’ve been here and the menu is definitely different but the vibe is pretty much the same. The hubs and I visited on. Thursday night around 630 so it was not busy at all, parking sucks for the whole area so that was expected but we quickly found a metered parking just a short walk away. We were seated immediately in the lower portion and they turned the heaters on because it was a cool California evening. My husband ordered a beer, they were out of the one he ordered so he just ordered another. We were just stopping in for apps so we ordered Ceviche, Stuffed tiger shrimp and the Crispy Lavash. The waiter repeated the order and instead of Lavash he said skewers, I corrected him and repeated no skewers but Lavash to which it replied ok no problem and it looked like he changed the order.

The ceviche came and it was delicious, pretty hefty pieces of fish and shrimp flavored well.

Next were the crab stuffed tiger shrimp, absolutely delish, 100% recommended.

Finally the SKEWERS showed up. The skewers we did not order.

My hubs and I are pretty laid back , we looked at each other and just said f it, they were good, needed a bit more salt the sauce it came with did add flavor overall a decent dish.

When the waiter came by to ask how everything was I said “good but not what we ordered”, he looked confused and I said “we wanted the lavash not the skewers” his reply “so, what they are not good?” I let him know they were fine just not what we ordered. This dish after the other 2 seafood dishes was just kind of blah in comparison and the lavash would have been a nice change.

We ordered another couple beers and one more iced tea.

The bill came and I guess my bad for not asking if there were refills on Iced tea but $12 for 2 glasses of iced tea is kind of crazy.

My review on food is 5/5 because the dishes we had were good.

Service was good, quick and everyone was friendly but no regard or accountability was taken for giving the wrong items so I gave 4/5.

And while it did not impact my rating $6 PER iced tea is kind of crazy.

The bibe is definitely a 5/5 and great for a date night, girls night or for groups of people (make a reservation).

For the first time ever I didn’t take pics but the food is plated...

I came to Rouge for dinner after hearing they feature an all-Armenian wine list. Right off the bat, I found the wine list brief and hard to navigate. There wasn’t much detail about the grapes or wine (e.g. variety, body) and our server didn’t seem very familiar with the offerings. Some options were missing, some were off menu. I love what they’re going for, but it’d be helpful to see a wine menu with more detail and accuracy.

The food was delicious with interesting, satisfying flavors and textures. I was a bit surprised that the menu covered everything from paella to KBBQ. I was hoping for a more focused Armenian concept to match the wine menu. My favorite dish was the muhammara, and I appreciated the waiter’s description and presentation.

Service was friendly (and EXCELLENT when it came to accommodating dietary restrictions!) but painfully slow. We were seated for quite awhile in an otherwise-empty restaurant before our orders were taken. Glasses of wine took 10+ minutes to come out, even though we were one of only two tables at that point. The entree came out before we were served all of our appetizers. A glass of wine we never ordered came out.

Portions and prices were pretty painful here. While the food was outstanding, the portions were minuscule and the prices were aspirational. For example, an octopus dish, featuring what was likely a portion of a single tentacle cut into ~8-10 tiny coins and plated with radish/fennel, cost $36. An after-dinner espresso would set you back $8. Again, the food is good, but the value proposition isn’t quite there.

All in all, a beautiful space with big potential, but some pain points. I...

Grade C+ ( 79) Not enough to get to a B. The good first: First of all the servers were great, nothing to take away from that. The Beets by DRO was very unusual in texture but it worked for me, I liked it. The Spicy Vodka Lumache Pasta was surprisingly good, we liked it. The Pineapple express was again unusual with the things sliced pineapple slices used in the place of dough to house the cream inside, charred on top for a unique taste, I liked it. The Passionfruit Chocolate cake was ok, but it could have been so much better, guys put the hazelnut inside the cake and a bit more air and it would be amazing. The garden Gem salad was ok, nothing unusual there Now the bad: Passion fruit Margarita, if I go back (doubtful) I won't get it again, they fill it up with so many small ice cubes that there's hardly any drink in there! Come on guys you charge so much you should not use that trick, it's like a happy hour trick. The Shoes K Town BBQ was not very good, the meat was VERY tough even though it was med rare or rare. The prices are very high and I didn't like the fact that they put the tip on there and when they bring the machine to charge it is asking you to click an extra 5 or 8%, just too many tricks here and there. Not happy with this restaurant. Oh, one final note, for those that day the Atmosphere was great, what atmosphere? It was fairly average,...