The Arbour — Restaurant in Pasadena

I've been meaning to try The Arbour since it opened back in 2017. Everyday I'd pass by it on my drive home from work, and whenever I was stuck in traffic on Lake ave, I would try to get a glimpse of what laid behind the wide-paned windows of this enigmatic (and relatively new) restaurant. Even from my car window, I could feel the warm, rustic, and inviting vibe of The Arbour beckoning me to come inside and delight in a comforting meal. My moment finally came this weekend and gosh am I impressed!

Let's start with the atmosphere ... the country style of The Arbour is on point! The incandescent lighting, high beam ceilings, and vibrant artwork all set a tranquil tone. The mood is elegant yet also laid-back, which allows one to engage in intimate conversations or lighthearted laughter with their chosen company.

Now for the food ... The Arbour provides a pure and sophisticated farm-to-table dining experience. The dishes are not only delicious, but also healthy! Whole foods - ranging from meats, grains, vegetables and fruit - are fresh and seasoned in a way that brings out their best taste. I was surprised by the beautiful presentation and generous portion sizes of our meal, which included the Beet salad, Seabass, and Shrimp Penne. Before the main course, we were even served fresh, warm bread with a dollop of garlic butter.

Everything was delectable! Gorgonzola cheese and walnuts paired perfectly in my beet salad, while the succulent seabass (the centerpiece my entree) was served with crispy polenta cakes and savory vegetables. Yum! My friend tucked into his creamy shrimp penne with relish and enjoyed it with a refreshing glass of Chardonnay.

Finally, the service was so friendly and attentive. We were seated quickly and got our order in within 10-15 minutes. Our waitress made some great dinner suggestion and even helped me create the perfect mocktail (lime and mint)!

Bottom line, The Arbour is one of my new favorite restaurants in Pasadena. I would love to come back here and try their many other exotic dishes. I highly recommend this place for a romantic date night or fun dinner...

In some ways Pasadena has a good and well -established food scene, think Union or Santorini, but in other ways it’s entirely fake, think Slaters 5050 or Great Maple. This restaurant has a lot of buzz around it — almost to the point where it could be a standard go-to for something unique. Just look at the reviews on this page! Nope. Same ol, same ol. We had a reservation through OpenTable not ready when we arrived.. OK fine we went to the bar. We were immediately greeted by a friendly attentive bartender and we ordered a bottle of wine. When our table was ready we paid for the wine and carried it over to our table. Out waitress offered rolls and butter, we gladly accepted. When ordering the food, things got weird. It’s unclear if the entrees are served family style or individually. So, we asked and got a reply from our server that implied if we were being cheap, we could split an entree. So we ordered an appetizer and two entrees. The appetizer was oysters. Served on a bed of crushed ice with a mignonette sauce and fish eggs. They were good. The bread came with a smear of butter on its serving dish and after we took the bread off the serving dish and placed it on a bread plate, we were ready to eat. The food was delivered. I ordered risotto — when it came in a giant serving bowl, it seemed there was enough for three people to enjoy. Same thing with the seared Yellowfin with garlic rice — there was waaay too much. More Claim Jumper portions then nicely prepared individual dishes of well-presented fine cuisine. The strangest thing of the night was that we never saw our server after she took our order. The next time we saw anyone was when a busperson came to take our butter plate, even though we hadn’t finished the bread. About that time we realized that it was 9 pm and restaurant would close at 930pm. All the activity in the place was geared toward getting customers out and a fine point on it came when our food was prematurely removed from the table. That’s fine...

My initial impression of Arbour was that it looked upscale, but lacked pretentiousness. The tables were far enough apart that dining felt more private. There was however, a noticeable smell of stale, dirty water; perhaps from the bar that just wafted through the restaurant. Thankfully the smell wasn’t strong and was later covered by the smell of food. The staff were welcoming and friendly, but lacked timing. They were there when not needed and hard to find when needed. We paid approximately $260+ for our dinner with tip.

We were provided bread which was warm and soft on the inside. The outside however, was chewy. For our main dishes, we ordered their lobster risotto, duo of duck and cheeseburger. The risotto was cooked perfectly. The peas in the risotto were crisp and fresh. The textural contrast was nice. Unfortunately the star of this dish, the lobster, was over cooked. It lost it’s sweet buttery flavor. The claw meat should have been the most flavorful part of the lobster, but it was dry and flavorless. The duo of duck was roasted breast and confit leg with a side of parsnips. Both were also cooked perfectly, but were under seasoned. The parsnips were delicious though. The cheeseburger was accompanied with garlic fries. The cheeseburger was flavorful and enough to feed two people. The garlic fries had all the garlic flavor you could want, but they tasted old and stale. The best part of our meal though was the dessert. We had an apple strudel with salted caramel sauce and a side of ice cream. The strudel was warm, flaky and the apples were tart enough to complement the cold soft ice cream. The caramel just added a light touch of sweetness. It was absolutely perfect.

For cocktails, I ordered the “Blackberry Smash” and “The Honeymoon.” The blackberry smash was vodka with blackberry purée. It tasted fine, but it didn’t taste much like blackberry. The honeymoon was bourbon with honey syrup which tasted much better than my...