Bleu Bohème — Restaurant in San Diego

I would give the food a 3.5 but since there are no half stars, I'm giving it a 4 since the French Onion Soup was so freaking good.

The atmosphere at this restaurant was perfect and just what we expected. Service at the bar was quick and the drinks were very good. The rest of the service was okay but not what was expected at a restaurant with these price points. My friends and I had a drink at the bar. We were told our table was ready and were getting ready to settle up to move to our table when an employee came up, told us our table was ready and which table it was, told us the menus were already there, and that we should just go over when we were done. We carried our drinks and bread ourselves to our table. This restaurant is not huge and the bar is right near the host stand, so it would not have been difficult to see when we were ready to move.

Our server was quick to get to our table but the whole night, the service felt rushed and chaotic. The food was appropriately spaced out but it just seemed like the server or person running the food was in a huge rush every time they were near our table. When I'm paying $20+ for appetizers, I expect food runners to know where to put them on the table.

My friend ordered the mussels which are a whole section on the menu. Somehow, our server didn't know the were out. Not sure how they were out of mussels when it's such a huge part of their menu. Not only did she have to change her order, but the server never bothered to take them off our check.

We had the escargot which was fine but needed salt. The octopus was excellent though the goat cheese was not flavorful. The beef bourguignon was a little dry but the sauce was excellent. The French onion soup was perfect. The duck confit was also a little dry. The Fruits de Mer was swimming in butter and oil and did not have much flavor but the shrimp were huge.

The food is very buttery (expected in a French restaurant) and the bread is very flaky (in a good way) which means our paper tablecloth got very dirty. There was no attempt to clean it before dessert.

We ordered the chocolate mousse with seasonal berries and the server told us there were blackberries and raspberries (when I explained I have a blueberry allergy). We said that was perfect. The dish came out with 4 half strawberries. I mentioned this to the server and she seemed annoyed and came back with a dish with 7 blackberries.

After we finished our dessert, our server was nowhere to be found. We had to ask another server to get her after waiting for at least 15 minutes. It was close to closing time so I'm sure she was doing closing sidework but as a former server, I know this is a time you should be around.

The automatic tip options START at 20% on their credit card machine. I left 20% because it was easiest and we were ready to go, but the service wasn't at 20% level. It wasn't terrible, but the chaotic feeling, the dessert issue, the lack of mussels (maybe or maybe not our servers fault) the check issue, and not being around when we were...

TLDR this rating does not reflect the quality of the food which is a 4 or 4.5. The issue primarily lies in service, which had a few bright spots, but left much to be desired. The host and back waiter were bright and communicative, but our server seemed to forget we were there for 45 minutes at a time. It adds insult to injury when the table next to you arrives 30 minutes after you but has more attentive service, and finishes at the same time despite having more diners and more courses.

About the food: we enjoyed the salad maison and gnocci à la parissienne to start. Both were very nice dishes with clear demonstration of expertise from conception to execution. The gnocchi was well balanced, but light enough to share with more than one person without being too full. Pillowy with distribution of vegetables that were a perfect pair. Our main courses were the moule frites de champignons and the boeuf bourguignon. Again, execution was high-level and a nice balance of flavors. The sauce on the bourguignon was velvety & succulent, while the moule frites were the classic pairing with plump mussels and clean, sweet, but layered broth. Pain d'Epice was forgettable. Cake was too dense and not moist. Ice cream was almost better on its own.

All in all, the food met or exceeded the mark, but the experience seems like it would have been elevated had we just served ourselves. When visiting our table each time, our server was clearly responding to what she thought we would say, rather than what we actually said. She barely stuck around long enough for us to do anything but make a quick request, and other than that she could not be located. In 2025, eating out is a luxury. Regardless of whether the food itself is good, full service restaurants should be expected to do more than just show up when convenient and drop off the food, especially for anything north of...

Actually, I do not know where to begin. The food experience at Bleu Bohéme was absolutely unacceptable for a gourmet restaurant. This was my first time at this eatery and I had such high expectations. The place is so charming you just expect the kitchen to put out delightful food. I had the escargots de la Vielle. I’ve had escargots hundred’s of times, and this was the worst I’ve ever had. First of all, they were lukewarm! They looked like they were left over from a previous dinner. Tiny, rubbery in a sauce that was so inappropriate I was in disbelief. No hot butter, garlic sense to it at all. My main course was Poulet Roti! It was as tough as shoe leather (It made Costco roasted chicken like it came from the French Laundry). Not an ounce of juice or flavor! Just disgusting. The French beans on the side were cool at best and the mashed potato base was horrible. There is absolutely zero excuse for a high-end restaurant to put food out like this! The manager was gracious and didn’t charge me for the chicken dish, but this is not the point. I walked out of there paying over $150.00 (there were two of us). The overall food preparation and quality should never have been presented in such a fashion. The owners really need to evaluate their entire kitchen operation. Many professional people work in a kitchen and for this meal to have been presented to me was a complete failure of the system. Oh, and by the way, they are so impressed with their wines by the glass (carafe) program yet failed to even have a white or red burgundy offering! And this is supposed to be a “French restaurant’. What a horrible experience. It has to go down as the worst gourmet restaurant experience I’ve ever had! I would have been happier going out and buying 150 dollars with of...