Papille Gustative — Restaurant in Santa Monica

So I rarely write reviews and honestly don’t think I’ve ever written a negative review but the circumstances I encountered on two occasions at Papille Gustative, unfortunately, inspired this review. I’m an LA native and local who just moved their permanent home into the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica. I had walked past this restaurant a couple of times and was very excited to try it as it looked really good, was only four blocks from my new place and I always love having a go-to local spot. The first time I went was on a Saturday night in late May. I made a reservation for 7:45 though when I arrived I was surprised to see that there were plenty of open tables even though it was a nice evening. We were promptly seated by a friendly host and then sat for literally 20 minutes (again, maybe 3 of the six or eight outdoor tables were occupied) before I flagged down a waiter who came over and simply said, “Yes?” I asked him if we could get water and order since we had been sitting quite some time. He actually just walked away without saying anything. My guest and I looked at each other perplexed. The waiter returned in a couple of minutes, poured us water and said curtly, “Are you ready?” We ordered and that was the last we saw of him (another server who was warm and friendly brought the food). We had to flag the waiter down again after we were done to request a dessert menu and then again for the check. Each time he arrived, he was rude and acted like we were inconveniencing him. It was seriously the worst service I’d ever received at what seemed to be a decent restaurant. I personally despise entitled people and so am myself hesitant to ever complain but I did tell the host and another member of the wait-staff on our way out that our waiter was appalling. They apologized profusely and assured me if I came back it would be much better. Fortunately, the food was very good and I know every place has an off night so, in spite of terrible service, I was willing to try again. Two weeks later I made another Saturday night reservation for 7:00 (which again, turned out to be unnecessary). We were promptly seated in the same waiter’s section as my previous visit. This time, we ordered within 5 minutes, our salad arrived shortly thereafter (which was delicious) and then…..nothing; no food, no water refill, nothing. At 8:10, we got up and walked out. What a joke! I honestly don’t know how they stay in business and understand why on Main St. on a Saturday night, the place isn’t that busy. Such a shame. I really wanted to love (or even just like) this place. I had told my foodie friend about my first experience there but still encouraged him to go for the fettucine and scallops. After my second experience, I told him not to bother. When I walk by this place in the future and see it shuttered, I will sadly shake my head with understanding.

In response to Calin's reply and question below, yes, same server both times (which I stated in my review). I am of Hungarian descent and I believe I recognized the server's accent as Eastern European,...

My partner and I have come to Papille Gustative a number of times the past 2 years. We’ve noticed there’s been a bit of a decline in level of service, and today we were really disappointed with our experience.

For starters, I’ve noticed that my order of the brunch plate has been missing the other, shaved cheese, that it normally comes with the past 2 times I’ve ordered it. Not a huge deal, but definitely disappointing as it happening twice seems to show them cutting corners…

Now onto our experience overall. My partner ordered the filet mignon and eggs. Our server forgot to put our order in. No problem, we’re not in a rush. We ordered 2 glasses of champagne while we waited which they comped.

Once our food did arrive, the orange juice I ordered with my food didn’t arrive, the eggs my partner ordered were sunny side up but came scrambled, and the steak he ordered (medium rare) was inedible. It was completely rare. He was about half way done and brought this to our server’s attention. He apologized for the eggs and offered to bring out new eggs but then proceeded to argue with us that the steak looked medium rare to him and that he wasn’t going to argue with us…after flipping the steak upside down, it was clear that there was almost no browning on the bottoms. We asked for the steak to be replaced, which he did. But the pushback just made things really uncomfortable.

Lastly, immediately as soon as I arrived back to the table from the restroom while my partner paid, the host had approached our table to tell us there are upcoming reservations. Which would be otherwise fine, but our overstay was not by choice.

When we brought our mishaps to the host’s attention because at that point we were pretty fed up. She said she was sorry but that it’s Sunday and (in other words) it’s kind of to be expected, and asked us if we had pictures of the food. Frankly, I understand the accessibility but it’s a steak, not a car accident. We weren’t asking for the meal to be comped. We were just disappointed and wished unhappy customers could be met with the will to make...

Absolutely terrible experience. Was visiting LA from out of town and decided to give this place a shot while I was in Santa Monica, but ended up leaving both extremely disappointed and hungry. We arrived at about 6:40 pm on a Saturday evening and the entire place was completely empty which was the first red flag. Since it was just the two of us, we placed our orders shortly after we entered the restaurant (one minestrone soup, one tomato burrata and one fettuccini pasta). Even though these were all are relatively easy and small dishes to make, we ended up waiting for almost an hour to get just our appetizers (one soup and one tomato burrata) even though the entire restaurant was completely empty. Not sure how it’s possible but my pasta took more than an hour for them to prepare even though I followed up twice with the waiter on this order and each time he assured me “that they’re preparing it”. I could not wait any longer and asked for them to box it up once they finished it while they bring me the bill, I ended up paying the entire bill plus 18% gratuity simply out of good faith and they had the audacity to not even bring out my pasta which I asked them to box up since I had to leave and could not wait any longer. They basically over charged me for food that I never even ate while lying to my face saying that “my order was almost done” when in reality it wasn’t even close to finishing. Instead of rectifying the issue and removing the pasta from my bill (which they never even brought out), they were being greedy and made a big deal out of it, instead of arguing I just paid it and left. Please avoid this place, their food is mediocre and their service is even worse. It ended up being a complete waste of money and a waste of time. Will never be...