Ardor — Restaurant in West Hollywood

Ardor is a beautiful restaurant located inside the West Hollywood Edition on Sunset Blvd. The restaurant is a haven from the hustle and bustle of the city, as once you walk in, you’re suddenly surrounded by jungle plants and gentle, warm lighting. The spot offers many secluded tables, if you’re the type of person looking for a place to eat where you won’t be stared at.

As for the food:

Ardor serves shareable plates, meant to be split among the table so everyone can try some of everything. For a filling meal, I would order at least one entree & veggie side per person.

These dishes are AMAZING. I went with a group, so I got to try a little of almost everything on the menu, and there wasn’t a single dish that wasn’t unique and delicious. Some highlights from my visit were the lamb, the onion rings, and the asparagus.

The desserts are all fabulous, and I recommend you try as many of them as you can. They aren’t overly rich, so you won’t feel loaded down trying to taste multiple. The flavors and presentation are wonderful with all the desserts, so I highly recommend saving a little room for it.

The wine menu is vast and the cocktails are all very interesting. I experienced a slightly spiced avocado-lime cocktail that was amazing. Something I haven’t seen elsewhere, but now wish I did.

As for the service:

From our initial greeting to our departure, the service was incredibly friendly and thorough. Our waiter, Christophe, was an absolute pleasure. Friendly, funny, helpful, and always on-the-ball. Our glasses were never empty thanks to him. From the beginning of the experience, Christophe was giving well-explained suggestions based off his experiences with the food, as well as evocatively describing each dish to draw out its appeal. He suggested a wine to pair with our meal that turned out to be a perfect choice, as well as the cocktail that I ended up loving. By the end of the meal, we fully trusted Christophe’s suggestions, and I would recommend you do as well.

Great atmosphere, great food, great dessert, and great service (thanks again Christophe) — the total package. I fully recommend you go for the Ardor experience when you can. I’ll be back as soon...

What can I say...

I was really looking forward to a night out here with friends, but the whole experience was an abysmal disappointment.

Upon entering, I was immediately thrown off the by outdoor Home Depot planter vases, but whatever.

It seemed like all the staff I encountered had received no training, from the hostess, bartenders to waitstaff it just seemed like everyone was lost and could not care less about our party.

Our server was pretentious while simultaneously being oblivious, like as if serving us was a boring chore. Servers then switched multiple times, information between them was not communicated, it took forever to get food and we all received our meals at different times.

We got the wrong orders and then it seemed like once things started going wrong, servers all disappeared. Then our food didn’t arrive until much later. I think most of the staff there work primarily as actors or something because none of them showed any of the experience or professionalism I would expect at a restaurant charging these prices where you hope to get something special.

It took forever to find a manager to see what was going on, once we did find someone in charge, this “manager” was completely out of their depth and their response was laughable and incompetent.

Now I now why everything is a disaster management sucks and there are is no process or policy on how to do anything or a minimum standard of service.

Now to the food... Standard over priced “sceney” LA stuff, nothing special or memorable.

I expected something high end and exciting but would have rather ordered take out and hung out with friends at home. It would have been cheaper, better food, atmosphere and less hassle.

Don’t waste your...

Overall we had a really excellent dinner and I’m giving nearly top stars.

For dinner there was one food glitch and multiple service glitches.

Interestingly as guests at the edition, we found both the breakfast offerings and service more reliable and consistent than dinner.

Our dinner food fail was a minor point but very awkward .. we were given an “amuse bouche” of 3 small tomato slices with lovely seasoning, but the tomatoes were TERRIBLE .. unripe and crunchie .. something I could get in winter in toronto where I’m from but which I wouldn’t buy. I told our server, awkward as it was a complimentary dish, but worth noting. She said she would tell the chef.

Our main courses of Agnolotti, Filet and tuna were excellent. Desserts were exceptional.

Service wise .. our server was very polite and engaged but service was pretty slow. A few finicky glitches service wise which need to be improved .. we weren’t permitted to order anything until our son arrived at the table .. no starters until he joined us at the table. Apparently the chef likes to get the order all at once ? Seemed odd, as it wasn’t a tasting menu.

More annoyingly, we had been staying at the hotel for 3 nights and had booked our meal 3-4 weeks in advance for 7 pm. Several hours before dinner, the restaurant (Reuben) called to confirm our Rez and to ask if we could come a bit earlier or a bit later, he said that the restaurant would be very busy at 7 pm. After pushing back a bit with him, he said 7 pm was fine. I found his request irksome, and it was especially annoying since I was a guest at the hotel and had booked...