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In the second half of the 1980s, when America’s yuppie-driven restaurant craze hit its zenith, I went to every single hot new L.A. restaurant on behalf of my employer, L.A. Style, a quintessential ’80s style magazine. I often think back with longing to those days, when the magazine paid for me and three friends to eat and drink whatever we wanted from the swankest restaurants in town. And yet when L.A. Style died in the ’90s, it was a relief to no longer “have” to go to the major trendoid spots. It was exhausting, really, to battle the scene, be kept waiting 45 minutes with a reservation (I always go anonymously) and be served often-pretentious and/or bad food by a smug and/or clueless staff.
Those memories came flooding back recently when my husband and I headed to the Bazaar by José Andrés in the SLS Hotel in honor of our anniversary. When we went to Spain four summers ago we tried for months in vain to get a table at El BullÃ. Now at last was our chance to try that sort of intensely creative, labor-intensive, break-some-boundaries cooking. (Andrés trained at El BullÃ.)
We left early, aggravated and still hungry, and made a beeline for Milk on Beverly to comfort ourselves with ice cream.
It wasn’t that the food was bad; in fact, chef Andrés is doing some pretty amazing stuff, and the cotton candy foie gras actually is delicious. And it wasn’t the scene, which is obnoxious but nothing I haven’t seen before, and that sort of The Hills meets Real Housewives of Orange County meets Entourage (and yes, that very weekend on Entourage the guys went to Bazaar) can be tremendously entertaining for a couple of hours.
It was this: Andrés is charging serious money for his ambitious and intellectual food, and at least based on the service we got, he is not at all serious about running a serious restaurant. Our handsome slacker waiter seemed completely untrained. He spoke so softly we could barely hear him. We strained to hear his advice on dishes, then ordered a series of small plates (they are wee), requesting that we start with choices from the “traditional” side of the tapas menu, then moving on to the “modern” side. He concurred with everything, and then quite soon our dishes started arriving — in nowhere near the order we’d requested.
The dishes came flying out. Our waiter never once checked in. We wanted to order some (way overpriced) glasses of wine, but never got the chance, because he vanished. Ultimately we felt like they were rushing us out so they could turn the table.
A couple of dishes stood out, like the bit of foie gras hidden inside cotton candy, and the more traditional garlic shrimp. But the while the dish of cheese-stuffed piquillo peppers was tasty, it was no better than what we’ve had at Three Drunken Goats in Montrose. And the tiny, faux Philly cheese steak sandwich (made with “air bread”) was a classic case of the Emperor’s New Clothes.
But really the problem was service. And it wasn’t just us. The table next us ordered a round of cocktails ($16 a piece here), and they got the wrong ones. The staff did not insist on replacing them, and our neighbors were so happy to be at this famous restaurant that they said, “No, it’s okay, these look good, we’re fine.”
When you’re paying $100 or more per person for dinner, there needs to be a certain professionalism in the management and service. Even if the chef is a celebrity, and the designer is Philippe Starck, and the cocktails are fantastic (which they are). I saw none of that professionalism in evidence at Bazaar.
It saddens me to hear about your experience at The Bazaar. I have been several times, but not recently due to the influx of a crowd of people I am uncomfortable dining around as a direct result of their location and popularity. I have always had great food and flawless service at The Bazaar, and I wonder if your experience is the sum of increasing popularity and an inability to maintain excellent management in the face thereof.
Interesting to hear you had service issues at The Bazaar. During a recent birthday blowout with a group of ten people, the food was very good, but the service wasn’t up to par. It wasn’t awful, but our servers weren’t nearly attentive enough considering we ended up paying $150 per person.
interesting that you received this kind of service. I wouldn’t doubt it considering the busyness of the restaurant, but at that level, it is not excusable. My meal there (brunch) was well attended to, but perhaps it was because the person with whom I dined was a regular, and the waitstaff all knew her.
Despite the gimickry we really enjoyed an anniversary dinner recently at the Bazaar, but in the quieter, more civilized confines of Saam. Although it’s pricier, Saam is the way to go if you just want to sample the food more widely, and enjoy just a bit of the stereotypical L.A. sceney people watching within reason since it is RIDICULOUS. I wouldn’t blame the service issues on Andrés himself, but rather on SBE, which owns and operates the Bazaar for serious maximum profit. I think of Andrés as having more of a culinary guidance/consulting role. That being said, he should take more of an interest in the overall picture since his name is on the joint.
I like how two responses in a row use the word “interesting” to describe the problems with this place. I’ve been a few times and there’s nothing interesting about how rude the staff is. Each time I’ve gone it’s been in parties of 2 to 4 and had reservations, yet they still insisted on not seating us for over an hour and didn’t bat an eye about it. Then once seated this same sort of table turning behavior was in full effect. The food isn’t really worth the price, especially the dessert, and now that both sets of parents have been to a “hot L.A. place that they read about” I’m glad I’ll never have to set foot in here again. It’s the El Coyote of upscale restaurants.
I’m glad you all raised these service issues, because by last Saturday night, they were all resolved. The service was excellent and attentive and the kitchen flawlessly prepared and dispensed the array of tapas to a very busy restaurant. Irene was correcting in her lauding Bazaar as she did. It’s just a shame the restaurant is in such a horrible hotel full of miserable scenesters. But I guess that’s L.A.
I love every word you wrote in this. This is exactly how I feel about the place. It’s so hard to explain to people who ask my opinion b/c it’s so muddled with contradictory emotions. Yes, the food is great. Yes, the atmosphere is pretty cool. Yes, I can say I did enjoy myself. No, I will not be going again. What?
I just found the place was trying to be something it is not actually capable of being. And yes, the food is way overpriced but I never see that as reason to crap out on a place. The service and the attitude of the staff though just seemed way sub par to other nice places I usually go. I remember I went here one night, was kind of frustrated with the experience, and the next night went to Gordon Ramsey’s London. Everything I ate was great and interesting, but more importantly the host, waiter, and waterboy were all incredibly attentive and polite.
I think a nice restaurant should make you feel special or at least like you’re having a special experience. Bazaar just wants you to feel like THEY are special and you are lucky to be there. And I hate that to no end.
Taylor, that is very well put: Bazaar wants the diner to feel that they are special, not the diner. That’s exactly the problem with so many scene restaurants.
Just dined at Bazaar last night… I was actually very impressed with the service at the bar before we were seated as well as with our server in the restaurant. There was a minor mix-up with a food runner delivering the wrong dish, but other than that, we thought the service was excellent. However, once we were walked over to the patisserie for dessert, the service completely fell apart. The server there didn’t seem to know what he was doing, forgot one of the things we ordered, didn’t check in on us, didn’t bring sugar with our coffee or a pen with our check, etc. It was just such a dramatic difference from how we were treated the rest of the time, and it meant we ended the night on a weird note.
The food was quite good (including the Philly cheesesteaks, I thought — our one disappointment was the hangar steak), but they really do have to work on providing some kind of continuity of experience. I love the idea of moving to a different space for dessert and after-dinner drinks but we just felt like we were dropped off there and abandoned. Anyways, we had a great time and we didn’t get any attitude or pretentiousness from them at all (which I had completely anticipated that we would).
five visits to the bazaar. good food, bad service. every time. visiting for brunch in a few weeks.