The Bastide Experience

Bastide was a wonderful french restaurant that opened a few years back to great acclaim and then suddenly disappeared for revamping.  After several years, the restaurant reopened this September with a new chef (ex-Patina chef Walter Manzke) and a new look (still modern with lots of white, but less provincial than before), but the food is still as wonderful and special and the service as attentive as before.  I was looking forward to this meal for weeks, and this is how the evening unfolded:

- We began with some rose champagne and spiced nuts - fruity and full-bodied, not too sweet, a lovely way to begin any meal.

- We were then escorted to our table in an intimate dining room.  The menu choices were either (i) the 4-course prix fixe or (ii) the 7-course prix fixe.  As we are horribly greedy eaters, we all opted for the latter choice.

  As you can see from the picture of the menu, the choices are a bit vague - i.e., "fish", "pasta", "cheese" ... which gives the chef ample flexibility to serve the freshest ingredients of the day, but which requires a lot of faith and trust on your part.  To tide us over, we were provided with breadsticks (ok), sweet potato chips (crisp, spiced with paprika - yum) and little cheese puffs (delicious and still warm).  Then the bread guy appeared with a lovely basket of bread:  brioche with bacon, brioche with cheese, olive, rosemary potato and french baguette - each fresh and piping hot from the oven.... I think I had four in total.  (you can't be on the atkins diet here - the bread is just too good!)

- Then came the 3 amuses bouche - the first, a interpretation of the lobster taco with a shot of pure clear salsa, a bite of lobster with guacamole puree and a shot of tequila with lime sorbet, second, a hamachi sashimi with a spicy kick, and, the third, tuna tartar on uni gelee.

- The next course was the thai curry seafood soup - a bed of plump prawns and scallops, covered with a thai carrot and coconut soup, infused with garlic.  Super delicious and comforting - i could have bathed in this stuff.  I think this was my favorite!

- Then, grilled sea bass on a pea (?) puree, surrounded by grilled octopus and squid.  The fish was so tender and delicately sweet; the grilled octopus and squid, perfectly smoky and plump.

- Then, pumpkin ravioli with pork belly and parmesan cheese, drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar - the ravioli was lovely and sweet, the pork belly flavorful and the vinegar was so thick and syrupy ... yum... maybe this was my favorite...

- Then, short rib with small veggies - fork-tender meat that melted in your mouth.

  I also had a bite of my friend's duck - really lovely (not too gamey).

- The cheese course followed - wonderful little bites from goat cheese, triple cream, blue cheese, etc. served with sweet accompaniments of jam, fruit, and warm toasty raisin bread.

- A melon cocktail cleansed our palates - lime sorbet immersed in a watermelon juice bath.

- then dessert - a chocolate souffle with green tea ice cream and coconut cream, and a shot of warm chocolate milk.

- as if that wasn't enough, we each got 2 pieces of homemade chocolates - I had earl gray and hazelnut.

At this point, i just wanted to curl up and go to sleep.  :)

When we were ready to leave, we were treated with a visit to the kitchen to meet the chef.

  he was very nice, but it was a little strange to be intruding in their space.  Then I headed home for bed.  After a 3 1/2 hour meal, there's little else one can do.

the complimentary valet parking was a nice touch.

Bastide is a wonderful special occasion restaurant but it is expensive.  The two menus are $80 (4-course) and $100 (7-course).  Wine pairings are $80 / $100 respectively.  But it's worth every penny.

The restaurant is located at 8475 Melrose Place, West Hollywood, CA.