750 ml (South Pasadena)

So the hubby and I were looking for a place to have a nice anniversary dinner. We celebrate like 3 anniversaries but that's neither here nor there. This year was our 10th year wedding anniversary, 11th year of knowing each other and 3rd year since the wedding. It's complicated...

Anyway, so we look for a place to try and my coworker had been browsing for a date night spot for him and his wife a few weeks ago and mentioned 750 ml. We are both foodies (my coworker and I) and knowing that this was a wine bar/bistro had both our mouths watering.

So I book the reservation for 6:30 pm on Thursday and LA was hit by some insane weather...rain, hail, tornadoes, etc. It was crazy! I work on the west side and it took me 2 hours to get to downtown LA and another 1.5 hours to get home since I hopped off the freeway and took surface streets. Needless to say I had to change our reservation and they were very nice and accommodating. By the time I got home all I wanted was a glass of wine and some good eats.

We drive to 750 ml and it's a quaint little spot right by the railroad tracks. We walk in and I was surprised by how casual the place was. The website I had visited had said casual elegant and I expected a much fancier place but it was very French in that it was dark with little bistro tables (even the light bulbs were different) a small bar and just very cozy. We were offered a seat by the window next to another couple but I wanted a little more privacy so I asked if we could be seated a little bit away on the other side of the alcove right by the window also. They were so nice and obliged.

The menu was very simple...starters and finishers (translated: appetizers and main courses). They had a wine list on a single sheet of paper, front and back, and they carried a lot of lesser known wines. We are used to California, particularly Napa wines, but they carried lots of foreign wines that we were not familiar with (French, Portuguese, Argentinia, Spain, etc.). No worries...we let the server know what dishes we were going to order and she kindly made suggestions on wines...which by the way went perfectly with the food.

I ordered the lamb prosciutto dish as a starter with the French burgundy. My hubby started with the soft shell crab dish and an Italian verdicchio. My prosciutto came with fresh house-made burrata, some micro greens and plantain chips. The prosciutto was very lamb-y but the burrata was very good. And it was very well paired with the burgundy. Hubby's soft-shell crab was fried and served with mango, plantain chips and a nice sauce. His went perfectly with the verdicchio.

For the finishers, we ordered the Alaskan halibut and the Kobe steak frites. The wines were just switched around this time as I was having the fish and he the red meat. My halibut was served on a bed of pureed potatoes (very buttery) with diced wild mushrooms. The texture was nice and firm and when served, the fish had a nice slight crispness to the outside. The Kobe was very lean...surprising since Kobe's are known for their marbling throughout. His steak was cooked perfectly (medium rare); however, it did not seem like a Kobe...too lean. We both finished our finishers and then came the dessert menu.

The dessert menu was more of a cheese menu with a few dessert selections thrown in. There were lots of cheese options and since neither of us were really big cheese eaters, we just moved on to the dessert section. Not very much to choose from...panna cotta with peach and blueberries, bread pudding and chocolate cake with ice cream. We opted for the chocolate cake but were a little disappointed. It tasted like it had been baked with way too much chocolate and the exterior was a little too hard. Not enough ice cream in my opinion.

All in all, it was good to have tried it. We now know where to go in case we really crave steak frites (since the Crepe Vine Bistro can no longer provide hot foods due to the multiple fires in their kitchen). I would say give it a try but be prepared to spend a good amount of $$$ since it is not cheap. You only live once, right? Bon appetit!