Pierre LaFond restaurant

I recently took a trip up to Santa Barbara with some friends for the weekend. The city itself makes for a great getaway from Los Angeles where I live. There is plenty to see and do there that you could easily spend a few days up there and visit so many different places. On the first night of our trip we ended up at Pierre LaFond Bistro and Wine Bar.They are located on State Street and have been there since 1993. They are considered California cuisine and are known for using local ingredients.We started off with a few of the appetizers and shared most of the dishes. The favorite was the Garden tomato and Arugula Pesto Flatbread.

The flatbread was thin and soft and was a great canvas for the toppings. The fresh tomato’s and the goat cheese on top melted in our mouths. The pesto and reduced balsamic truly, helped pull the dish together. We also had the artisan cheese plate and their special, a breaded caprese salad. The breaded caprese was a little lacking in flavor next to the rest of the dishes on the table. We then had the Ratatouille stuffed artichoke.
As a big artichoke fan I was really looking forward to this dish. It sounded unique and tasty. Unfortunately, we found it to have a little too much going on. The ratatouille was cubed placed on top of the cooked artichoke and then bread crumbs were added and it was baked. It basically seemed like two dishes in one. When eating artichokes leaves you need to get in at them and usually dip them in a sauce. Putting vegetables on top of the leaves just made them taste dry. The sauce that was a the bottom was tasty and may have been a better addition to the top then all of the veggies. Although the artichoke was cooked well and the heart was great, it was a little bit of a disappointment to an artichoke lover. This however was quickly forgotten when our wonderful waitress brought us out dessert. She brought out a chocolate cake of sorts and a wine cake.

Let me just say that the chocolate part was good and all but oh my, the wine cake was great. This was the first time I had ever had a wine cake and it was so tasty. It was a moist yellow cake with a slightly crunchy outside drizzled with sweetness. This was easily the highlight of the dinner and a recipe I plan to try out soon.I would recommend trying this restaurant as the food was great and the service was truly excellent.

www.pierrelafond.com