121 Artisan Bistro

Great meal! We had the duck and shrimp appetizers. For an entrée we had the Sensation salad, Caesar salad, and the Shrimp Diavolo. They were all great!

Great Atmosphere!!! The entire staff was friendly and fun. Great variety of menu items which the wait staff is more than helpful to go over with you! Definitely worth going out of your way to eat here!

Great calamari. If you want really good pasta, you cannot go wrong here, whether the Mona Lisa or the shrimp diavolo or the lasagna. The steak is amazing, and the cocktails offered are varied and tasty. Fresh salads, especially the sensation salad with slivered almonds, are a great option. The shrimp bisque and the tomato bisque are both delicious, and the calzones and pizzas are always good. I love the eggplant and roasted garlic offerings for them. Great desserts, including cannoli, make this a fantastic dining option. It is not inexpensive, but the service and food are both really good.
Tried to come on a Saturday night and we were turned away at the door for no more walk-​ins. At 7:30. Unbelievably disappointing and bad customer service. Called and was told «kitchen was overwhelmed.» Seriously?
I discussed the above incident with management and they were apologetic about it.
This place still has some of the best food in town. It is busy for a reason. Great salads, and the new back room is a cozy addition. The individual pizzas are wonderful. Try one with the eggplant and roasted garlic — it’s amazing. Service is really good too.

Great food & great service. Prices are more than reasonable for the quality food they serve.

I placed a carry out order and my husband went to pick it up fifteen minutes later. We were assured the food would be ready before thirty minutes had gone by. My husband waited over an hour for our food and when he got it home (less than a mile away), everything was soggy and falling apart. I called the restaurant to let them know what happened and the person on the phone was rude, saying «oh is that all?» and «oh well» when I told him what happened.
Inedible food and awful customer service.
Will not be going back.

Perfect place for a classy date or anniversary! 121 has great food choices with a good variety and tastes!

My new favorite restaurant in the area! The lasagna is to die for. Yum! Also the Parmesan encrusted shrimp was delicious.

Lamb Lollypops are to die for. Get the creamy sauce. The good and wine are great. The chairs are extremely uncomfortable is my only complaint.

My husband is a big fan of this place, finally i got to come and now I can tell why he likes it so much. The lamb lollypops are to die for, everything is fresh, I had a single glass of pinot grio and it was good, usually wine by the glass is not good because the bottles are kept open for too long but here that was not the case, I am a very picky and satisfied customer at 121 Bistro!

When I talked to some local Lake Charles residents, many cannot seem to agree which Cajun seafood restaurant is the best, but all of them agree with one thing: Bistro 121 is one of the best foods in town.
Of course, as many has also noted, it comes with a price.
The first thing I noticed about Bistro 121 was how expensive this restaurant was. It took me a few minutes to realize that the page with all these items that were priced double-​digit was only the appetizer page. However, just when I was about to just give a pizza to save my wallet, I found one thing I simply cannot resist: the Mona Lisa — a dish of angel hair pasta with lump crab meat and shrimp in creamy sauce.
Although priced at $ 17, the dish truly delivered and did not disappoint. The ingredients alone were impressive as the amount of crab meat and medium shrimps were generous. As crazy as this sounds though, even without these awesome seafood, I would still think the creamy pasta is still a winner! The creamy sauce’s texture and taste really hit the nail.
Because I haven’t ate in Lake Charles enough, I cannot say if it’s one of the town’s best, but I can say that it’s definitely one of the best Italian I have tasted!
That being said, Bistro 121 is too expensive for a regular person like me to visit frequently, but it is certainly a must-​try at least once! Maybe once I’m rich enough, I will come by more often to try out more alluring choices on the menu.

My wife and I go here about once every other month and on special occasions. This place never fails to impress. Every time we walk out of 121 we are even more devoted to it. It is honestly a bit shocking. I don’t think I have ever had such consistently great service and food anywhere. Speaking of the food… the best steak I have ever eaten in my life came from this place. It was so good it literally almost brought tears to my eyes. They have one of the better restaurant bars in the area as well. My wife is an extremely picky drinker and they knock it out of the park every time with her. I’m a little simpler. I’m a beer guy, but I much prefer craft beer. You won’t be blown away by their selection, but what they do have fits the bill for their food very well in my opinion. If anything ever happens to this restaurant I might move away. I wish I could give them more stars!
**Note to the manager — NEVER stop carrying Jefferson Stout on draught! It pairs perfectly with your exquisite ribeye!

I’ve eaten here before, and it’s always been very good. This place has excellent service, and I the food is always delicious. It’s definitely worth the wait time!

The food is great. The service is not. If you don’t have time to wait and wait and wait — don’t go.

Hands down best restaurant in lake charles. The food is always amazing. The service is impeccable in the dining area. Some of my favorites are the filet topped with crab. Just cooked perfectly every time I’ve had it. Beautiful cuts of meat and amazing flavor. Their asparagus is amazing and the asiago potatoes, Omg. That’s my favorite meal on earth. Their parmasian shrimp are so flavorful and enough to make a full meal. The flourless chocolate raspberry cake is perfection. So many other amazing things on the menu here. I have not tried anything I didn’t like. The bar service could be better and the margaritas aren’t the best but the martinis are great

I had heard a lot about this restaurant from many clients and decided to stop in for a late lunch one day. The parking lot was packed, but there wasn’t a wait. We were sat promptly, but the hostess didnt give us gpflatware or menus. The server didnt get to us for several minutes, so all we could do was sit and twiddle our thumbs.
When the server finally got to us, he did bring menus and take a drink order. We ordered the bruschetta appetizer and a gluten free pizza. I asked if avocado was available for the pizza and the server said yes.
The bruschetta was great, but the wait time for the pizza was 30minutes, as I said, there was pnt a wait at the door and the restaurant wasn’t packed. During our wait, the server never cleared our app plates and didnt refill our drinks. One of the runners filled our drinks once. He didn’t ask what we were drinking, just poured. Of course, it was the wrong drink.
When we finally got the pizza, they definitely skimped on the toppings. There was hardly any pesto sauce and just a couple of ¼ inch cubes of brown avocado. To top it all off, when we got the bill, they charged us $ 5 for ½ an avocado! I asked the server about it, of course. He said that they usually on charge $ 1.95 for each topping, but that the chef told him it was higher for the avocado. So, he rang in whatever the chef told him, instead if coming to check with us to make sure that the additional charge was okay. If I would have known they would charge $ 5 for 3 – 4 bits of brown avocado, I would have said no and been happy to do without!
I would sincerely like to give this place a second try, but most likely will not. I am rarely in town and wouldn’t visit unless someone else in my party really wanted to eat there. It wasn’t worth $ 17pp for some bruschetta, dry pizza, two drinks, and lame service.

Wonderful food.
Absolutely miserable service.
To start, this place does not take reservations. OK, no big deal, right? So we showed up around dinner time (7) on a Saturday, and were told it would be a wait but that we could spend that time in the bar area. Works for me. We waited at bar for about thirty minutes and enjoyed a cocktail during that time – hot tip, there is not a lot of seating in that area, so you may be stalking someone else’s spot while waiting for them to leave so you can have a chair.
After our wait, we were seated at our table sans menus or waiter for about fifteen minutes. They were super busy, so I somewhat understand the lack of service, but not even giving us a menu to look at while we waited? Poor choice. Once our waiter arrived, it became apparent that he was very nice, but no good at being a waiter. The tables around us got bread to snack on while we waited, hungry, for our food. Glasses went unfilled, orders got mixed up, etc. We started with crab fritters and had a pizzette and the seafood cannelloni for entrees. As previously mentioned, the food was really good – the fritters were crispy and gorgeously plated, the cannelloni was piping hot, the pizzette crispy, with fresh toppings – but the service on a crowded weekend night is tough to overcome.

The steaks at this place keep me coming back… the ribeye really can’t be beat within a 2-​hour drive in any direction… but on a lark I just got a Tuscan chop salad with my meal, and I think it might have actually been better than the steak (and the steak was as good as always). I’m pretty far removed from being a vegetarian, but that salad was worth the entire trip to the restaurant.
On the down side, the pancetta/​mushroom/​spinach thing I usually get with my steak came out crazily over-​salted. This place keeps throwing me 9’s…still waiting for the 10.

I have been here twice so I feel like it is time I write a review about my experiences. On both occasions the hostess has not been been very attentive or helpful. She tell us the wait won’t be long and then you end up having to wait over thirty minutes! The first I went with a large party and the wait was two hours. It was a friends birthday and that is the ONLY reason why I stayed. The second time I was there with a friend and we still ended up waiting thirty minutes, got taken to a dirty table, returned to the waiting area and finally re sat. I also don’t understand how they can take names but they don’t hand out buzzers. The chef and hostess said they will come get you when they have a table. I found this to be odd because what if you’re at the bar; or what if they don’t remember what you look like?
Service. On both occasions the servers were friendly however service was soo slow. It took forever to place orders. Forever to receive drinks. «the bar suddenly got busy». «the kitchen got slammed». And then when it’s time to pay they are quick to bring receipts and then you’ll have to wait another 10 – 15 minutes before the server returns.
Food. Great however there she be more health conscious items. The martins and wine are overpriced.
Would I return? Smeh… only if I want to spend my entire night sitting in a restaurant and have no plans for anything afterwards.

This restaurant has made great food the times that we have visited.
The steaks (either in kabob form as an appetizer or as a fillet mignon entrée) were perfect. I have a relatively rare food allergy — the waiter and chef were awesome in accommodating this so that I could eat without getting sick!

First time going to this Resturant. Based it off Unilocal reviews.
The food was excellent, prices are moderate. The waiters were very knowledgeable and friendly.
Service was a little slow and parking difficult
Overall the wife enjoyed it.