A Food Affair

Tiny little hole in the wall. Super cozy. I love the décor. The food was AMAZING! The service was fantastic. The chef came out to greet us, which was a treat. He was so humble and kind. You can tell that his restaurant is a real source of pride for him. I will be eating here again and again and again!

This french restaurant has amazing food with a really talented chef and great staff. I like just about everything on their menu with some of my top hits being their scallops, steak au poivre with cognac green peppercorn sauce and duck confit.
I also am a huge fan of their home made fruit infused ice teas and their deserts, their special apple tart is amazing and comes filled in a glass container with alder wood smoke.
The place is BYOB and they don’t charge corkage. It really is a great place for a romantic dinner or to take friends.

We really wanted to like this place but were sadly quite disappointed. They currently don’t have BYOB with no corkage fee, but even if they did, it wouldn’t have made the overall experience much better. The Beef Bourguignon was very forgettable, not extremely tender nor flavorful. The pasta that accompanied the dish was also plain in flavor and texture. The Bouillabaisse was better, but not filling at all. We were a fan of the broth which had delicious hints of every seafood in the dish and wasn’t overly salty. Out of their homemade desserts, the Hot Apple Tart Galette was our favorite.

Everything was perfect — from the lighting to the décor and the delicate yet hearty dishes crafted from a chef who also came out to give us a warm hello and an extra helping of crème brûlée! We came here last night for two of my friend’s birthdays and everything was perfect.
Even down to the curly handled utensils to the chopped wooden serving plate there was so much detail that I felt like I was dropped into a cabin inside Alice in Wonderland.
We shared the lemonades and food with each other so we had a sampling of so much delicious food. They didn’t even rush us when we went over their 9:30 closing time. They are so kind and polite.
If you haven’t been, you need to go. Do yourself a favor! This is a hidden gem located in an underwhelming street, so it is a little hard to spot, but it’s a brown building with a brown sign on top. Parking is on the street so watch for the signs!

Oh my.
We skipped the starters, and ordered two entrees: my mom’s beef bourguignon and the lamb shank chef special for the night (or for the week, I’m not too sure).
The lamb shank omg. Amazing. Soft, tender, and deliciously flavorful. It was a dish very well-​done. Everything came together. Made me think we should’ve ordered two.
The beef bourguignon is also good, though I did not eat much of it. The meat was also tender, with lots of flavor. The pasta that came woth this dish was really good imo. Loved the mushroom!
The chef came out and personlly introduced himself to us as well. Spectacular character and so knowledgeable about his entrees. Next time I’m definitely gonna try out the rib eye!

The best part of this place is that it’s BYOB. And no corkage fee! We brought two bottles of good wine to celebrate with my brother and sister. Nice cozy environment. Small restaurant but with warm and inviting light fixtures.
Service was phenomenal. Family owned restaurant. We got to meet all the family. Dad whose the chef came to each table to say hi. Very cool.
Ample street parking. In the Pico Robertson area which is pretty unassuming part of LA.
The bread they serve is warm and yummy. Prices are definitely on the expensive side. Cost us 300 for 4 ppl. Two apps, 4 entrees and 2 desserts.
Sweet Potato Gnocchi — the most delicious plate we had. If you order anything, you should go with this one. The sauce was great.
Beef Bourguignon — my brother ordered this as his main entrée. It was ok. Not as great as the reviews suggest. Somehow too bland for my liking.
Organic Chicken entrée — great. The chicken was tender and we’ll seasoned.
Apple tart — really great. To try even if you don’t generally love apple tarts. Vanilla taste. was great.
Crème Brûlée — very good. the crème brûlée was amazing as was their homemade vanilla bean ice cream
Overall great experience. Expensive but great.

As someone who has been to the place over 5 times, I felt responsible when my Mother’s BDay party couldn’t be accompanied by a traditional no-​corkage wine that we had brought. In fact, something changed just the night before and no wine could be opened on the premises.
Noting our obvious disappointment, the staff went above and beyond to accommodate us in any other possible way. The chef sent a special desert on the house and it was a truly remarkable chocolate ganache item.
We appreciate the effort surely and are looking forward to find out what the place will be like when they get their alcohol license.

I came here a few days ago with my family. There’s no big sign or anything so it was hard to find this restaurant and judging it from the outside, it didn’t seem like an upscale or high end restaurant at ALL, which made us all skeptical.
However, the food was absolutely amazing and out of this world. We ordered escargot and foie gras for appetizers and they were both so delicious and beautifully presented. The chef even cooked the kale and seasoned it perfectly despite it being a garnish. All of our entrees were delicious. My father had the lamb shank and my brother had the duck leg. They were both so tender and filled with flavor. We ordered a crème brûlée for dessert and we also received an additional dessert on the house!
The chef also came out to speak to us. He was very caring and made sure that everything we ate was perfect. I really loved this place and if you are looking for high end food, this is the place to go.

Beautiful ambiance the moment you walk through the door. The host/​server instantly greets you once you walk in. Inside seating is a little small but it makes it more intimate which is a plus. Great music choice that played throughout the whole time we were having dinner. The server knows his menu so it was easy to figure out what we wanted.
The icing on the cake was when the chef came out to personally shake hands with each and every person having dinner here. It truly makes you feel that they are thankful you decided to eat with them. We even had French lessons after we finished eating lol. The place feels great and we are definitely coming back and making this our second home! BON APPETITE!

Review # 1,100 … wooo-​hooo, and I wanted to honor that number with a wonderful little restaurant we just discovered. This is a darrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrling little French restaurant in the Pico-​Robertson area, and what a great name for a restaurant at that. Not only a great name, A FOOD AFFAIR, but after the meal we had, oh yes, we definitely had an affair with our food.
Simply put, the food was sublime. Classic French (bistro) dishes with beautiful flavors blending in a symphony of delightful ingredients. We dined on French Onion Soup, which, instead of it being salty, it was more of a sweet onion nature covered in a thick blanket of swiss cheese. Divine. My husband had a grilled Romaine salad, which was generously sprinkled with large chunks of mango, bacon, and blue cheese. He adored the fusion of those flavors. For our entrees, I ordered Bouillabaisse, for which there were clams, mussels, shrimp, cod, mahi mahi, rock fish, swimming in a delectable seafood saffron broth, loaded with a wonderful garlic flavor. There were also 2 little crostini with a dollop of garlic rouille on each. I’m sorry I didn’t ask for more of THAT. The pairing of that sauce with the fish, OMG. The fish was fresh, the broth was light but so flavorful, and there was just enough so that I devoured it all but wasn’t at all stuffed. My husband ordered their ribeye steak that came with thinly fried onions, spinach, and a green peppercorn cognac sauce. When my husband requested catsup, I nearly killed him. He ended up loving the cognac sauce, to which I say, OF COURSE, and he used the catsup for the pommes frites we ordered (I’m still rolling my eyes since they had truffle oil on them… but I can handle that a little better than putting it on a well prepared steak, good gawd.) The pommes frites with their truffle oil and parmesan cheese shavings, were delicious, inspite of what my husband was dumping on them. I don’t normally order things like that, but when I see truffle oil anything, all bets are off. There was a lot of silent… and sometimes, not so silent moaning going on with our various dishes. As for dessert, while we weren’t overly stuffed, we didn’t want to push it to that point, so we didn’t order any. Perhaps next time !
The décor and ambience was romantic, somewhat rustic, very cozy (but not overly crowded). Right down to the very unique and stylish/​artistic flatware (VERY cool), I enjoyed everything about the look and feel of this restaurant. There’s supposedly a lovely patio out back, but I didn’t get to see it this time. Oh, they recommend bringing your own bottle of wine which, sadly and admittedly, we did not, but for the rest of you better informed Unilocalers, they offer FREE corkage. We will rectify this for ourselves on our NEXT visit. To be sure !!!
Every single person who works there, from the hostesses to the waiters, and ESPECIALLY the head chef/​owner, is exceptionally kind and gracious. The owner is amazing. From the minute we walked in, he took notice and wanted to make sure we were comfortable as we were waiting for our table. He stopped by our table several times throughout our meal to make sure we were enjoying it, and he hugged us as we were leaving. I felt like we were old friends, and that was the overall feel to this place… very comfortable, friendly, yet nobody was overbearing.
This is a gem of a restaurant, and we will most certainly return. Next time, with wine bottle in tow.

The lack of a corkage fee made our huge outing to this restaurant very very fun on a Thursday night. The place is much larger than you can see from the outside… it extends to a huge back room where there were able to sit all 17 of us! The waiters are very friendly and obliging for such a large group, and the menus were easy to navigate. My friend and I shared the Wild Skeena River King Salmon entrée with the House Pomme Frites. I’m grateful that we were able to save some money by bringing our own wine.
I think that the dinner as a whole, however, was unnecessarily pricey. The food was good but in small portions. The atmosphere of the whole place really made it a fun experience, but I’m not sure I’d spend a lot of money on dinner here.

I went here for my best friends birthday dinner and it was a really good experience!
I ordered the crab cakes and it was really delicious! My goodness! Not your traditional crab crabs because everything was handpicked and made without any breadcrumbs like normal crab cakes! The chef really knows what he’s doing and is one of the sweetest people!!! He came out to make sure our party was completely satisfied by checking in on us!
Great staff, great food, great ambiance!

First off, this place is adorable and I would definitely recommend!
I will start with the best parts:
The restaurant is cozy and definitely has it’s own style. Upon walking in at a 7:45 PM reservation, we were politely greeted by the host (who was French!) and she showed us to our table in the back. The people were bustling and the ambiance was great — dim lighting, not too noisy, and really cool table settings/​mirrors and decoration on the walls. Our server, Daniel, was AMAZING! He was so nice and really genuine (you can tell when servers are being nice and fake) and told us all about the menu. I decided to go with the DineLA preset course and my date went with the regular menu. We also saw really cool colored drinks in mason jars at other tables and Mani, our AWESOME busser, got us some (it was lemonade! and it was AMAZING! Berry, I think?) AAAND there is NO CORKAGE FEE! So we also brought our own wine too.
My first course: the absolute HIGHLIGHT of the night. Major compliments to the chef. It was a tomato macaroon with basil mousse, burrata cheese, and a basil leaf with a side of kale salad. Don’t be fooled by the mention of a macaroon! It did not taste like a cookie — it was crispy and savory, PERFECT with the cheese and basil. It was so innovative — I’ve never seen anything or tasted anything like it. DROOOOLL!
My date had the french onion soup. It was the best FOS I’ve never tasted! And I’ve been to France multiple times and had it there! MORE DROOL!
Main courses: I had the beef bourguignon which came with a side of pasta. The pasta was pretty bland and the beef was alright. My date had the organic chicken. It was good, but it didn’t taste like almost 30-​dollar chicken (which was about it’s price)
Dessert: We shared a chocolate pot de crème. It was DELICIOUS! I personally can’t handle foods that are too sweet/​rich so I didn’t finish but it was quite exquisite.
The food that really fell short of the night were the truffle fries, our side. When we tasted them they tasted like normal fries — nothing special, no truffle. We asked Daniel to take it off our bill, and the Chef actually came out, gave us a NEW order, truffled the fries in front of us, and apologized. It was honestly the nicest thing I’ve ever seen done at a restaurant to fix an order. The Chef was so sweet!
So, overall I’d def recommend this place for drinks and appetizers/​dessert. And of course, for the WONDERFUL service. Even walking out the door at the end of the meal, we were asked if there was anything else that we needed.
WILL BE RETURNING! (:

A Food Affair is a casual & intimate French restaurant with free corkage fee for beer, wine and champagne. I studied their DineLA dinner menu and noticed that most of Unilocal review highlights (e.g. Beef Bourguignon, Mushroom Tourte, and Chocolate Pot de Crème) were listed on the menu, so I ultimately decided to give this place a try.
Few additional comments about the restaurant:
* Minimum purchase of one main course or two starters per person
* 20% service charge for parties of 6 or more
* $ 3 dessert /​cake cutting fee per person
* Can split up to 4 credit cards per person
* $ 1 per glass cleaning fee for each glass change
* Reservation (via OpenTable) is HIGHLY recommended (just to be safe)
* No valet, street parking only
*** DineLA Dinner Menu [$ 39 per person + tax + gratuity; normally would cost about $ 52] ***
[Course 1] Mushroom Tourte (domestic, shiitake, oyster, portobello, crème fraiche, truffle oil): Good creamy mushroom sauce with AMAZING tourte. (4.75÷5)
[Course 2] Beef Bourguignon (parpadelle, pearl onion, red wine, lardons, wild mushroom, carrots): Tasted very similar to Chinese braised beef one-​pot and I poured the entire beef stew pot on the pasta. Excellent beef quality (roasted to semi-​perfection), but pasta tasted fairly average and beef stew was slightly too heavy for my palate. Would I pay normal price ($ 26.95) for this dish? Probably not. (3.75÷5)
[Course 3] Chocolate Pot de Crème /​Chantilly (crème chantilly, toasted pepitas): Tasty whipped cream + rich chocolate mousse = great balance. Chocolate was just slightly too sweet for me, but I still highly recommend this dessert. (4.5÷5)
***
To my surprise, the chef/​owner actually came to our table, asked about our experience, and shook our hands! I’ve been to hundreds of restaurants and this was probably my 1^st time shaking an owner’s hand! Overall this was definitely one of the better DineLA deal I’ve had (hence the 5-​star), but I do think $$ sign is pretty misleading if you are NOT dining here during the DineLA week (more like $$$ for great, but not OMG good, food).

I REALLY wanted to love A Food Affair but it was just okay. The atmosphere is really cute — dimly lit, exposed brick wall, succulents and other pants hanging around and the service is SO wonderful… sadly the food just fell short, especially for the price point (even during RW).
I ordered from the RW menu and had:
Burrata/​tomato Macaroon/​kale/​basil: unique appetizer with very nice presentation. The kale salad was good (not overly dressed) and the tomato macaroon surprisingly went very well with the burrata
Wild salmon/​miso/​heirloom cauliflower risotto/​citrus ginger glaze: the salmon was sadly over cooked, the cauliflower risotto was a little too cheesy for my taste but I did enjoy the citrus ginger glaze
Lemon pie/​soft meringue/​toasted pistachio and coconut: good, light dessert
I’m glad I got an opportunity to try A Food Affair — the hostess, servers and even the cook are all so sweet and welcoming but I just didn’t love the food.

Excellent !! Un bœuf bourguignon à tomber par terre. Un véritable délice. Merci beaucoup .
Je recommande à 200%

To be located in Beverly Hills, one may think only people of status dine here. Have you ever walked on Rodeo Dr. and felt out of place? That is definitely not the case at this restaurant.
I had A Food Affair recently for a Christmas/​Birthday celebration with friends.
This is a family run restaurant with the chef/​owner, Christian, wife, Babette, and daughter, Kelly all on board. They are such a lovely family, so warm and welcoming. They made my party feel at home the entire dinner. Our server, Mario, was also great.
They ensured that I knew all of the vegan options available.
Most items on the menu can be made vegan. French onion soup without the cheese, etc. I got the vegan version of the farmer’s market casserole. It was simple and delicious. They even put together a special off the menu vegan dessert consisting of chocolate, coconut, and mango. The texture was mousse-​like in cake form.
The way they plate everything is beautiful.
Even though the food was good, my friends and I all agreed that it lacked a special factor. I have no doubt that the menu will keep on evolving and improving. You can tell that Chef Christian is very passionate about the food that he prepares.
Overall, this is an excellent place to celebrate any occasion (Anniversary, date, work party, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, you name it!). It has a romantic/​intimate setting, a stunning patio with chandeliers, Renoir paintings or images on the wall, and eclectic silverware. You can tell that there was a lot of love put into every detail of the restaurant from the food to the décor.
There is no corkage fee, cheers!
This is one of the best «mom and pop» places I have ever visited. Thank you, A Food Affair, for being superb.

We had high hopes for A Food Affair. It had hidden gem written all over it. Two dollar signs, on the less hip part of Robertson, and BYOB. We grabbed a bottle of red and headed over.
It was a cute and cozy spot and the service was very friendly.
Unfortunately, the food was a bit of a disappointment — not bad, but just okay, especially for the price. I would describe this more as a $$$ restaurant.
We wanted the Brocolini and Bok Choi to start, but they were out, so we had the Brussels Sprouts & Caramelized Onion. I found the sprouts to be a bit greasy but this was not a bad dish overall.
For a main, I had the duck leg confit, that for $ 27 was a very small portion — but hey, it’s organic — so maybe they get a pass. It was good, but does not stand out at all compared to all of the duck legs I’ve had in my life (a lot). My bf had a special that sounded amazing — a seafood medley with a side of gnocchi — which was like $ 40 and was more a few pieces of seafood and a few pieces of gnochhi decorating a plate. It was pretty ludicrous.
It ended up costing us over $ 100 for two despite the fact that we had brought our own wine and had shared an appetizer and skipped dessert. And left hungry. 3 stars instead of 2 because it was BYOB, the service was good, and the food wasn’t bad, it was just pretty okay.

Street parking outside. Brush off those parallel parking skills!
We arrived a bit early for our 8pm reservation, but were promptly seated regardless in the «patio» area. When I heard it’s BYOB, I couldn’t kick the feeling that it’s a bit odd carrying a wine bottle into a restaurant, but i got over it pretty quickly when I saw EVERYONE doing this.
We were quickly presented with a menu, and picked escargot to start. BF got the infamous «bouillabaisse», while I got the foie gras as a main. The Chocolate Pot de Crème to finish.
The Escargot ($ 12.95) came with butter parsley, green garlic sauce on top of a potato shell. This was pretty basic — nothing stood out with this, besides the presentation on a potato… but that was just ok.
The Bouillabaisse ($ 32.50) is fish & seafood saffron broth, garlic rouille. It had wonderful flavours and went well with the bread that comes to start. That broth was MEANT for sopping up with bread (though I know some etiquette dictates otherwise).
The Foie Gras ($ 22) was a delicate little dish, with Kumquat for sweetness, Fleur de Sel for decoration, and Brioche! The slice of foie gras was quite generous — so much so, I needed to ask for a bit more brioche to have with it! The server had no problem getting more for me. Delicious dish — very rich!
Chocolate Pot de Crème ($ 10) was like I died and woke up in a chocolate cloud, and then ate it. It was heavenly, and silky smooth, with tons of chocolately flavour but without the heaviness. Get this.
I appreciated the head chef making his way to each table too. When he came by our table, we greeted him in French, and he seemed genuinely pleased! He also addressed my small issue with the Foie Gras (there was a small patch of parchment paper stuck on the foie gras) gracefully and with class, replacing the whole dish with a brand new one.
Overall, I enjoyed the meal very much. Cozy, buzzy atmosphere, and you can BYOB! Seems like the perfect place to get some great food while boozing it up a little bit.

On my quest to find a good bouillabaisse, my friend, an avid bouillabaisse lover as well, found A Food Affair, on Unilocal to have it on their menu. We figured since A Food Affair is a French restaurant, they’d have great bouillabaisse. In our opinion, it was a let down. I was hoping for a rich tomato broth instead it was a bit creamy and orange with small clams, a mussel or two and fish. I didn’t care that it had fennel. On the other hand, the roasted chicken and potatoes were very good. It was cooked in shallots, butter, lemon and rosemary.
The restaurant is very cozy with small tables cramped close to each other. We were seated in the covered front patio. There’s also a main dining area and an outside patio. Décor here does have some character.
Service here is quite good. Overall, the value I thought wasn’t worth it. Nice restaurant though.

My friend made reservations for their back «patio» for a group of 15 for his bday with a price fixe menu. Staff was efficient and cordial. The back patio area is not the best for groups, it’s very loud, not too ideal for a group if you want to talk. It’s also the default area for groups so there were 2 other large parties loudly enjoying their dinners. so just be aware of that. I mean, the back patio? It’s a barn y’all.
The food itself was fine. The appetizers were really tasty. My husband and I shared the two app choices, the creamy, savory mushrooms with buttery flaky crust and the garlicky eggplant bruschetta. For the main entrée I had a rosemary roast chicken and veggies. The veggies were over roasted and the chicken skin was soggy. Also they oddly topped it with raw rosemary, so the herb flavor didn’t really come through. My husband had the beef bourguignon with pappardelle, the noodles were too hard and the beef was not very tender and too salty. Sadly, my husband couldn’t finish his dish.
Finally the chef brought out a massive layered chocolate cake. It was beautiful and rich, but the sponge a bit dry.
In Chinese style, the bday boy paid for everyone’s meal, so I’m not sure how much anything cost. I enjoyed time with friends and satisfying appetizers, but the food was mediocre and it was too loud to have conversations.

J’ai pris l’habitude de laisser ma petite amie rédiger les avis des endroits que nous fréquentons. Mais la, je me dois de vous donner mon sentiment. Cet établissement est exceptionnel. Je vis à los angeles depuis presque un an et je suis toujours réticent à l’idée de fréquenter les restaurants français, car l’accueil et le service sont en général (très) médiocre et rien dans mon assiette né me rappelle la France. Babette et Christian ont su me redonner l’envie de croire le contraire! Tout d’abord, le cadre est magnifique, entre resto chic et guinguette, aussi très intime parfait pour un diner a 2. A l’arrière, une autre salle pour grandes tables semble parfaite pour organiser un événement de taille moyenne. L’Accueil (oui avec un grand A), généreux à souhait par le chef en personne, fait de cette endroit un des plus conviviaux qu’il né m’est jamais été donné d’apprécier. Nous étions servis ce soir la par Mario, je lui adresse lui aussi 5 étoiles.
Voilà pour le plaisir des yeux et du cœur. Le meilleur est ici, côté cuisine: le menu vous fera hésiter, tout est alléchant! Nous avons choisi les rillettes de canard, les escargots et la bouillabaisse. Bluffant. Le côté artisanal n’est pas qu’une impression, cette cuisine est un délice, les saveurs sont tout à fait respectées et la qualité des produits rare.
Voilà donc mon nouveau numéro 1. Bienvenue en France. Bienvenue dans le monde de Christian et Babette, attendez vous a une expérience qui relèvera vos exigences!