California - Excellent French restaurant in Solvang

In a touristy town like Solvang, we were very pleased to find an excellent French restaurant at reasonable prices. It's called Cabernet Bistro. It's comfortable, not too big or too small, and a decent variety of fish, meat, and vegetarian dishes.

www.cabernetbistro.com

Had to laugh...

No, it doesn't surprise me that there's a good French restaurant in Solvang. In fact, any kind of food other then the local "Danish" cuisine. Back in the dark ages of the 1980s, when I worked the theater in Solvang (PCPA), we had a rule: "Never eat Danish." As all the Danish restaurants in town were universally over-priced tourist dreck. The best food to be had in town was in the Chinese, Mexican, deli, and neighborhood burger joint....most of which didn't cater to the tourists.

We've also eaten at several very good restaurants in nearby towns - the Ballard Inn in Ballard, the Brothers Restaurant at Matthei's Tavern in Los Olivos, and Trattoria Grappola in Santa Ynez.

I was not aware there was a Mexican restuarant in Solvang. What is the name of it?

Re: Pea Soup Andersens
I've always wondered whether it was worth stopping in there to try a bowl of pea soup. A customer I play golf with lives in Santa Ynez and every time we drive by, he comments the same... we should try a bowl for the hell of it. We still haven't.

I've always had a li'l place in my heart for the Los Olivos Cafe. Not sure why. It's not necessarily the best food around, but i like the atmosphere, I guess.

Re: Pea Soup Andersens

I've always had a li'l place in my heart for the Los Olivos Cafe. Not sure why. It's not necessarily the best food around, but i like the atmosphere, I guess.

The menu looked very interesting when we walked by the last time we were in Los Olivos. But we had just had lunch at the Side Street Cafe, which was quite good also.

BTW, if anyone watches the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm with Larry David, there was an episode where Larry thinks he was adopted and goes to visit his "true" parents. Part of that episode was filmed in Los Olivos. The owner/chef of Side Street Cafe mentioned that Larry had eaten there several times while filming the episode.

The menu looked very interesting when we walked by the last time we were in Los Olivos. But we had just had lunch at the Side Street Cafe, which was quite good also.

BTW, if anyone watches the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm with Larry David, there was an episode where Larry thinks he was adopted and goes to visit his "true" parents. Part of that episode was filmed in Los Olivos. The owner/chef of Side Street Cafe mentioned that Larry had eaten there several times while filming the episode.

I ate there once and vowed never to go back. No, the food wasn't bad. The atmosphere was horrible. We (customer and I) entered into a virtually empty restaurant. The chefs were just stadning around towards the back, behind the bar. They looked about as happy asa someone being led to a fire pit, blindfolded.

We sat at the small bar for meal service... the chef and presumably sous chef, pi**ed off looking, stayed right there behind the bar and kept eyeing us. It was very uncomfortable. Then, the owner starts berating our waitress right in front of us. It kept going on and on and on. The waitress was very polite (and beautiful), but he just kept railing into her. W/us being so close to all this, it was very uncomfortable.

After about 10-15 mins at the bar, customer turns to me and says, "Let's get a table". We ask for a table as far away from the bar as possible. Not hard to do seeing as how the place was empty, this at around 7PM. We chatted w/the waitress and told her that if we were in her shoes, we would never put up with that. If we were the owner, we couldn't imagine doing that to an employee in front of customers.

Anyways, sorry for the rant, but I'm never going back there. The food was good though.

We had a completely opposite experience. The restaurant was fairly crowded, only 1 or 2 empty tables when we walked in at lunch time. Waitress was very friendly and efficient. The owner, Patrick, came around the room several times, talked and joked with the customers, told interesting stories (e.g., the Larry David one), and created a very pleasant atmosphere overall.

I guess it's just a matter of when you happen to be there. I can see how Patrick has the potential to be tempermental - so maybe there are good days and bad days. But the food was excellent. We should try Los Olivos Cafe next time. Thanks for the recommendation.