Claud & Co Bacchus’ Kitchen

Been here twice, one for a fundraising event and one time for dinner. Food was great both times. Service was nice. Great little restaurant.

You’d be hard-​pressed to find a better dining experience in Pasadena than Bacchus Kitchen. I’ve had the extreme fortune of being a guest here twice in the same week. The first time I dined as part of a work-​related meal and was so enthralled with the food plus décor I related the experience in great detail to my boyfriend. He then made reservations for dinner the following evening.
Ambience is wonderful; dim lighting, jazz in the background, brick walls and a medieval-​esque chandelier. Parking is plentiful which is a plus. But the food is why you’ll fall in love. Bacchus Kitchen offers a creative seasonal menu. I had completely different plates on both visits. I genuinely loved them all. My boyfriend immediately declared «we’re going to be regulars here!» upon his first bite of the vegetarian Chile en Nogada. He is nowhere near vegetarian, by the way. It was that good! The tandoori seared scallops and housemade fries with curry ketchup were just as memorable.
I wish I could recall the dishes I devoured at my business lunch but it was more discourse and less indulgence. Still, it was all a delicious blur.
Cannot recommend more strongly!

Great service, nice décor, good draft beers but limited, cheese/​meat plate and winter salad very taste. Entrée a little salty, but will go back to try other entrees

I wanted the go someplace special for my husband’s birthday and not hassle Old Town parking so I decided to give this place a try. OMG, was this place good!
My husband started out with their Spanish clam chowder and just for kicks, we decided to order their bacon fried rice as an appetizer. Both were excellent; especially the clam chowder with real clams still in their shells and a nice slice of bread to dip in the broth. The next time I go back I think I’ll order the clam chowder and a small salad as a whole meal.
For our main courses, he ordered a shrimp dish on grits (the grits were more like a patty) accompanied by chiote and I had the Cajun burger with fries and curry catsup, a burger which unfortunately will be discontinued after this week. We couldn’t finish either due to the huge plate of bacon fried rice we’d had earlier.
Even though we were full, we couldn’t turn down their chocolate mousse dessert. My only regret is not ordering a cup of coffee to go with it.
Service was great, the ambience was wonderful and I can’t wait to go back and try it again!

it was amazing
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Claud, Sean and Kat never disappoint! I’ve tasted the best Rose’s here, enjoyed amazing jazz music and never had a bad meal. I especially love the tradition of an amuse bush and each entrée has been spicy, unique and beautifully presented. You should go!

Very much enjoyed our first visit to this restaurant about three months ago. The menu was very interesting. We are vegetarians and it offered us a number of options. The waiter also explained numerous other options for us. Very engaged.
Dinner recently was different.
There was one entrée suitable for vegetarians. When I asked the waitress what else she might recommend. Her response — there are salads and we can make you pasta. That is the worst response a vegetarian wants to hear. We hope for more creativity. Wasn’t happening.
So I ordered the single veg dish — a stuffed pepper. It was extremely sweet and lacked any real taste otherwise. I ate maybe ¹⁄₃^rd of it.
Our guests, who were excited to try this new place, were equally disappointed. The flair and creativity of the chef was missing.
Finally, the service was terrible. Over three hours (we would have preferred it be 2 hours), we saw our waitress all of three times. It took 25 mins for someone to take our initial drink order. We were literally sitting there looking around wondering when she might come ask us to order.
Finally, I had a view of the kitchen. At one point while we were waiting for our waitress to come take our order for dessert (which we ultimately did not order), I saw one of the waitresses and one of the cooks expressing their affection for each other — the cook grabbed her butt with a very big squeeze and they briefly exchanged sweet nothings to one another. He then went back to cooking. Too bad sweet somethings never came our way.
Bottom line — nice aesthetic, good experience on prior occasion. Missed the mark on many fronts this time.

Lovely ambience with live entertainment a good food and wine. The portions are nice enough to share. I had the skirt steak with Chimichurri sauce. It was tender and delicious /​the sauce was very welled balanced. I look forward to returning and trying other entrees.

I want to like this place, I really do. They are an exciting addition to the newly gentrified Washington Square district of Pasadena (and I’m so bummed that there is a gym and a domino’s next to it! Was hoping for a nice bar or a bookstore or something of substance, oh well). My grandmother is a huge fan of this chef and took me here for my birthday with my husband and my uncle. So underwhelming. Too salty, too saucy. The fact that the menu is constantly changing is awesome, will probably try this place again.
Service is great. And dessert was really good! I got coffee with my dessert and they give you your own mini French press, I love that.

We LOVED it here! We Loved the Woman that greeted us, our server Cat and the food was absolutely Delicious!!!
Cheese & Charcuterie. Awesome.
King Crab Salad. Awesome.
Short Rib pasta. Awesome.
dessert. Awesome.
wine. Awesome.
Thank you for a Lovely experience, we will definitely be back.
This Charming Restaurant is an Excellent addition to Altadena.

I really want to love this place. We are locals and it is so fantastic so the neighborhood change and have businesses that we want to frequent move in. I never understood why this area was unnoticed for so long because there are a lot of people in Altadena, Bungalow Heaven, Historic Highlands, and North Pasadena Heights, with money to spend who will definitely support great local businesses. Always seemed like such an under-​served market. Lavender & Honey is doing a great business, as is Lark Cakery, etc. Anyway, I was so excited to try Bacchus.
They fit us in last minute for an anniversary dinner on a Wednesday. The restaurant was about half full and I like the ambiance. A lot of work was done to restore it and I love the exposed, antique brick. It is quiet and dark, in a good way. We were greeted with gratis half flutes of sparkling rose. A definite plus. Also delivered were gratis small bites of capacola, mozzarella, and an Italian olive. Salty and tasty. The appetizer special of beef tenderloin carpaccio was delicious.
Dinner fell a little flat. I ordered the paella and my husband had the fried chicken and waffles. His said the flavor was pretty good, but it was definitely «over fried». The fried breading tasted borderline burnt and like the oil was a little old. Such a bummer. My paella was not traditional Spanish paella that is creamy and a little wet. It was saffron rice (that was under-​seasoned) in a skillet with 3 large shrimp and chorizo placed on top. The shrimp were cooked well, but needed more seasoning. The rice was a bit bland unless you got a bite with rice and chorizo — that was well balanced because the chorizo was so salty.
Dessert was delicious, but it was an icebox cake from Lark around the corner. I liked it, but I could have bought that on my own. I expected the dessert to be made in house.
Service by Kat was great and the wine list was also great — lots of options and decent by the glass prices. I think the $ 25 corkage is high.
I write this review in the hopes that it will be read and be truly helpful, not to be negative. I genuinely want this place to be great and I would love to frequent it often. I think the neighborhood definitely needs and can sustain similar small businesses. But, it was not a cheap meal and the main courses were both not up to par. We will definitely give it one more try because maybe it was an off night. But, if we have a similar experience, we likely won’t return.

The model example of a neighborhood gem. So nice to have this addition to the north Pasadena region. Tasty, solid food, good service and cool décor, with outdoor seating to boot. The restaurant supports local Pasadena businesses by using their products so you’ll find bread from Seed Bakery, coffee from Jamestown roasters and beer from congregation ale. I hope they play with the menu more, perhaps keeping great staples but also offering a few adventurous dishes here or there. The other sister restaurant, The eatery, does a great job with that. Regardless, this is a great place to visit.

Yum. Great food, great atmosphere, great local place. Prices are decent… it’s not a place for the kiddos, it’s place to go on a date or out with friends.

We decided to give this a try after hearing about it from friends but were underwhelmed, to say the least.
The space was kind of attractive in a pared-​down, urban-​chic kind of way — high ceilings, bare floors, a wall decorated simply with a line of old doors. (Hope the paint peeling off them isn’t lead-​based,)
The wine list didn’t accurately describe the offerings so it took longer than it should have to choose what we wanted — and we had to return both entrees. The fried chicken had obviously been sitting for a while and under its soggy coating, the meat wasn’t fully cooked (disgusting and unhealthy.) Then we discovered that the fish had not been cooked as requested (which we’d been told was the norm anyway), so it had to go back for more time in the oven.
There also seems to be quite a variation in portion size. The orders at the table next to us included two different fish dishes, one of which came out on an almost empty plate with two tiny vegetables as garnish while the other was served on an overflowing plate. And even though we ordered two of the same things they did, neither of our plates came out looking like theirs. It wasn’t late, but it seemed as though they had just started to run out of food. The only dish that was a success was the side of grilled vegetables.
Seems to me that issues like this are basically caused by laziness — cooks should pay more attention to what they throw onto a plate and waitresses shouldn’t deliver dishes that obviously are not fresh. The whole thing was just amateurish.
I can’t figure out why people look forward to new openings by Claude Beltran — to us he’s had a lot more misses than hits.

I had the Asparagus and Yellow Beet Salad and the Spring Vegetable Pasta. I thought that the salad was excellent and that the pasta was very good. The salad had a unique blend of flavors and colors. The Mahon cheese and the lemon vinaigrette added a great final touch. The Spring Vegetable Pasta was very good, but did not leave me raving like the salad. The pasta almost melted into the sauce.

This place is lovely, the space is chic and vibrant. The staff is friendly and very helpful. The food is delicious. I cannot wait to visit this place again.

This review makes me so sad to write.
I’ve been anticipating the opening of Bacchus Kitchen and was excited to try them out on their opening week. I want them to THRIVE, but if they don’t get their act together on food, I can’t imagine they’ll get many repeat customers.
The short review: great new space, friendly service, awesome bussers, beautiful plating — but way too salty food!
Appetizers:
SAUTEED SHRIMP IN COCONUT MILK ($ 12)
–This was the stand out dish of the night. If everything on the menu was this good — this would be a 5 star review. 5 large, succulent, perfectly cooked shrimp, in a delicious curry with red peppers and rice. It was beautifully seasoned with a perfect amount of heat. If this was doubled up and offered as an entrée it would be a home run.
ARTICHOKE BARIGOULE & SMOKED STURGEON CROQUETS ($ 13)
–This was a beautiful presentation. Served cold, the artichoke heart was artfully sliced in two and was delicious. The sturgeon croquets (3 to an order), however, were not good at all. Besides being way too salty, I did not like how cold they were and they were quite crumbly which made them difficult to eat. I made it through ½ of one before wondering why I was forcing myself to eat it… and focused on the artichoke instead. I would not order this dish again.
Mains:
PAN SEARED TANDOORI BARRAMUNDI ($ 19)
–This was a generous portion of fish and served at a pristine temperature (aka: hot!). It sat on a bed of curried rice (delicious), and came with raita and pickled vegetables. I found some bites of the fish to be perfect, and other bites to be inedible (from the salt content). Overall — it was way too salty, and I wouldn’t order it again.
ROASTED CURED LAMB BELLY ($ 27)
–Three pieces of roasted lamb belly on a generous serving of cous cous along with grilled baby leeks. The first misstep of this dish was the temperature served. It was just slightly warmer than room temperature. The second was how tough it was. It made me wonder if had been roasted much earlier in the day and had been sitting out. While it had a nice marbling to it, it lacked depth of flavor to me (again, perhaps from sitting out too long?). I expected this dish to be on the salty side, and much like the other dishes, the salt content was apparent, but less offensively so. The cous cous had a floral taste to it, which I didn’t like, and I didn’t eat more than a couple bites.
Service:
We had an engaging server, but my complements go to the fantastic team of bussers. Our glasses were never left unfilled, they attended to our needs, and were friendly, pleasant, and engaging. What a great team!
Parking:
Easy, free parking in the adjacent lot (enter from either Washington Blvd or Hill)

Four of us went and three of us had amazing meals!
Me – one of the specials. A ribeye, cooked to perfection, with morels.
One of our friends had another special – a pork chop marinated in citrus and… well, I don’t recall what else but it was moist, sweet and spicy.
Her husband had the lamb belly. Yeah, I know… we’d never heard of it, either. But if it’s still on the menu you should strongly consider it – if you like lamb.
The only dish that seemed unremarkable were the cheese tamales. My wife was in the mood for comfort food and, while it fit the bill, it didn’t impress her.
Good service.
Seated quickly.
A touch noisy but such a nice ambience that we didn’t notice.
Highly recommended.

We are so happy to have Bacchus Kitchen in the neighborhood!
The gingery delicious Japanese wedge and beet and asparagus salad were a great way to start off the meal. Both salads were so fresh, crunchy and delicious.
The wine! Someone went to great lengths to find a few delicious bottles that are well priced and a perfect complement the menu.
As for entrées we had the New York steak and the barramundi. Both had a spicy and innovative presentation, full of flavor.
Service! The right amount of attention and they even entertained all of our probing questions.
This reminds me of the moment that Blairs opened on Rowena in Silverlake more than a decade ago.
Move to north Pasadena, eat at Bacchus. Be happy!

What a great addition to the area. This will surely be a hot location, to an already bustling intersection with trendy businesses. The food offerings are well thought out with something for every palette.