Red, White and Bluezz Wine Bar and Grill
70 S Raymond Ave
Pasadena
626-792-4441
An upscale, pricey, poor service restaurant, Red, White and Bluezz Wine Bar and Grill
is just south of Colorado Blvd, in Old Town Pasadena.
The first picture is the of the bread they give you. A nice presentation. They had a french roll and some kind of seven grain bread. Nice texture and fresh bread.
The second picture is the Shrimp Shooters 3 Way, $12. The three types of shrimp were sweet and spicy grilled, tempura, and cocktail style. All the shrimp were good sized shrimp, about medium. The sweet and spicy grilled was OK. Not especially flavorful, just too bland. The tempura was my favorite. Nice crunch and tender shrimp. The cocktail style was simple, regular shrimp cocktail. This appetizer is all about the presentation. It looks nice but the not worth the price.
Maryland blue crab cakes, $10, was very good. I'm from Maryland and I love crab cakes. The crab cake was filled with a ton of crab, there was very little filler. Well worth the price and one of the best around. The mango-papaya chutney was too sweet. Just give me regular tartar sauce or cocktail sauce. Screw all this fancy crap. I wish some places would learn to KISS their food. Keep It Simple Stupid.
The last picture is the crab claw ceviche salad, $9. Again this is an example of them trying to reinvent the wheel. They just made a simple recipe, into something new and exciting but really it's a huge mistake. The salad has avocado, pico de gallo, creme fraiche, with chipotle peppers, and coriander oil and topped with fried plantain. I would prefer to go to any hole in the wall Mexican restaurant instead of this crap.
Service is poor. The host or hostess is a jerk. Very condescending and full of himself. He was too busy trying to get away for a smoke or trying to impress his boyfriend. The server was pretty slow to greet us and take our order. She wasn't knowledgeable about the menu, she kept having to go back and ask what was in certain items.
I would not go back to Red, White and Bluezz again. The food isn't worth the price. They just try to get to fancy with the food. Maybe it appeals to the wine sippers but really it's just overpriced, crappy food.
