Chez Melange/Bouzy-Closed

Chez Melange/Bouzy 1611 S Catalina Ave Redondo Beach 310-540-1222 Chez Melange is the name of the restaurant and Bouzy is the name of the gastropub, that is in one building. This review is only for Bouzy, the gastropub. Yes, it is a weird setup, but of well. The interesting thing, as you can see, is that there is no sign for Bouzy, just Chez Melange. A good friend told me about Bouzy and we finally got a chance to try Bouzy. Now, she was telling me about the Pancho burger-bacon, avocado, chile relleno, and Frank's hot sauce vinaigrette. But, I'm not a fan of chile relleno, so I didn't order it. My friend did and the smell of Frank's hot sauce was a bit overwhelming. I'm glad I didn't order it. I did get the Bouzy burger, $8.90, lettuce, tomato, onion, cheddar, and mayo. I asked for and get a burger cooked medium rare. The meat was only OK, it lack a bit of seasoning. The toppings were fresh. This burger was ok, but nothing outstanding. This tasted more like a burger you got a chain restaurant, than a burger from a gastropub. Service was a bit lacking. The server greeted us about five minutes after we were seated by the hostess. That's not too long of a wait, but he must have passed us ten times during that time. He should have at least acknowledge we were at the table. Then after taking and bringing our drink orders, he forgets my ice water, he doesn't come back to the table for at least ten minutes. He knew we were going to order food. We got menus from the hostess. He was slow at refilling drinks, taking empty drinks and plates away from the table. He was nice, but needs to get better at being a server. I wouldn't go back to Bouzy, again. I wasn't really impressed with the burger, again it was just average, and the service was a bit lacking.

Big John's Cafe-Closed

Big John's Cafe
2302 Artesia Blvd
Redondo Beach
310-376-4881

WOW what a surprise. Normally I do not reply to emails from restaurants owners to come try their food. But Big John's Cafe emailed me and told me they are serving BBQ, so I did some searching and found that they do not have BBQ on their regular menu. It is only served on weekends. Last weekend they had pulled pork and sliced beef. This week for July 4th, they had ribs!!!! So I made the drive out to Redondo Beach.

I got the St. Louis ribs, $16.95 with cole slaw and creamed corn. The ribs came out and honestly I wasn't expecting much. After all this is Redondo Beach, lily white and their idea of BBQ is Tony Roma's. But I was surprised, these ribs were great. Nice smoked flavor, I belive hickory and maybe apple wood, (I found out Big John's uses hickory and pecans to smoke his meats.) not overpowering at all, just right. Tender meat with a very nice smoke ring, they use hickory and maybe apple wood. The meat was reheated in either a microwave or a warmer, they were very hot to the touch but they weren't finished on a damn grill. Real BBQ should NEVER touch a damn grill. But the meat wasn't dried out at all. Just tender, flavorful meat with almost no fat at all. I would bet that even most ardent baby back ribs fan, wouldn't be able to tell the difference when eating the ribs from Big John's Cafe.

Now two things about the ribs:

BBQ is comfort food. Real knifes and forks and BBQ don't really belong together. Big John's maybe a little too fancy for the BBQ purist. But I'm certainly not going to give Big John's a bad review because the BBQ was served on a real plate with real knives and forks.

The ribs were a bit too sweet, I like some kick on the bark. But otherwise a damn fine example of what real BBQ ribs should be. I would bet Big John's would finish in the top 3 for ribs at any BBQ competition.

Service was good. I hope service was good because that is how they normally treat their customers. But I called to make sure they had ribs, I wasn't driving all the way down to Redondo Beach and they didn't have any ribs. I tried to play it off as though I went last week and had their pulled pork, so I asked 'You do you the pulled pork tonight right? After they said yes, I aske 'What other BBQ meats do you have?" Once they said ribs I was going for sure. I'm not sure if they knew it was me, after I took a picture of the ribs, I didn't take a picture of the outside until after dinner. But service was indeed good. Best of all the server said "I'll bring your change, right away." Very good since it is rude for any server to ask "Do you need change?" It is the server's job to bring change. Though saying I'll being your change right away, is a great way to remind the customer to tell the server to keep the change.

Big John's was pretty slow when I got there. They are not a BBQ restaurant, they have everything from burgers to fish to chicken fried steak. They should make BBQ part of their regular menu, because people will love their ribs.

Make sure to call Big John's to make sure they are serving BBQ but otherwise make sure to stop in at Big John's Cafe, by far the best real BBQ ribs in the South Bay and very high up on the list of best BBQ ribs in LA.

Quality Seafood

Quality Seafood
130 South International Boardwalk
Redondo Beach
310-374-2382

I heard about the Lobster Festival at the Port of LA this weekend, Sept 15-17 and another Lobster Festival in Redondo Beach next weekend, Sept 22-24. While trying to decide which Lobster Fest to go to, I found that Quality Seafood on the Redondo Beach Pier is offering a $15 lobster dinner for the entire month of September. The Lobster Festivals cost about $8 for admission and $17 for a Maine lobster meal. The admission price includes the live bands and other booths but who cares about that stuff, I just want the lobster. So I decide to go to Quality Seafood.

Quality Seafood is really three to four different sections. One section they sell fried seafood. Another section they sell oysters and clams. Another has the shellfish. The fried section looked good, so I ordered one piece of fried fish, one fried shrimp, and a fish taco for $7.25. The fried items aren't fried to order but allowed to sit under heat lamp. That doesn't make for a crunchy or fresh piece of shrimp or fish. The fried shrimp was pretty bad. The shrimp was very small but it's just covered with tons of batter. The batter was very greasy and nasty tasting. I torn off the extra pieces of batter and just ate the shrimp, which was ok but nothing special. I would much rather have fried shrimp from almost anywhere else. The cocktail sauce is really just ketchup.

The fish was a little better, as there wasn't as much batter but it was soggy and pretty bland. The tartar sauce is packaged and is mostly mayo. Again I would rather go to a H. Salt or Mr. Fish and Chips or The Olde Ship for their fried fish.

The fish taco was actually pretty good, as the spicy salsa and the mild white sauce covered up the taste of the fish. The fish is the same fried fish but is covered with fresh cabbage, a medium spicy salsa, and a white sauce. It's pretty big and I was stuffed after having the fried fish, fried shrimp and fish taco. But I wanted to have at least some of the lobster while it was nice and hot. So I cracked open a claw.

The lobster is steamed and takes about 30 minutes. There are already cooked lobsters served cold but I wanted a freshly steamed lobster. The lobster comes with butter and corn on the cobb. The lobster is pretty good, tender, not too tough but on the salty side. The lobster is steamed in a steamer, not a pot of hot water, so I'm wondering what gave the lobster such a salty taste? The lobster is 1.25lb but the meat is much smaller than the size of the shell, when I cracked opened the claw, I was expecting a huge piece of meat but it was about a third the size of the claw. If you eat there, either bring your own mallets and nut crackers. They require a $3 deposit for their mallets.

Service is pretty damn good and fast. It was crowded there and the outdoor picnic tables can fill up pretty quickly but people also finish quickly. An added bonus they serve beer!!!!

I'm glad I made the trip to Quality Seafood. I know that I would not order the fried items but having crabs and shrimp steamed is the way to go. The crab, including my favorite, Maryland blue crab, looked very good. I wouldn't order the lobster unless it was $15.