La Cachette Bistro has changed its menu to highlight “New French Tapas Menu.” The menu is divided into small plate cold dishes, small plate hot dishes and a smaller entree menu. The idea behind the change is to attract a younger crowd and emphasize more casual dining – white tablecloths are covered with paper a la Bouchon in Yountville.
To be honest we chose La Cachette Bistro because we had a 30% off coupon from Blackboard Eats.
The room is bare bones and uninviting with the main decor being posters on the wall.
We brought our own wine which was superb.
We ordered one dish at a time, hoping to leisurely enjoy our meal.We indicted to our server that we were not in a rush, wanted to take our time and enjoy a dining experience.
Filet of Sardines a la plancha with a Saffron Lime sauce – this was excellent and we were anticipating a wonderful meal.
Crispy White Smelts served with aioli – the smelts were greasy and barely edible.
Bistro Jeanty’s perfect smelts
Homemade foie gras terrine with rhubarb gelee – this was served within 3 minutes of the smelts being bussed. The foie was ice cold as if it had just been removed from the refrigerator. It was impossible to spread the foie on the toast.
Bistro Jeanty’s foie served at room temperature and lusciously spreadible and delicious.
Homemade Spanish sausage with Saffron Rice – again this was served in about 4 minutes after the foie was cleared. My guess is that the kitchen had pre-prepared the sausage and rice so it could be served quickly. We had clearly indicted that we wanted a leisurely meal – how can 3 to 4 minutes between courses be leisurely? This was more hotel banquet type of food with the emphasis on efficiency and low labor cost. Careful execution didn’t seem to be an important consideration.
Veal Sweetbreads with Persimmon and Caper Glaze – in true La Cachette form this again was served in less than 4 minutes. When sweetbreads come out this fast there is no way that this was cooked to order; it tasted like warmed-up food.
Boudin Noir with potatoes – the saucing was excellent, but the boudin and potatoes suffered from that “get it out fast syndrome.”
Bouchon Beverly Hills excellent boudin with the creamiest butter-laden potatoes and grilled apples.
The only saving grace of the evening were the two delightful couples sitting next to us. We had fun inspite of the mediocre food.
Refined Palate 
the food looks awful. Any service staff that didn’t correct this is a direct result of the GM and owner. I am not surprised you had such a bad meal.
We were very surprised we had a bad meal. For the record I wasn’t that harsh on my assessment of La Cachette in its original format.
See here:
https://lizziee.wordpress.com/category/southern-california/la-bistro-cachette/
We had a terrific waitress who paced the food perfectly.
In 2009, the one item that we didn’t like at all – the creamed lobster and blue crab bisque was taken off our bill to the restaurant’s credit.
We were very frequent customers at the original La Cachette in Century City. I felt at the time that our meal at the Santa Monica location in 2009 was good, but didn’t have Jean-Francois Meteigner’s faultless execution. This meal in 2011 was just plain mediocre with incredibly fast pacing when we specifically requested a leisurely dining experience plus a “roller coaster ride” in execution.