Le Pain Quotidien–Your Friendly and Packed China Tea House

It is time that we debunk the claim and popular belief perpetrated that China bistros, tea houses, restaurants and other Asian eating places are noisy. That Asian people are noisy. In that respect, yes we are, when we are with friends and family and conversation is flowing. And so is true for other peoples. As I was the only Asian in this packed and small (not cosy, if you have to hear the next table’s conversation in full decibel) franchise café along Ventura Boulevard on a Sunday morning, I’d say white people are just as enthusiastic about their tete a tete’s, and just as merrily careless with the continuous clinking of utensils that are being used, and gathered by the harried busboy.

Le Pain Quotidien at Ventura Blvd.

Sherman Oaks, CA

Like all busy restaurants, service tends to go a grade lower given the attention each table needs. But I’ll give kudos to the waitresses whose smiles have not faltered a bit, perhaps because of years of having to wait tables while waiting for that movie or tv part that has not come through the years. There seems to be a height requirement for service people in this branch.

He hates it – he says the place suffers from the same trendiness and artsyness that plagues most up and coming restaurants – no solid offerings, sacrificing substance for form in order to charge more. In a sense he is right. If a simple tomato omelette with a slice of avocado on the side will set you back by 10 dollars just because you threw in a slice of artisan bread and a heaping of mesclun greens that will not be eaten anyway, then yes, it is a shame. But that is exactly what I ordered. Sans the mesclun, I have had a better omellette in a remote shack in Puerto Galera with authentic artisan bread taught to the locals by a German who missed his pumpernickle bread and other stuff back home. Oh, and the bratwursts were to die for.

Nonetheless, the locals suck it up, so I guess that puts Kevin Mcnaughty’s opinion to the test that French food (or something that approximates it the US way) is passe. I would say Le Pain Quotidien is not entirely french – it is fusion – drinking coffee from bowls is reminiscent of china bistros. The restaurant façade and walls is mainly Italian, with its stucco roughsanded walls and minimal interiors in earthy tones. The atmosphere noisy, and communal, as it claims. Like an Asian restaurant.

What rises above the commercial is its bread, as it claims to be first and foremost, a bakery. And he was honest enough to admit that yes, everything he ate was good – from the bread to the coffee to the jams. I feel bereft that the Pain Au Chocolat is single barreled but it is moist and fluffy as it should be, the artisan breads, with their french names intact and displayed haughtily, are tasty, and there is a smattering of specialites pastries but not savory ones. French bakeries are not entirely best or better than what we have in the US. What makes them special is the idea of a place, an atmosphere of strangeness and new sensations, and tastes and sounds so foreign.

Alas, we cannot import that so we frenchify our San Francisco sourdough bread and call it Pain de Ble Levain.