LAReview
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Belle Vie
This spot is Permanently Closed.
Some restaurants you go to because they call you “sir” and generally treat you like you’re a second tier member of the English royal family. Other restaurants you go to because they’re straight-up fun: they serve excellent food and you leave having made friends with every person in the place. Belle Vie is the second type of restaurant. It’s also the type of restaurant you’ll go back to again and again. Even though it’s in Brentwood.
As you walk into this casual French bistro, located next to a McDonald’s and opposite a Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, you’re likely to be greeted with “Hey guys!” - whether or not you’ve been here before. If French people gave high fives, you’d probably get one of those too. There are French posters all over the walls, a big bar, and lots of red leather booths. Your waiter (also French) will start by handing you a short menu, lugging over a blackboard full of specials to prop on a chair, and kicking off their campaign to be your new best friend. Within the span of five minutes, you’ll have wine advice (and probably a glass in your hand), food advice, and probably even some life advice.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
The menu itself is short, supplemented by a few more options on the blackboard, and with a nod to the fact that you are actually in California, not Paris. There’s mac and cheese (with truffle, of course), and some insanely good beef burgundy tacos that mix rich French stew with soft tortillas so well that you wonder why no one thought of this before. Trust your server when they tell you to order the gravlax - it might seem like a weird thing to eat a French place, but it also might be the best thing here.
It doesn’t take long at Belle Vie to realize that it’s become a complete neighborhood hangout. Locals pack the place for Thursday lunches and Saturday nights - definitely for the food, but also to hang out with their new French best friends. In a land full of white tablecloths and restaurants that all feel like chains, Belle Vie is an outlier you won’t mind crossing town for. We’ll meet you at the bar.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Angel’s Eggs
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Beef Burgundy Tacos
photo credit: Jakob Layman
BKK Mussels Mariniere
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Gravlax
Octopus
photo credit: Jakob Layman
New York Steak
photo credit: Jakob Layman