Left Bank Menlo Park

I’m a 15 year customer of Left Bank. Loved this place. The service is not what it used to be. Sad to see.

The food here can be uneven. Lunch was disappointing. Nicoise salad was absurdly overdressed, small, and looked totally different than it has in the past. Our server disappeared for long periods of time. This is a nice space and menu. I hope that they will attend to more consistency in both food and service.

Extremely loud, extremely poor service, food good, but not worth a return visit to Left Bank.

I've been coming here as many as two times a month for five years. Lately the food and service are slipping. Tonight, my fries were under cooked and under seasoned, the passion fruit tart had nearly no filling and the crust was gummy. I finished my wine before my entree arrived and my waiter didn't come back to ask if i wanted a refill until i was about 3/4 thru my entree. I used to love this place but the last couple of visits make me rethink my go-to restaurant.

Food and service are very good.

The food was very delicious and well seasoned. The service was awful. The Niçoise salad was prepared as ordered with a tasty dressing. The leg of lamb slow cooked to a very tender state. The polenta could have been a bit creamy & less pasty. However, the server was terrible. He started by harassing the water server. Then his aloof attitude was presented to us. He was no help with wine knowledge, I knew what we wanted but he had to be told 3 times to get it right. After we ordered and the meal was delivered, he stopped by very quickly after the first bites. Then we couldn’t find him anywhere. Other tables were checked on and gladly served more wine or items. Not this server!

Food was good but they were clearly more slammed for Valentine’s Day than they were able to handle. We had a reservation but were seated under an A/C vent at a table with a broken leaf hanging down on my partner’s legs (easily resolved by switching seats, but still...this is supposed to be fine dining). The site said they’d have both a limited regular menu and a price fix, but only the price fix was offered. We waited for 30m+ between courses, one of our soups came out cold (but still tasty), the waiter was friendly but overburdened and didn’t know the wine list much. I think a dinner on a regular night would reflect Left Bank more accurately, but after that experience I am not inclined to go back. I got the duck entree and the cut of meat was great but the sides were clearly made with rapid assembly in mind more than flavor pairing. Honestly, if I lay out 300 on a nice dinner there shouldn’t be multiple obvious misses in the service and cooking like this.

Good French food in a large brasserie setting. Very busy on Valentine's Day. 3 course prix fixe for $65. For appetizers, we had onion soup and smoked salmon salad with beets. Both very good. Mains were lamb shank and beef filet. Lamb shank very good in a wine reduction sauce. Beef had to be sent back and replaced with another because of toughness (bad cut). Desserts were mediocre chocolate mouse in a overworked pastry shell. Service a bit slow but that's to be expected for this day.

Not at all up to the challenge of Valentines’ Day! Cold food, both courses!

Food was good , but was not expecting fix prix on Valentines . Still selection was good . Arrived early and most of the dinning area was empty . Our host seated us at a table for party of 3 . Requested a booth and at the time only 2 or 3 were taken and the rest open . The response back was that they were adhering to strictly seating policy. Okay , so we sat and ordered or food . We were almost finished with our meal and the booth that we asked about was just seated with 2 people , mind you it fits 4 or more . So what’s the seating policy ? Should I have slipped the host a few bills or was I the wrong demographic for the restaurant?

Very nice French bistro fare. The Escargots where excellent. Make sure to try the choucroute del la mer!

The food was great! We arrived early for our reservation and were seated promptly after a failed attempt at the bar. We arrived a couple minutes before 6:30pm and tried to get a happy hour drink at the bar but they took their time getting to us and then said it was already 6:30 so happy hour was over.
It was a little louder than we would have liked for a date night restaurant but the food was really good.

We eat here regularly. I ordered the coq au vin and it was very overcooked.

Always pretty solid. The food is good bistro french food, but not really inventive. Service was great and they even comped my dessert (it was my birthday). I had the duck breast and it was cooked perfect, but put on a cold plate.......I don't get that. Everyone at the table was happy with their food . The wine list is nice, but not fantastic. Overall a pretty good night.

Overall a very good meal but there was a big service hiccup. Our main waiter was terrific. While I was still eating my soup, a different waiter brought out our main courses. Since I was still eating my soup, he served my friend's main but not mine. I then finished my soup, but it took a long time for him to bring my main back. My friend felt awkward about starting while I was still waiting, and there wasn't a waiter around to be flagged down in the meantime. Finally got my main, and enjoyed it, but am baffled by that experience.

Jose is an excellent waiter who greets regulars with "Welcome back," and keeps asking if one's drink needs a refill. I think you know you haven't got a lot of real waiters at the moment. Hang on to Jose!

Service was slow, food came cold and they ran out of bread or at least our allocation of bread.

The ravioli did not have any flavor. A restaurant at this level/price point should not miss on anything they offer the menu.

We had brunch with friends at LB after none of us had been there for quite awhile. We all thought the food was very good, service was friendly and the ambience was buzzing in a nice, Sunday-morning kind of way. We will definitely be going back.

It’s always a treat and a pleasure to eat here. I had Salade Nicoise, which the best of anywhere we’ve been. My partner had their burger, also the best around! Never disappointed at Left Bank!

Salade Nicoise was not a nice presentation as I had experienced recently at Left Bank Larkspur. And there were communication issues with server. Overall, staff didn’t seem all that well trained (i.e. i had a fork to my mouth when a busboy tried to whisk away my plate...). Love the ambiance there and would return but disappointed in this dining experience.

I ordered the lamb sandwich but only if the meat was either rare or medium rare. Got it but was surprised and disappointed by how little meat was in the sandwich. For the price I did not expect a stack of lamb but more than a few slivers. Must say it was still tasty

We always love it here:) Menlo Park resident my whole life:) This is what I expect in my community!!! Awesome kids meals:)

I eat at this restaurant relatively often... maybe once a month or so. I like the menu and the very comfy large booths. When the weather is nice the outdoor seating can remind me of Paris.

We had a good time at Left Bank. We enjoyed the appetizers (cheese fondue and calamari) although the calamari was about 50% fried onions). Entrees were good portions. Dessert was delicious. We found parking on Wed night to be very easy. Would definitely return when in the area.

Love left bank but usually go to Santana row. We had the French toast which is usually wonderful. But at the Menlo Park restaurant the slices of French toast were substantially smaller and over cooked. Service was ok nothing to complain about but considering the left bank is what I would call fine dining the service want up to that standard. Love the place but I would not go back to the Menlo Park one.

Great food great service. Came in with a party of six were promptly seated and drink orders were taken with careful attention. Appetizers came out promptly but not rushed and our entrees followed and we're cooked to perfection. Desserts were awesome and another great experience was had.

Nice selection of entrees and above average wine list.

enjoyable, delicious food and drink

Always my favorite when I have guests from out of town.

What a disappointment. I had not been here in a long time and it's gone downhill. The service was horrible. Our waiter never came by to see how things were. That's too bad, because if he had, I would have told him that my grilled salmon was not grilled but more like sushi.

We were there at lunch hour and it was moderately busy, but not so much that he should have disappeared for over an hour. When we finally cornered him to take the plates away (yes, we had to ask for this), and to get us the check (took awhile for that as well), he never asked how everything was. Normally, I would have complained, but I was meeting with someone and didn't want to interrupt our conversation to go get the manager and find the waiter.

Definitely taking this one off the list.

The food was good but it arrived Luke warm and the wait staff did not seem the most hospitable based upon the age of my date and I

The food and service are quite good. Be aware that the noise level is VERY high so if you are looking for a dinner with enjoyable conversation, this may not fit. Extensive wine list, but be prepared to pay $10-15 dollars a glass for ordinary California wines. Parking is a challenge. Definitely worth trying once to see if it fits your dining interest. Access with wheelchairs and walkers is not easy.

A good dining experience but since we are a group of two 71ers and one 82er, the noise level is too loud and the tables are close together so people speak loudly to compensate for the noise level. We need a quieter restaurant...the two of us who are 71 are baby boomers (2nd year of the baby boom) so you will have more and more customers who want a quieter restaurant without the tables places so closely together.

Our food was overpriced and undercooked, and service was very slow even on a not terribly busy evening. Skip this particular establishment.

Great food and service!

Waiter and staff are great. Food was great. They were able to book the table at the window that we like.

We (11 of us) did our New Year's Eve Dinner at Left Bank Menlo Park last evening. It was a non-refundable reservation and we came with high expectations. I was surprised at how sloppy and rushed the service was. First, the waiters would not take orders, later they served the worst onion soup (they were cold), did not remember who ordered what and placed the wrong dishes in front of us. They ran out of the dessert choice we wanted (after they charged a fixed $75 per person for a 4 course meal). The good part I should add - the lamb and the oysters were great! Later at midnight, they refused to take an order for a bottle of wine and almost showed us the door. Very disappointing experience at such an upscale and respectable neighborhood.

Overall a great experience. They had a set menu and didn’t list prices on their items. This ended up causing confusion and put us in a strange situation when ordering.

We went for the four course New Years Eve dinner and it was fabulous in every way! I've never had such delicious amuse bouche anywhere else.