Review: This Chinatown-adjacent bistro serves California cuisine out of a beautifully restored Victorian bungalow

Time Out

5 hours ago

In spite of the mythos surrounding chefs and the intangibles of hospitality, the success of a restaurant often boils down to a few smart real estate decisions, and the three-month-old Baby Bistro is no exception. The buzzy, self-described 'bistro of sorts' is the final piece of the puzzle completing Alpine Courtyard, located in Victor Heights. As of writing, the trendy commercial complex is single-handedly gentrifying the tiny, oft-forgotten neighborhood at the border of Chinatown and Echo Park, just north of the 110 freeway.
The place's vintage charm is obvious before you even spot Baby Bistro, which you'll find tucked away towards the back of the complex. Owned and painstakingly developed over several years by preservation-minded architect-developer Jingbo Lou, it consists of six converted buildings, including a 1908 Craftsman house and three Victorian era homes (one of which houses Baby Bistro), arranged around a brick-lined central courtyard with a lush, carefully maintained garden full of banana trees, bougainvillea and plenty of herbs and vegetables.
In a city of sun-bleached asphalt, minimal shade cover and other hostile urban features, it feels downright heavenly to step into Alpine Courtyard. By day, Angelenos pick up plant-based pastries at Bakers Bench, specialty caffeinated drinks from Heavy Water Coffee and gourmet banchan from Perilla LA. After 4:30pm, when Perilla closes up shop, the only eatery left standing is a satellite outpost of Cassell's Hamburgers, which operates out of the same space as Bakers Bench. Finally, at 5:30pm, Baby Bistro opens its doors, offering veteran chef Miles Thompson's wonderfully unorthodox approach to farm-to-table cooking, a reasonably priced natural wine list by Lolo Wine Bar alum Andy Schwartz, and one of the most delightful restaurant back patios in all of Los Angeles.
The narrow, sparsely decorated 35-seat space still feels like the house it once was. (In fact, Schwartz told me an elderly former resident visited Baby Bistro in its first weeks in business, just to see what they'd done with his old living space.) From the get-go, there's the warm hospitality offered the minute you check in with the host—wait too long for your reservation, and you'll likely be offered a free glass of wine while killing time outside—and pint-sized open kitchen, where Thompson can be found working most nights of service. Though Baby Bistro's six-item menu is ostensibly offered à la carte, the menu is designed to be ordered in its entirety and split between two people (yes, like a tasting menu), which ends up costing somewhere in the neighborhood of about $100 per head before drinks, tax and tip.
Personally, I consider that a little on the pricey side for what is, at the end of the day, mere seasonal wine bar fare, but the endearing bungalow atmosphere more than compensates, and the chef's culinary talent translates into some of the most deliciously irreverent California cuisine in the city. This is, after all, Thompson, the same child actor -turned-culinary wunderkind who opened Echo Park's short-lived but critically acclaimed Allummette in 2013 (throwback!) and oversaw pioneering California cuisine spot Michael's in Santa Monica from 2016 to 2018.
At first blush, the cooking at Baby Bistro is almost as understated as the space and scene itself. Almost every night, stylishly dressed couples and groups of friends hang out sipping glasses of wine, aperitifs and for the non-drinking set, cold barley tea—a refreshing non-alcoholic option perfect for sipping on a balmy summer evening. But as with Baby Bistro's small back patio, where the banana tree grove and pink foliage make you feel like you're on a reality TV show set on a tropical island, the small menu conceals another unexpected surprise: a level of technical brilliance and creative ambition mildly constrained by its modest footprint and menu scope.
Like an above-average A24 film that shines in a sea of nostalgia reboots and live-action remakes, Baby Bistro scores major brownie points just for trying
In 2023, Schwartz and Thompson first made a splash in the L.A. dining scene when they debuted Baby Bistro as a summer pop-up inside Koreatown's Hotel Normandie (home to the original Cassell's, which is also owned by Lou) and changed the menu essentially every other week. Thus far, the permanent version of Baby Bistro has offered far more culinary stability, which might be a boon for some diners and a bore for others. I'd be remiss not to mention the housemade cheesy onion bread, piled high with funky, bright orange Liptauer, which has become such a crowd favorite it seems unlikely to leave the menu entirely. The same bread can be ordered plain and à la carte for sopping up sauce from the main-like plates, including the recently added prawns in puttanesca sauce. When available, add on the housemade terrine, served with charred broccolini, a dish so wonderful and complete in its own right that I don't even recommend ordering bread on the side.
There's also the cucumber and squid salad, dressed with white tamari, yuzukosho, lemon zest and resplendent flecks of dried red shiso, and the pleasantly crunchy salad made of, among other ingredients, turnips, locally made tofu (from Gardena's Meiji Tofu), raspberries and crushed pistachios. The succinct menu downplays the complexity contained in each dish; each item is listed as its main two ingredients, e.g. 'cucumber, squid' and 'turnip, tofu' for the salads I just described. At meal's end, Thompson turns heads (and some stomachs, from what I've heard from friends) with his trendy vegetable dessert course: a pine nut cookie topped with cucumber cremeux, poached rhubarb, fennel fronds and white wine vinegar. In general, the chef enjoys mixing sweet and savory, and is mostly successful with this.
In my experience, the newer menu additions have been a little hit-or-miss, including the middling buckwheat-topped chicken sausages, which have replaced an earlier coulotte steak served with wood ear mushrooms. Nevertheless, a handful of strong staples and the undeniably quaint ambience have contributed to Baby Bistro's current status as my pick for L.A.'s best new restaurant. Another major factor? The city's industrywide slowdown that's has led to dozens of restaurant closures since January and relatively few buzzy openings this summer. Naturally, this has pointed the media's collective attention toward places that may have, in other years or seasons of the L.A. dining scene, fallen into 'beloved neighborhood restaurant' or 'excellent spot for the next time you're in the area' territory.
After a second visit in early July, I can say that Baby Bistro belongs in both of these (still quite respectable!) categories, unless you are an absolute fiend for all things California cuisine. Like an above-average A24 film that shines in a sea of nostalgia reboots and live-action remakes, Baby Bistro scores major brownie points just fo trying at a time when everyone else seems to have all but given up on remotely affordable, chef-driven dining. In many ways, the restaurant is similar to Tomat in Westchester and Vin Folk in the South Bay; all three eateries serve a more accessible version of chef-driven cuisine at a price point more palatable for weekly date nights and group special-occasion dinners.
'If you were in Europe, you would stumble into it, have an incredible meal and never remember what it's called and try to figure it out for the rest of your life. That's the idea of this restaurant,' Thompson told the Los Angeles Times in 2023, describing the concept behind Baby Bistro. Sure, I find that romantic, but the reality is that Baby Bistro isn't located in Europe. It's in one of the most car-centric cities in the United States, where 'stumbling' (or, for many, driving to a more walkable part of town) is largely premeditated and a semblance of social media and marketing strategy is essential to a new restaurant's success. Given the cute atmosphere, however, I'm happy to overlook a few shortcomings and circle the block for parking.