Le Clafoutis - French for teeny, tiny amounts

Le Clafoutis
8630 Sunset Blvd.
West Holllywood, CA 90064
Phone: (424) 354-4154
Happy Hour: M-F, 4:00-7:00

Food - 5
Prices - 9
Service - 8
Bonus points: +2 for free parking in back (and plenty of street parking on Sunset at that hour), -2 for portion sizes.
Total - 22 out of 30

Sunset Plaza is always a nice place to go. There's good people watching, a nice parking lot in back, and generally a good vibe. Le Clafoutis fits into that just fine, but, despite the decent score above, I probably wouldn't rush to go back.

There were three of us on this outing, but one drank water, so take that into account. We ordered all of the appetizers on the HH menu (more on them below), had one screwdriver, one mai-tai, a ridiculously overpriced cobbler, and the total was $45 before tip, $55 after.

The food was hit or miss. All apps are $5 each, so we ordered all of them. The chicken satay was two skewers and they were overcooked, the salami sandwiches were a lot of bread and mustard and really, very little salami (but they did come with a smattering of potato chips and some gherkins), the salmon tower was tasty, a little mushy, and about the size you'd expect for the price, the calamari was a generous portion, but as you may have noticed, fried calamari is the standard bearer on the Happy Hour quest, and this just didn't live up to others we've sampled (cough...houseofblues). It was overly breaded, rings only and a little chewy. The two big items of deliciousness were the grilled veggie tower (so good!) and the berry cobbler/crumble (so SMALL!)

We must have been in a Cary Grant/50s/suburbs sort of mood when we ordered the screwdriver and the mai-tai, but both were served in juice glasses that were packed with ice, so even though they were only five bucks each, they were gone relatively quickly. The mai-tai, however, was delicious. What my friend referred to as an, "oops, I'm drunk" drink. Something you could suck down pretty easily and order another without realizing its effect.

The big story of this venture had to be the portion sizes. The cobbler/crumble was insultingly small. It was served in a ramekin the size of which you'd usually get extra salad dressing, and it was $6.95. Please - Clafoutis - take a trip to Cynthia's. Yes, their cobbler has gone down significantly in quality since Cynthia left, but THAT'S WHAT SIZE A COBBLER SHOULD BE.

Atmosphere-wise, this isn't a great spot. There aren't really tables in the bar area, so we sat in the restaurant, which was nice (to sit and enjoy), but not great if you're there to mingle. From 5:30-7:00, there was only one other table filled in the restaurant and no one at the bar. Again, if you already know who you're meeting, it's fine. If you're looking to meet, go to Katana.

Overall, this place was serviceable, but as mentioned in the previous post, there are much better places within a few blocks.

On a side note -- thank you so much for all the comments and email. There are now about twenty Hours on the list that the band of foodies still needs to hit, so we may have to step up the pace, which is sure to expand my waist. Thank God it's almost summer. Please keep the HH finds coming, and feel free to add your own observations to any place reviewed here that you've checked out. The wikier, the usefuller, or so the kids say.

Until next time, au revoir.