Riviera Bistro

394 E. Main St, Ventura
Phone: (805) 667-2120
Cuisine: French, Italian

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Reviews by the General Public

Disappointing Reviewer: Jeff Campbell from Santa Barbara, CA I was in Ventura visiting my father and we were looking for a nice restaurant to get some dinner. After reading through a few reviews on this website, we decided on the Riviera Bistro. My girlfriend and my brother joined us as well. When we arrived, we were promptly seated by a friendly man with a French accent. We ordered drinks and enjoyed the fresh bread they provided. We then proceeded to order the rest of the meal. We started with an appetizer of fried shrimp, zucchini and calamari served with an aoili sauce, and while the shrimp were delicious, there were only three on the whole plate, the rest of it filled with overly-chewy calamari and slightly soggy zucchini. We then promptly received our entrees when we were finished with the appetizer. I ordered the pork tenderloin with the port reduction sauce, served with roasted potatoes and the garlic sauteed spinach. Pork tenderloin, which is essentially the same cut as a filet mignon on a cow except from a pig, should be very tender and juicy. This pork was overcooked and chewy, and the port reduction was weak and nearly tasteless (perhaps the chef should have reduced it more). The potatoes and spinach were delicious, however, I sent the pork back, which our waiter had no problem doing, and was polite about. I asked to replace it with the rack of lamb, as I had no faith that the pork would be any better a second time around. The waiter assured me the lamb was very good and cooked to a nice medium rare. When my lamb arrived I took one bite and was pleased, until I took a second bite and noticed the lamb was nearly raw inside. Let me say that I am a professional cook, and am nationally Serv Safe certified through the NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) in food preparation. I am VERY well aware of the difference between a rare, medium rare, and medium cooked cut of any commercially available meat. Lamb is medium rare when cooked to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the temperature required to kill bacteria that may be present in the meat (on a side note E. Coli is the most common bacterial contaminate of lamb). Anyway, this lamb was EXTREMELY rare, and in my PROFESSIONAL opinion completely unsafe to serve. When I called the waiter over he made some comment about how lamb is "supposed" to be that way, and that the way it was cooked was indeed medium rare, and then rudely picked up my plate to take it back to the kitchen, whereupon the cooks, from what I could tell, threw it either under a broiler or in a very hot oven, effectively drying it out, and cooking it to medium, not medium rare. By this point I had given up on the food and ordered a dessert. On a side note my brother and girlfriend both got the filet mignon, and my brother's was as undercooked as my lamb. My father ordered the seared scallops which he had no complaints about. The four of us each ordered a different dessert. I had the espresso ice-cream dish, my girlfriend had the apple tart a la mode, my brother had the flourless chocolate cake, and my father had the mixed berry dish. All were very good, however the chocolate cake was an extremely small portion (took four bites to eat). Considering the meal was about $180, I felt is was extremely sub-par and left hungry. I don't know if I went on a bad night because of all these other positive reviews, or maybe my expectations of French food are higher than the average person, but I think there is much better food to be found.