LA BICYCLETTE
ADDRESS: Dolores Street & 7th Avenue, Carmel, CA 93921
WEBSITE: https://www.labicycletterestaurant.com/
On our return trip back to LA after our time up in the San Francisco area, we decided to take the coastal route back on the Pacific Coast Highway. This lead to a lunchtime stop in the town of Carmel, where we were looking for something on the lighter side since we still had the majority of our car ride ahead of us. The wood-fired pizzas at La Bicyclette sounded like exactly what we were looking for, so after scouring the streets to secure a parking spot, we walked over to the restaurant.
Even though it was a Wednesday afternoon, the restaurant was still jam-packed with people. The restaurant does take reservations, and their website says they block off 40% of the seating for daily walk-ins. This place does seem to be pretty popular, so if you have a larger party, a reservation might be the way to go. The restaurant had two connected dining areas: one main larger area that was closer to the street corner side (where the wood-fired oven was at) and the smaller side area that seemed to have primarily two-tops.
The one-sheet menu, which appeared to be the same for both lunch and dinner, featured a number of hors d’oeuvres, entrées, or wood-fired pizzas. Among the different options, you could tell that the restaurant drew from French and Italian cuisine inspirations. The menu rotates weekly to provide the chefs an opportunity to re-tailor the dishes to the fresh ingredients they are able to source locally. I would honestly really enjoy returning on another occasion when we weren’t trying to eat on the lighter side in order to try a few different dishes.
Of the different pizzas that they were serving, the Basque pizza was calling our name the most. A Spanish pepper purée base, topped with charred spring onions, Txistorra sausage, manchego & mozzarella cheese, finished with arugula and saba drizzle (an Italian condiment made with concentrated syrup of grapes). Even with the restaurant pretty packed, our pizza seemed to come out of the wood-fired oven in a pretty quick amount of time.
The pizza overall had mostly a savory and sweet combination, with the pepper purée, onions, and saba drizzle mostly providing the sweet notes while the two cheeses and Txistorra sausage made up the savory. Smoky notes from the sausage were countered with the peppery flavor from the arugula, which I always enjoy as a topper on pizza (in moderation). It was a flavorful pizza that was just the right amount of food we were looking for, and a positive impression of what the restaurant offers.
La Bicyclette certainly has its charm to it, with the décor on the inside providing a bit of a rustic feel to it. Even though the menu was just a one-pager, there definitely seemed to be a nice variety of different options and flavor profiles to choose from, drawing from either the French or Italian cuisines (or both) for the dishes. We definitely had a positive experience with our visit and would look forward to going back on a return trip to Carmel to try out some of their other offerings.
Let’s now take a look at the La Bicyclette Dish Spotlight. Asterisks (*) below mark my recommended dishes.
** Basque Wood-Fired Pizza **
Spanish pepper purée, charred spring onions, sliced Txistorra sausage, manchego & mozzarella cheese, topped with arugula and saba.
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And finally, here are my rankings for La Bicyclette:
Food: 4.5 / 5
There was a nice variety of different dishes on the menu to select from, drawing from both French or Italian inspirations. Our pizza tasted really good, with a nice mixture of different flavors and use of quality ingredients.
Atmosphere: 4.25 / 5
Even though the space felt a bit smaller, that felt like it was part of the charm, making the overall experience more intimate and cozy. The décor felt rustic and definitely made me feel like I might have been eating out in Europe.
Service: 4.25 / 5
Our waitress was nice and stopped by a few times during our meal to ask how things were. Our pizza also came out to the table in relatively quick fashion as well.
Price: 4.25 / 5
The pricing was probably what you’d expect of eating out in downtown Carmel. Might be on the pricey side, but the quality of the food tasted good.
Overall:
17.25 / 20
(86%)
Categories: California, Restaurants
