Pasjoli - Santa Monica

[PorkyBelly]

compared to pj 1.0 the menu definitely seems safer with less fancy french words but the execution still remains high.

most of the dishes were a hit

• crudo (i hate crudo but this didn’t suck)
• maitake - perfectly fried
• prawns - mainly for the sauce
• crepe - soft and tender and crispy on the edges
• poutine
• wings - tasted like a mozzarella stick x buffalo wings
• burger - if you like your ino burger with whole grilled onions and extra toast get this
• potatoes / tater tots
• chicken - crispy skin with more sauce
• basque cheesecake

really enjoyed zobbling all the sauces (prawns, crepe, chicken) with a baguette.

salads, deviled eggs, tartare, mousse were fine. the priciest item, ribeye, was unfortunately a miss.

review forthcoming @boourns @bluebarb @Probangbanger?

deviled eggs

crudo - halibut, cherry

beef tartare

chicken liver mousse, baguette

little gem, comté, lemon

marinated tomatoes, cucumbers, sherry

peach & arugula, champagne

french onion souplette

crêpes, caviar beurre blanc

cordon bleu chicken wings

prawns, tomatoes, cognac

fried maitake malt vinegar, aioli

poutine - frites, duck, cherry-duck gravy, gruyère

burger, cheddar, marrow aioli

roast chicken lemon

risotto ratatouille

30oz bone-in ribeye, 30 day dry aged

lemon meringue, bite-size profiteroles

pj sundae vanilla ice cream, duck fat caramel

burnt basque cheesecake

chocolate mousse olive oil crème

[boourns]

Agree broadly with you picks. Chicken was cooked well and sauce was delicious, I regret that I was too full to have more. Charred vegetable flavor was a pleasant surprise in the risotto, one of my favorite dishes of the night. Burger well executed and had good ingredient composition. Loved the contrasting texture in the crepe, caviar is not a big component (which explains the moderate pricing).

Salads didn’t hit as hard in flavor, Gjelina is still my gold standard here.

“Poutine” was tasty, I just wish they didn’t call it poutine. Lack of cheese curds is a dealbreaker for something called poutine Shouldn’t stop you from getting the dish.

[aaqjr]

Great pictures! The dishes look well composed, can’t wait to try. Nice option to have in the area.

[bruins]

Your photos are gorgeous!

[Probangbanger]

Delicious meal

I liked crudo, maitake, prawns, onion soup, crepe, cheesecake the most

But honestly everything was delicious

Thank you for the invite

[PorkyBelly]

the perks of dining early and sitting next to a window

[bluebarb]

I just saw that they now have a tagline on their revamped website–Pasjoli, where French is fun.
It feels like a lighter, less serious restaurant in its 2.0 version. (3.0?)
I was really surprised by the French onion souplette-relied more on the onion and fresh onion flavors than the usual heavy meat stocks.
I agree with your review and also echo @boourns’ comment that the risotto was a standout, and I wouldn’t call it a poutine.
I would go back for the maitake, souplette, risotto, and burger.

[aaqjr]

Seems like the format change over has gone well for them. Looked pretty busy for a Monday. Simple French food done pretty executed at a high level. Had a nice Morgon village wine

[robert]

Some collaborations coming up: Travis Skiward 3/12, Daniel Patterson 3/19, Sathia Sun 3/26.

[Loaxley]

Now on InKind

Good for us in the short term, worrisome for the restaurant in the long term…

[Loaxley]

@honkman

?

InKind provides restaurants with $x of cash in exchange for $2x of F&B credit. It’s essentially a super high interest rate financing instrument, though it’s technically not debt or on the capital structure at all. It’s expensive but easy money, and often but not always means cheaper financing options were not available, or the need for cash was so urgent.

There are some “not bad” reasons for taking out InKind financing, like needing a small amount of cash in a pinch for a repair, or opening a new location, or some big groups with huge spaces and massive fixed costs use it just to get people in the door and fill up the room.

But when a place like Pasjoli is taking InKind money, it’s often (though not always) an indicator that they’re in a precarious financial position.

[honkman]

Thanks for the explanation - that doesn’t sound good for the restaurant

[honkman]

According to this post, Pasjoli was on InKind since July 2025

InKind AMEX offer free $50 at good restaurants

[robert]

Could it have some connection with Amex / Sevenrooms? So much big money sloshing around credit cards, reservations, and airport lounges.

Request Your SevenRooms Demo | inKind

[boourns]

Oh good observation, they definitely weren’t on SevenRooms before. I wonder if they got an incentive to switch platforms and one part of it was a favorable rate on InKind. Certainly if they’re trying to grow the platform with VC money, they’ll want to get more prestigious restaurants onto the platform to incentivize customers to buy-in and offer them a better deal than normal. The biggest barrier to adoption is almost certainly people not wanting to tie up a bunch of money in InKind if there aren’t enough interesting restaurants that they will actually go to.

[doublestuffedpierogi]

As someone mentioned already, it has been on inKind for over a year now.. there are a couple of places on the app that don’t show up in the search map/query but when you search them up manually, they will show up.

Had a super average meal here recently

Also, cheapest cocktail is $22 and none are particularly great

[aaqjr]

I like their cocktails and wine list personally but do agree that the prices are just too high for alcohol (speaking for myself). They used to be on my regular rotation, but it’s hard to justify going as often with so many good options around. The food is very well executed but really feels heavy and stodgy in the summer, wish they really changed things up more often.