Oriel Chinatown

One of my favorite place to hangout when I'm in downtown LA. It makes you feel like you're "sort of" in Europe local dive place and get away from the noisy busty LA. You got the train running on top outside and light chill music inside plus an outdoor for smoking and sort of fresh air. The bar area is a cool place hang out w/ friendly bartenders and guests and you and be caught into conversations. Or you can sit at the window tables with your friends or in my case, my kid and just chat and get lost into online games. The foods are great (majority of them). I came here for the escargots, mussels, desserts, and the breads. You got to love it when the place is tiny and located in Chinatown, the Plaza at Olvera Street (Mexican outdoor market) and nearby Union Station, where only the local knows their name.

I really like the ambience of this restaurant it's hit or miss with the food for meThe staff is always lovely

I love restaurants that can mentally transport you to somewhere else. Oriel does that with a setting on the edge of DTLA, sounds of soft French music playing in the dining room, the perfect lighting for a date night, or even just a night out with friends.Food was good, with classic French favorites for sharing like Charcuterie Boards and Foie Gras. Dinner courses was fish and a Parisian Gnocchi, which was flavor heavy with a rich butter sauce.The only thing I would say could improve would be the service. Our server did not correctly note what was ordered and had to check several times. There was also no mention of it being a Birthday dinner for my lady, which I noted when booking this reservation and upon arrival.

We stopped by for drinks and ended up with an aperitif. My husband and I enjoyed our initial meal at Oriel, I wanted to introduce our friends to this quaint place under the metro tracks in Chinatown. Since it is a small place, I wasn't sure they would be able to accommodate a walk-in party of 5 at 6pm on a Saturday. Yes! They were able to seat us. Joy!We ordered wine, champagne and a cheese and charcuterie board. A wonderful aperitif before we headed to our final dinner destination. Bonus: Their set list spoke to our 80s hearts. Bronski Beat was playing as we left the restaurant. Enjoy!

Came here before a show downtown, and was blown away! First of all, this place has a lovely happy hour. I definitely will return one day after work for a nosh and a drink!We had a lovely bottle of orange wine off the main menu, as well as the steak tartare and the duck in the jar. Both were lovely. Our server was incredibly nice too, gave us a sample of the wine prior to us ordering. The atrium and ambience is just so COOL! Absolutely loved the vibes, wine, and food.Highly recommend, we will be back!

We had SUCH a delicious meal here the other night! We had tickets to see Old Friends at the Ahmanson & were looking for something in Chinatown when this restaurant caught my eye. A French restaurant! So I looked at the food photos & thought things looked pretty good. They weren't. They were GREAT! We got there minutes before the end of Happy Hour & were lucky to get an order in for their tartines. Three of them! Cut into 5 slices each. Holy cow! One had Romesco sauce, one had salmon rillettes and the last had duck mousse. Each one delighted the palate in completely different ways. We each got to have 2 slices of each & then, because we couldn't decide, we cut the remaining slices three slices into 2 & shared the last 6 pieces. (Yes, that's a math problem!) Fair's fair! Next we ordered the Moules Marineire. Do NOT pass this up! So, so good!! Got the haricots vert as well & called it a night. The service was spot on. The ambience--meh. The main dining area was too dark to read the menu, so we shifted to a smaller area & got to listen to the entire conversation of our neighbors. But that was okay because we were busy moaning about how delicious everything was, so they had to listen to us too! Try this gem of a restaurant & you won't be disappointed. And if you get there for Happy Hour, even better!

The place is understated and well worth the stop. Easy parking and service is top notch. Great place to have a good meal and cocktail in a peaceful atmosphere. This is one of my new favorites in L.A.

Relatively brand new restaurant that specializes in French-inspired cuisine. It's got a cute, romantic, bistro-like atmosphere that's perfect for date night or an outing with friends. Service was somewhat lackluster. Our server never really introduced himself -- he just swung by to take our happy hour order. He then came back to take our order off the regular dinner menu, then disappeared. We saw him float around between the different rooms, but he never came back to check in on us. Another male server came by and asked if we needed anything. Some time had passed between our appetizers, our first few dishes and our main entree, which was the steak. We had to ask for that, before it finally came. There's a happy hour menu, which is quite a good deal -- we began with two glasses of the Bordeaux for $8 each; a $10 beef tartare toast, and a $5 salmon rillette tartine. The wine was good, and so was the tartare. The salmon rillette tartine, however was rather underwhelming in both appearance and taste. It need oomph, at the very least some salt. We also ordered the French onion soup -- good, but not amazing. It was a tad stingy on the cheese. The salad Nicoise was very underwhelming. I have traveled to Nice, France and had salad Nicoise at various restaurants while there -- this was far from what you get in France. It had way too much lettuce, no anchovies, and the yellowfin tuna was nothing extraordinary. It also severely lacked any real flavor -- it's a simple salad, but the lemon vinaigrette missed the punch or acidity it needed to bring this classic French salad together. And at $24 a plate, I expected better. The best dish of the night was the Bavette, a flank steak, which was cooked to our liking: medium rare. This was accompanied by mashed potatoes and some greens. Tasty! We skipped out on dessert and had 2 more glasses of wine: the Cab Franc and the Côtes du Rhône red blend of Syrah & Grenache -- the latter was excellent, fruit forward, a medium red, while the former tasted light-bodied and flat. But to each his own when it comes to vino! Parking: the small lot adjacent to restaurant is a crapshoot -- so best to park in the garage directly across from the restaurant. It's only $3 per hour. We paid for two hours during a 5:30 PM reservation and thought that was plenty. Would we return? Not in a heartbeat. There are more enticing restaurants in LA.

A neon romantic and trendy French restaurant in Chinatown is definitely a place you want to visit. Very cool vibes and the food was delicious. We had the "duck in a jar", French onion soup (favorite), escargot, and the steak with mashed potatoes. Our server was extremely professional and kind. Recommended for people who enjoy French food and who want to try something different than a typical restaurant setting. I would suggest going in the evening for the neon romantic lighting.

Loved the tucked-away feel and service, will def be back.Perfect if you're looking for a meal of a bunch of tasty snacks; loved the bread and pretty much ate it with everything. Am giving them an extra star for being so kind and accommodating to having a place for me to lock up my bike.Highly recommend the steak tartare, escargot, and duck pate; kinda learned that I don't really get gnocchi, I didn't love the texture but the sauce was still delicious.