ChouChou French Bistro

A great meal and nice service from the only server on a slow Tuesday night. A relaxing evening.We started with complimentary warm bread and butter. Then we had excellent deep fried calamari and vegetables. For mains, DH had a really wonderful burger. I had the filet. Both were ordered medium rare and we'd order again!We ended with the warm chocolate lava cake topped with vanilla ice cream.We will be back!

I didn't make a reservation in advance for Valentine's Day dinner, but luckily, Chou Chou had a table for our group of 5 at 6:15 pm. The prix fixe menu was amazing. I felt like I was in Paris, enjoying great food and good company.A big thank you to Chou Chou for making our evening special! I was especially impressed with the Duck Confit Wellington--everyone who loves French cuisine should try it.Our server was super sweet and attentive, keeping everything on point. My only suggestion would be to soften the lighting, as the bright white light didn't quite match the cozy, romantic ambiance.

Celebrated a birthday in the family here. We were seated promptly, and although I had mentioned we were celebrating a birthday on the reservation and when we were being seated, there was no acknowledgement of any sort. Felt weird. The tables are located close together which can make the noise level seem high being in a closed indoor setting. One of our party who needs hearing aids found this particularly uncomfortable. This may not be an issue for most folks, but sharing in case this affects someone else with similar needs. We got some appetizers to share - the fried calamari, tuna tartare and the French onion soup. Of these, the French onion soup had a generous helping of cheese and looked the part, although it tasted rather bland. For the main course we got 1. the filet mignon - the person who got this was very happy with their dish. 2. The rack of lamb, despite requesting this to be medium, this was a mix of chops done medium and some pieces overdone to the point that they were inedible and couldn't be chewed on. Meh! 3. We also got the Beef Bourgnion, which was okay, 4. The chicken which was rated as okay5. The fish en papillote, which was a special as explained by the server, but they failed to mention its price. We ended up asking for the price and eventually ordering it. The service was spotty, with waters not getting refilled until we asked and no one to check if we wanted more alcohol. Oh well! After waiting for a while for someone to get us the dessert menu, we ordered the opera cake and the bread pudding, both of which were delicious. They finally acknowledged the birthday and gave the birthday person a complimentary creme brulee, which also tasted great. Overall, a good place, but not one that I will want to return to in a hurry given the mediocre food and service here and the multitude of choices available in Burlingame.

My partner and I had been wanting to try this place for a while, as it always looks so cute and cozy from the outside. So when we finally had a free evening to try it out, we were very excited. Unfortunately, it ended up being a pretty disappointing experience. We walked in on a Friday at around 8, and the restaurant was very full. It's hard to tell from the street, but it's actually much larger inside than it appears - however, we later heard they overbooked their max capacity for the evening, and I think that was the cause of our issues for the night.We waited about 15 minutes before anyone even came up to us. Then it was another 15 until we were seated... Another 10 until a waitress came up to us... Ultimately, our appetizers didn't arrive until over an hour after we were seated, and our mains came about an hour after that. I will say, when the appetizers did arrive, they were pretty tasty. We ordered the baked brie and French onion soup - the French onion soup was pretty good, but the baked brie was definitely the standout of our Chouchou experience. It had a light, flaky exterior, with warm, flavorful brie melted perfectly throughout the middle. For mains, we got the filet mignon and the burger. My filet was good and cooked perfectly medium rare, but it was a bit bland in flavor and required some extra salt and pepper to help it along. The burger, though, was disappointing - it was dry and quite overcooked, and lacked any real flavor. We got the molten lava cake for dessert, which was tasty and probably our second favorite item next to the baked brie. While our waitress was kind and clearly doing her best, our experience was pretty significantly hampered by the excruciatingly long waits. Many other tables around us expressed similar disappointment, and several of them ended up asking for their food to be cancelled or made to-go due to the long wait. The fact that both our entrees were also average to subpar didn't help.I'm hoping we just caught Chouchou on a particularly busy night... But regardless, I think it'd be great if they're able to sort out their staffing and booking situation to avoid similar experiences. Would love to be able to come back and have a better experience in the future!

The night started out really well and the service was amazing, until the end.Started out with people constantly checking in on us and seeing how our food was, refilling our waters, the usual great service you would expect from a high caliber spot such as this. The dessert took some time to come out and then our server simply disappeared. There was a couple next to us that got there way after us, got their dessert before us and their check. After a while, when another server came to reset the tables, we asked her if we could get our check. She said she would find our server. A few more minutes passed by and the same server ended up bringing us our check. So a really great service ended up finishing poorly.On top of that, we were there for my birthday, the wife called ahead and made sure they knew on the reservation, as well as when we got there but no birthday writing or anything...not a big deal but attention to detail is good.Would we go back? Probably not, and not because just the service but the food, was just ok, good, but not great. Nothing to write home about.The French onion soup, as much as we love it, was pretty bland. Presentation was good and true to the soup but definitely missing a LOT of flavor.For the most part everything we ordered was just mediocre.

This restuarant was open on Christmas day last year and I ate here. Everything was good but I don't think any particular dish was incredibly memorable. The steak was very standard and decently cooked. The chocolate lava cake was yummy too. I will give 4 points because they were operating on Holiday day and still an overall enjoyable meal.

I've been to ChouChou in San Francisco/ West Portal area and loved it. The very French vibe was exactly what I wanted this past Saturday being half Francophile, born on Bastille Day .I would say it started off a little rocky with some disorganization and seating/wait time. But once we, in addition to those that were there before us and the party that came at the same time we did, were seated everything went absolutely smoothly and was delicious! Service was exceptional. Ferrah was our main host and Andre (I hope I have their names correct) checked on us often but not intrusively. My filet mignon was cooked to perfection - my daughter enjoyed her requested medium done rack of iamb. We loved the design of the interior and the colors chosen, along with the mirrored accents on the wall. We will be back again! We hope you'll give this "darling" a try.

Went here for a work dinner and was not disappointed. Most of us got the 3-course option for $65 which I thought was definitely worth it. I ordered the mussels as a starter, salmon, and creme brûlée which were all delicious. The salmon especially was cooked perfectly, which is not always the case at other establishments. Our waitress was also very attentive and friendly. I recommend trying this relatively new addition to downtown Burlingame!

I went to the San Francisco location a few years ago and it was excellent. I went here for a brunch on the weekend. The menu online was a la carte, but at the restaurant it was pre fix. I tried the forest crepes, French onion soup and opera cake. The quiche was pretty good and the lemon tart dessert was excellent. It all went well with a good glass of champagne.Decor is nice and they have a patio for outside dining. The service was good but slow. Overall a good experience and I would go back for the standard menu.

Everything was great! Service was superb! Ambiance was perfection! Love this location! Food was as expected