Piquant Cafe & Bistro

An amazing little restaurant. There is nothing I’m aware of that compares near Melbourne, FL. Excellent food, excellent service.

I hope that this special, little spot re-​opens, after the owner/​chef recovers. Lodi desperately needs an authentic, quality Asian restaurant, not more of the same old blah places that seem to pop up like weeds after a spring shower.

Does anyone know if this place is still open? I saw a for sale sign the other day but then it was gone. I miss it so much!

The restaurant is currently CLOSED because the owner/​chef is very ill. So sad.
Fingers crossed for a quick recovery.

I love this place. The food is great. The portions are huge. I give it 5 stars for that. Inside the atmosphere is great. The only negative is the location. On the east siiiiiiiiide! This place belongs downtown Lodi. Look at my pictures. You will see huge portions. And that was only for lunch. They also offer local wines by the glass and bottle! Cheers

Well yesterday was my 6^th time here, so today’s lunch counts for my 7^th, soooo time for a review!!!
I have never had Korean food, but if this place is Authentic Korean, then Korean is my new fav dish!
I have tried many dishes; the Piquant Chicken, which is a more than generous portion of chicken, smothered in a thick, tangy, slightly spicy red sauce; also comes with a side of rice (brown or white). I have also had the Bibimpop, which is veggies mixed with an egg, rice (again your choice) and a protein, I choose chicken. Have also tried the Eggplant dish, which is large pieces of lightly battered (with panko?) and lightly fried eggplant, also with a side of rice. Today I tried the Spicy Seafood plate, which consisted of muscles, shrimp, scallops in a very spicy red sauce with ginger, jalapeño and garlic chunks. Delicious!
The above entrees are served with your choice of soup or salad (I love the tofu/​veggie soup) and about 10 random appetizers that are beyond delicious. Homemade Kim-​chi (best I have ever had) sauteed spinach, picked cucumber, pickled radish, seasoned bean sprouts, spicy kim-​chi, glass noodle & apple? salad, dried seaweed, and sweet mung? beans. I am probably missing a few, and/​or calling them different names, but wow, the flavors are amazing!
You are also given a green onion and jalapeño crêpe like pancake, which is cut like a pizza, and you dip it into a very light sweet sauce. Great mixing of flavors.
After all is said and done, you are THEN given a desert, which this week consisted of sliced strawberries artfully placed on a plate surrounded by a light sprinkling of powdered sugar. In the center is a clear glass cup, which holds a few chocolate wafer cookies, also artfully placed and sprinkled with powder sugars.
The only real problem I have here is the owner/​cook is too good to be in this location, let alone, Lodi. (Lol I am sure I will get some heat for that). From the way she has decorated this place, to the art-​form of how she cooks each entrée individually and then so perfectly serves everything from a simple cup of coffee to a complex meal in just the most perfectly executed manner is beyond comprehension. She obviously has impeccable quality control, as she is doing everything here alone, except serving, and even at times, she does help with that!
This place belongs in Downtown Walnut Creek or Midtown Sacramento. The ambiance, food, quality of care of attention to detail is way beyond what most people out here are used too. If every restaurant in town took notes on how to run a restaurant, Lodi would have many more people RUNNING to move here.
I do hope this place stays! I should add, the premixed Korean coffee is the best I have had in California! And for $ 1, you may as well have a few cups!

SO happy this wonderful restaurant made its home in Lodi. Everything we’ve had has been made with fresh ingredients and lots of care. The breaded eggplant is a favorite: so perfectly prepared that it practically melts in your mouth. Often, if the chef is working on a new recipe, she’ll bring it out for you to try. Love that! We always leave satisfied. Give this place a try, even if you’ve never tried Korean food before.

Korean cuisine meets European style and service – DONE to Perfection at reasonable pricing. This place should be in LA or San Francisco. The waitress’ huge smile and asks where did I hear about them? «Yelp» of course! I was brought a complementary appetizer. The Bibimbap was crispy and fresh. kimchee was homemade. Lots of local wines to sample; it’s even listed on the wine trail. The owner cares very deeply for her customers experience; she even checks if those imbibing require cab rides home because of local law enforcement checkpoints. It felt like home.

If you find yourself anywhere near Lodi, you must count your blessings and treat yourself to an amazing meal at Piquant. I wish my town of San Francisco had a Korean restaurant that served as wonderful a food as Piquant. Serving delicious food using fresh ingredients at an amazing price, Piquant is the definition of a hidden treasure.
Some context: I was born in Korea, grew up in LA, and have frequented NY. I have eaten at many Korean restaurants. I also really love food, so I have eaten at many Michelin-​rated, 4 star restaurants. I would rate Piquant as among the very best in terms of quality and value.
The food: My bf and I ordered two dishes for lunch… bulgogi and the kimchee fried rice in stonepot. Pretty standard orders at a korean restaurant… but what we got in return was anything but standard. It started with a sizable traditional korean soup filled with fresh vegetables (for me), generous portion of fresh salad (for bf), crispy leek pancake cooked to perfection, 10 banchans (or tapas… or small side dishes)…then our dishes… and then a fruit dessert. Everything was immaculately cooked and presented, and the generous portions meant that we had leftovers for dinner! The total came out to less than $ 30, including tax.
One caveat: there is only one chef – you can see her diligently cooking with Tender Loving Care by herself through the kitchen window. So be prepared to make this meal an experience. If you are in a hurry and need a quick bite in 30 minutes, that is definitely not the moment to stop by. When my bf and i went for lunch, it was not at a busy time but the food was still delivered at a leisurely pace because everything was cooked to order. This is also partly why so many complimentary dishes are delivered – so that we aren’t forlornly waiting for our food to be ready. Everything was absolutely delicious as a result, but just be prepared to be patient. Because it surely is worth the wait!
I have a feeling i will suddenly find myself passing by Lodi far more often.

What a surprise. If I could give 6 stars I would.
Stop here for a dinner on the way to Yosemite with three other friends.
Both a server and a cook (owner) were very friendly and went extra miles to provide best service.
Foods were outstanding and presentation was excellent.
I would like to have my next birthday party at this place although it is 70 miles from my house.

When here for lunch, not having any expectations. The place looked nice inside, and were seated promptly. The lunch was AMAZING. Friendly service and great food. I will be returning, With friends.

Second time and the food was delicious. Had the rib eye with soup. Very tasty and the appetizer were very flavorful. The cook came out to share and made a braised beef soup with white radishes to share. It was very spicy and great flavor. They also gave us a fruit dessert with melon balls and strawberries. You have to try their variety of menu items

My husband and I went to Piquant for our first time last week. Now, I have never had Korean food, so I was a little skeptical. After hearing rave reviews from co-​workers, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try. I AM SO GLAD I DID! Everything that came to our table was DELICIOUS! Me and my family will be back SOON. Not only was the food fresh and delicious, but the service was OUTSTANDING. The owner and her staff are genuinly attentive and kind. It’s so admirable to see someone taking a huge leap of faith to open their own restaurant and take pride in every dish they make.
THANKS AGAIN, PIQUANT!

Ate here with my wife and 10 year old son last night and had an AWESOME experience. I guess I should throw the disclaimer out that while we very much like Asian food (Chinese, Japanese and Thai), we’ve not really eaten Korean before.
When walking in, we realized the atmosphere was much the same as it was when the location was occupied by the Greek restaurant that was previously there. While I was a bit taken aback by this, our concern quickly disappeared when we were promptly led to a table and given drinks and menus. Being that we’re Korean rookies, it took us a little bit to figure out what we wanted.
Ultimately we settled on bibiembap, short ribs and beef ribs for our entrees. Since all entrees come with choice of soup or salad, we ordered two soups and one salad.
We quickly got our soups and salad and found the soup was BOMB! Tons of fresh veggies and tofu cubes in a warm, salty broth. Salad was a simple green but fresh and tasty.
While waiting for our entrees we were treated to complimentary leek pancakes. In fact, we were given two. One had jalapeño and the other didn’t (specifically made for my son). These things were UH-​MAZING! Slightly gummy texture but light and fresh veggies which made for some pan-​fried goodness!
After enjoying the leek pancakes we were given somewhere between 8 – 10 small side dishes which consisted of mostly pickled veggies and salads. These were very unusual (at least to us) but quite tasty. We polished off most of them and were swiftly brought seconds of those that we requested. Needless to say, we were nearly stuffed by the time out entrees came!
However, our entrees were soooo delicious we couldn’t help but to scarf them down! The healthy portion of beef ribs was seasoned and cooked perfectly, the short ribs were so masterfully cooked that the meat was literally falling off the bone and my wife raved about the freshness of the bibiembap ingredients!
As we were chowing down on the entrée, our server brought ANOTHER complimentary dish, lightly battered tempura. The tempura included standard veggies, however, there was also fresh jalapeño mixed in there which was incredible!
After cleaning up all the above (I know, a TON of food!), we were ready to roll out of this joint. But of course, we weren’t allowed to leave without being given ANOTHER COMPLIMENTARY DISH!
We were given fresh strawberries and melon all lightly dusted with powdered sugar. I’d like to tell you how much I liked it but the truth is that my son INHALED the fruit before I could really get into it. I was fortunate enough to get one small sliver of a strawberry before the plate was gone and, like everything else at this wonderful oasis, it was great.
At the end of it all, our bill was about $ 70 for all the above plus two beers for me and two glasses of wine for my wife. SMOKING deal for such a huge amount of wonderful food!
Bottom line, CHECK THIS PLACE OUT!!! You will not be disappointed!!!

The restaurant itself is in the shady part of town, it’s small, but it’s nicely decorated inside. They have a huge window to the kitchen where you can see them cooking your food. They had great service & were very attentive to our wants & needs… Well, probably because it was empty & my friend & I were the only customers at the time. The food was made fresh & was pretty tasty. I ordered the spicy ramen. Before our meal arrived, they gave us a complimentary appetizer which was a veggie korean pancake. It was delicious! After our meal, the chef came out to talk to us and was super friendly… :)

I had Jap Chae with beef to go for dinner… it was delicious! and they had side dishes and soup to go too. The korean beef was great! The kimchi was good. The owner lady was very nice. I went here b/​c one of my coworker had recommended me to go here.

Happy to have Korean food in Lodi. Service is great. Food is delicious. I’ve been here 3 times now for lunch. Try it out if you like Korean food!

Right now this place is just getting its feet under them. We were told they were training cooks and our meal took at least
1 & ½ hours to get and eat. I would not expect fast yet but remember they are just opening.
Everything we ordered was good and fresh! The waitress was great as was the waiter.

Finally have some Korean food in our area. I’ve been waiting for something good to come to Lodi. Juliette, the owner and chef, will make you traditional Korean food even if it’s not on the menu. But, what my family had off the menu was very good. Eva, who took care of us, was always around making sure everything was good and right and not letting you wonder where she is. The food is awesome and that’s all I can say about it!!! If you’ve never had Korean food, after coming here you’ll always be coming back.

Finally Lodi has a Korean Restaurant! However, if you’re expecting a «Hole-​in-​the-​Wall» this is not your place.
Everything that we tried was excellent. We ordered Galbi (Kalbi– BBQ Short Ribs) the Bulgogi, and the JapChae. All were amazing. The flavor was spot on, the side of spicy sauce was packed with flavor.
A salad accompanies the meal, and their home made dressing was a great compliment to the fresh salad.
Like at other Korean Restaurants, they had the sides including the original Kim Chee, and quite the variety… All were tasty (with the exception of the anchovies– but you won’t catch me eating anchovies anywhere…)
This location has been home to many restaurants that have tried and failed… We hope this one is here to stay, and we know we will gladly patronize to help make it happen.
The couple that owns and runs Piquant is so sweet! They came out to check and see if everything was good, and if not, they would make sure it was just as we would’ve liked. They offered more side dishes of any that we liked, and rice if we needed… But there was plenty of food.
We will definitely return…