Picnic Society By Gwen - Los Angeles

Super delayed in writing this review and in the midst of the lockdown I am truly missing outdoor dining!! Picnic society has a gorgeous and relaxing ambiance. Located right at The Grove- highly recommend making a reservation! Service was A1 from the moment we entered. I wish I could remember our waiters name, he made my birthday lunch so awesome! He provided food drink suggestions as well. Once this all clears up I will certainly be returning!

Excellent patio space especially upstairs. I suggest making a reservation to be sure you are seated where you like. Service was great. Food was great: I recommend that raw seafood options (lobster roll, raw bar tower, or.. and the charcuterie; they were all great. Wines are very reasonably priced, rose wine was terrific. Pro tip: because it is a pop-up, they can not validate Grove parking. However, if you spend $250 (which is easy with more than 2 people , the parking lot valet will validate with a receipt.

Saw this place on my friends Instagram story and the place looked so cute and food looks pretty good as well! My coworkers and I decided to make a reservation on a Saturday afternoon and when we got there, we were seated right away. The place looked really cute! Definitely a spot for people who wanna take pictures for Instagram and whatnot! The setup literally is like your at a spot for a picnic but a more boogie. My coworkers and I decided to order the grove basket which includes fried chicken, biscuits, Cole slaw, veggie platter and banana pudding and we also got the lobster roll. When the lobster roll came out, the presentation looked really nice and simple, same with the basket since we haven't yet opened it. But once we opened the basket, we weren't expecting things to be put in like a Togo box. The lobster roll wasn't bad, the roll itself was decent but the lobster inside was a little bland and I felt like the celery overpowered the lobster. We were expecting the fried chicken inside the basket to be warm and crispy but when we ate it, it was cold like it's been sitting in the fridge for a couple hours so the skin wasn't even crispy. The Cole slaw wasn't even Cole slaw, it was just chopped up veggies and the potatoes in the potato salad was hard. Okay, the banana pudding wasn't bad, had a lot of whipped cream and some real bananas at the bottom. The best thing in the basket was probably the biscuits and banana pudding to be honest. Everything else was just a disappointment. And not to mention everything was pretty pricey! I mean if it were to be worth that much, at least make the food good!

What was once Dominique Ansel's restaurant at The Grove is now occupied by Curtis Stone's Picnic Society by Gwen. Interesting theme here even though you can't eat indoors and most of the picnic theme furnishings are indoor, a teepee picnic area upstairs and indoor picnic area. Anyways, we came here to try this place after checking out the adjacent stores. Of course dining is outdoors. Heat lamps make this place cozy and comforting. The dishes here is simple with picnic type menu. As a started, we ordered a refreshing shrimp type salad. Forgot the name. It had yellow and orange sweet peppers, poppy seeds, shrimp and honey mustard type salad dressing. Greens were nice and fresh. We enjoyed this shared salad quite a bit. I ordered the grilled branzino with a side fennel salad. Branzino was perfectly grilled on both sides. Loved the crispy skin which gives some nice texture to the flakey fish. Perfectly executed. Service here was okay, not attentive enough. Especially, since there were only two tables. I'd expect more. Overall, not bad but I'd expect more from a Curtis Stone restaurant.

Awesome atmosphere on the second floor backyard . That area is for reservations only so be sure to book ahead! Food was good but overpriced (Not a surprise due to the location). Nice Covid-friendly weekend outing. FYI- the second floor is not dog friendly.