Leon Bistro

The surf and turf! Artichoke crusted halibut, an amazing hanger steak with Demi glacé, Yukon mash with sweet potato mash, blood orange and some amazing beans totally love this place! They even advertise cooking classes which I totally plan to try!

This is our favorite restaurant in Chico! We typically save it for special occasions or her cooking classes. Last night’s birthday celebration dinner did not disappoint. The filet with bacon marmalade was delicious as was the elk chop that my husband ordered. I am sure the desserts are wonderful, but we never have room to order one! The wait staff is great and even though we do not eat there often, they always remember us and greet us whether or not they have our table.

I can go out to a fantastic dinner and stay paleo compliant! Almost everything has a paleo option and they didn’t have to modify it to death, it all tasted like it had been drawn up that way. Renee was super helpful and a lot of fun! The rib eye is going down as what I want for my last meal and now my wife and I have our new date spot. No brainer.

Our party of eight dined at Leon Bistro Friday 4÷15÷16. I am extremely disappointed with my Filet. It was under cooked and served cold. Waitress took the meat and reheated. It was tough and not tasteful. The bernaise was disgusting, tasting more like mayonnaise. Waitress did not want to alert chef Leon so she wouldn’t comp my meal only bringing me
A free desert (best part of my meal). My father in law had the eggplant and was also disappointed! For the $ 600 meal it would have been better to have gone to 5^th Street! We won’t be back

Leon Bistro is closed on Tuesday night, but there are cooking classes sometimes then. My sister treated me to a French-​Vietnamese class conducted by Ann Leon, the bistro’s executive chef.
I had never been to a cooking class before and thoroughly enjoyed this one. She prepared about 12 dishes and as she cooked and explained each step, we were served small plates of that dish. There were two cocktails served and several flights of wine.
Ann obviously enjoys her work and is an enthusiastic teacher. We learned where in Chico to buy different items needed for the different recipes. She not only provided a recipe sheet for each dish, but thoughtfully had put a pen at each place for ease in taking notes.
Her classroom is behind the main restaurant and appears to hold 16; there were 15 present. She told us that she is improving her training area with a new table and better lighting.
I am not much of a bachelor cook, so likely won’t be making any of these delicious items, but we both enjoyed the class and the food. I would gladly attend another of Ann’s cooking classes.

Fine dining, menu is very interesting and the specials were extremely unique. Great place to stop if you’re in Chico. Highly recommend the Lamb Shank.

Good service and nice ambience, comfortable and relaxed atmosphere. Good flavors and local ingredients. Some portions too small some too large.

My boyfriend and I finally tried this for valentine’s day and I absolutely loved it! I can’t say enough good things! I had the hangar steak, and the sauce that went with it was mind blowing good! The steak was juicy tender and flavorful. The appetizer we had was divine! Thai red curry clams, I don’t know what I was expecting but it was amazing. The spices come together perfectly. We had excellent service even though we had to sit in the bar because we didn’t make a reservation. Over all I was so impressed and will definitely be back!

Some chefs are minimalists. A few ingredients and a masterpiece has been created. Chef Leon is just the opposite. If four ingredients is a good idea then eight must be better. Guess what. She’s right! Each course was complicated with multiple layers and many flavors and like Brunschwig & Fils fabric, nothing exceeds like excess.
Broccoli soup was paired with cheese grilled onions, lemongrass, kafir and more. The glorious Elk rack featured a complex reduction sauce set on top of mashed sweet and white potatoes, snap peas, green beans, rabe, pickled onion (?) and a flash fried plantain (wow!) it was almost to difficult to process but the intense flavors never permit dismissal.
Go here and buckle your seat belt. The flavor overload may push you off your chair!

Okay. My boyfriend had made a surprise reservation here for our anniversary last night. The service was awesome, I believe our waiters name was Spencer, he was super friendly and attentive.
We got the fried calamari as a starter along with dinner bread, so good. We also opted for a house salad because we had never been here before and wanted to splurge. The house salad wasn’t a traditional house salad but it was also yummy if you like blue cheese, apples, and things like that on your salads.
Now, to the 3 star rating. My boyfriend got the Chico Burger, ordered well done (the blood freaks us both out and no I don’t care if cooking meet well done ruins it), it was cooked just medium. Although it had a lot going on; onions, bacon, stuffed with cheese, the patty itself lacked ALOT of flavor surprising. The burger was thick, almost too huge; yes, a burger can be too big.
I got the Chicken Curry, also ALOT going on and traditionally curry is served with the ability to put the curry over the rice, being that they were each in their own bowls, I couldn’t do that. The rice was flavored, something sweet was added to it, I would have preferred just plain rice. The curry was very sweet which made it a little unappealing. The overcompensation of different flavors and ingredients just kind of ruined it for the both of us :(maybe we got the wrong items? We will be back to try other things but just not those entrees.

Went here for the first time with my husband and was very pleased. Good was yummy and the service was great. Enjoyed the ambiance. Will recommend!

The food looked great … If it had ever made it to our table. We managed to get dinner salads in an hour and a half … And the entrees were still under construction. Just unacceptable … Just lost our business.

That was SOOOOO GOOOOD! I’m picky about my calamari and theirs was perfect! The vegetable combination meal was so amazing, everything was great. Great drink selection also! The server really knew her stuff.

Always a great meal. Great service. The menu is very interesting and a nice atmosphere. Highly recommended.

This is my favorite restaurant in Chico! I honestly can’t choose a favorite entrée.
Last week my husband & I took our out-​of-​town friends here; I had the calamari steak, my husband the 16oz ribeye and our friends Mary’s chicken and surf/​turf. Everything was exceptional. We were all impressed by presentation and portion size! We had an appetizer (the calamari), a bottle of wine, three beers and the four entrees mentioned above for about $ 180.
All of the flavored on my plate blended perfectly. Even my 1 year old son loved everything I shared from my plate. The staff was nice and they were very kind to my baby which made up feel even more comfortable bringing him to this upscale restaurant.
I’d also highly recommend the lamb shank as well as their seasonal seabass!
I love the ambience and enjoy every time I come here. You won’t be disappointed if your looking for a nice dining experience for a reasonable price, with large portions and amazing ingredients!

Every time I eat here, it tastes like the best meal I’ve had in forever. The food is the best in Chico, the service is both warm and professional, and the ambiance hits that lovely balance of both upscale and inviting that can be so difficult to find in fine dining.
Pricy food, certainly, but you’re not going to walk out thinking about how much you spent. You’ll be thinking about how amazing that food was.

This review is based on numerous experiences at this establishment but it was our experience tonight that motivated this review. Leon’s gets 5 stars for being aware and trying to cater to food sensitivities. For service they get 1 – 2 stars. Food gets a 3 – 4 stars. Service tonight was terrible. The server was friendly but completely unaware of her customers and assumed we were inexperienced diners and did not know wine. When my husband tried to order a glass of wine, she told us that we should buy a bottle even though we had also brought our own bottle. She explained to us that there are 4 glasses of wine in a bottle (duh) and didn’t clue into the fact that we are very knowledgable about wine (the couple we were with actually owns a winery).
We are avid dinner’s and live in SF — we have enjoyed fine dinning at French Laundry, Cyrus, Saison and are regulars at the Nancy Oaks restaurant, Prospect. We are not high maintenance but have preferences and food allergies. I knew from past experiences that the rack of elk was amazing here but didn’t love the sauce. The sauce distracts from the meat; at $ 45 I want to taste the meat not the heavy, rich sauce. I had to argue to have the server agree to getting the sauce on the side. The server continued through the evening to subtly argue and disregarded our needs or desires.
The food was good, and they carry higher quality meat options. But sauces are rich and the set is the exact same for every meal with just a different sauce and protein. This particular server was poor tonight for the reasons described above. But unfortunately the same applies to our other dining experiences. On average service is not great. The servers seem to think they are more knowledgable than they are. For example, when my husband asked about bone marrow which they have carried in the past, the serve stated that maybe bone marrow was only seasonal. Apparently she did not understand that bone marrow comes from cattle — the same place their steak comes from — not seasonal.

Went for grandma’s birthday last night and had hands down some of the best food around Chico. The service was phenomenal, our server Renee explained each dish in depth and was incredibly helpful throughout our entire evening.
A majority of us had the Calamari or the Bison Burger and both were prepared perfectly tender and juicy. makes my mouth water thinking about it.
I would highly recommend Leon’s to everyone, we all had a beautiful experience and will most definitely be returning!

So far the best place I have eaten in Chico! The wine list is great and pretty well priced. They also have a decent tap selection and bottled beers. The apps were great, bacon wrapped prawns and oyster shooters. The oyster shooters are pretty big so don’t order too many. The only complaint I have was my burger was suppose to be cooked to medium and it was medium well. Also the burgers are so big you can’t fit a full bite in your mouth. Presentation was amazing and the wait staff was on top of it! Must try this place!!!

This place has some of the best staff, cooks, chef, and ambience here in chico! Amazing! Never disappoints!