Stack Bistro Cake & Pastry: New Owner at a Familiar Location

Not long ago, I reviewed Savoie’s Faire, a little restaurant and pastry shop located at Niguel and Clubhouse in Laguna Niguel. It had always been one of my favorite spots. I was floored the other day when I was doing errands and noticed that it now has a new name: Stack Bistro Pastry & Cake.

I went right in and noticed that the décor looked slightly different, but basically it was the same. There were still lovely pastries in the case near the front, and there were still people happily eating lunch. I picked up a paper menu and looked it over. I knew I had to come back for dinner to see how my old favorite place is doing now.

We were seated at a cute table and noticed that we were looking at the exact same menu that Savoie’s Faire had used. We asked the waitress about it and she said that basically the menu was the same, with a few exceptions. Unfortunately, when we tried to order, at least four of the entrées we requested were not available that night. We were finally successful in choosing two entrées, and began to enjoy our wine. The wine list is small, but offers several nice choices by the bottle and by the glass.

As we chatted, the woman who had seated us came over and apologized that so many menu items were unavailable. She explained that they are in the process of modifying the menu, to have a greater emphasis on fresh ingredients, including more fresh fish items.

Apparently, the previous owner sold the restaurant and Mothers’ Day was the first day that Stack Bistro operated under its new name. She assured us that most of the staff was the same and that they are all working to make everything even better. She graciously decided to charge us half price for my husband’s glass of wine to make up for the inconvenience. We appreciated her gesture.

Although we might have liked to have some bread or breadsticks while we waited for our entrées to arrive, all was forgiven when they did. My husband ordered the skirt steak, and I chose the salmon in papillote. Both arrived on large, square plates.

The presentations were impressive: The skirt steak came sliced with dark brown gravy, mashed potatoes, broccoli, carrots and grilled zucchini. The salmon arrived with delicious brown rice, broccoli, carrots and grilled zucchini. We both thought the vegetables were outstanding.

The salmon was fantastic, prepared with olives, tomatoes, capers and lemon. My husband, who is definitely and meat and potatoes guy ate every bite and enjoyed it very much.

I think we would have considered dessert and coffee, but our waitress did not offer it or show us the dessert menu. Because we had had a couple of false starts with our entrée orders, it was already late. We decided not to ask for dessert and headed home.

Based on the paper menu that I picked up, it appears that they will be adding some interesting sandwiches like a grilled chicken croissant sandwich, a lentil vegetarian burger and a salmon burger.

Entrée additions will include Chilean sea bass, Alaskan halibut and whiskey filet mignon. The breakfast menu looks fantastic and offers among other things Crepe a la Stack, French toast “Ireland,” and skirt steak and eggs.

We definitely plan to come back and check it out once the new menu is completely in place.

Stack Bistro Pastry & Cake is closed on Mondays, open Tuesday-Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Fridays from 11 a.m. to 9:30, Saturdays and Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Catering and custom cakes are also available.

I give Stack Bistro Pastry & Cake 3 ½ Patches out of 5.