Pop Champagne Bar in Pasadena: Promising Champagne Flights But Awful Food

I was sorely disappointed by the bad service and low quality of the food at Pop Champagne Bar in Pasadena. The food was sub-par and the host was a jerk. The only salvageable items on the menu were the champagne flight and the deviled eggs. The champagne is hard to mess up. My flight of bubbly from different parts of the world was good. The deviled eggs came in four varieties including truffle chive, bacon onion, blue cheese and black forest ham with cheddar. I admit it's hard to go wrong with deviled eggs but I liked the variety of flavors and textures.

Unfortunately, I can't say that for the rest of the straight-up bad, overpriced food. The prosciutto-wrapped shrimp skewers were so overcooked they were dry as cardboard. The garlic aioli didn't help much. Big thumbs down.

The so-called popcorn chicken was awful. It sounded so promising as corn flour and panko crusted chicken with a side of jalapeno ranch. But the batter was too thick and it was crispy. It tasted so greasy and heavy that I could barely finish the first morsel I bit into. Thankfully, they took it off our bill after I conveyed it wasn't edible.

The brown sugar pineapple sorbet was good. The strawberry moscato was refreshing but not as interesting as the pineapple one.

The chocolate-covered strawberries were a yawn but maybe that's because these don't excite me as a dessert. I'm more into souffles, chocolate cakes and donuts. Highly unimpressive.

What was the biggest turnoff was having the host direct us to a table smelling like sewer because supposedly there were no other tables. He lied to us saying other tables were all reserved as we watched walk-ins be seated at better tables. We eventually moved thanks to our server but it left a very bad taste and not just because the food was downright bad. Bias you say? Maybe. But I do know I won't be returning. The crowd was rather lame too so I don't we'd be missing anything.