L.A. Times restaurant reviews
The Review: Bruce Marder’s House Cafe in Los Angeles
A friend of mine, listening to my restaurant-going schedule, asked wonderingly whether I ever just took a night off and went to Bob's Big Boy. Good question. I know he wanted to hear that I occasionally pigged out on junk food. Not really. But when I want an utterly easygoing meal, I do have a few standbys: Hungry Cat, Pizzeria Mozza, Barbrix or Lou, Palate, Spago for Friday lunch. And now the new House Cafe.
The Review: The Tar Pit is Campanile chef-owner Mark Peel’s supper club
I've always been fascinated by the photo of my young parents taken at a supper club in New York. They look impossibly glamorous sitting at a small table, my mother, shoulders bared, tentatively sipping a cocktail, my father languidly holding his cigarette. The place? Lost to memory.
The Review: Lazy Ox Canteen in downtown L.A.
Something is going on at the new Lazy Ox Canteen. With no sign out front (yet) and a quiet presence at the edge of Little Tokyo, this cozy tavern is, so far, flying under the radar. But locals -- the brave denizens of downtown -- are making it a headquarters of sorts, stopping in for a glass of craft brew and maybe some fried anchovies or red wine-braised beef neck. Some are on the lookout for chef Josef Centeno's baco, his signature flatbread with eclectic toppings. Or the stupendous burger on a house-baked bun.
The Review: Il Dolce in Costa Mesa
Behind the tall counter at Il Dolce, a new Costa Mesa pizzeria and restaurant, silver-haired owner Roberto Bigne stretches pizza dough over the backs of his hands in a sure, practiced gesture. The pizza oven behind him glows a fiery orange. Bags of almond wood are stacked on the floor in front of the counter; the 2-month-old restaurant is so small there's nowhere else to put them. Meanwhile, the smell of pizza dough cooking in that wood-fired oven wafts over the counter into the simple dining room with bare-topped tables lined up in rows.
The Review: Vinoteque on Melrose
Through an open doorway on Melrose Avenue, up a few steps, is a secret garden with walls washed in burnt orange and tall wooden planter boxes filled with pretty lettuces, feathery fennel, carrots, chard and lemon grass. There, Chardonnay and Zinfandel grapevines clamber over trellises and culinary herbs cast their fragrance into the night air. The sprawling L-shaped patio is paved in terra cotta tiles and set with jewel-toned Moroccan mosaic tables and wicker armchairs. Even in early winter, with the help of strategically placed heat lamps, the patio is magic, an urban oasis reminiscent of the south of France where wine bottles litter the table and guests linger, talking and drinking, until well past midnight.
The Review: Ilan Hall's the Gorbals in downtown Los Angeles
When I woke up the next morning, I really thought it had all been a dream. The goth mime sniffing our wine bottle, his cohorts in white porcelain masks circling the table. The gentleman in his 50s who strode in late with three women in his wake and sat next to us at the long communal table, a crude slab of hard wood that looked as if it had just come from the sawmill. One woman celebrating her birthday with sticky toffee pudding, while on the other side, a beauty in a skull T-shirt smooched a guy with an innocent-looking face but heavily illustrated arms.
Restaurant Review: Bouchon in Beverly Hills
From the avalanche of attention Thomas Keller has been getting for Bouchon, you'd almost think the arrival of the new Beverly Hills restaurant was the second coming. Actually, it is, in a way. For those without a long memory, Keller was executive chef at Checkers Hotel in downtown L.A. in the early '90s, well before the French Laundry, Per Se and his seven Michelin stars. Now Keller is back in Los Angeles in a big way, this time as a phenomenally successful chef trailing all the high expectations and jealousies that exalted status entails.
Osteria La Buca is still up to mama's standards
Osteria La Buca, the once tiny buca, or "hole in the wall," near Paramount Studios in Hollywood, expanded up and sideways two and a half years ago, all the while offering the same pasta-focused menu that made this casual osteria a neighborhood favorite. A recent upset, though, has resulted in co-owner Filippo Corvino and his mother, Loredana, who had been the chef, leaving the business. Since her cooking defined La Buca in the early days, when the dining room consisted of a handful of cramped tables, what does that mean for the 5-year-old restaurant?
The Review: La Cachette Bistro in Santa Monica
After 15 years, La Cachette, "the hideaway," is no longer hiding out in Century City. Chef-owner Jean-Francois Meteigner suffered years of roadwork on Santa Monica Boulevard that made his French restaurant difficult to get to. And yet now that traffic is rushing by on the boulevard in front, he has decided to pick up and move to the city of Santa Monica and at the same time retool the restaurant as -- take a wild guess -- a bistro.
The Review: Whist at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica
Whist, the restaurant in Santa Monica's excruciatingly trendy Viceroy Hotel, opened with a bang in 2002. That was when Tim Goodell (Aubergine, Red Pearl) was doing the food, and it was startlingly good for a hotel restaurant. I remember pork belly filigreed with chile-laced caramel, skate wing with baby artichokes barigoule, potatoes au gratin for two and especially the desserts. If you ordered trifle, you got a whole bowl for the table, apricot pie, an entire pie. But foodies and a raucous bar scene didn't mix.
Zero stars
The Review: Fabio Viviani's Firenze Osteria in Toluca Lake
On a recent weekend night, the excitement at the new Firenze Osteria is palpable. It's three-deep at the bar, air-kisses galore, the "ciao, ciaos" and "buona seras" coming fast and heavy. Tablecloths are whisked off tables and silverware and glasses slapped down before the diners who have just finished have even made it to the door.
The Review: Umami Burger in Los Feliz
America is full of contradictions. At a time when Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" is a bestseller, novelist Jonathan Safran Foer has just written an exhortation against the eating of meat ("Eating Animals"), and vegans are clamoring for chefs to accommodate them at top restaurants, the country is also becoming even more burger-obsessed than it already was.
The Review: Cafe Pierre in Manhattan Beach
When a restaurant has been around for as long as Cafe Pierre, it's not reasonable to expect it to be performing with the same panache and energy as in the early days. Most decades-old places carry on without changing a thing until it's too late. Chasen's went down like the Titanic. Orso, with its lovely tree-shaded patio, is a more recent casualty.
The Review: Noir Food & Wine in Pasadena
Mike Farwell and Claud Beltran have been itching to create a wine bar -- their way -- for years. Now, with Noir in Pasadena, the wine buff and the chef, respectively, finally have their chance. Instead of working for other people, the two have gotten together with partner Alex Gallegos and opened this vibrant wine bar on North Mentor Street next door to the Ice House comedy club. It's just as inviting as any wine bar in Paris, and with better wines and better food than most.
The Review: Eva Restaurant in Los Angeles
It's Sunday night and I've just come off an 11-hour flight rumpled and cross-eyed after reading the last installment of Steig Larsson's "Millennium" trilogy straight through. When my friend picks me up at the airport, she reminds me that I'd asked her to make a reservation at Eva for their prix fixe Sunday dinner.
The Review: Marche L.A. in Sherman Oaks
It's back to the Boulevard for Gary Menes, who first made a splash when he was cooking Moroccan-accented dishes at the then-newly opened Firefly on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. Last year he landed as chef de cuisine at Octavio Becerra's Palate Food + Wine in Glendale, where he did some of the best cooking in his career. And now he's joined up with André Guerrero as chef and partner at Marché L.A. on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.
The Review: Blue Plate Oysterette in Santa Monica
OK, so L.A. has its Issan Thai restaurants, Sichuan and Shanghai style places, Tuscan trattorie and Provencal bistros, Yucatan and Oaxacan joints. Why not an East Coast clam shack? Well, now we have one, fetchingly called Blue Plate Oysterette.
The Review: Bistro LQ
The broth comes, comforting and rich, larded with bone marrow dumplings, a few strands of vermicelli. The waiter tells us to leave a little broth in the bowl for the chabrot, a splash of red wine to finish up the soup. Next come the leeks cooked in the pot; khaki green, they're soft as pudding, served in a vinaigrette with a shower of chopped hard-boiled egg on top. That's followed by a platter of the boiled meats -- oxtail, capon, beef shank and shin, chuck roast, short ribs, brisket and a little partridge, with potatoes and carrots and other root vegetables all cooked in that concentrated broth.
Stefan's at L.A. Farm in Santa Monica
For a "Top Chef" finalist, 36-year-old Stefan Richter comes out like a lamb at his new restaurant, Stefan's at L.A. Farm. He's not out to shock or provoke. He's out to cook food that's squarely within most people's comfort zones.
The Review: Pinot Provence in Costa Mesa
When Pinot Provence opened in 1998, Joachim Splichal was one of the first big-name L.A. chefs, if not the first, to venture into Orange County.
The Review: The Tasting Kitchen in Venice
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. That's why Hidden became Caché, Charcoal switched to BoHo, and Max morphed into Marché.
The Review: The Sunset Restaurant in Malibu
As we squeak past the last days of summer, it's never too late to make one more trip to the beach. Dinner at the Sunset on Zuma Beach could be just the right antidote to stave off the inevitable sadness as fall comes on with its shorter days and longer nights. Not to mention longer pants and sweaters.
Restaurant Review: Cache in Santa Monica
Josiah Citrin peers into the dining room, looking slightly rumpled and just a little anxious. Though he's been cooking in Santa Monica for almost two decades, first at JiRaffe (opened with longtime friend and collaborator Raphael Lunetta in 1996), and then at his own French-accented Mélisse since 1999, this just isn't his usual crowd. Or at least not tonight. It's party time as guests lounge on the red sofas in the two-level patio lounge of this sprawling indoor-outdoor space and a social butterfly in a sparkly dress darts from group to group, Champagne glass in hand.
The Review: Studio at Montage Laguna Beach
As friends and I approach Studio, the restaurant at Montage Laguna Beach set on the edge of a bluff, I can see chef Craig Strong silhouetted against a silvery mauve sky as he talks to a table of guests on the outdoor terrace. Palm trees in front are ablaze with the setting sun and in the grass behind him, a trio of bunny rabbits play and nibble. We're seated outside, too, the better to enjoy the sea air and the unobstructed view of the coastline. What a spot!
The Review: Boa in West Hollywood
What is up with Boa's new über-chic flagship restaurant in West Hollywood?
The Review: RH at the Andaz in West Hollywood
Hotel restaurants don't have much of a local audience, with good reason: Not that many are truly compelling. That's by way of explaining why I didn't rush right out to try the new restaurant in the revamped Hyatt (now called the Andaz West Hollywood) on the Sunset Strip. I did take a look at the menu, and passed.
The Review: Ado in Venice
When I pull up to Ado, the new Italian restaurant that's moved into the old Amuse space on Main Street in Venice, chef-owner Antonio Muré is standing in his whites in the doorway, his dark hair pulled into a ponytail, so chic he looks as if he's waiting for Vogue photographer Steven Meisel to show up any minute.
Restaurant review: Le Saint Amour in Culver City
The first time I went to Paris, a friend's old boyfriend, a poet who taught English to the employees of the French phone company, took me in hand and introduced me to his favorite restaurants. This American in Paris was mad about simple bistros and lively brasseries. He never spent more than the equivalent of $25 on a meal and I doubt very much he ever ate at a Michelin-starred restaurant, yet he loved everything about eating in France.
Restaurant Review: ParkAve in Stanton
Before it was Beach Boulevard, the Orange County road that leads straight to Huntington Beach was known as Highway 39.
Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill opens at L.A. Live
Puck really knows how to pick them. Locations, that is. Wolfgang Puck, who burst onto the scene in 1982 with a little place called Spago, has just opened a new restaurant downtown at L.A. Live. Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill sits center stage, right on the L.A. Live square next door to Nokia Theatre and directly across from the Los Angeles Convention Center. Not one to play it coy, he's emblazoned the name Wolfgang Puck across the front, with tall turquoise lacquer doors to mark the entrance.
Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne's Tavern in Brentwood
What if no one had introduced Caroline Styne, then manager of Jones, to Suzanne Goin, who was at the time chef de cuisine at Campanile? We wouldn't have Lucques or A.O.C., two of L.A.'s most beloved restaurants. And we certainly wouldn't have the partners' new Tavern in Brentwood.
Domenico Ristorante: innovative Italian dining in Silver Lake
Brentwood is rife with Italian restaurants opened by Italian waiters who used to work somewhere else. Kiss. Kiss. Ciao. Add in a copycat menu of L.A. Italian dishes, preferably Tuscan-inspired, a celebrity or two disguised in scruffy attire: success, even in this cockamamie economy. Everybody loves pasta.
The Review: Petrossian Paris Boutique and Cafe
Open a caviar store in this economy? Is that just a little bit crazy, or what? Quietly, seemingly with hardly anyone noticing, the famous caviar purveyor Petrossian of Paris has reopened its Robertson Boulevard shop after a four-month-long remodel and this time around, it includes a cafe open almost all day long.
The review: Bottega Louie in downtown L.A.
Passersby stand and stare at the spectacle inside the palatial Brockman Building at the corner of 7th and Grand. Floor-to-ceiling windows put the whole shebang that is Bottega Louie on full display: gray-veined marble floors, imposing pillars and a ceiling high enough that Cirque du Soleil trapeze artists could do their thing. Some of the more decorative touches look like a collaboration between Louis XV (Louie?)and Gianni Versace.
RESTAURANT REVIEWS
Minestraio, All' Angelo change courses
Times are hard, especially for fine dining. Rather than stay the course and wait out the downturn, hoping for the best, two Italian restaurateurs, both with once highly regarded restaurants, have taken a tough stance and revised their restaurants from high-end ristoranti to mid-level trattorias.
Restaurant Review: Susan Feniger's Street restaurant
At Street, Susan Feniger's new tribute to global street food, look for the slight woman with the high-wattage smile, in canvas shoes, khaki chef's jacket and baseball cap worn backward. That's Feniger, one-half of the Too Hot Tamales, co-founder of Border Grill and at 55, no longer the youngest chef on the block. Nor the most outrageous.
The Review: Westside Tavern at Westside Pavilion is an unexpected delight
I can tell you my friends weren't all that excited when I told them where we were headed for dinner: the Westside Pavilion. Granted, dining in a shopping mall doesn't quite have the allure of Providence or the Bazaar by José Andres. But then again, I told them, you never know where the next great restaurant will pop up in Southern California. It could be in the most banal of strip malls, tucked away in Glendale or hiding out in the O.C. That's one of the peculiarities -- and delights -- of this endlessly fascinating area.
The Review: Reservoir restaurant in Silver Lake
"Was everything terrific as always?" asked the host as my friends and I left Reservoir in Silver Lake. What kind of question is that? Talk about putting you on the spot. I wanted to put a bag over my head and sneak out without answering.
The Review: Chaya Downtown
Not that long ago, downtown L.A. seemed a no-man's land at night, the streets eerily empty while lights blazed in the office towers and hotels. Inside Water Grill or Pacific Dining Car, though, stranded hotel guests and convention goers hunkered down over fish or steaks, while a few blocks away, hard-core sushi fans took a seat at Little Tokyo sushi bars. When I first moved to L.A., I remember desperately searching for the downtown hotel where a friend was staying but not finding one person to ask on the street. And yet when a play or a concert or a sports event let out, suddenly a traffic jam on the 110.
Restaurant Review: Cecconi's in West Hollywood
At the latest London import, Cecconi's, an expat Brit orders a cocktail, leans back against the luxurious cushions strewn along the terrace banquette and opens the morning's Times -- that would be the Times of London. Hostesses have a tony British accent, some of the servers too. A gentleman in a bespoke suit with tie and matching hankie tucked into his breast pocket glides past our table at lunch.
The Review: Huckleberry in Santa Monica
Waiting for my order at Huckleberry in Santa Monica, I watch the line move, slowly, forward. Ballet flats, flip-flops, bicycle cleats, and Nikes, Manolos, and sturdy walking shoes and even a tiptoeing cane inch their way to the cash register. Sometimes at lunch the line is out the door, snaking past the tall wooden planters filled with herbs and greens and tomatoes, all the way into the parking lot in back.
The Review: Fig in Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica
Against all odds, not one, but two excellent hotel restaurants have opened in the last few months. First, we had the Bazaar by José Andrés, the dynamic tapas restaurant in the new SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills. And now we have Fig in the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica.
The Review: Pizzeria Ortica in Costa Mesa
Cutting-edge fine-dining restaurant with elaborate tasting menu, solemn servers and profound wine list? Done that. Elegant patisserie turning out pretty pastel macarons and gold leaf-adorned chocolates? Oui. Contemporary French bistro complete with cheese bar and handcrafted cocktails? Done that too.
Jitlada restaurant in Hollywood
After a few bites of curry, the tall, curly-haired guy reaches for his water glass frantically. He'd heard about Jitlada from chef friends and he can't believe he waited so long to come, I hear him say, as he takes another long swig of water. Minutes later, his posse of three jumps up and heads outside to cool down from all that searing chile heat. That's when I recognize him: the former fromager -- cheese guy -- at Comme Ça, standing in the glare of the shabby Hollywood strip mall. Suddenly, the woman with him starts turning cartwheels in the parking lot.
The Review: Rivera in downtown Los Angeles
John Rivera Sedlar, the chef who brought us Saint Estephe, Bikini and Abiquiu (may they all rest in peace) is back and back in a big way. At the new Rivera within shouting distance of L.A. Live, the 54-year-old chef is firing on all cylinders. Rivera is terrific, one of the most exciting restaurants to debut in L.A. in the last few years.
Church & State in downtown Los Angeles
Church & State has to go down as one of the more unusual restaurant pairings in Southern California: owner Steven Arroyo, best known for casual clubby places such as Cobras & Matadors, and chef Walter Manzke, renowned for his meticulous French- California cuisine at Bastide, Patina and L'Auberge Carmel.
Saluté Wine Bar in Santa Monica
Yet another small-plates restaurant without any particular hook seems like such a yawn, so you'll forgive me if I didn't rush out to try Saluté Wine Bar in Santa Monica the minute it opened. OK, so the small plates are called piattini ("small plates" in Italian), then what?
Review: Kiwami in Studio City
I hear a shush, shush, shush sound and look up to see sushi chef Katsuya Uechi grating a piece of fresh wasabi root, bearing down with all his might. I catch my Japanese friend's eye. Any sushi chef who grates his own wasabi is serious about his ingredients. It's a small touch, but one that's telling.
A rare four-star restaurant review: The Bazaar by José Andrés
Olives that flood your mouth with flavor. A foie gras lollipop wrapped in cotton candy. The definitive shrimp with garlic. Innocent-looking bites that shoot smoke out of your nostrils.
Drago Centro in downtown L.A.
Seriously, what is wrong with this town? If Celestino Drago, one of the best-known Italian restaurateurs in Southern California, can't get a crowd for his most ambitious restaurant yet, and a very glamorous one at that, then what? The fact that Drago Centro's location -- downtown L.A. -- may be outside the comfort zone of his fan base shouldn't be a deterrent for more intrepid Italophiles.
AK Restaurant + Bar in Venice
It might seem that there is little as unlikely as a Scandinavian restaurant in Southern California, but for many years one of L.A.'s most celebrated spots was Scandia on Sunset Boulevard. It had closed by the time I came to town, but Gustaf Anders was still carrying the flame for the cuisine in Costa Mesa. That's gone now too, but I still remember the generous holiday buffet that went on for the entire month of December, the sumptuous platters of crayfish boiled with dill in summer and the pretty princess cake wrapped in green marzipan.
The Review: Luau in Beverly Hills
When I invited a friend who grew up in Beverly Hills to dinner at the new Luau on Bedford Drive, she messaged me back that she remembered going to the original with her parents years ago. "Pupu platter, crab Rangoon, ribs -- yum!"
Restaurant review: Riva in Santa Monica
In downtown Santa Monica, people walk. Stand in front of the new Riva on Wilshire between 3rd and 4th streets and it's quite the spectacle as buff new mothers jog behind strollers, friends giggle over their haul from sales on the Third Street Promenade, and the down-and-out troll passersby for spare change. Everybody passing by, though, stops to peer in the windows of the lively new restaurant that's sprouted where the Italian steakhouse Scarboni briefly languished.
Restaurant review: XIV in West Hollywood
After listening to the waiter try to explain the concept at the new XIV in West Hollywood, we're thoroughly confused. It's social dining, he tells us. But isn't all eating in restaurants inherently social? The menu is all small plates, but he doesn't call it a small-plates restaurant either. "So -- it's a tasting menu," someone prompts the waiter. "No, it's not," he answers. OK, then, could it be considered a do-it-yourself multi-course menu? Something like that.
Restaurant review: Talesai in West Hollywood
Several generations of a Thai family are seated around a long table at Talesai in West Hollywood. After they've finished eating, the beautifully dressed elderly man at the center of the table leans forward and begins to sing, his face etched with nostalgia and sadness. His voice is soft and quavery, and as he sings in Thai, he waves his hands to mark the beat. Some of his family joins in from time to time, following the words to this song when they can.
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
