It had been a while since Christal and I had gone on a date night and since she is currently on her Psychology rotation we were able to go out tonight. I have been wanting to try Tres for a long time because it is one of José Andrés' restaurants in LA. Andrés is a disciple of Ferran Adrià of elBulli fame. The restaurant is located in the lobby of the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills and it is set up as a kind of lounge/restaurant where you can either order some food, grab a drink or just lounge on one of the couches. The entire hotel, including Tres, has a very trendy decor and some of the accents are pretty flamboyant. Over a fireplace in the restaurant was mounted a clear glass or plastic buck's head and one of the alcoves with a table had a chandelier that looked like it had a ton of melted wax hanging down from it. It was an interesting vibe to say the least.
Christal ordered the head-on prawn salmora with wild mushrooms and Calasparra rice. This is the first time I've ever heard the term salmora and after a little bit of searching on the internet I still can't find what it is, all I know is that it is delicious. The prawns were heavily seasoned with paprika, cumin, garlic and probably a bunch of other spices that my basic palate couldn't pick up on, and then they were sauteed, presumably with olive oil, and placed on top of the Calasparra rice and wild mushrooms. The rice and mushrooms were cooked like a risotto, but it didn't seem as rich or heavy as a normal risotto and acted as a wonderful compliment to the spicy flavorful prawns. The prawns were cooked perfectly with crispy heads and shells and firm yet tender meat. The spiced olive oil that the prawns were cooked in acted as a kind of sauce for the whole dish and when it mixed with the risotto it integrated perfectly adding an additional kick of spices. Eating this dish kind of slapped me in the face and made me remember why I love food so much.
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| Head-On Prawn Salmora w Wild Mushrooms & Calasparra Rice |
For my appetizer I ordered the sea scallops with peanut praline, yuzu and sea beans. The flavor combination was definitely something I have never had before and I would never have been creative enough to come up with on my own. The scallops were seared perfectly so that they were a nice medium rare in the middle and meltingly tender to the bite. The peanut praline was more of a sauce than a traditional crunchy praline, which is what I was expecting. The texture was not the only unexpected trait that the praline hid. To me the flavor was very similar to a mild white miso with the undertone of peanut finishing up at the end and it provided a nice richness to go along with the sweet scallop and salty sea beans. . It was pooled on top of each scallop covering most of the top but allowing the deep caramelization of the edges to show through. The dish was finished off with some sauteed lotus root and a frisee and apple salad with yuzu in the dressing. The lotus root added a nice vegetal crunch to the dish and the salad had the requisite acid to round out the whole dish.
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| Sea Scallops w Peanut Praline, Yuzu & Sea Beans |
Christal was also craving a green salad so we ordered the mixed green salad with tomatoes, pepitas and sherry vinaigrette. It was your run of the mill green salad with a small dice of concassed tomatoes and a couple of puffed pepitas for croutons. It was a nice, fresh palate cleanser, but nothing special. I would have liked just a little more dressing so that I could have tasted a little more of the sherry vinaigrette.
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| SLS Mixed Green Salad w Tomatoes, Pepitas & Sherry Vinaigrette |
I was in a fishy mood so I ended up ordering the seared branzino with fennel puree, wild mushrooms, endive & citrus vinaigrette. To be perfectly honest, this might have been the best branzino dish I have had. They put two filets together with the skin facing out so that it mimicked the fish anatomically, but without the bones, and then they seared both sides until the skin was as crispy as a cracker and leaving the flesh moist and succulent. The fennel puree underneath was silky smooth and its natural sweetness complimented the branzino well. The endive was braised and then caramelized, but it still kept a hint of bitterness to tone down the sweetness from the fennel puree. The mushrooms added a nice hit of umami to each bite and the citrus vinaigrette and grapefruit segments rounded out the whole dish.
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| Seared Branzino w Fennel Puree, Wild Mushrooms, Endive & Citrus Vinaigrette |
Christal said she was in the mood for something rich for her main course so she ordered the braised beef short rib with cheddar grits, cipollini onions and veal jus. The cheddar grits were rich and obviously, plenty cheesy. I kind of expected the grits to be more loose than they were, but the texture certainly wasn't a negative. I think the cipollini onions were braised and orange juice and then caramelized because they had an abnormally orange tint to them and tasted sweeter than what I was expecting, which actually worked out nicely with the rich grits and meaty short ribs. Speaking of short ribs, these ribs were braised perfectly. In the past when we have ordered braised short ribs they have come out completely falling apart and lacking any texture or semblance of beef on more than a few occasions. This preparation is completely fine for a ravioli or tortellini filling, but not for the centerpiece protein of a main course. That being said, the short rib at Tres was cooked perfectly. It was firm enough that it stood up to eating with a fork and knife, yet still tender enough to cut with just the fork and not completely disintegrate. When I ate it the texture was what short rib is supposed to be, meaty yet tender, and not mushy. And to top it off the veal jus added a deeply savory flavor to boost the meatiness of the short rib.
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| Braised Beef Short Rib w Cheddar Grits, Cipollini Onions & Veal Jus |
When we ordered our desserts our waiter was not the person to take the order, instead it was another random waiter that had come by our table once before. Once she took our order she walked towards the kitchen about 10 feet and relayed our order to our waiter. After this happened I started to think back and throughout the meal the service had kind of devolved. It started out normal enough in that they took our order in a timely manner, and our appetizers came out pretty quickly, but after the appetizers our waiter only came by a few more times to check on us. Once we had finished our main courses we sat at the table for at least 15 minutes before our plates were cleared and then probably another 15 to 20 minutes before we ordered desserts. It was a little bit bizarre. Anyway, there was coconut tapioca with passion fruit sauce and mandarin orange sorbet, so of course I had to order that. The tapioca was full of coconut flavor and it was garnished with some toasted coconut and what I think was a coconut milk foam flavored with a hint of mint. The passion fruit sauce was a nice acidic hit to cut through the sweetness and richness of all the coconut. I had thought that the mandarin sorbet would be a nice compliment as well, but for me, the sorbet kind of overpowered the subtleties of the rest of the dish. By itself it was delicious, but when eaten with the rest of the dish it seemed to take over, so I just ate the sorbet separately and then it felt like I got two desserts for one (glass half full right?).
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| Coconut Tapioca w Passion Fruit Sauce & Mandarin Orange Sorbet |
After we finished the coconut tapioca I reminded our server of our second dessert, to which she was unaware. Apparently when the other waiter took our order she failed to relay the second dessert on and our waiter said that she was, "unaware of a second dessert." Once we let her know what Christal wanted it came out fairly quickly. Christal ended up ordering the Greek yogurt panna cotta with apricots and a muscat wine gelee. The panna cotta was not too sweet which was nice and the Greek yogurt added a nice acidity which kept it light. The muscat gelee was a thin layer, but it added a nice sweetness and depth to the dessert. There were two apricot elements in the dessert, one on the bottom and one on the top. The bottom had an apricot gel that had a punch of fresh apricot flavor in each bite. The top had an apricot foam that was similar in texture to the coconut milk foam and had a much more subtle apricot flavor. It was nice to be able to compare bites from the top of the dessert and the bottom and it made the dessert seem bigger than it was.
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| Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta w Apricots & Muscat Wine Gelee |
Once we were done with dessert we waited about another 15 to 20 minutes before our check came, which I found pretty annoying since the Warriors were playing and I wanted to get back home for the second half. If not for the decline in service throughout, the meal would have been just about flawless. Luckily the quality of the food stayed consistent all the way through to the end.
Food 4/5
Service 2.5/5
Christal's Rating 4.5/5
http://slshotels.com/beverlyhills/dining/tres/
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