October 23, 2015: Trois Mec

Trois Mec is a collaboration between three of the most popular celebrity chefs in Los Angeles. Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo's stable of restaurants include Animal, Son of a Gun and Jon & Vinny's, all of which have garnered rave reviews. Ludo Lefebvre used to have the Ludo Truck, which specialized in Provençal style fried chicken. The three have subsequently collaborated on Petit Trois, which is right next door and is a more traditional French bistro experience. Needless to say Trois Mec has been on my shortlist of restaurants to try since they debuted in 2013, but because you have to reserve a table by buying a ticket instead of booking a reservation it was always hard to remember to try and get tickets on the day they were released. The price of the ticket includes the tasting menu, tax, and tip/service charge. The restaurant itself is fairly small with about 28-30 seats total and about 1/3 of them being at the bar where you have a great view of all the chefs in action. We had two bar seats that were lower than the rest and just inside of the door, so it wasn't the most ideal spot, but it really didn't take away anything from the experience.

The dinner started out with five "snacks" that were meant to be finger foods. The first snack was buckwheat popcorn with rice wine vinegar. Christal absolutely loved this. The buckwheat was crispy and when mixed with the vinegar it had the familiar flavor of salt and vinegar chips. Christal really enjoyed having that familiar flavor profile with a familiar ingredient that was prepared in an unfamiliar way.

Buckwheat Popcorn w Rice Wine Vinegar

The next snack was a pistachio tart with wild herbs. This was a really fun bite because you could pop the whole tart in your mouth and it had a really clean flavor. The crust was nice and buttery yet still very crisp and the herbs were a refreshing finish to the mouthful, but I was expecting the flavor of the pistachios to dominate and come through. For whatever reason the pistachio flavor seemed to be kind of muted, but it was still a very pleasant snack.

Pistachio Tart w Wild Herbs

The third snack was foie gras poached in a matsutake broth. Once they said matsutake broth I expected a very subtle and aromatic broth that filled my sinuses with that characteristic matsutake flavor, but instead the broth had a dominant flavor of ume or shiso, which overpowered any hint matsutake that was there. The foie gras was supple and smooth and the flavor of the broth helped to cut through the fattiness making it seem much lighter on the palate. Overall I would say it was a successful dish and the broth itself was very good, but the description was too misleading for me, so it kind of threw off my perspective of the dish as a whole. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of this snack.

After the foie gras came crispy tapioca with parmesan and passion fruit. It came out as an unassuming square of crispy golden brown fried tapioca, but when I bit into it the inside yielded to soft tapioca with a salty hit from the parmesan cheese. As I was finishing my first bite and about to swallow a hint of passion fruit aroma came out of nowhere. It was a really interesting sensation to have the passion fruit show up just when I had forgotten that it was supposed to be there.

Crispy Tapioca w Parmesan Cheese & Passion Fruit

The last snack was a smoked hay custard with orange blossom honey and bee pollen. The custard was silky smooth and a little bit rich, but when eaten by itself it did not seem to have much flavor. The orange blossom honey was mixed with rice wine vinegar I think, which made it sweet and tart and you could still smell and taste the orange blossom aroma. The bee pollen added a nice little crunch and a subtle floral flavor. When eaten all together it was a pleasant bite that had a nice combination of richness, sweet, sour, aroma and richness. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of this too since the last three snacks all came out at once and I was busy trying to remember what each snack consisted of.

The first "real" course of our meal was tomato sushi served with country bread and tomato pulp mixed with olive oil. The tomato sushi consisted of thin slices of heirloom tomatoes draped over some seasoned rice with a creamy vinaigrette, olive oil and seasonings sprinkled on top. The tomatoes were perfectly ripe, the rice was cooked well and seasoned nicely, and the dressing had some rice wine vinegar in it, which helped to mirror some of the snacks from before. There was something bitter in the dish that I thought was one of the seasonings sprinkled on top, but it helped to balance out the sweetness of both the tomatoes and the dressing and was a pleasant surprise. I wouldn't say this dish was a real stunner, but it was a good plate of food that showcased produce at its peak.

Tomato Sushi

The tomato pulp and olive oil with country bread almost seemed like a palate cleanser to me, but I thought it showed the resourcefulness of the kitchen. The bread itself was really good. It had a crispy yet chewy crust and the inner crumb was moist and fluffy, but could still stand up to the soupy tomato pulp. Like the tomato sushi, the tomato pulp obviously showcased the tomatoes at their peak ripeness and it made for a pleasant side dish.

Tomato Pulp & Olive Oil w Country Bread

Next came beet tartare with smoked eel, cured egg yolk and horseradish crème fraîche. The texture of the tartare wasn't quite as soft as beef, but the beets were tender and it was seasoned well. The smoked eel gave the dish a pleasant hint of smokey, fishy flavor that seemed to add some substance to the dish. The horseradish crème fraîche gave it a nice creamy, tart flavor and spicy hit. The dish also came with a wedge of rösti, which is basically a really crispy hash brown, and it added a really nice textural contrast to the soft beets and creme fraiche. I could not really taste or detect the cured egg yolk, but that didn't take anything away from how good the overall dish was.

Beet Tartare w Smoked Eel, Cured Egg Yolk & Horseradish Cream

A kabocha squash cake with mojo verde, bottarga and toasted sesame was the next dish to come out. The kabocha cake was definitely not what we were expecting. It had thin crispy outer layer and the inside had the texture and consistency of fresh mochi and the flavor reminded me a little bit of the turnip cakes you get at dim sum. The mojo verde added a ton of flavor with pronounced garlic, citrus and cilantro flavors and with each bite of the squash cake we were dragging it through the mojo to get as much as possible. The dish was finished with some julienned green onion and pea shoots that added a nice fresh flavor to lift the dish.

Kabocha Squash Cake w Mojo Verde, Bottarga & Toasted Sesame

The protein portion of the meal was a grilled Kurobuta pork loin with green cabbage, bok choy and juniper. The pork was moist and cooked perfectly. The green cabbage was made into a smooth, creamy puree that highlighted the sweetness of the cabbage and didn't have any of the sulfury flavor that cabbage can sometimes have. The bok choy was char-grilled, which brought out some bitterness to balance to sweetness of the cabbage and richness of the pork. On the side was a cube of what I thought was compressed melon that was infused with the juniper. The juniper paired well with the pork and it added an added sweetness to the dish. As good as the dish was it probably was the least enlightening or exciting dish of the night.

Grilled Kurobuta Pork Loin w Green Cabbage, Bok Choy & Juniper

The dessert course was chocolate with burnt avocado mousse and parmesan cheese. From the first bite Christal couldn't stop raving about it, which is saying something because she isn't the biggest fan of rich, chocolatey desserts. The description was a bit misleading in that it had about five different chocolate components along with the avocado mousse and the parmesan cheese. The bowl was lined on the bottom with the avocado mousse and then a quenelle of chocolate ice cream was laid on top, chocolate ganache truffle pieces were scattered around, a blanket of chocolate mousse was spooned on top, a chocolate soil was sprinkled around the perimeter of the bowl and then a chocolate foam was piped over everything, completely covering it all, and the parmesan cheese was grated to finish. We both really enjoyed how the dessert didn't feel super rich and heavy and it wasn't too sweet, highlighting the balance between sweetness and the natural bitterness of the chocolate. The most amazing thing to both of us though was how all the different textures and temperatures of soft chocolate worked together and created a dessert that we will remember for a long time. Each bite was different depending on which chocolate elements were present in that bite. The chocolate foam had a cloud-like, fluffy texture to it, the soil added a hint of crunch and density, the chocolate mousse was a silky, smooth component, the truffle pieces had a firm, yet tender texture to them and the ice cream was nice and cold and the melted ice cream actually added another texture to the whole dish. The avocado mousse provided some added richness and fruitiness and was a great compliment to all the chocolate and the saltiness of the parmesan cheese helped to tone down the sweetness and balanced the whole dessert.

Chocolate w Burnt Avocado Mousse & Parmesan Cheese

To finish our meal we were served chantilly tarts and cream puffs for the mignardises. They were both very good and a traditional ending to a great meal. Overall we were both impressed with the meal as a whole and neither Christal or I had any real negatives at any point in the evening. I would have to say that Trois Mec exceeded my expectations quite easily and we both thought it was in our top three restaurants that we have visited in Los Angeles.

Chantilly Tarts & Cream Puffs

Food 5/5
Service 5/5
Christal's Rating 5/5
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