March 21, 2015: Osteria Mozza

Osteria Mozza is probably the Los Angeles restaurant I have wanted to visit the longest. I have always been a huge fan of Mario Batali and Pizzeria Mozza is one of my favorite pizza restaurants anywhere, so it would stand to reason that Osteria Mozza is probably pretty good too. It worked out great because this is the first weekend Christal has had off in over a month and it is the day before the sixth anniversary of Brent's plane crash so it was a good time to go out for a special dinner.

Walking in to the restaurant from the corner of Highland and Melrose it opens up to a large dining room. All the tables are covered in white linens and there are rich dark wood accents and light blue trim around the room. The whole space has a very comfortable and relaxed yet elegant feel to it.

After we ordered they brought us an amuse bouche of crostini with ricotta, olive tapenade and basil. For being so simple it was surprising how balanced the one bite crostini was. The salty bitterness of the tapenade was toned down by the rich ricotta cheese and the basil helped to make it feel light on the palate.

Crostini w Ricotta, Olive Tapenade & Basil

Christal ordered the market rucola and wild cress salad with oro blanco grapefruit, avocado, Picholine olives & walnut aillade for her starter. The salad was a really refreshing start to the dinner. The arugula and cress were crisp, herbaceous and peppery and was balanced well by the sweet and acidic grapefruit and the rich avocado. The walnuts and walnut aillade added some crunch and textural contrast and the olives rounded out the salad with a nice hit of saltiness.

Market Rucola & Wild Cress w Oro Blanco Grapefruit, Avocado, Picholine Olives & Walnut Aillade

For my starter I ordered the burricotta with braised artichokes, pine nuts, currants and mint pesto from the mozzarella bar menu. They served the cheese on a couple of pieces of toasted bread. The braised artichoke was extremely tender and there was just enough of the currants and pine nuts so that you could taste them, but they neither overpowered the cheese or the artichoke. The mint pesto helped to really keep everything light and gave the dish an added zing.

Burricotta w Braised Artichokes, Pine Nuts, Currants & Mint Pesto

We both really wanted to try their pasta, but we couldn't both order pasta and a main course without feeling guilty about it so we ended up sharing the orecchiette with sausage and swiss chard. For me, this dish was probably the highlight of the night. The orecchiette at Osteria Mozza had a larger diameter than at other restaurants I have had it at and it was also slightly thicker, which gave it a really nice chew. The sausage and swiss chard sauce was meaty and rich with a background spiciness that was just short of making you reach for the water glass. It had an unctuousness that only comes from hours of simmering over low heat and the swiss chard almost melted into the whole sauce. They finished the dish with a sprinkling of bread crumbs at the table, which gave a subtle crunch to the dish.

Orecchiette w Sausage & Swiss Chard

The wild striped bass alla Livornese was Christal's main course. The bass was cooked absolutely perfectly. The skin was as crispy as a potato chip and the flesh was firm and moist. The Livornese sauce was basically a garlicky tomato sauce. It had enough acidity to pair well with the fish and the large caper berries in the sauce gave a nice salty, tart kick. They topped the fish off with a light salad of parsley and celery leaves that added a little fresh crunch to the fish.

Wild Striped Bass Alla Livornese

I ordered the veal breast stracotto with funghi misti. The veal breast was slow braised, which made it tender, but not to the point where it would fall apart. They sauced the veal with some of the braising liquid that was reduced down to a rich, syrupy consistency and you could feel the melted collagen in the sauce...so good. The mushrooms were cooked till they were perfectly caramelized and a deep mahogany color. When all the components were together in one bite it was absolute harmony. The rich sauce soaked into the tender, milky veal with the caramelized mushrooms adding a chewy and crispy texture was a truly pleasurable experience.

Veal Breast Stracotto w Funghi Misti

Christal got the strawberry and fig crostata with Meyer lemon panna cotta & pinecone bud syrup. In my opinion this was my least favorite dish of the night. It wasn't a bad dessert, I just felt like it was kind of plain and the panna cotta overshadowed the crostata a little bit. The crostata was topped with something that resembled a strawberry and fig jam and the crust was a good short pastry, but I thought it lacked some freshness. I think some brunoised strawberry or chiffonaded mint would have helped to refresh the crostata. The Meyer lemon panna cotta had a great texture and was packed with the tart and sweet flavor of the Meyer lemons, but when eaten with the crostata the tartness of the panna cotta masked the strawberries and figs. I was really excited to try the pinecone bud syrup, but it was a little too subtle and I couldn't really detect it when I ate all three components together.

Strawberry & Fig Crostata w Meyer Lemon Panna Cotta & Pinecone Bud Syrup

My dessert was the bombolini with huckleberry marmellata, lemon mascarpone and vanilla gelato. The bomboloni are Italian donuts that are rolled in sugar. The dough is a raised yeast dough and the texture of these bomboloni were soft and light, almost cloud-like. The huckleberry marmellata was exactly what you would expect, sweet and tart and full of huckleberries. The lemon mascarpone had the texture of a lemon curd and it paired really well with the huckleberries. The vanilla gelato provided great contrast to all the other components of the dessert. It countered the tartness of both the lemon mascarpone and the huckleberry marmellata with its creamy richness, and it gave great temperature contrast to the fresh, hot bomboloni.

Bombolini w Huckleberry Marmellata, Lemon Mascarpone & Vanilla Gelato

Food 4.5/5
Service 4/5
Christal's Rating 3/5
http://www.osteriamozza.com/

March 15, 2015: Bucato

For Jenny's birthday Jeffrey planned a dinner at Bucato, which is located in Culver City. It is a much heralded Italian restaurant known for their handmade pastas. We ended up having a group of 15 that was spread out over three tables. Once everyone had been seated Jeffrey and Jenny had a party puzzle for each table to complete. The puzzles revealed that they too were going to have a baby. Later they had Jenny's dad and Uncle Vic each open a present to reveal the gender and when they opened the boxes one had a blue balloon and the other had a balloon with question marks and then they told us they were having twins! Anyways, on to the food.

We started out with focaccia with rosemary, olive oil and sea salt. The focaccia was outstanding with a soft pillowy interior and a crispy, delicate crust. The rosemary and sea salt were in perfect balance, and the rosemary didn't overpower at all. The olive oil provided a contrast of richness to the light, airy texture of the bread. We also had filone with cultured Wisconsin butter and ash salt, but I forgot to get a picture of that. The filone was more of a traditional round loaf that had an extremely crispy crust and a soft, almost spongy interior.

Foccaccia w Rosemary, Olive Oil & Sea Salt

Next we had fried cauliflower 'Sicilian style.' The cauliflower was crispy and crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside and it was dressed with capers, parsley, a little lemon juice and some chili. It reminded me a little of a crispy Indian cauliflower dish I've had before. Whatever they used to coat the outside of the cauliflower was really light even though it was fried.

Fried Cauliflower 'Sicilian Style'

Spicy pork meatballs with roasted tomato, Parmigiano Reggiano and wild arugula was our next course. The meatballs had a perfectly soft, yet meaty texture and remained nice and moist. The tomato sauce that smothered the meatballs was nicely balanced and it didn't overshadow the meatballs.

Spicy Pork Meatballs with Roasted Tomato, Parmigiano Reggiano & Wild Arugula

Our next course was the first of three pasta dishes. We had gnocchetti with pesto Genovese and Pecorino Stagionato. The gnocchetti was a little more dense than I was expecting, but it also had more chew to it, which gave the whole dish a little more character. The pesto was really fresh and pungent and the ratio of pesto to gnocchetti was perfectly balanced with both complementing each other equally.

Gnocchetti w Pesto Genovese & Pecorino Stagionato

The second pasta dish that was brought out was the spaghetti alla chitarra cacio e pepe. The spaghetti alla chitarra is a thicker spaghetti than most and it was extremely sturdy, but still tender. Cacio e pepe is a very traditional Roman preparation that is basically cheese and pepper, simplicity at its finest. Again (and i'm sure this will get repetitive) the dish was balanced perfectly with the pasta playing the star, the olive oil and cheese giving perfect richness and the pepper giving a nice spice to cut through that richness.

Spaghetti alla Chitarra Cacio e Pepe

The last pasta dish we had was the pappardelle with ragu vecchia scuola and Parmigiano Reggiano. The pappardelle was cut into extra wide strips and had a super smooth and silky texture with a tender chewiness. The ragu vecchia scuola is basically another name for a Bolognese sauce. The sauce was nice and meaty and you could tell it had been cooked for a long time because everything had kind of melded into a perfect condimento as Mario Batali would say. As with pretty much every dish before, this one was perfectly balanced with the rich, meaty sauce complementing the luxurious folds of delicate pappardelle.

Pappardelle w Ragu Vecchia Scuola & Parmigiano Reggiano

Our next dish was the octopus with escarole, shelling beans, roasted tomato and nduja. The octopus was meaty and tender and cooked to perfection. I think it had been parboiled and then maybe finished on the grill that gave the exterior a really nice caramelization. Underneath the octopus was a stew that had escarole, chickpeas, a little tomato and nduja, which is a spreadable pork sausage. The stew was a really nice compliment to the octopus because it provided some saltiness with the nduja and some acid with the tomato, and again, it was another well balanced dish.

Octopus w Escarole, Shelling Beans, Roasted Tomato & Nduja

The last savory dish was rib eye with cipollini agrodolce and wild arugula. The rib eye was cooked just how I like it, on the edge between rare and medium rare. Agrodolce is an Italian sweet and sour sauce, so the ciplollini agrodolce was basically caramelized cipollini onions tossed and cooked in the sweet and sour sauce. The steak was extremely tender, the cipollini agrodolce was a great way to give the dish some acid to help cut through the richness of the steak and the arugula provided a nice bitterness and pepperiness to bring the whole dish together.

Rib Eye with Cipollini Agrodolce & Wild Arugula

Since it was Jenny's birthday dinner Sarah made a chocolate cake for her. She said it was her first try with that recipe and it was a winner. The cake had a really pleasant, fine texture and it seemed to be both a dense and a light, airy cake at the same time and it was packed with cocoa flavor. The frosting was nice and light so it didn't weigh down the whole cake. The only downside that Sarah and I saw was that it was just slightly dry, but overall it was a really delicious cake.

Sarah's Chocolate Cake

After the chocolate cake we had zeppoli with vanilla cream and lemon sugar. Zeppoli are the Italian version of donuts and Bucato's zeppoli were kind of a mix of a cream puff and a donut. The zeppoli was a little bigger than a golf ball and it had a crispy exterior and a tender, choux pastry-like interior that was hollow in the middle. The middle was filled with the vanilla cream, which had the taste and texture of a creme anglaise or zabaglione. The lemon sugar was dusted lightly over the top, but unfortunately I couldn't taste much lemon. That being said, it didn't take away from the dessert at all and I enjoyed the zepolli wholeheartedly.

Zeppoli w Vanilla Cream & Lemon Sugar

The last thing we had was a selection of gelatos and sorbet. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture so instead I'll include a picture of the birthday girl blowing out the candles. We had vanilla, pistachio and marzipan gelato and lemon sorbet. The lemon sorbet was good, but it was a little too sweet. The marzipan gelato was kind of weird, and probably my least favorite. The pistachio gelato had a bit of savoriness to it that accentuated the nuttiness of the gelato. The vanilla gelato was packed with vanilla beans that were speckled throughout and it was my favorite flavor that we sampled.

Birthday Girl

Food 4/5
Service 3.5/5
http://www.bucato.la/

March 14, 2015: Petit Trois

For Christal's birthday we went to Petit Trois in Beverly Hills for a late lunch. They don't take reservations at Petit Trois so we decided to go out after church, that way we would miss the lunch rush and hopefully not have to wait long. Luckily it worked out perfectly and we were able to sit right down. The restaurant was still pretty busy for 3 o'clock in the afternoon and every seat in the place was taken once we sat down, which only consisted of 2 bars with about 20 stools for patrons. The menu was very simple, consisting of 15 items total and all of which were classic French bistro dishes.

Christal started her meal off with French onion soup with gruyère and emmenthal cheeses. It was a very straightforward, classic soup that was packed with the flavors of caramelized onion and rich beef broth. The toasted bread somehow stayed crunchy and chewy long after it had soaked through and the cheese was perfectly melted and stringy. As basic a dish as French onion soup is, this was one of the best versions I've had.

French Onion Soup w Gruyère & Emmenthal

I decided to go with the steak tartare with fried shallots and elderberries. The minced steak was very tender and it gave the tartare a great foundation of flavor. Dijon mustard and the minced pickles and capers added the needed acidity and saltiness to help balance out the richness of the steak. I could not really detect the elderberries, but the fried shallots gave the dish a slight oniony hit and an outstanding crunch, which provided a needed textural contrast. Again, it was one of the best versions of steak tartare I have had.

Steak Tartare w Fried Shallots & Elderberries

For her main course, Christal ordered the steak frites maison with aux poivres sauce. The steak was cooked to a perfect medium-rare and came blanketed in the aux poivres sauce with a huge pile of pommes frites on the side. I only tried a couple of bites of the steak, but it was a tender and flavorful piece of beef and the sauce was a rich, indulgent accompaniment to it. The fries were good, but they were nothing special.

Steak Frites Maison w Sauce Aux Poivre

I decided on the confit chicken leg with brioche butter and frisée salad. Confiting the chicken leg really helped to keep the meat succulent and the skin was incredibly crispy.  The brioche butter was very surprising. It was basically brioche bread crumbs that were cooked in brown butter until they were caramelized and saturated with the butter. The frisée salad had endive, parsley and chives along with the frisée, which was all tossed in a highly acidic lemon vinaigrette. The freshness and acidity of the salad really helped to cut through the richness of the brioche butter and chicken. It brought the whole dish together and elevated it from a good dish to something that I would want to have over and over again.

Confit Chicken Leg w Brioche Butter & Frisèe Salad

For dessert we decided to share the Napoleon with Tahitian vanilla cream. It had multiple layers of crispy puff pastry that were sandwiching a rich pastry cream that was absolutely packed with vanilla. The top layer was brûléed with some sugar and gave the Napoleon a very appealing appearance. The whole dessert was a simple, clean finish to a great meal.

Napoleon w Tahitian Vanilla Cream

Food 4.5/5
Service 3.5/5
Christal's Rating 4/5
http://petittrois.com/

March 7, 2015: Blue Plate Oysterette

I have been wanting to try Blue Plate Oysterette for a while now and Jeffrey and Jenny had told me it was good a while ago. Christal was on call tonight so I was able to meet up with Jane and Skyler. The restaurant was pretty crowded, but not as crowded as I was expecting for a Saturday night. It definitely had a nice nautical theme for the decor with the table tops having nautical maps on them. In the corner there was a large flat screen that was playing the movie "Riding Giants" on a loop. The service was attentive without being overbearing.

When I was reading the menu my eyes kept drifting to the oysters Rockefeller so I had to get that for my first course. Eating the oysters took me back to my childhood days when we would visit Kentucky and occasionally eat at Orleans House in Lexington. I remember first trying oysters Rockefeller there and being puzzled by the hot, salty, plump oysters. Blue Plate's version was very good and I was happy that the oysters were not completely overpowered by the sauce. I could still taste the fresh brininess of the oysters through the rich, creamy sauce.

Oysters Rockefeller

I ordered the lobster roll on brioche with french fries for my main course. I got it dressed, so the lobster was cold and tossed in a house aioli dressing. The lobster roll was very good, but the brioche roll was a little bit more dense than I was expecting. I would personally probably prefer the lobster roll from Connie & Ted's or Hinoki & the Bird, but this lobster roll was close on their heals. It had a lot of large pieces of tail and claw meat that were succulent and tender. To top it all off the fries were all crispy and seasoned liberally with a spicy paprika based spice mix.

Lobster Roll w French Fries

For dessert we all shared the Key lime pie. As good as the previous two dishes were this was probably the highlight of the dinner for me. First of all, the serving was huge. It wasn't just a piece of pie, it was a whole small pie. The Graham cracker crust was just pressed together and not too dense. The whipped cream on top was freshly whipped and spiked with fresh lime zest. The filling was piled high inside of the crust and was packed with fresh lime flavor. Unlike many Key lime pies it was not cloyingly sweet. The whole dessert had great balance with a nice emphasis on the lime flavor, and it was a great finish to a satisfying meal.

Key Lime Pie

Service 3.5/5
Food 3.5/5

http://blueplatesantamonica.com/bpo/los-angeles/

February 8, 2015: Alimento

Alimento opened about 8 months ago to much anticipation and has been written about quite extensively. The chef/owner, Zach Pollack, has garnered positive attention at all the restaurants he has worked at before this and Alimento has been on my short list of L.A. restaurants to try since it opened.

We arrived a little bit late and were seated promptly by the host. Luckily our reservation was early in the evening because as the night wore on and the restaurant became filled to capacity the noise level ramped up considerably to where it was difficult for me to hear Christal at times. For some reason it seemed like our table was in between the two waiters’ territories because the waiter that introduced himself at the beginning of the meal ended up checking on us one other time, and that was at the end when he asked us if he wanted to order any dessert after we had finished our dessert. The other waiter seemed to have arrived a little late and checked on us once to see if we wanted dessert after we finished our main courses. The host ended up waiting on us more than the actual waiters and the busboy and runner worked like stealth ninjas. When I was writing the tip on the check I felt bad because I didn’t feel like the waiters deserved any of it and that it should all have gone to the host, runner and busboy, but alas, the world isn’t fair. Anyway, now we’ll get on to the real star, the food.

Christal started her meal with the white bean and emmer zuppa with Fresno chilies and bread. Emmer is basically another name for faro. The soup was much better than it looked. It was extremely flavorful and hearty and the chilies gave it a nice kick. The emmer gave the soup a nice chewy meatiness to contrast with the soft tenderness of the white beans. The bread was grilled to perfection and had a glutinous chewiness enveloped in a crunchy envelope. My only wish was that there was about three more pieces of bread. 

White Bean & Emmer Zuppa w Fresno Chilies & Bread

I ordered the veal tongue tonnato with radishes, pickles and celery. This dish was the chef’s take on the classic Italian dish, vitello tonnato, which I have not had before. The tonnato sauce is like a thin mayonnaise-like sauce flavored with tuna and it was a salty rich revelation. The veal tongue was sliced deli-thin and when paired with the tonnato it seemed like the sauce overpowered it. The pickles provided the needed acidity to cut through the richness of the tonnato sauce. After a couple of bites I finally wised up and started using less of the tonnato sauce with each bite and the dish became infinitely better. Of course after all the veal tongue and garnishes were finished I couldn’t just waste the tonnato sauce. Unfortunately there was no bread so I just spooned it up and ate it like the white bean and emmer soup.

Veal Tongue Tonnato w Radishes, Pickles & Celery 

For her entrée Christal ordered the whole wheat bigoli with tomato, pinenuts and fiore sardo. Bigoli is basically a thicker spaghetti and it has a really good chewy texture. Fiore sardo is a firm Sardinian sheep’s milk cheese that provided the dish with the salty richness to balance the sweet acidity of the tomato. The pinenuts gave the dish a nuttiness that helped to round it out. The whole dish was composed perfectly.

Whole Wheat Bigoli w Tomato, Pinenuts & Fiore Sardo 

My main course was the radiatori with braised pork sugo, kale and fennel pollen. The radiatori pasta was cooked to a perfect al dente and had a great toothsome bite to it. The pork sugo was filled with chunks of tender meaty pork that was slow cooked to perfection. Unfortunately, I had a hard time detecting the fennel pollen in the dish because the sugo was really rich and tomatoey. Aside from the lack of fennel pollen flavor the dish was a really satisfying plate of pasta.

Radiatori w Braised Pork Sugo, Kale & Fennel Pollen

For dessert Christal and I decided to share the polenta almond cake with blueberries and mascarpone cheese. To me this was the most surprising dish of the night. The cake was really moist and appropriately dense with a ton of lemon zest in it that totally surprised me. The blueberry compote gave it extra sweetness and paired with the lemon zest in the cake perfectly. The mascarpone added richness to the dessert that made it seem more like a dessert than a sinful brunch item you might have on Sunday.  It provided a fitting end to the meal and I would have to say that Alimento’s food met my expectations, even if the service didn’t.

Polenta Almond Cake w Blueberries & Mascarpone 

Food 4/5
Service 1.5/5 for the waiters & 4/5 for the host, busboy and runner
Christal's Rating 2/5 (-1 cause of service)
http://www.alimentola.com/

January 31, 2015: Babita Mexicuisine

Babita Mexicuisine is located on an unassuming street corner just off the 10 in San Gabriel. I forget how I heard about this place, but I have been wanting to try it for quite a while now and with all the incredible Asian food in the area I know my parents would much rather eat at one of those restaurants than a Mexican restaurant so Christal and I decided to try it out by ourselves.

When we first arrived chef Roberto was there to greet and seat us. He had an extremely enthusiastic personality that made us at ease immediately. The interior of the restaurant was cozy with Mexican art hung up all around and an impressive collection of empty tequila bottles on a shelf near the ceiling that ran around the room. After a few minutes chef Roberto brought out our waters and proceeded to tell us about the special for the night. In the same enthusiastic style that he greeted us with he went on to describe the chile en nogada, which is one of the national dishes of Mexico, and how it would only be on the menu through the weekend because it was the end of the pomegranate season. After we ordered they brought out chips and salsa. The chips were still warm from the fryer and the salsa had a great smokiness as well as a heat that built the more you ate it.

My first course was a huarache de nopal with shrimp, grilled cactus, beans, tomato, onion, chile, and crema. This huarache was not like the other huaraches I’ve had before. Typically the huaraches I’ve eaten consist of a griddled masa patty that is then covered with beans, meat, vegetables, cheese, salsa, sour cream/crema and sometimes guacamole. With this huarache the masa patty was replaced with a grilled nopal paddle that made the dish much healthier and more appropriate for an appetizer. The smokiness of the grilled nopal brought out the sweetness of the shrimp and the crema gave the dish the added richness that it needed. Overall it was a delicious twist on a classic Mexican dish.

 

For her entrée, Christal ordered the chile en nogada. The national dish of Mexico was a roasted poblano that was stuffed with roast pork and a mixture of fruits and then topped with a creamy walnut sauce and garnished with fresh pomegranate seeds. Chef Roberto told us that the dish is originally from Puebla and that it was created to celebrate Mexico’s independence and includes all the colors of the flag of Mexico. The dish itself was very good. The filling was sweet and savory and the walnut sauce helped to temper the sweetness of the fruit in the filling. The pomegranate seeds gave the dish some zing and kept it from feeling too heavy.

 

I ended up ordering the cochinita pibil with pickled cabbage and onion for my entrée. Cochinita pibil is a traditional slow cooked pork dish that is originally from the Yucatan peninsula. It is usually marinated in a mixture of citrus, garlic and achiote and then wrapped in banana leaves and roasted for a long time until it is tender. In chef Roberto’s cochinita pibil the meat was falling apart, but still plenty moist, and it was covered in the achiote-saturated jus from cooking the pork. The homemade tortillas that were served with it were excellent as well. They were tender, yet chewy and stood up to the moist pork. The pickled cabbage and onions were nice and acidic and helped cut through the richness of the pork. This version certainly did justice to the classic cochinita pibil in my opinion.

 

For dessert Christal and I shared the semifreddo with cajeta and sauces of strawberry, tamarind and tequila. The semifreddo was creamy, sweet and had some fruit that was mixed in with it. The cajeta, which is a caramel that is usually made from goat’s milk that has cooked for hours over a low heat until it becomes golden brown, was delicious and I wished that I could have just had a whole bowl if it. The sauces were interesting but in a good way. All three were a kind of progression from sweet to sour. The strawberry sauce was very sweet and packed with strawberry flavor. The tequila sauce was sweet and sour, kind of acting as the mediator between the other two sauces, and the tamarind sauce was very sour, but in a way that helped to accentuate the semifreddo itself. It was an excellent end to a very good meal.

 

Food 3.5/5

Service 4.5/5
Christal's Rating 3/5
http://www.babita-mexicuisine.com/index.html

January 30, 2015: Le Comptoir

Ever since I started taking pictures of the food I eat my friends and family have said that I should blog about all the restaurants I visit. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and I feel like I can’t remember my favorite meals as well as I used to or maybe it’s because I’m finally finished with school and don’t really have an excuse to not write more, but I figured I would finally give in to those suggestions and start doing some writing. Hopefully I'll get better at it sooner rather than later.

Le Comptoir is an extremely small 10-seat “restaurant” that is the brainchild of chef Gary Menes. The space is little more than a diner counter with a sink, refrigerators and counter space behind it. There are no open flames in the restaurant at all, only a countertop convection oven and about three induction burners.

Chef Menes started Le Comptoir as a pop-up restaurant concept that was vegetable centric and featured many veggies from his own garden and he has not changed a thing now that his restaurant has a permanent residence. On this night there was one other couple dining as well as Christal and me for a grand total of four diners, which matched the number of kitchen staff including chef Menes. The four chefs took care of everything from the cooking (obviously) to bussing to dishwashing. Throughout the meal it was fun to observe the interactions between chef Menes and the rest of the staff. Pretty much each course chef Menes was softly chirping at the commis, Josh, to hurry up with his plating and garnish placement and then once the dishes were served he would give him a wry smile. The sous chef and chef de partie were the main “busboys,” dishwashers and cashier.

Chef Menes & His Sous Chef Plating 

We started the meal with an amuse bouche of crispy Carolina gold rice with blistered shishito pepper, sherry vinaigrette & carrot top garnish. The only problem with the dish was that not all the rice was crispy, but with that being said the dish was still excellent. There was the perfect amount of rice to match with the small shishito pepper and the sherry vinaigrette provided just enough acid to keep everything light and brighten up my palate. After eating it my mouth was definitely amused and ready for more.

Amuse Bouche

The second course was a Japanese sweet potato velouté with Greek yogurt and fried bread. The bread that was used for the fried bread was a sourdough made from chef Menes 20 year-old sourdough starter and I wished that we could have had more of it. The velouté itself was velvety, rich and absolutely packed with sweet potato flavor. It had great balance between savory and sweetness, the Greek yogurt provided the acidity to brighten the whole dish, and the fried bread added a needed textural contrast to tie it all together.

Sweet Potato Velouté w Greek Yogurt & Fried Bread 

The next course served was the vegetable and fruit plate and pretty much everything on the plate was grown by chef Menes in his garden. It had a large slice of sautéed apple, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, roasted beet, simmered celery & celtuce, candied calamansi, pickled onion, sautéed carrot, tangerine segments, corn, seared grapes, almond, celeriac puree and finished with a baby radish. Obviously this dish was very light and refreshing, but it also had a lot of complexity without being confused. One of the things I enjoyed most about the dish was how literally every bite was different. I also have not really been exposed to celtuce very much, but the way it was prepared made it tender yet crisp it’s flavor was kind of a mix of romaine lettuce, celery, green bean and artichoke and it was very enjoyable.

Vegetable & Fruit Plate 

For the fourth course I chose to get the supplemental item, which was Santa Barbara spiny lobster with tomato fonduta and sautéed cauliflower leaves.  This dish was outstanding and it showed how incredible simplicity could be. The lobster was pan roasted with some thyme and butter until it was perfectly medium rare. The tomato fonduta was meltingly soft under the lobster and the cauliflower leaves provided some much needed bitterness to round out the sweetness of the lobster. This was another dish I wished I could have had half a piece of bread to sop up all of the juices left in the bowl.

Santa Barbara Spiny Lobster

Christal’s fourth course was an oeuf en cocotte with beurre noisette, baby lettuce, Parmigiano-Reggiano and sourdough bread from the 20 year-old starter. The egg was cooked in the brown butter until it was perfectly over easy and topped with the Parmesan cheese. The baby lettuce provided added crunch and acidity to the rich egg and after it was all spread on the sourdough bread it felt like we were eating a really good breakfast.

Oeuf en Cocotte 

The fifth course was a tranche of roasted blue Hubbard squash with wheat berries, preserved cherries, pumpkin seeds, beet greens and an orange reduction. This dish may have been one of the most surprising dishes I had all night.  As the chefs plated up the dish I have to admit that I really wasn’t excited about the dish, but once I tasted it I did a complete 180. The squash was roasted perfectly. It was tender and caramelized, but not mushy. The wheat berries provided a chewiness to the dish that helped make it seem more substantial than it was (even though it was a pretty big piece of squash). The pumpkin seeds added some crunch and the cherries added some sweetness. Last, but certainly not least, the orange reduction…oh the orange reduction. It was so simple, but it seemed to make everything come together in perfect harmony. The only minute criticism I had was that the middle three to four bites of the squash were under-seasoned due to the thickness of the squash, but once you rolled those bites around in the orange reduction a little extra all was forgiven.

Tranche of Roasted Blue Hubbard Squash

For the sixth course I again ordered the supplemental item, which was dry aged prime beef with rouge d’hiver (heirloom red romaine), roasted pear and parsley vinaigrette. Unfortunately, this was probably my least favorite dish and maybe it was because I had such high expectations for it. The beef was cooked to perfection and rested more than sufficiently and the parsley vinaigrette on top was excellent. The roasted pear was delicious, especially with the pear juices spooned over the top, and the rouge d’hiver was lightly sautéed so that it didn’t lose its crispness, but was more tender and temperature appropriate for the dish. Even though each component was good on its own they didn’t all mesh together the way the roasted squash dish had. The beef was tougher than I was expecting and I think there were almost too many sauces on the plate. The pan juices that the pears were seared in were generously spooned over the pears and the same with the rouge d’hiver and when it was all mixed with the parsley vinaigrette it almost seemed to cancel each other out. In the end I certainly wouldn’t say this is a bad dish, just that my expectations were not met and may have been too high for this dish.

Dry Aged Prime Beef

Christal’s sixth course was a “fricassée” of peas, broccoli and scallions over stone ground grits with jus d’onion. After tasting her dish I wished I had stuck with the regular menu item. The “fricassée” of vegetables was really tasty and fresh and the grits were super rich and creamy and unctuous, but the onion jus elevated the dish to another level. It provided a depth of flavor that made you forget about having any animal proteins on your plate.

"Fricassée"

Our seventh, and last course was a sourdough donut hole (from the 20 year-old starter) with sour cream, Meyer lemon curd and brulee banana. This dessert was good, but it just wasn’t at the same caliber that the rest of the meal was at. It kind of reminded me that most savory chefs are not that comfortable with desserts. The sour cream was just a small quenelle of plain sour cream. I felt like they could have spruced it up some with some cinnamon sugar mixed in or something along those lines so that it would kind of lean more towards dessert. The lemon curd was good, but there was less lemon curd on the plate than sour cream. When you spread both the sour cream and the curd on the donut hole it was just slightly sweet and by the end of the bite it almost tasted like savory dish.

Sourdough Donut Hole

Once the meal ended chef Menes seemed to relax. He started talking with us more and I really got a greater sense of his passion for food and his profession. Overall I would definitely recommend Le Comptoir to anyone, and especially to people leaning towards vegetarianism. It was a truly unique experience to dine in a restaurant that had just as many chefs as it did patrons.

Food 4/5
Service 5/5
Christal's Rating 4/5
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