Eh - like a disgruntled old Jewish man
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
I've noticed a lot of new restaurant facades popping up around these parts. I'm very curious to see what becomes of these places. As of late, I've had more than my fair share of conversations regarding the Los Angeles restaurant scene. As a lover of food and wine, I've found the dining experience in Los Angeles to be mostly mediocre at best. I suppose it's inspired me to spend more time in the kitchen but when you work from 9-7 and even later on some days, it's nice to have an old standby of a restaurant that you can rely on to serve you really good, cheap food with a glass of wine. I had several of those in NYC but alas, I've yet to find my Malatesta Trattoria, my Tartine, my Cafes Habana and Gitane... In recent conversations with Los Angeles transplants, I've found that I'm not alone in my feelings. There seems to be a general feeling that the cities of New York, Chicago, San Fransisco - even Boston - are more cutting edge, have far finer service (even in the holes in the walls), have better value and plain and simply just have better food than Los Angeles.
That said, we have parents in town for the next several days and I'll be eating at some of the places I've been wanting to try as well as a few of my old favorites. I suppose I'll be having a "restaurant week" of my own for the next several days...Tonight we're dining at Osteria La Buca - an Italian place that's fairly far east on Melrose and I'll report back in full tomorrow.
But before we deal with tonight, I need to discuss my disappointing dinner last night. Pane e Vino in Los Angeles is just plain bad. I've been to Pane e Vino in Montecito and it's delicious - although I suppose when Oprah frequents your place, you need to step it up a notch. (Although I believe that they started out under the same owner but aren't owned by the same people any longer.)
Not only is the food at Pane e Vino LA mediocre, it's also expensive! If you're going to charge $10 for a mixed green salad with Parmesan, it damned-well better be Parmigiano-Reggiano freshly shaved on the top of my mixed greens...not a spoonful of grated Parmesan that looks like it came fresh out of the green metallic Kraft canister. I probably don't need to elaborate anymore but I will, lest you should think that this is only one item on the menu and the rest must be good...
I tasted everything ordered at the table. I, myself, got a mixed greens salad with smoked chicken in a gorgonzola vinaigrette. The nicest thing I can say about this special is that it was fine. I believe the waitress told me the chicken was grilled because I'm not a huge fan of the smoked chicken but it's possible my mind was in other places. Still - it was literally mixed greens with smoked chicken and gorgonzola. There are SO many delicious things that go with gorgonzola in a salad. They failed to include even one of them. It seems to me that if you're going to have a "special" on the menu then you should probably try to make it SPECIAL.
One of our friends ordered the mixed vegetables cooked in the clay pot. After a few bites, she added several fistfuls of Parmesan cheese hoping to add a flavor- any flavor. My husband asked them to refill the Parmesan cheese so that he could add a bit of flavor to his rigatoni al pomodoro e basilico. If an Italian restaurant can't make a good pasta in a tomato and basil sauce, you know you're in trouble. Showering his pasta in a bowl of Parmesan and red pepper flakes didn't make up for the fact that the pasta was sort of mushy and the sauce lacked any sort of fresh taste. I could have made a box of Bertelli and thrown on some Trader Joe's Pomodoro sauce with some freshly shredded Parmesan and it would have tasted better. (I probably could have dropped it on the floor and it would have tasted better...)
I sat in the pretty garden (essentially the one and only thing going for this place) and thought about how it would have never lasted in NYC. I thought longingly about Malatesta Trattoria and Piadina and Frank where I could get the same thing for half the price and ten thousand times more deliciousness. I wonder why anyone in their right mind goes to Pane e Vino. It should be called Pane eh Vino.
Posted byMeesh-elle my Belle at 2:07 PM
Labels: food and drink
Hey M-
Last time I was in LA I ate at a restaurant called Table 8. It's at 7661 Melrose. My girlfriend is a manager there and the food was great! A little $$, but great.
They just opened one is South Beach a few weeks ago too.
Just a suggestion since you have family in town.