Restaurant Redux
Friday, January 11, 2008
I've been remiss in discussing my culinary adventures as of late but there are definitely a few discussions to be had.
Let's start with the new. I visited Comme Ca a few weeks ago with friends and after hearing mixed reviews, I was more than pleasantly surprised. I love a good atmosphere as much as I love a good martini, and this place delivers. The vibe is bustling and sexy in all the right ways. Of course, I wouldn't mind the waiters pairing back their schpiel a bit. I think that our lovely actor-cum-waiter thought he was rehearsing his audition for the following day as he flashed his pearly whites and sold us on cocktails. That said, he DID manage to sell us on cocktails so I suppose he did something right...but I was there to catch up with friends - not get to know our waiter better for the 20 minutes that he spent table side explaining the self-explanatory menu and drinks.
Two of us decided to order cocktails from the bar, where they use one large single ice cube to prevent melting from diluting your drink. I had the East Side Cocktail - a combo of gin, lime, mint and cucumber. It was delicious but eeeeeeensy for a 14 dollar drink. My friend asked them to prepare something on the fresh fruitier side for her and when they tell you to let them know what you like and they'll take care of you, they're not kidding! There was vodka and strawberries and pimm's cup and among other things and that, too, got sucked down in a matter of seconds flat.
We started with a cheese plate (as they were out of the moules frites) with a selection of five cheeses and were lucky enough to get a visit from the less loquacious but highly knowledgeable fromagier. This was one of my favorite cheese plates I've had in Los Angeles and this is not a small feat, considering cheese is pretty much my favorite food. Not only did they provide perfect pairings for each of our selections - from sun-dried tomatoes to dried cherries to some sort of fantastic honey to marcona almonds - but they ALSO instructed us on the order in which to eat the cheese so as to optimize our experience. I would come back for a glass of wine and cheese plate at the bar ANY day. Literally.
My husband and I shared the butter lettuce salad with lemon shallot vinaigrette which was good, but nothing special. But our entrees were fantaaaaaabulous. Each of us ordered perfectly for our own personal palettes and were certain that ours was the best. I was thrilled with the crispy skate served in brown butter with lemon and capers and haricot verts. One word. Divine. Truly. I don't often order entrees - I like to taste a lot of food and entrees tend to be too much of the same flavor for me...but this? This was DEEEEEEEElicious. The skate was full of flavor and cooked to perfection. Everyone at the table agreed that it would please the pickiest eater. My husband opted for the french onion soup and a side of creamed spinach. The soup was delicious - not too salty, not too cheesy, not too bready. The spinach ended up being quite nice, but be forewarned - you will be shocked at the size of your sides when they come to the table. They come in a beautiful copper pot...but the spinach barely covered the bottom. However, my husband said that when all was said and done, it was delicious and more than enough. Just know that you're not getting steakhouse size orders when you decide to order a side here.
Our friends ordered the snapper which came perched atop artichokes and potatoes and was perfectly drizzled with pesto, and the pork chop with roasted apples and a divine mustard cream sauce.
With no room for dessert, we all left full and happy. And agreed that we'd be thrilled to frequent the bar for a glass of wine and some raw bar or cheese on another occassion soon.
This past week I visited two restaurants that I've been to before and thought it appropriate to share my thoughts with all of you Angelino diners.
On Tuesday night my husband and I went to Cube on La Brea - the home of the restaurant opened by the Divine Pasta Company. We were some of the first customers to frequent this small restaurant when it opened two years ago(which coincidentally also has a large selection of cheeses and charcutterie). It's still BYO, as it has been from the get go. But the once casual, reasonable and easy to share menu of pastas, pizzas, salads, cheeses and simple entrees like flank steak with chimichurri and grilled fish has morphed into something completely different. I was pleased with the changes that had been made this past summer - there was a marked improvement in the quality of the food and the daily specials were interesting and diverse - from artichokes with arugula and parmesan to radishes served with herbed butter and sea salt to interesting pizzas and pastas that weren't available all the time - Cube was our favorite place to go with friends to share a wide variety of flavors at a reasonable price.
When I called on Tuesday to make a reservation, I was told that there were 2 seatings: at 7 and 9 PM. I was totally surprised and asked how long they'd been doing "seatings" and the woman insisted it had been for a year. I got off the phone without making a reservation. Neither of those two times worked for us and to be honest, I felt fairly annoyed by the fact that I was being told that I could only come in at two times. I mean, isn't that sort of inflexible??? AND, there's NO way they've been doing this for a year...since we ate there in September with a 7:30 reservation on a Saturday night.
Regardless, we decided to go in and see if we could sit at the bar at whatever time we pleased...and we were accommodated. We happily took our usual corner seats and looked at the very formal menus in front of us. This was not the same Cube we'd been at 4 months earlier. The menu was more expensive and less diverse. We both looked at each other, a bit baffled. Entrees, that used to run in the range of $15-22 were now averaging $28. Our favorite flank steak that had been a staple was nowhere to be found. The perfect mixed green salad that complimented everything we got was completely gone. Since there wasn't a green salad anywhere on the menu, but there was a baby arugula salad included with several of the entrees, I inquired to see if I could get an arugula salad on it's own. The waitress came back apologetic letting us know that it just wasn't possible. She ended up bringing us a tri-colore salad special that she had described as having endive, radicchio, and arugula but in actuality was pretty much all frisee. The goat cheese and parmesan tart with tomatoes and balsamic was fine enough but I felt that it was overly-herbed and had expected the roasted tomatoes to appear in the tart - not on the side. The creamy cauliflower with two kinds of cheese was a nice surprise in that it wasn't outrageously creamy...more steamed with the perfect amount of cheese melted on top. The brussel sprouts, which I generally love, were under seasoned and left a lot to be desired. Lastly, we asked for some cheese guidance with their list of over 30 cheeses and while our waitress was lovely, she wasn't particularly knowledgeable and never offered to bring someone else over who might be.
All in all, it was a disappointment - overpriced, lacking selection (although if I'd never been there before, I'm not certain I would have felt that way), and unaccommodating. We won't be going back to Cube anytime soon - especially with the reservation Nazi.
Our last visit was to Greek restaurant Sofi on Third Street. I'd only been to Sofi once - at least 2 1/2 years ago- and I had LOVED it. The flavors were fantastic, as was the atmosphere on the heated porch. Last night, I might as well have been in a different restaurant.
I don't need a restaurant to be bustling to enjoy my evening, but we were LITERALLY the only table in the entire place. Granted, we were eating early, but by 7 PM, I expected a little company at nearby tables. Nothing. Still, if the food had lived up to my expectations, I wouldn't have cared.
The first time we went, we were waited on by a charming and knowledgeable greek waitress who happily guided us through the menu. Not so last night. Our waitress was certainly sweet, but it baffles me when there is only ONE table in the restaurant why our entire dinner order didn't come out at the same time. Sure, my husband ordered a salad and I ordered soup for dinner but one of our other friends ordered the same salad with chicken! We ordered appetizers (the caviar dip which was fishy for my taste and the spanikopita which happened to be outstanding) and then we all ordered our entrees together. If she was unsure as to whether or not we wanted our soup and salad at the same time as the gyro platter, she could have asked. After the apps were cleared, out came my husbands Greek salad. Alone. "Eat, eat!" everyone told him...so he did. You can't really screw up a Greek salad - and they didn't- but it wasn't anything special. Next I got my avogolemono soup. If you've never had this, don't have it here. It's a Greek lemon chicken soup and at the right place, it's steaming heaven in a bowl. I'm assuming the lemons were left out of the shipment that day, because I didn't taste a single drop of it in my soup. Finally, the other Greek salad with chicken and the Gyro platter arrived and our friends enjoyed their dinners.
The company was fantastic and we hadn't seen each other in a long time so we appreciated the extra time to catch up. But I made sure to tell our companions about Ulysses Voyage at The Grove - my absolute favorite Greek restaurant in Los Angeles. They have incredible salads for lunch (try the chopped or the Halumi salad) and the avogolemono is OUT OF THIS WORLD. Not to mention that everything on the menu at Ulysses is about 3-4 dollars less expensive than at Sofi. Lesson learned.
Happy eating!
Posted byMeesh-elle my Belle at 11:26 AM
Labels: food and drink
