Grace Restaurant, Los Angeles (June 2008)

Grace http://www.gracerestaurant.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is always a stop during my LA trip. Dick and Carollee Krueger introduced me to this wonderful gem of a restaurant,

I no longer take notes at the dinner, so will simply share my impressions.

Right now Grace Restaurant celebrates five years with a five-course tasting menu offering Chef Neal Fraser’s old favorites. Pastry Chef Mariah Swan features doughnuts from the past, present and future. We did the menu but brought our own wines.

The crab salad had a suprising touch of mint, added intrigue and complemented the dish wonderfully. We all talked about it. Paired with a Kistler Cuvee Cathleen Chardonnay. 2004 if memory serves. Plus we opened a 1998 Durrell Kistler Chardonnay. The Cathleen was a dead ringer for Chassagne-Montrachet. Just lovely balance. The Durrell we feared may be over the hill, but alas it was rich butterscotch. Also lovely but very much different from it’s younger single vineyard sibling. A nice comparison.

The skate was nice and we continued to drink both chardonnays. The dish was wonderfully balanced, with the cauliflower very very intriguing and the capers adding a nice accent. From someone who doesn’t like cauliflower, this is quite high praise.

Bacon wrapped saddle of rabbit. I brought the 2001 Trapet Chambertin. I had read on this board is was open and ready for business. Nope. Closed tight as a drum. This is a bottle I hand carried back from the winery so I know its provenance. It opened SLOWLY during the meal, but alas if I had known I would have decanted 2 or more hours earlier. Our dining companions brought a 1996 Dugat Gevrey 1er which was drinking nicely. Our only problem with this dish is there was a bit of black pepper in the dish which was hot on the palate. We all wished for a big CdP as the pepper simply overwhelmed the wines.

The leg of lamb is nice. I love lamb, but nothing special. Perfectly cooked, no problems with Grace itself, but a tad… well… boring. We continued drinking the burgs which did go better with this dish. Not only was the Trapet peeking out, but the 96 Dugat was now going full steam. The lamb wasn’t asking for a bigger wine but I would not hesitate to go Rioja or even Calif Syrah with this dish if you are so inclined.

Wow! DONUTS! All fabulous. Opened with 99 Baumard QdC. I wish I could have taken away a doggie bag, but no doubt they are best hot right there in the restaurant.

Grace’s service is top notch. Eduardo, the sommelier, was fantastic, as always. Grace is a must do if you are in the area. Great food, great service, nice wine list and very very reasonable corkage.

I ate at Grace a few years ago and liked the food but didn’t love it. The service was superb like you said but I believe there are better choices in area. BTW I live five minutes from there…

Name your favorites other than Grace… would love to beef up my LA Rolodex. Grace has become a tradition for my LA trips but I am more than happy to explore more. I also like Michael’s, Melisse, Table 8 and Luques.

Although being able to stumble home has its charm (and Grace )

And I’ll admit that the food wasn’t as great as in year’s past. I think it was the 5 @ $55 menu. For the price, we did very very well. But for all out hedonism… we’ve done that at Grace with 8 course menus “just keep bringing the food, here’s the wines we want to drink”.

Never been to Table 8 but they are opening at a new location around the corner so I will have to go. Melisse is another on my list and my dentist is best friend’s with chef/owner, I should go sometime…


I really enjoy Lucques, Sona, Cut and BLT these days… I hear Church and State downtown is good I definitely want to check it out since Irene at the LA Times said the fries were some of the best she’s ever had…

Love the fries!!!

June!