Too bad. I was there years ago and it was pretty nice. I liked the approach of “seafood steakhouse”, but more from a business standpoint on how to entice the American audience. I remember thinking that the lack of simplicity and European seafood styles still eludes America for the most part - seems like every seafood-centric restaurant in the US needs to have breaded or deep fried fish to survive. It’s one of the sad realties here in LA - we’re right by the pacific, yet no real good, simple seafood restaurants to be found, really.
Not sure about European, but Holbox is outstanding and perhaps my favorite seafood in LA. Just sucks there’s no alcohol or byob.
I had 1 meal at Water Grill in DTLA 8 or so years ago and never went back. The food was no where near good enough to justify the price.
Although it’s a completely different kind of restaurant, I’ve really been enjoying getting seafood and Broadstreet Oyster Company lately.
I dislike Water Grill. They seem to have a knack for ruining fish by overcooking and/or saucing with something disgusting. I get nauseated recalling the Patagonian Toothfish served with a sickeningly sweet vanilla sauce at a Wino’s dinner a few years back. 
Is there anything new or good at/around Hollywood & Highland? We’ll be staying at Loews for a concert at the Hollywood Bowl and was looking into a great pre-concert meal or brunch the next day.
I just did a friends and family meal at Horses on Sunset which is around 1 mile from Hollywood and Highland. Nice experience.
Charcoal in Venice over the weekend. We’ve liked Charcoal in the past, having enjoyed a few family style take out dinners recently, so looked forward to returning. Great to see a packed house. They’ve erected a nice patio in the back (i.e. you can hear dinner conversation). Opted for the DineLA menu. Delicious food. Standouts were the beef tartar and cabbage (must have). Service was well paced, thoughtful and very friendly. Glad to see the consistency in the kitchen and FOH. Corkage was $25- (generic stems but serviceable-byo if you like). Look forward to returning.
Had pizza at Ghisallo last night to accompany the Dodger game. My take after trying three pies last night is this place rocks! My new favorite pie in LA? Probably. The Margherita is a perfect slice of love when done right. This was perfect. The dough is light, crunchy, airy and delicious. The Cacio y Pepe was fantastic! Why havn’t I had a C&P pie before? Riccota was excellent, with just the right amount of black pepper and touch of chili heat. Third pie was the Campesino: quince, basil, ricotta, arugula, prosciutto. The flavors worked well. Dare I say, this is the best pie in LA via Santa Monica??? Will return asap to try some plated dishes.
Guess this is as good as any place to put this.
I will be doing a Rieslingstudy at the Rappcats Cut Chemist Record Popup this Saturday.
https://www.rappcats.com/shadow/
Amplify wines will also be doing tasting. Feel free to stop by and you are welcome to bring wine but it is not required.
I don’t think I will be there on Sunday.
Rappcats and DJ Shadow present:
The 5th Annual DJ Shadow Storage Sale
October 23rd & 24th, 2021
5638 York Blvd, Los Angeles
Noon-6PM
Sounds awesome! We loved the last one and my wife and I (and our sleeping baby) will be there!
Went to Jitlada for my first time last Friday. It’s legit — I don’t care what the Too Cool Crowd says. $10 corkage is pretty awesome. 2001 Gunderloch Rothenberg Auslese GK paired quite nicely with my oxtail jungle curry. Wasn’t a fan of the raw blue crab supplement on our papaya salad, but the salad itself was delicious. Chicken larb was the best larb I’ve had in a long time. Will definitely be going back — hate how it’s on the other side of town from where we live, but digging that it’s not too far from my office, so perhaps some takeout is in our future.
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36 hours in LA allowed for two dinners at Majordomo and breakfast at Destroyer.
Majordomo is back! The food never fell off but the staffing shortages were apparent. The entire staff could not have been nicer welcoming us back on Friday and fitting us in on Saturday night at 7:30.
And of course I made the mandatory stop at Destroyer.
Went to Destroyer for our first time on Saturday — met up with a friend visiting from out of town. Outside seating is fine, I guess, but can get very warm in the sun; my desire to dine here would be weather-dependent, as there is zero inside seating.
The food was generally good — more geeky/interesting than hedonistic. My favorite was probably the caramelized chickpeas, as shown in Robert’s picture in his post immediately prior to this one. The smoked black cod was “good,” but honestly didn’t wow me. The beef tartare was excellent, but a bit over-dressed, as the dressing hid the beef flavor more than I would have preferred. The chicken schnitzel dish was a tale of two worlds: the chicken, itself, was quite tasty, but it was served swimming/drowning in a bowl of shredded kale that had zero apparent seasoning on it — no salt, no pepper, no vinegar — nothing: put some damn vinegar on there, with a touch of salt, please! The sourdough bread, which is sourced from a Santa Monica baker, was amazing — sadly none for sale on premises.
To drink we had a 2012 Remy Massin - Millesime and a NV Benoit Lahaye - Blanc de Noirs, both of which were excellent, and went well with the food. Really, the wine-friendly nature of the food may be what I most liked about it. I’ll definitely go back, not because the food was thrilling (it wasn’t), but rather because the food was intriguing in a very understated way.
I usually go first thing in the morning to avoid the lines and sun. When I have gone later in the day I did bring wine and you are right the food is very wine friendly. They technically don’t allow corkage but don’t seem to care if you are not obvious about drinking.
Have you done Vespertine, Robert? I’m curious about it.
I did very early on and did not like it all. Jordan is an extremely talented chef and I think he was pushing the concept of what is food way too far. Many of the dishes were extremely heavy and the droning ambient music was like nails on a chalkboard. I am sure it has gotten much better over time and i will return once they reopen given my high level of respect for Jordan.
I love what he is doing at Destroyer as I think, given it is a casual restaurant, he is more relaxed and having fun and you can feel it in the food, even if not every single dish works perfectly.
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check out Coffee Coffee (melrose location) next time you’re in town Robert, great brunch. A few ex chef’s from Somni run it.
Thanks!
I wanted to book a table as Vespertine (haven’t been yet), but apparently, they still aren’t operating as usual. Does anyone know when they’re supposed to reopen?
I ended-up booking a table at Mélisse instead. Excited to try it out, and I really like their wine list and corkage policy.
In LA visiting family and we went to The Girl and The Goat last night. Absolutely phenomenal. Whoever had the idea to bring them from Chicago to LA was a genius. The food is exceptional. Lots of really balanced ferments, judicious use of oyster sauce, and really vibrant flavor combinations that I hadn’t had before. Every veggie dish we had was incredible. The liver mouse with crumpets was better than anything I’ve eaten in Philly over the last 6 months. Only “meh” thing we had were the grilled oysters with clam toast. We brought a bottle of Tissots “W” Vin Jaune as the corkage was only $35.