Selvatica Pesto Pizza at Urbano Pizza Bar

What goes nicely with beer and other libations? Pizza, of course!

Urbano Pizza Bar, conveniently located next to Library Bar at 6th and Hope streets, offers a great food option. With pizza crust that’s perfectly chewy and crisp at the same time, as well as good side dishes and respectable beer and wine lists, Urbano is a new go-to for downtown revelers.

Chef Brad Winnaman, best known for his baking skills with stints at La Brea Bakery and Campanile, has created a menu focused on Neapolitan-style pizza and some stand-out bread, which obviously includes the crust and extends to grilled bread topped with crushed tomato sauce and/or hearty meatballs. Winnaman has had help from Top Chef alum and The Gorbals chef Ilan Hall, who was on-hand the night we visited.

Urbano Pizza Bar

Ilan Hall

Our favorite pizzas included the seasonal Scimmietta made with pureed pumpkin spread across the crust topped with applewood-smoked bacon, scallions and goat cheese, as well as the Selvatica (shown above) made with basil pesto, slow-roasted tomatoes, pine nuts, fresh basil leaves and burrata. While the Selvatica was more traditional in flavor, the Scimmietta was a nice departure from the norm.

We were also impressed with the side dishes, especially the Mozzarella Trio and charred corn with balsamic butter. The Mozzarella Trio includes burrata with roasted tomato and basil pesto, smoked mozzarella with grilled radicchio and crushed tomato, and mozzarella with cherry tomato and basil oil. All were complementary combinations. And the charred corn took on a whole new dimension of flavor with the balsamic butter, which melted all over the corn and created a savory, creamy, smoky concoction.

Mozzarella Trio

Charred Corn with Balsamic Butter

Hall plans to continue helping out with the menu for a while longer, but rest assured Winnaman’s delicious bread will be a staple at Urbano. Paired with a glass of California central coast wine or a pint of locally brewed beer, such as the Craftsman 1903 Pale Lager, you’ll have a tasty meal.

Note: This was originally posted on LAist. This meal was hosted.

I had been meaning to try FIG Restaurant in the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica since it opened early last year, so when I was invited to dinner there, I jumped at the chance. The restaurant’s seasonal, farm-to-table concept sounded good — how could a place that places its emphasis on fresh local ingredients not sound good? The good news is this philosophy isn’t just lip service: Chef Ray Garcia knows his ingredients, and his kitchen can really cook.

The meal started out on the right foot with mini baguettes served with arugula butter, something I had never seen or heard of before. It was light and flavorful — I kind of wanted to take a spoon to it and eat it straight out of the container.

Arugula butter topped with cracked black pepper and sea salt

If you like cheese and charcuterie, I highly recommend getting the charcuterie sampling ($25) and Eric’s Stash ($25) cheese plates. They’re not cheap, for sure, but they’re worth every penny. The selections were well-balanced and complementary to each other.

Charcuterie sampling and Eric's Stash cheese plates

This is where the cheese comes from -- the bar.

The corn-stuffed squash blossoms, relatively new to the menu, were also a nice way to start off the meal. Though the flowers were breaded and fried, the overall effect wasn’t as heavy as their appearance may lead you to think. The sauce was also surprisingly light yet creamy.

Corn stuffed squash flowers

The cocktail menu also follows the farm-fresh philosophy, and it pays off here, especially in the Blackberry & Sage made with Mitcher’s bourbon, muddled blackberries, green chartreuse, crème de cassis, fresh lime juice and fresh sage.

Blackberry & Sage

The appetizers at Fig are strong, including the Pacific mussels, the grilled artichoke with Meyer lemon aioli, and — my favorite — the snap peas with mint and parsley. The artichoke was grilled to perfection, and the mussels cooked in Chablis wine and tarragon served with a grilled baguette could easily and happily feed two to three people. But the fresh snap peas, still delightfully crisp, were a revelation, considering how simply they were prepared.

Pacific mussels

Snap peas

The standout main dish for me was the carrot pappardelle with braised rabbit, peas and mint. Actually the description is a little misleading as I thought the pasta was made with carrot, but really the carrots are just another component in the dish. No matter; this was amazing, especially with a rich sauce made from chicken and rabbit broth.

Carrot pappardelle

Another dish that I enjoyed was the short rib and pancetta meatloaf served with mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli di cecco. After the very disappointing meatloaf I had a week before this meal, this hearty dish was more than welcome. It stuck to the basics and didn’t try to do too much in reinventing the dish.

Short rib meatloaf

The weakest part of the meal was dessert. Though nothing was bad, most of what we tried that night tasted either too rich or not rich enough. However, there was one item that hit the spot: the chocolate pot au crème. This chocolate custard is not too thick or heavy and has just enough of the chocolate flavor to satisfy.

Chocolate pot au crème

Note: This meal was hosted.

Pork cemita

I also sampled the clayuda, a Mexican pizza of sorts made by smearing lardy black beans on a tostada, then topping that with Oaxacan string cheese, queso fresco and big pieces of pork and beef. The meat wasn’t cut up at all, so it’s kind of hard to eat. I preferred the cemita.

Clayuda

I had a horchata drink made with horchata rice milk, cactus (tuna) syrup, pieces of cantaloupe and pecans. It may sound strange, but it was actually very refreshing amid the spice of the food. I would definitely go back to Huntington Park’s Pal Cabron, which, not-so-incidentally, is owned by the same people who own the Oaxacan food chain Guelaguetza, for a cemita and to try one of their beer cocktails (micheladas).

Horchata. From Glutster.

Thanks to Sam Kim of LAist for sharing his Pal Cabron gift certificates with me!

I was a little weary about accepting an invitation to a hosted dinner at Kabuki, the small West Coast Japanese restaurant chain, because, you know, it’s a chain. But I said to myself, “Self, don’t be so critical. Have an open mind.” Since I had been to a Kabuki only once years ago, I decided to give it a chance. And I was pleasantly surprised by some of the dishes, and not surprised by others.

Let me explain. Kabuki is not a straightforward Japanese restaurant; it’s a fusion place, with menu influences from all over, including Mexican and Italian. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make you expect (and not expect) certain things. That said, Kabuki offers a lot of traditional Japanese food, such as sushi, sashimi and ramen, as well as beef carpaccio and shrimp risotto.

So I went to the Kabuki in Hollywood to give it a whirl. It turns out that this location will be introducing some new appetizers later this month, so we (Esther of e*starLA, Cathy of Gastronomy Blog, Javier of Teenage Gluster, Pat of Eating L.A. and Fiona of Gourmet Pigs) had first crack at trying these new items, all of which will be most likely priced for less than $10.

First up was Ahi poke tuna with avocado, seaweed, daikon, ponzu sauce and sesame seeds. This was one of the dishes that pleasantly surprised me. The flavors are well-balanced, and the daikon is a nice touch, too.

Ahi poke tuna

Next was yellowtail carpaccio with a spicy ponzu sauce and jalapeno slices. This was also pretty good, though it didn’t have as much flavor as the poke dish.

Yellowtail carpaccio

There were also three new rolls, including my favorite the Baja roll. It’s essentially a California roll made with spicy mayo mixed with the crab inside and topped with more crab, pico de gallo, and served with more spicy mayo on the side. The pico de gallo complemented the roll well.

Baja roll

The last two new rolls, the Vegas roll and the Lasagna roll, I wasn’t that impressed with. The Vegas roll, much like a Philly roll, is made with salmon, cream cheese, crab, cucumber and deep fried like tempura, didn’t taste bad, but I found the cream cheese off-putting (which is why I never order Philly rolls, either). It was also gargantuan, relatively speaking.

Vegas roll

Talking about cheese, the Lasagna roll was covered in it — literally. It’s a California roll topped with cream cheese, mozzarella and parmesan, melted under the broiler. In the name of science or whatever, I tried a piece, and my ideas about sushi and cheese were not altered. That is, sushi and cheese should not mix. Kabuki gets point for trying, but this missed the mark for me.

Lasagna roll

On the other hand, I tried a few other things that I did enjoy, including the cured salmon appetizer with kiwi, orange, olive oil and radish.

Cured salmon

I also liked the soy ramen with Napa cabbage, bean sprouts, onions and asparagus. Maybe I liked this so much because it was a cold, rainy night, but I think this was a pretty decent bowl of ramen, even if it was meatless.

Soy ramen

The Lobster Dynamite made with lobster tail, soy sauce, sake, avocado and dynamite sauce (more mayo). Even though dynamite dishes are drenched in mayo and I don’t usually like mayo, this was a tasty dish. So creamy.

Lobster Dynamite

I also tried the Lotus on Fire roll, which is a California roll topped with spicy tuna, lotus root chips and jalapeno, served with spicy mayo and spicy tempura crumbles on the side. I’m a sucker for the spicy tuna-jalapeno combination, but this one was just OK. There was too much spicy tuna on top of the actual roll, and it overwhelmed the dish. I’ll stick with the Fire de Kaz at Boss Sushi for this one.

Lotus on Fire roll

A piece of Lotus on Fire roll

For dessert we tried a bunch of sweets, mostly chocolate-based, but my favorite was the Freddo, which is pretty much Korean shaved ice. It’s made with shaved ice topped with ice cream, condensed sweetened milk, fruit and chocolate sauce. We chose red bean ice cream, but it tasted more like strawberry because it was so sweet.

Freddo

There were some hits and some misses, but overall, I enjoyed the meal more than I thought I would. Just stay away from the cheese.