B-Wing Salad at Veggie Grill. Photo by Brian Goodman.
Growing vegan restaurant chain Veggie Grill continues to surprise me. The first time I ate there, I was skeptical of its food because I’m not a big fan of faux meats, but Veggie Grill’s menu manages to please crunchy granola vegans without alienating meat eaters. Now the restaurant has added tasty new items to its menu, including hearty dinner plates and a crab cake sandwich — yes, seafood!
Chef Ben Bailly shows off his lamb cheeks. Photo by John Ales.
Is third time the charm for Ben Bailly? Bailly recently joined Cliff’s Edge as executive chef, where he was brought on to revamp the menu after stints at Petrossian and Fraiche Culver City. Cliff’s Edge is Bailly’s third restaurant since arriving in Los Angeles, and his food complements the Sliver Lake location nicely. The menu is elevated but not stuffy, which seems to speak well to the discerning hipster neighborhood.
During a recent visit to Cliff’s Edge, I enjoyed both the cocktails and the food. I really liked the Bitter Pill (Zaya 12 year rum, Fernet Branca, brown sugar, fresh lime juice, egg whites, orange oils), which had great depth of flavor. The Gold Rush (Buffalo Trace bourbon, honey syrup, fresh lemon juice, orange oils) and Question Mark (Bols Genever gin, lavender simple syrup, fresh grapefruit and lemon juice, Peychauds bitters, flamed grapefruit oils) were also winners, mostly because I love the bourbon-citrus combo as well as lavender in general.
As for the food, the Whipped Ricotta with lavender (again!), honey and olive oil is a must to start. It’s fluffy, creamy and fragrant. The Crispy Polenta served with mushrooms, egg, and Pecorino Romano cheese, as well as the Seared Scallops with lebne yogurt cheese, cauliflower, Vadouvan spice and salsa verde, are solid savory options.
The Skate Wing served with sunchokes, brown butter, pine nuts, lemon and capers was hands-down my favorite main dish. It was reminiscent of a fish and sunchoke dish that Bailly served at Fraiche that I also enjoyed. The Lamb Cheeks with celery root purée, rapini and hazelnut gremolata is another good choice.
The Chocolate Torta is what you should order for dessert. At once light, smooth and decadent, this cake is one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve had in a while. I don’t normally order the chocolate cake at restaurants, but I would definitely do it here.
Remember Les Deux, that bastion of douchey Hollywood clubbery? Now it’s a sophisticated restaurant, Sadie, with a proper food and drink menu designed by Executive Chef Dave Schmit and Director of Spirits Giovanni Martinez. After its brief stint as gastropub Les Deux Estate, which was respectable, Sadie feels like what this space always should have been: elegant but laid back, a respite from the craziness of Hollywood.
I visited Sadie recently, and I was overall very pleased with my meal. My dining companions and I started with a bevy of cocktails from Martinez, whom I highly respect as a mixologist. My favorites were the Pontchartrain (bourbon, 10 year tawny port, house-made grenadine, fresh lemon juice, absinthe rinse), La China (lychee black tea-infused Avion Silver Tequila, fresh lime juice, organic agave syrup, Velvet Falernum) and Kentucky Ninja (Japanese single malt whisky, bourbon, fresh lemon juice, lavender-infused wild honey, Peychaud’s bitters rinse). Even the drinks that I didn’t like, such as the White Monk (white pepper- and cardamom-infused Dolin Blanc Vermouth, Silver tequila, Castilian bitters, Benedictine rinse), had a delicate balance to them that I appreciated. For the record, my friends really liked the drinks that I didn’t, and I respect their opinions, so I can safely say that these differences were a matter of taste and not poor execution.
As for the food, the mains were standouts. I ordered the Roast Jidori Chicken Breast, which came with spaetzle, Brussels sprouts and heirloom cherry tomatoes served in mustard-y pan sauce, that was extremely satisfying. I would order it again in a heartbeat. I also had tastes of the Fresh Spinach Pasta with mushroom ragout, tomatoes and parmesan, as well as the All-Natural Scottish Salmon served with broccolini, leeks, peas and herb butter. Both dishes were tasty. Where our dinner fell short was with the flatbreads, whose toppings were fine but whose bread was over cooked. The salads were rather unremarkable, especially the Gem Salad. However, the Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream Sandwich that we had for dessert was delicious, and I don’t even like PBJ!
Sadie is a great addition to Hollywood. Good food, good drink and good atmosphere. Make sure to sit on the back semi-enclosed patio — it’s gorgeous.
Caulfield’s, one in what seems like a growing string of literary-themed bars and eateries (Hemmingway’s, Writer’s Room), is the Catcher in the Rye-inspired restaurant that took over the Bond Street space inside the Thompson Beverly Hills hotel. Now, I’m not sure how you get a French bistro out of the Holden Caulfield character, but I guess that’s neither here nor there. What would be significant is the food and drink; unfortunately, some of the menu here misses the mark. While some dishes are really good, others are kind of boring. The good thing is, nothing I tried here recently was actually bad.
The good:
We started and ended well. The appetizers Toad in a Hole, with the traditional egg cooked into a piece of toast and as well as a side of smoked trout salad, and the Pan-Seared Crab Cakes served with planks of corn were mighty tasty. These dishes were seasoned well and prepared nicely. The Banana Terrine dessert, which was really more like a trifle with layers of banana, wafers, chocolate and rum custard, was a delightful way to end the meal.
The not-so-good:
Our first Frisée Bacon-Lardon salad arrived sans bacon and with an overcooked poached egg. Our second salad was better, though there wasn’t much in terms of seasoning on it. Same goes for our mains: the chicken pot pie and the beef short ribs lacked pizazz, and by that I mean salt and pepper. This was unfortunate as the dishes could have been much better, though I could have done with some kind of starch to go with my huge plate of short ribs.
As for the cocktails…I don’t remember much about them other than whatever whiskey-based drink I ordered was very strong. Obviously these didn’t make much of an impression.
If Caulfield’s would step it up a notch and make some small adjustments, this could be a great place for an upscale-yet-unpretentious meal, which I would find welcoming in shi-shi Beverly Hills.
I love Japanese candy. I love the unique flavors and the cuteness of it. So when a friend from Japan recently gave me these Japanese Kit Kats, I was overjoyed! Now, I know strawberry and green tea aren’t that exotic, but the red bean toast (toast!) flavor was definitely something new…and I’m not sure I liked it. I love red (azuki) bean, but the toast component just made it taste a little burned, which isn’t my cup of tea, so to speak. I also didn’t love the green tea flavor — too matcha-y for me. I did really like the strawberry, though. I know, that’s so boring! But it had a perfect strawberries-and-cream flavor. I believe you can find some of these flavored Kit Kats at Japanese supermarkets in the United States, such as Mitsuwa. I wonder if you could find some of the weirder flavors, such as grilled corn, Royal Milk Tea or soy sauce (yes, soy sauce!). Have you tried any of these flavors before?
Bäco Mercat, the new downtown Los Angeles restaurant from Chef Josef Centeno (of Lazy Ox Canteen fame) centered around his flatbread sandwich/pizza/taco creation, is a restaurant years in the making. Centeno first introduced the hybrid bäco as a staff meal at Meson G in Hollywood, where he was executive chef, and later put it on the lunch menu at Lot 1 in Echo Park. It occasionally shows up at Lazy Ox, too. Now the bäco has a home of its own, and it’s settling in nicely.
Mohawk Bend, Echo Park’s new restaurant in a converted movie theater with an impressive 72 beer taps, is a great place for a drink and light meal. Appetizers and salads, as well as a nicely curated beer list, are the stars here, and the atmosphere is lively if a bit crowded. But where Mohawk Bend excels, it overreaches in other areas, especially when it comes to burgers and pizza.
Restaurant Row on La Cienega Boulevard has been long known for its large, overly expensive eateries — Lawry’s The Prime Rib, Benihana, Woo Lae Oak, The Stinking Rose. But the Row’s Gonpachi Beverly Hills, though large, is one of the best values on that strip with its incredibly fresh-tasting sushi-grade fish and satisfying hot dishes, including robata.
I was recently invited to dinner at Gonpachi to try out its new menu. I hadn’t been to the restaurant for years, and only for happy hour, so I was excited to go back. The courtyard is lush with foliage and a koi pond, and the interior is reminiscent of the film Kill Bill (which was filmed at the Tokyo location of Gonpachi). All this really sets the scene for the fine meals served here.
Class 302, a little Taiwanese cafe in a Rowland Heights strip mall, offers some of the best Asian dessert I’ve ever had. While there’s also a savory food menu, the star here is the shaved snow. Yes, shaved snow, not shaved ice. Where traditional Chinese shaved ice comes in tiny chips with all the flavors piled on top, Taiwanese shaved snow comes in big sheets with flavor already frozen in the ice. Sure, you can still get all kinds of goodies on top, such as the mango, strawberry and condensed milk shown above, but you’ll also get milk frozen in the ice. This makes for a creamy texture not normally found in shaved ice. It’s really unique.
I recently tried a bunch of shaved snow combinations at Class 302 with a group of foodies, including Esther of estarLA, Danny of Kung Food Panda and Josh of Food GPS, and my favorites were the Mango Shaved Snow with mango-flavored ice topped with mango, mochi and condensed milk, and the Green Tea Red Bean Shaved snow with green tea-flavored ice topped with red beans, mochi and condensed milk. The flavors were so rich yet not too heavy. They were perfect for a hot day.
Mango Shaved Snow at Class 302
Green Tea Red Bean Shaved Snow at Class 302
On a weekend afternoon, you may have to wait a while — we waited about an hour — for a table. And like many Chinese restaurants, Class 302 takes only cash. But these desserts are totally worth it.
Just when you thought you had The Veggie Grill figured out – it’s tasty, but no, the meat isn’t real – The Veggie Grill surprises you. There’s a secret menu!
As with many secret menu items, these dishes are variations of items already on the menu. The one we tried were the chili cheese fries, which uses the restaurant’s signature sweet potato Sweetheart Fries topped with the Bean Me Up chili, vegan cheese and sour cream, and garnished with chopped tomatoes and parsley. This is a huge dish, so be prepared to either share it or to bring at least half of it home. The chili cheese fries are tasty but heavy. Who knew vegan food could be so substantial?
