Mushroom-dusted shrimp at Roy's

Like prix fixe prices but not prix fixe menu choices? Roy’s, the restaurant that introduced Hawaiian and Asian fusion food to many, has brought back My Prix Fixe Mondays to address this very issue. For $35.95 on Monday nights, you can choose any appetizer, entrée and dessert from the regular menu.

On a recent visit to Roy’s in downtown Los Angeles, I tried out my own prix fixe combination. I enjoyed my potato croquettes, shrimp dusted with mushrooms and pappardelle, and pineapple upside down cake. The shrimp entrée was interesting — I’ve never had shrimp “dusted” with mushrooms, and the sauce the pasta came in was thinner than I expected, but it was satisfying. My dining companion chose the lobster potstickers, braised short ribs and bread pudding for her meal. The bread pudding took us by surprise — it was really spicy, though the menu didn’t describe it as such. Turns out the bread pudding contains cinnamon and dark chili powder, and the dark chocolate ice cream served alongside it has pacia peppers, cinnamon, dark chili pepper and cayenne peppers. The dish was tasty, but perhaps Roy’s should warn its diners of the spicy hotness in it!

Even with the surprise spiciness, Roy’s $35.95 prix fixe is a good deal — this is considered Hawaiian fine dining, after all.

Note: This meal was hosted.

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.

Recess happy hour at Public School 612

If you’ve been to the downtown L.A. Daily Grill lately, you may have noticed a separate bar space just past the host stand. That’s Public School 612 (AKA PS 612), a new gastropub concept from the owners of the Daily Grill restaurants. This is the first of what the owners hope will be many PS 612 locations.

The bar opens every day at 4:00 p.m. and features food and drink, including a nicely edited beer list. There’s also a Recess happy hour on weekdays from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. with a bar bites menu that tops out at $4. The drink specials don’t include the bar’s cocktails, but there’s a $4 handle of beer (that’s actually available all night long), a $5 Skinny Margarita and a $10 carafe of wine.

I was recently invited to try out the Recess menu, and I definitely found some favorite items. The Adobo Short Rib Tacos are tasty and tender, even though I didn’t really find the vinegar flavor I was expecting with a name like adobo. But no matter; the tacos were good (and hearty) anyway.

Adobo Short Rib Tacos

The Schezwan Calamari surprised me. I was skeptical at first, but the spicy Chinese flavors worked really nicely with this traditional Italian dish. I think I may actually prefer this preparation.

Schezwan Calamari

I also tried some items that are on the regular dining menu, and the 1903 Fish & Chips served with remoulade was a standout. The fish was light and flaky, and the fries were nicely fried, too.

1903 Fish & Chips

There’s also a dessert menu that’s kind of a secret, mostly because the items aren’t listed. Why aren’t they listed? Because they ran out of room on the menu! Seriously. So make sure to ask for these two delicious items: the beer float and the peanut butter and jelly cookies with milk.

This beer float, made with vanilla ice cream and Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, is my favorite beer float. The chocolate stout just makes sense — it’s not too bitter, but just bitter enough to give it some bite.

Beer float

The peanut butter and jelly cookies are also a great choice. The peanut cookie is rich, and the sweetness from the fruit jelly balances that out.

Peanut butter and jelly cookies

As for the drinks here, stick with the beer. There are beers from Craftsman, Allagash, Unibroue, Telegraph and The Bruery, among other quality breweries. Oh, and you can play darts in the back. It’s a recipe for good times.

Note: This meal was hosted.

So, without further ado, I give you my small-screen debut.

I had the burger, which came with cantal cheese and green peppercorn mustard, as well as a side of fries dusted with dill. The burger was juicy and flavorful, and the fries were cooked perfectly. The dill was a really nice touch, too. I also ordered the roasted cauliflower with chili, mint and pine nuts, which I loved. There was also some lemon juice in it, too.

Lazy Ox burger

Lazy Ox French fries

Roasted cauliflower

You’ll notice in the video and KCET’s blog post that I waited a long time for my order to be taken. It was a bit ridiculous, though I couldn’t tell if they were just giving us space to do our thing, or what. The servers also didn’t want to be on camera, so that’s why it looks like I’m talking to no one. Oh, well, I had fun anyway!

What I loved:

This gnocchi and lump crab appetizer was unique and absolutely delicious. The gnocchi was pillowy, and the addition of kumquat and micro basil was a pleasant surprise and nicely complemented the truffle parmesan cream sauce.

Gnocchi

The Brick Organic Chicken was crazy good. Crazy, crazy good. Many people think roasted chicken is boring, but one that’s cooked to perfection is one of the best dishes to eat on any menu, hands down. This one was juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside, and the farro and braised beet greens in a citrus jus were great, too. I would order this again in a second.

Chicken

The braised short rib was also very good, and boy, was it a big portion. Juicy, tender. Very satisfying, despite being a dish that’s seen much too often these days.

Short rib

Of course, there was the Junk Food Platter, a Kerry Simon classic. I didn’t eat much of this — just a bite of the snowball because I had a massive marshmallow craving — but it sure is fun to look at.

Dessert platter

Now, the red velvet cake, a nod to Sivley’s Southern roots, was delightful. The cream cheese frosting was very cream cheesy — just the way I like it. And it was topped with a gooseberry — who does that? Love.

Red velvet

What I didn’t love:

The Sushi Pizza, another Simon classic, apparently. It’s pizza dough topped with creamy wasabi rice, tuna, crab avocado, cucumber and sesame. It tastes as weird as it sounds. The creamy rice turned into a big mess once we started cutting into it, and the flavors just didn’t work for me.

Sushi pizza

I also didn’t understand the Sautéed Forest Mushrooms. These came on a large piece of bread, which became soggy after sitting for a while. I think this dish could have worked if the portion was smaller. Bigger is not always better.

All in all, the menu at L.A. Market has some standouts that I would definitely go back for, and even the cocktails were decent. But some dishes fell really flat, and some were just OK. Stick with the best, and you’ll be fine.

Note: This meal was hosted.

Wine? Why not! Photo by Christina Lam.

This Friday, Feb. 18, is National Drink Wine Day. Now, we all know that you don’t need a special reason to drink wine, but now you can say you’re doing your civic duty when your boss asks why you’re having that bottle — er, glass — of pinot at 10:00 a.m.

Here are a few ways to celebrate.

While not technically happening on National Drink Wine Day, Pourtal wine bar is hosting tonight a screening of the documentary “Merlove: A Documentary about Merlot” with writer and director Rudolf McClain. As you watch, sip on some of the bar’s merlot Merlove and white wine Labor of Love-themed wines. Screening is free, but the wine costs money.

Pourtal
104 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Wednesday, February 16, 2011
8:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

On Friday, downtown Los Angeles’ Corkbar will offer a specially-priced flight of three wines for $10. And if you check in on Foursquare and unlock the Swarm badge, you’ll get extended happy hour specials, including $2 off drafts, $8 select wines and half-priced select appetizers, for the rest of the night.

Corkbar
403 W. 12th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90015

Also, Napa Valley Grille in Westwood will host Friday a “Guess the Grape” game led by Wine Director Christina Sherwood. Guests will be invited to sample a grape varietal not listed on the menu, and if they answer correctly will be rewarded with a complimentary glass of wine. Free wine, woo!

Napa Valley Grille
1100 Glendon Ave. Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90024

Bakelab goodies. From Bakelab.

Artisanal L.A.: This weekend-long shopping, tasting and educational event comes from those who brought you the L.A. Street Food Fest and Unique L.A., so you know it’ll be fun. Artisanal L.A. will showcase the city’s finest local, sustainable and handmade edibles, including treats from Bakelab, Cake Monkey Bakery, Bonadea Drinks, Scoops and The Oaks Gourmet, among many others. For $10 (advance purchase; $15 at the door), you’ll get unlimited entry for two days to enjoy all this plus local craft beer and spirits tastings, a one-of-a-kind tote bag for the first 1,000 attendees, arts and crafts workshops, speakers and chef demonstrations, giveaways, Pitchfork’s Mud Baron giving out seedlings, and gift wrap hosted by Uncouth Gourmands benefiting the LA Regional Food Bank. Partial proceeds will benefit Los Angeles Unified School District’s Edible School Gardens.

The Cooper Building
860 S. Los Angeles St., 11th Floor Penthouse
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Oct. 23 and Oct. 24
11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The Barkley Pet Hotel & Day Spa: Billed as the Ritz-Carlton of pet hotels, The Barkley is opening up this weekend in Westlake. While there are other shi-shi pet hotels, including D Pet Hotels, what makes this place unique is its inclusion of birds and exotics in its description of “pets.” Now you can house your dog, cat, bird and snake all at the same place! There are overnight accommodations, grooming and spa services, day camp, obedience training, and pick-up and delivery service. The full-service day spa services include baths, body massages, mud-masks and “pawdicures.” Prices start at $45 per night. Not too shabby, huh? If you’d like to check it out, there will be sneak preview tours this weekend with entertainment, auctions, raffles and food with all proceeds benefiting local pet charities. Advance tickets are free with registration.

The Barkley Pet Hotel & Day Spa
31166 Via Colinas
Westlake Village, CA 91362

Preview tours Oct. 23 and Oct. 24
8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Grand opening Oct. 25

The Food Event: Los Angeles magazine’s annual event will also be celebrating the magazine’s 50th anniversary and its November “Mexican Food Lovers Guide” issue. The day will feature chefs, culinary experts and sommeliers with lots of unlimited food, wine and other treats, including the Top Chef Masters panel in the Conversation Lounge. Some of the luminaries scheduled to appear are Susan Feniger of Street and Border Grill, Mark Gold of Eva Restaurant, Laurent Quenioux of Bistro LQ, Ian Blackburn of LearnAboutWine and more. On top of all that is the location of the event, Saddlerock Ranch in the Malibu hills, home to Semler and Saddlerock wines. Nice!

Saddlerock Ranch
31727 Mulholland Highway
Malibu, CA 90265

Oct. 24
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
$95 in advance (for $5 more get a one-year subscription to Los Angeles magazine, too); $110 at the door

Mozzarella amuse bouche

I’ve been to downtown Los Angeles’ Drago Centro many times before, but I had only partaken of the bar menu, which is one of the best deals in town (everything is less than $10 all the time — no need to wait for happy hour!). But I hadn’t had a real meal at the restaurant until last month, when my friends very generously took me for my birthday. And it was one of my favorite meals of the last month.

We let the chef choose our food, and choose well he did. We started with the baby octopus with blood orange and wild greens. While it didn’t look like much, it tasted great — a perfectly light and flavorful way to start a meal.

Baby octopus salad

We also had the burrata with endive, basil pesto and crostini. The portion of cheese was very generous and went nicely with the basil.

Burrata

Course No. 3 was my favorite dish of the night — potato gnocchi with lobster and English peas and tendrils. I’m normally not a big fan of gnocchi, but this version was incredibly light. And who doesn’t love lobster?

Potato gnocchi

For our main course we had the crispy jidori chicken breast served over tomato panzanella, or bread salad. This dish was wonderfully light — perfect for a summer day. The chicken breast was surprisingly juicy, too.

Jidori chicken

For dessert, pastry chef Jashmine Corpuz sent out three — yes, one for each of us! — portions of bomboloni, or Italian doughnuts dusted in sugar. Each serving came with chocolate sauce, pistachio gelato and cherries. The gelato and other accoutrements change periodically, so there’s always something new to try. Delicious.

Doughnuts

Special thanks to sommelier and beverage director Michael Shearin, who helped out with service and even sat us at our table!

I had visited First & Hope once before during its preview night when the atmosphere was close to mayhem. It was very crowded, and while the servers did their best, it was hard to get a good idea of what the food and drink should have been like.

So when presented with an invitation to have dinner at the restaurant under normal circumstances, I decided I would give the place another chance. I would have a proper meal and make a better-informed decision about First & Hope’s merits.

And I’ve made my decision: I would only come back here for one, maybe two, dishes.

You see, the menu sounds good; it reads like a food blogger’s wet dream, with foie gras, bacon and pork rinds littered all over its comfort food-centric offerings. But First & Hope leaves much to be desired in execution.

First, the cocktails. Nearly every one contains some kind of bubbly, no doubt an homage to the vintage style. I get it, but I thought the drinks were just OK, which was pretty much my summation after the preview party, too. I had an Elle for Leather, made with Famous Grouse scotch, vanilla syrup, “a touch of effervescence” and garnished with a vanilla pod. It smelled amazing due to the vanilla pod but tasted light on the scotch.

Elle for Leather. There's a blue tint because of the mood lighting.

I had sips of the Russian Spring Punch, made with Grey Goose vodka, cassis, raspberry and bubbly, which was too fruity, and the Seelbach, made with Woodford Reserve bourbon, orange curaçao, bitter, bubbles and garnished with an orange peel, which was a bit too sweet.

Russian Spring Punch

Seelbach

We were served a couple of appetizers before our starters, including an amuse bouche of potato, creme fraiche, chives and I don’t remember what else. It was fine, but not outstanding. The spreadable cheese and house-made saltine crackers were palatable, though.

Potato amuse bouche

Cheese ball and house-made saltines

Next up was a round of appetizers. The standout here was the All-About-The-Cheese Mac & Cheese Flight. It came with three pots of cheesy goodness, one filled with Marin triple cream brie, elbow macaroni (the menu says baby lasagna but it was elbow macaroni) and some kind of baked puffed cake on top; another with Cypress Grove goat cheese, mini shells and crumbled popped corn; and the last with porter beer cheese, corkscrew pasta and crumbled rye croutons. And each pot came with “sides,” including more cheese, honey, mustard and even a mini pint of porter beer. Score!

Mac & cheese flight

Unfortunately the rest of the starters left a lot to be desired. The Crab Meat Justine Potpie made with crab gratin topped with a puffy, buttery french toast was boring, and the Popcorn Shrimp & Grits with jumbo shrimp, corn relish, popped corn cream sauce and creamy grits might have been OK if it had arrived at our table hot.

Crabmeat Justine Potpie

Shrimp and grits

And the Back Yard Garden Salad looked gorgeous but left me wanting, especially the fiddlehead ferns that were promised on the menu but didn’t appear on the plate. This dish is also the first time we encountered the undercooked potatoes. While the amuse’s potato was perfectly cooked, the rest of the potatoes were crunchy (and there were many of them). The green goddess dressing was good, though.

Back Yard Garden Salad

The main dish that I liked best was the Duck-Duck-Goose — a duo of a sugar-and-spice seared duck breast and duck leg confit, roasted foie gras, spring onion hoe cake and wilted baby mustard greens. Even though I got a piece of gristly fat in my bite of duck breast that I ultimately had to spit out, the meat was nice and tender. And the duck leg confit layered between green onion pancakes topped with foie gras was heavenly.

Seared duck breast

Duck leg confit with foie gras

What wasn’t so heavenly was Nenaw’s Picnic Basket, which came with juicy-yet-bland deep-fried buttermilk hen (which was also slightly over fried), a crunchy potato salad, beer-braised collard greens and cornbread sticks. The potatoes were yet again undercooked, and while the collard greens were enjoyably spicy, the cornbread was placed in the same container, making it mushy.

Nenaw's Picnic Basket

And then there was the Moonshine Meatloaf: a ground chuck, foie gras and gin meatloaf wrapped in bacon served with “blistered potato and pearl onion hash,” brown butter green bean bundles and caramelized tomato marmalade. This was quite possibly the most disappointing dish of the night for me. There was just too much going on in the meatloaf, which seemed to suffer from unbalanced proportions and a texture that, dare I say, reminded me a bit too much of canned dog food. And does that look like “hash” to you? No, it doesn’t look like hash to me, either. Oh, and the potatoes were hard again. When we finally asked about the crunchy potatoes, we were told that they were meant to be “al dente.” Really? Really.

Moonshine Meatloaf

The desserts we tried were nothing to write home about, either. The Porky Pig Banana Split with bacon and banana ice cream, jalapeno hot fudge, brandied cherries and caramel pork rinds sounded better than it was (I personally didn’t like the pork rinds but a dining companion did), and the Lemon Meringue Beehive with coconut macaroon, lemon curd, lemon-thyme ice cream and toasted marshmallow had too much thyme in large pieces to be enjoyable. And I love the lemon-thyme combination usually.

Porky Pig

Lemon Thyme Beehive

The one saving grace was the strawberry milkshake with strawberry compote and strawberry whipped cream that came with the LAPD Donut Shake Down’s Boston cream pie doughnuts and chocolate dipping sauce. I don’t remember the doughnuts at all, but the shake was really good.

LAPD Donut Shake Down

Consistency and execution are definitely problems at First & Hope. The proportions are wrong, potatoes are crunchy (literally — I thought I was eating all celery out of that potato salad), and it’s like the kitchen has never read the menu. Of course, like the rest of the restaurant, the food presentation is pretty, and the service is excellent. Good service can go a long way. But in the end, you’ll need something to back up all that style.

Further reading:

First & Hope Supper Club: Because She’s In That Part of Downtown by e*starLA

Southern Discomfort: First & Hope Supper Club by LAist

Note: This was a hosted meal.

Hello, ladies! Courtesy of Balblair.

Balblair, a Highland single malt scotch whisky, recently held its U.S. launch at the Edison in downtown Los Angeles. I attended the party, along with Tara of When Tara Met Blog, Fiona of Gourmet Pigs, Esther of e*starLA and others, where we sipped on Balblair 1991 and 1997 accompanied by small bites such as bruschetta and chocolates, which went surprisingly well with the scotch. I preferred the 1991, which was smoother than the 1997, which was spicier.

What sets Balblair apart from other scotches I’ve tasted, including Macallan, Highland Park and Dalmore (check out Thirsty in L.A.‘s very thorough post on the Dalmore tasting at the Varnish), is the use of vintages, i.e., years, in naming, just like wines do. Most scotches use the number of years the liquor has been aged in their naming conventions. Balblair’s bottle design is also very contemporary, something you don’t necessarily expect from a scotch. Considering how many times I’ve heard that scotch isn’t just for old men anymore, it’s refreshing to see a company actually reflect that in its packaging.

Courtesy of Balblair

Balblair isn’t cheap, either — the 1991 retails for $129.99 per bottle, and the 1997 goes for $64.99. Wow. Balblair isn’t messing around. While I enjoyed the 1991, I don’t think I would pay $130 for a bottle of it. [Note: There are few things I would pay $130 a bottle for, mostly because I don't have that kind of cash!] Taste it for yourself and let me know how you like it: Balblair is available locally at the Edison, Checkers and Thirsty Crow.