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Saint Martha interior

It’s rare that a restaurant truly surprises you. Sure, I’ve thought that many dishes at many restaurants were good — very good, even. But to find what is almost literally a diamond in the rough is simply a delight.

That’s what I found in Saint Martha, a new restaurant in a Koreatown strip mall serving up modern American cuisine. Following in the footsteps of Chef Ludo Lefebvre’s Trois Mec and Petit Trois, Saint Martha restaurant offers a fine-dining experience in an unassuming location. Named for the patron saint of cooks and servants, Saint Martha is the brainchild of the Farmer’s Daughter Hotel and TART restaurant team. Executive Chef and partner Nick Erven (formerly of Mess Hall) and General Manager and Sommelier Mary Thompson have put together a food and drink menu that would be impressive even if the restaurant weren’t in a strip mall.

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Solair buildling in Koreatown. From lacurbed (Flickr).

This is a little late – my apologies – but the new mixed-use Solair building at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue in Ktown will be home to more than a few retailers, including Aveda, Edible Arrangements, Shabu-Ya, Haagen–Dazs, Aroma Cafe, noodle restaurant Yogi, and Korean-American fusion restaurant Ki Young Lee, among others. The stores are slated to open in the next couple of months. As for the condos at Solair, prices range from $800,000 to $2.8 million. Really, in Ktown? More at RackedLA.