Food & Drink
Amid the charred vegetables (get the peas and broccolini), blistered paper-thin pizzas, and mains like roasted chicken with kale and harissa is something truly refreshing: Thai snapper crudo made in the style of an aguachile, tucked at the top of the menu laundry list.
The nearly 30-year-old traditional wooden chairs and tables are enough of a reason to visit this dimly-lit strip mall space.Though crowds show up mainly for the superior bossam, a Korean specialty featuring pork belly slices and accompaniments, it’s worth trying basically everything on the menu, including the hulking seafood pajeon and kimchi stew in a stone pot.
Pho Hue Oi’s bánh bèo aren’t available yet, but once the restaurants adds them to the menu, the delectable little rice and tapioca flour-filled cups topped with fried shrimp and drizzled with fish sauce will make for a a terrific appetizer.
Traditionally, Los Angeles’s members-only club scene has conjured images of tuxedoed men and well-heeled women sipping stiff cocktails while Hollywood power brokers flit in the background, disappearing into velvet- or wood-lined rooms.
Alongside Hong and Turner, the other “cheftestants” will include Anya El-Watter (Birch and Rye), César Murillo (North Pond), Shuai Wang (Jackrabbit Filly and King BBQ), Mimi Weissenborn (Sur Lie), and more.
Once firmly into the main courses, Kim and the crew feature a steamed sea perch with scarlet prawn, dry-aged dairy cow with roasted sesame, creamy perilla noodles topped with shaved winter truffles, and charcoal-grilled lobster tail with doenjang sauce and raspberry powder.
I’ve recapped this in full for Time Out, but personally, I’m most excited for Bryant Ng and Kim Luu-Ng’s Jade Rabbit in Santa Monica.
Lien Ta is incredibly resilient, and my visits to her colorful Silver Lake corner were consistently memorable, but All Day Baby ultimately couldn’t survive mercurial market forces and the heartbreaking loss of her co-founder, chef Jonathan Whitener.
Fettuccine prepared tableside in a Parmesan cheese wheel, bone marrow risotto, and tagliolini with preserved Meyer lemons, scampi crudo tartare, and caviar round out the pasta selections.
The expansive poolside restaurant at Hotel Figueroa brings upscale Greek and other eastern Mediterranean flavors to Downtown such as bluefin tuna “dolmades,” various kinds of mezze, and wagyu souvlaki, and slow-cooked duck shawarma in a high-ceiling lounge-style dining room.
It will eventually expand to lunch service with signature bowls of ramen and hand rolls served all day and shareable Japanese-influenced comfort dishes like grilled skewers, tempura, chicken kaarage, and gyoza in the evenings.
Chef Raphael Francois partnered with wine professional Jordan Ogron and restaurateur Bill Chait back in June 2018, serving polished French bistro fare in a gorgeous, dimly lit space.