LA/West Hollywood

[cinghiale]

Flying in from Philly for the weekend. We're staying in West Hollywood and are on our own tomorrow night.

Looked at the pinned thread on threads. Joe's in Venice looks good.

Looked at the pinned LA Times Dining compilation and spotted Tagine, in Beverly Hills. Looks promising, but doesn't appear to have been reviewed here.

Any other suggestions are most welcome. Looking to spend $150. Prefer contemporary American/California. Asian, N. African, or Indian works, too. We will have a car and can travel from West Hollywood, but hope not to spend all too much time in transit. Not interested in Italian or neo-pizza places.

Thanks.

[rjwong]

cinghiale,

If you're staying in WeHo, your options are many.

Joe's in Venice is pretty good and relatively a long distance away from WeHo.

The intersection of La Cienega Blvd. (Old Restaurant Row) & Beverly Blvd. (New Restaurant Row) is where the Beverly Center is located.

La Cienega Blvd. has: Matsuhisa, Sona, Fogo de Chao (Brazilian all you can eat), Lawry's the Prime Rib, Simon LA.

My favorites in the area:

Providence on Melrose, east of Highland. Great seafood.

Grace on Beverly Blvd., between Fairfax & La Brea. Neal Fraser won the Iron Chef pork episode.

Hatfield's on Beverly Blvd., two blocks from Grace. IMO, best new restaurant in LA so far. Small place, with 40-50 seats. You can have a real quiet conversation there.

BTW, two doors down from Hatfield's is Neal Fraser's new upscale "diner" called BLD (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner). They're open until midnight. Comfort food with quality ingredients. Charcuterie bar. Made-to-order dessert crepes. Currently, my favorite hangout. I'll probably be there at the charcuterie bar.

If you want some Thai food, drive along Hollywood Blvd., east of Western Ave. Thai Town, east of the Hollywood & Highland area. A lot of Thai restaurants that are open until 2-3 a.m. (you read correctly). 9-10 p.m. is sort of early for that area.

Angelini Osteria & La Terza are great Italian places, but you don't want that. Ortolan is a really good French restaurant on W. 3rd St., east of La Cienega.

Of course, there is Beverly Hills, dahlink ...

I hope this helps.

[cinghiale]

Thanks so much, Russell. I'll take a look at Providence, Grace, Hatfield's and BLD. If we decide on BLD, I'll look for you at the charcuterie bar. Thanks again.

[jsmeeker]

Lucques gets a lot of great reviews. Also, there is A.O.C. It's not in WeHo, but its really close. It's on Third St., which the next major street south of Beverly Blvd. (borders the other side of the Beverly Center. It's located close to Fairfax.

[milla]

Bin 8945 in West Hollywood. Fantastic wine list at incredible prices.

Website here.

[LarsTheo]

For north African, try Meals by Genet, the best Ethiopean restaurant in the city and very close to WeHo. I like Tommy Tangs for Thai food, and I believe the waiters are in drag on Mondays, although that might still be the case.

For Japanese food, try Sawtelle Blvd between Olympic and Santa Monica Blvd - Orris Restaurant is my favorite at that location, but there are several others I like also. Since I live in Venice, I'm really more familiar with restaurants in this area, including Santa Monica and Culver City. I've heard mixed reviews about Ford's Filling Station in CC - it's very crowded at lunch with Sony employees (DB is one of those), but not so in the evening. I like La Dijonaise better than Beacon for restaurants in that neighborhood.

Joe's in Venice is worth the trip, IMO, but it's just down the street from me, and so I take it for granted. I go there often for brunch.

Edited October 6, 2006 by LarsTheo (log)

[cinghiale]

Thanks to all. I have a reservation for tonight at Hatfield's. Maybe I can sneak in a lunch at one of the other recommendations here.

[boar_d_laze]

Every place you've mentioned is a good one.

If you enjoy asian food, especially sushi, you might want to give one of the sushi places in Korea Town (not too far from WeHo) a try. I can recommend Arado on Wilshire and A-Won on Vermont very highly.

Although nominally "Japanese Restaurants" the Koreans have a very unusual take. A Korean sushi meal is about 90% sashimi and a wonderful variety of side dishes known collectively as pan-chon. If you do go Korean, make sure to try jap-jae (yam noodles with mushroom and sesame) -- must love guarantee.

FWIW, the best sushi in West LA is not to be found on Sawtelle, but in two places: first, a restaurant that used to be located there but moved to Brentwood. "Sasabune," 12400 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 150 Brentwood; and the other is Echigo, in West LA, at 12217 Santa Monica Blvd, upstairs in a shabby mini-mall. Toshi-san, the owner/chef at Echigo apprenticed under Nobi-san, the owner/chef at Sasabune, and is at least his equal. Both of these places are very traditional sushi bars -- don't go expecting "creative rolls" only a gai-jin could love. Both serve fish and rice at their finest. As good as anything in Tokyo. Not cheap.

If you don't mind a dive, there's an area known as "Thai Town" east of WeHo in "East Hollywood." East Hollywood is really just a name for a part of LA that's got nothing else in particular going for it. But, I digress. There are some truly wonderful places. I especially recommend Palms Thai Restaurant in a crowded strip mall at 5900 Hollywood. If you're lucky you'll be serenaded by Kevin, the "Thai Elvis." Thai food that's as thai as food gets. The no kidding around real thing. Yenta fo with extra fish balls. Yum.

Rich

Edited October 9, 2006 by boar_d_laze (log)

[cinghiale]

Ate at Hatfield's Friday night. What a wonderful spot! Had a reservation for 9:00, were seated at 9:15. Gave us time to enjoy a cocktail on the porch. Me: Concord Martini (that would be gin with grape juice and a grape subbing for the olive); she: Caipirosca (vodka-based caipirnha). Both quite good.

We sat inside, though tables, mostly two-tops, ring the space outside along the porch. Ambience was cozy and welcoming, as described. The room was noisier than Russell had indicated, but we did arrive at the peak dining hour on a Friday; it quieted down around 10.

I had the octopous/hearts of palm on an olive puree. Well composed, octopus was prepared very well. I think I'd give Jose Garces' Amada here in Philly the edge in octopus prepration, but it was still one of the better octopus dishes I've had. My gf had a butter lettuce salad (man, that green is appearing everywhere now, it seems) w/Maytag blue. Also good.

My main was the hanger steak/short rib combo, and it was perfect. I had short ribs Thursday night at a Swiss place in NYC, so it was good opportunity to compare. Hatfield's preparation gets the nod and more. The rib was served boned and was terrifically moist, tender, flavorful. The steak was medium and spot-on. Gf had the halibut (I believe) -- she went with the Market Menu, but the listed fish was out, so they substitued from the entree menu. It was really well seasoned and tasty. We shared the MM dessert -- a blueberry muffin-ish thing. While I found it somwehat pedestrian, the other desserts being brought out looked awesome.

Had wine by the glass. Nothing stellar, but all were quite reasonably priced. Service was spotless.

Price was as planned: $150 before t/t.

We went next door to BLD and met Russell, who had left a note at Hatfield's that he would be at the charcuterie bar. It was very nice to meet you, Russell. Sorry our stay wasn't longer, or I would have pushed for a meal with you. You're a great resource for the LA board. I hope we can gtg when I'm next in town.

We did have breakfast the next morning at BLD. Sat outside and took in the early Saturday streetscape. I had a delicious eggs benedict-riffing dish with a chorizo-like sausage whose name I've forgotten. My only criticism is that the Bloody Marys (Maries?) could be a bit bigger.

Finally, we had breakfast Sunday at the Fifties Diner on Lincoln Boulevard in Venice. Nothing fancy, but sizeable portions well prepared, and quite inexpensive.

I look forward to trying more of the recommendations here when I next come to LA. Thanks to all for the information.