The Skinny Critic

Austria Uncorked - Tonight at the SLS

I am super excited to attend Austria Uncorked tonight at the SLS Hotel. You can still get tickets for $100 tonight at the door, as all advanced tickets are SOLD OUT! Austrian wines will be paired with cuisine by Jose Andres and dessert by Wolfgang Puck.

Hundreds of wines will be poured and there will also be a wide selection of Austrian cheeses and charcuterie. While typically people assume Austria to have strong white wines, red wines now account for a third of production in Austria. Another third is Gruner Veltliner which can have many different styles from sparkling to long aging wines with minerality. There will no doubt be many different wines at tonight's event!

Austria Uncorked 465 S. La Cienega Blvd. 6:30-9

Son of a Gun: So YUMMY

Son of a Gun was so good that I went twice...in a ROW! I went last night and I went back again tonight.  And it was just as good the second time.

Last night we started with the lobster roll. They are mini, really, really mini, so I recommend ordering one per person.  It's the perfect lobster roll. The bun is warm and toasted and the lobster meat is mixed with celery, lemon aioli and thin potato chips on top for a crunch. Top it with a little bit of fresh squeezed lemon and you are in heaven.

Next we moved onto albacore with sesame seeds, radish and citrus soy.  It was seared lightly on the outside, light and flavorful. I enjoyed this dish, but it was fairly simple so I wouldn't rush to order it again.

The shrimp toast was one of my favorites and it was actually the first time I've ever had shrimp toast. It's done as a sandwich with herbs, hoisin and a siracha mayo.

We finished off with the king crab legs, a dish straight of the menu from animal, the Shook and Dotolo. They are huge and tender and covered in tabasco butter.  They are just as delicious as I remembered.

It was a great meal. Much lighter than a typical meal served by Dotolo and Shook but equally as satisfying. Tonight we started again with the lobster roll but then moved into some new territory. The linguine and clams with uni aglio-olio and breadcrumbs was surprisingly rich and delicious.

The fried chicken sandwich was probably the best fried chicken sandwich I've ever had.  The spicy B&B pickle slaw was subtly sweet and salty. The brioche bun was spread with rooster aioli and perfectly toasted.

Santa Barbara spot prawns were tiny but sweet and delicate. 

I am so happy to have a new restaurant that I love so close by! Unfortunately so is everyone else and thus reservations are kind of hard to come by. The good news is they have a huge communal table so if you show up before 7:30 you're likely to snag a seat without any trouble.  They also have a great cocktail list worth exploring, just avoid the dark and stormy - it tastes more like a jack and diet.

Son of a Gun 8370 W. 3rd St. (323) 782-9033

Wood Ranch - the have's and the have not's

Wood Ranch tends to bring back fond memories for me.  It was one of my favorite restaurants to go to when I was in High School. A few friends and I would pile into one of our cars and race over Kanan Rd. to the Agoura Hills Wood Ranch. I always ordered the same thing: shredded onions for the table to start and the Wood Ranch combo with BBQ chicken and tri-tip for my entree with a side of smashed sweet potatoes and grilled white corn.  You can still find these dishes on the menu at Wood Ranch, and a recent visit reminded me that sometimes it's best to stick with what you know. 

 

We started with a half order of the shredded onions to start. Why anyone would ever order a full order is beyond me.  They are wonderful but after a few bites I can't have anymore-grease overload.  They also brought out their garlic rolls, which just aren't as gooey as they used to be. 

I was trying to order something different, so I choose the grilled vegetable salad and added some tri-tip to it. It came with chopped zucchini, yellow squash, Japanese eggplant, red peppers, corn, feta crumbles and romaine lettuce.  I asked for the balsamic on the side and used a combo of the dressing and their famous BBQ sauce to top my salad. It was overall quite good-the veggies were nicely grilled, but the meat was more of a medium-well and I prefer medium rare.

 

My dining companion also wanted to order something different and decided on the ribeye-rare. What a bad decision. This piece of meat came out looking like something I wouldn't even want to feed my dog. It was gray and way over cooked. When the manager came over to replace the dish, he announced that they were not allowed to serve the ribeye under medium for safety. Ummm ew. I want to eat at a restaurant where they can serve my meet as carpaccio because it is so safe.  Where the hell are they getting this disgusting meat?? My dining companion decided better play it safe than sorry and requested the tri tip instead.

This is why you come to Wood Ranch.  The tri-tip is a great, tender cut of meat, that I'd place somewhere between a New York and a filet and hard to find outside of California.  He also had the smashed sweet potatoes and the corn and was quite happy with his second choice. 
The meat was tender, the potatoes incredibly creamy and overall it was a delicious combination. So if you go to Wood Ranch, stick with what you know!

Wood Ranch (323) 937-6800 189 The Grove Drive, Y-80 Fairfax Ave & 3rd Street

House Cafe

Being a fan of Capo, I was willing and ready to love House Cafe, the new restaurant from Bruce Marder.  I was able to have dinner at the newly designed space on Beverly last night and am thrilled to have a new casual eatery in the neighborhood serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.  They were quite busy for it being the "soft-opening" and despite a few kitchen lags, things seem to be off to a great start. 

Exposed wood beam ceilings and tile floors give the tiny spot a warm, rustic feel. Art is eclectic and includes prints by Andy Warhol and bulletin board with the daily specials: soups and pies.  A beautiful wine cellar is made of glass and nicely shows of their selection of reasonably priced wines. And a communal table is in the center of the room to create a sense of "community" - duh - and give people a chance to meet their neighbors.

They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner all day.  So, if you want eggs for dinner or pasta for breakfast, this is your new favorite hangout. I tend to eat my meals at the appropriate time of day so stuck with the dinner items last night.  

I started with the braised calamari - a dish that is adopted from the calamari at Capo.  This dish was wonderful...the calamari were perfectly tender and nicely seasoned with butter and a hint of lemon.

Entrees include your choice of pastas, sandwiches and Mediterranean inspired proteins such as lamb with couscous or sea bass tagine.  I was curious to try their pastas as  Capo's are exceptional. We choose the rigatoni with meat sauce and truffles.  The rich sauce was nice and had a great truffle taste to it.

We also had the sea bass tagine as I love tagines. It was actually a striped bass last night and came in a broth with potatoes, olives, onions and carrots.  I would have preferred less potatoes and more carrots but other than that the flavors were simple and clean.  The broth was the perfect accompaniment to the delicate fish and gave it just the right amount of flavor. Toasted bread comes with the fish and is perfect for soaking up the rest of the sauce. 

It was a longer meal than I would have expected-no doubt the kitchen is still learning and it was obvious that their focus was on sending out well-prepared food, rather than rushed food.  When it came time for dessert I was ready to head home.  I asked for a slice of their rosemary apple pie to go and grabbed a few of their cute matchboxes, notepads and pencils on the way out.  The pie was great had only had a hint of rosemary-the whipped cream that came with it could have used more sugar, a lot more sugar.

House Cafe 8114 Beverly Blvd. (323) 655-5553

Cube

I had driven by Cube probably 200 times and never really been too enticed to try it.  The strange awning combined with what looked liked an empty dinning room left something to be desired. But on one of the first cold nights of this year, I came across their menu in my hunt for a new restaurant to try.  Things like gnocchi with braised oxtail, kabocha squash soup and black truffle pizza with a fried egg lured me in.  I had to try this place.  

    A phone call to the restaurant got me flustered-they were booked! How could it be? I thought the place was always empty.  I begged and pleaded with the reservationist...I told him we could be out with in an hour, and finally I was rewarded with two seats at the bar, but we had to get their fast.  I grabbed a bottle of wine because I had read on yelp that they offered cheap cork-age, and sped to the restaurant.  

The setting is rather unique.  It is a market and a cafe.  Refrigerators line one side of the restaurant and are filled with Italian frozen pizzas and other entrees and soups that are made daily at Cube. The other walls of the restaurant are lined with shelves holding imported pastas, sauces, jams and olive oils.  The bar seating makes up half of the restaurant as there are only a four or five tables.  

We were taken to the corner of the bar and immediately brought a wonderful amuse of cow cheese from Georgia, accompanied with oven roasted grapes and toasts on a little slate.  The presentation was simple but sophisticated. 

This amuse, along with the warm atmosphere and friendly staff made me immediately like Cube.  I don't understand why more restaurants don't give out an amuse bouche-they cost pennys and can make such an impact on the diners experience.  

The menus, which change daily, were presented and so many things sounded wonderful. The restaurant is heavily Italian with a California influence. They have an amazing cheese selection of over 85 cheeses and the presentation of the cheeses is truly impressive on the black slate with chalk writing of which is which.  So creative, since I always forget 2 seconds after they tell me.

We decided to start with mimmo's burrata with flat bread and bacon wrapped dates.  Looking back, I wish we would have ordered something a little more creative.  It's hard to mess up a bacon wrapped date.  And compared to the beautiful cheese plates coming out, ours looked rather boring. 

For entrees we ordered the sugar pie pumpkin stuffed pasta-because it sounded freaking amazing, as well as the roasted half chicken.  The pasta came with toasted walnuts, sage, mascarpone cream and parmesan cheese. Sounds like the most amazing dish ever, but it was such a disappointment! I loveee pumpkin and I love mascarpone, so the two together, and with sage! But NO! It tasted like pasta drenched in a heaving parmesan cream sauce.  There was no taste of pumpkin or sage.  I literally had two bites and couldn't eat anymore. It was too rich and not at all satisfying.

The half chicken was much better than the pasta. It came with crispy guanciale, walnut stuffing, truffle mashed potatoes and haircots verts.  It was huge and actually plenty of food for two people and a welcome dish after the terrible pasta.  

I want to go back and try more of their dishes, but overall I see so much potential for this place. 

Cube 615 N. La Brea Ave. (323) 939-1148

animal

Probably one of the heaviest meals I’ve had a long time…but I went back four days later.  Animal is my new guilty pleasure. It is not a restaurant that could be a weekly occasion, especially if you are at all health conscious. It's chefs cooking food for their friends: other chefs. 

 Their menu changes daily but will almost always have several very fatty kinds of pork, foie gras, bone marrow and sweetbreads.  And not only will they serve these dishes, they will top them will a biscuit and maple sausage gravy-as if it wasn’t enough to stand on its own. 

My one qualm with the place is just that-that they over do it.  Take the Brussels sprouts for instance-a great vegetable that doesn’t need a whole lot, but they add polenta, a poached egg, cheese and bacon.  The brussels sprouts seemed like an after thought…like how can we add  A LOT of fat to this dish?

But to be fair, a lot of their food is excellent. The balsamic pork ribs with delicata squash, and cippolini onion vinaigrette are out of this world.  The pork is super tender and falls off the bone with the touch of your fork.  The glaze of balsamic is perfectly sweet on the crisp skin of the pork.  The side of squash is one of the best squash preparations I’ve had, simple and sweet with a nice sourness from the onions.  

The lettuce salad with beets, avocado, pita, feta and creamy sumac is a great lighter start to the meal.  There is tons of flavor in this salad and the ingredients are all wonderfully fresh. 

Barbeque pork belly sandwiches look phenomenal but don’t really deliver.  Too much fat and too little of the actual pork made me spit out the piece. Yuck.

So the final dish I want to discuss is the poutine.  What is a poutine you ask?! I had never heard of it either.  My friend Neal described it as one of the most fattening dishes in the world.  French fries topped with cheese curds – or in the case of animal, chedder and oxtail gravy.  I vetoed this dish.  I didn’t want it in front of me…but I was overruled.  It was incredible-like the most awesome version of chili cheese fries imaginable. But probably one of the most unhealthy things you could possibly eat.  I thoroughly enjoyed them. 

I think I will take a bit of a hiatus from this restaurant and go to the gym several times before I return.  But I will return and it will be glorious.

animal 435 N. Fairfax Ave.  (323) 782-9225

Osteria Mozza

*Skinny Seal*

  If you want to impress someone with really great Italian food, in more of a New York restaurant vibe, bring them here.  I have had so many delectable dishes here.  Items on the menu are always subtly changing based on available ingredients.  And while there is something to be said for a simple Italian dish, I think there is a lot more to be said to the brilliance and dedication coming out of this kitchen on a daily basis.

    I must tell you up front that there is one standout dish not to be missed: the Fresh Ricotta & Egg Raviolo...words cannot describe this dish-but i'll try.  It is one raviolo and is meant to be cut straight down the center so that the yoke may spread and blend with the ricotta, browned butter and sage.  There is a slight hint of lemon zest and nice blend of spinach with the ricotta.  Fantastic!! Other dishes change seasonally but another pasta to try is the Butternut Squash Mezzalune with amaretti. This is also done in a browned butter and the sweetness of the squash makes this dish heaven.  The spinach tagliatelle with braised lamb and mint was a real show stopper recently and something I have been craving ever since I had it.

  Other dishes that I loved include the Burrata as an appetizer.  There are several on the menu and any style is good, but a great one comes with prosciutto de parma, pickled shallots and pene pomodoro.

Duck is rather simple but very tender with a side of pear mostada and corn relish.  The corn and the pear help bring life to an otherwise overly simple dish. The side of eggplant pictured below with a yogurt and mint sauce unfortunately managed to out shine my duck.  Poor guy...  

The beef dish is excellent, although large enough for a party of four.  

It is served on a cutting board with aged balsamic and crispy skin.  It was so succulent and topped with a sprig of rosemary-this is my second favorite place to get steak in LA, after CUT of course. Beef brasat comes tender atop a bed of polenta – this dish is richer and rather heavy but also very good. Rabbit is delicate and falls off the bone.  

It comes in great reduction and is definitely a favorite of mine. Stripped Bass is standard white fish in a tomato sauce with olives, but nothing out of the extraordinary and when there are so many incredible things on the menu, I would skip this dish.

  Sitting at the Mozzarella bar can be fun as well and if you are lucky you may see Nancy Silverton (owner) herself preparing the mozzarella dishes.  Don’t be offended if she doesn’t make conversation, as she seems pretty focused on her cheese.  I must say she was a little less then friendly, but we were there to eat not befriend Silverton.  Seeing all the dishes made it even harder to choose the ones we wanted-especially since so many of the terms on the menu are in Italian and so far from familiar.  But don't skip out on a pasta-they really are some of the best in LA.

Dessert is another story, regrettably.  The Cannoli are the only decent if you really want to sample their sweets, but overall I have found their desserts to comprise of dense tarts with out enough pizaz.  And be forewarned that the cannoli are what many Italians would consider impostors- cookies filled with gelato rather than cream.  

They are currently offering a spectacular deal at the Mozzarella bar- $35 for an appetizer, pasta, dessert and glass of vino - if only I could switch out the dessert for another glass of vino...

Osteria Mozza 6602 Melrose Ave. (323) 297-0100 

Terroni

*Skinny Seal*

The first time I tried Terroni, I went back three more times that week. It is the perfect neighborhood spot. Prices aren't too high, the atmosphere is fun and inviting and an open kitchen allows you to see real Italians preparing your dishes.  They have an amazing wine list and a sparking rose by the glass that I adore. 

 The food is amazing and I am always delightfully surprised by how much I like all their dishes. Daily specials are plentiful and always changing. Their cheese and meat platter to start is amazing with honey, fruits and nuts and prosciutto de parma and salame.  Their pizza's are the thing to order and come on paper thin crust- just like in Italy. I love the Puzza, but beware it has no tomato sauce.  It is a mix of Gorgonzola and marscapone (or Italian cream cheese.) with prosciutto de parma on top. Another great pizza is the Trialuse.  This pizza has tomato, mozzarella, marscapone and speck(smoked prosciutto).  The pizza is not pre-cut and thus I find my self at war with the thing as I try to slice myself a piece while keeping the rest of the pie in tack. 

  The mushroom salad is a great starter as is the arancini, but the portions are definitely large enough to share.  Another favorite of mine is that grilled calamari salad.  Huge pieces of grilled calamari come on a bed of greens with balsamic.  This simple dish is light and flavorful and the perfect way to begin your meal. 

 I have tried a couple of the pastas and been disappointed, until recently when I had a special, the pappardelle with duck ragu. This pasta was perfect! The duck was shredded, the sauce was rich and nicely layered between the wide noodles. It was an explosion of flavors.   

In my opinion Terroni serves the best pizza in LA-and they take no reservations so it's always a good back up if you want to go somewhere fun last minute on a Friday or Saturday night.  If you get there before 8 you can pretty much avoid a wait. 

Terroni 7605 Beverly Blvd (323) 954-0300