Sunday, April 12, 2009

SILA BISTRO

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The best part of dining at an empty restaurant is that you get top-notch service.

I dined at Sila Bistro a couple weeks back and although I had a great time, I have been procrastinating writing this review because I eat too much and there’s just so much writing I can do. Came here with three other hippos to use our KRCW Fringe Benefit Cards; we get 15% off our food.

Sila Bistro rec’d positive reviews on different food websites, so I was surprised to find the restaurant empty. By the way, “Sila” is short for “Silverlake.” We were warmly greeted; I sensed they knew we were hippos…well, I guess we do stick out, especially when we whipped out our cameras…

Our waiter was very nice but he recommended me the wrong entrée, the Lake Superior white fish, but before I dwell into what was wrong with the dish, let me start off with our appetizers. Sila Bistro generously gave us two amuse bouches: goat cheese crostinis and crispy potato cubes. Here are my food porn pics of the amuse bouches:
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They were simple, and I’m sure they were better than their $3 bread. For our appetizers, we went for the mac & cheese and the Sila tart. The mac & cheese supposedly has four cheeses –sharp cheddar, fontina, gorgonzola, and Parmesan, but the gorgonzola was the dominating cheese. Thank goodness that dish was splint amongst 4 hippos.
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The Sila tart (HeirloomTomatoes / Basil / Mozzarella / Parma Prosciutto / Arugula / Meyer Lemon) tasted much better.
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On with the entrée…my biggest problem with my entrée was that it was BLAND. For $19, I expect it to have flavor, add some lemon, fresh grounded black pepper, something…
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I should have ordered the chicken fried steak. I got to sample it but was not allowed to eat the entire thing…S refused to swap plates with me; I don’t blame her. The chicken fried steak cost $16, and it’s worth it!
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A following her lent diet, giving up meat, went for the $19 Absinthe shrimp salad and was expecting more for her bucks…
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We managed to save room for desserts and went with their “famous’ red velvet chocolate cake and the apple tart. I honestly have no clue why so many people enjoy Sila Bistro’s red velvet chocolate cake.
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Although it looks very sexy, it’s not a real red velvet chocolate cake. There’s too much Philly cream cheese, not enough chocolate and too dense. The cake should have some bounce to it. I’m really happy that D was on her lent diet (she gave up chocolate) otherwise we wouldn’t have tried their heavenly apple tart.
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I’m not a real apple dessert person; I prefer eating my apples raw and not cooked, but Sila’s apple tart will give you the O. Just when we thought our night ended, the owner gave us a round of tawny port.

Wow, talk about service, but as I had suspected the owners knew that we were hippos as they automatically gave us the KCRQ discount when we hadn’t mentioned it. Closing our bill was a bit hectic; S was charged wrong, and they needed my credit card… I feared that it was going to be another Ortolan experience, but luckily they only had to void out our credit card transactions once.

In a nutshell, I look forward to getting my own chicken fried steak.

Address: 2630 Hyperion Ave Los Angeles, CA 90027
Phone#: (323) 664-7979
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

1 comment:

  1. like this place a LOT... definitely go for the fried steak next time, but skip the burger: http://sinosoul.com/?p=1856while the absinthe shrimp was a bit pricey, the jumbo shrimpies were all perfectly cooked, something not easily found at American restaurants.

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