Spago

I love Dine LA Week!

Dine LA Week is when everyone in town takes advantage of the somewhat easy-on-the-wallet 3-course meal at selected restaurants. There are three pricing groups: inexpensive, moderate, and expensive. I usually go straight to the restaurants that are expensive. Now it is wise to check out their Dine LA week menu to make sure it's worth spending the money even though the 3-course meal is a fraction of what normal prices are. I was quite disappointed with the menus this time around. The only restaurant that piqued my interest was Wolfgang Puck's Spago.

I don't know why it has taken me almost 14 years to finally try Spago. Ok, well, the first decade was because I just couldn't afford it and I hated going to Beverly Hills where everything's so expensive and image is the utmost important thing in life...fast forward - I finally see a Spago's Dine LA Week menu that's worth my$28 bucks. Oh there's a lunch price and a dinner price. Dinner was $44, so I went for the lunch instead. My colleagues Dimiter, who's cheaper than me, and Julie joined me in popping my Spago cherry.

I now know to request a table in the courtyard as that's the power seating area. Every one's eyes wandered to that section, star gazing, while I was food gazing. I'm such a hippo.

We started with prosciutto...

and the braised oxtail tortellini with wild mushrooms and pea shoots...

The prosciutto was delicious-- lean and not chewy, but the braised oxtail tortellini was out of this world. It was my favorite part of the entire meal.

Julie struck out on ordering the grilled ‘tandoori’ loch duart salmon with marinated cucumbers, cilantro-mint raita and tomato-tamarind chutney.

With all the spices, one would have expected to be in India with one bite but unfortunately you find yourself in Ireland. It severely lacked flavor. Thank goodness I ordered the

roasted rack of kurobuta pork with alsacien style cabbage and apple-rosemary compote. The fruit concoction really complimented with the pork.

As we were about to start our dessert, Mr. Wolfgang Puck showed up at our table. Now that's sweet! I don't know if it's because it's LA Dine week but he made his round to every table. Well, I guess that's guaranteeing a return visit to Spago. We ordered the lemon, lemon, lemon – cake, creamy sabayon, glace winter farmers market sorbet, and my friend, you do not need to drink coffee to wake up. Spago probably used up an entire lemon farm for that one dessert. Don't get me wrong, it was good but VERY lemony.

Um...I forgot what our our next dessert was called as it was different from the website, but we were relieved that it was a chocolate dessert. It was very light and certainly hit the spot!

We loved our experience at Spago and definitely look forward to our next visit.

Address: 176 N. Canon Dr. Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Phone#: 310.385.0880

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THE FOUNDRY

How should you rate a restaurant that serves utter crap food with phenomenal service? After much deliberation from a 4 to a 3 to a 2, I finally decided on a 3; I'm being generous. If it wasn't for the great service, I would have easily given them a 2 or a 1.5.

Despite the negative reviews, the Foundry was the last pricey Dine LA restaurant on my list. I wanted to try this restaurant last year--always finish my food goals. My two friends joined me on my mission. I heard that the Cripsy Salmon was awful, so I figured it made sense for 2 of us to order from the Dine LA menus and 1 off of the regular/lounge menus. We ate...


AMUSE BOUCHE :


Some kind of pastry with w/cheese


Lukewarm...would be better if it was served hot.


BREAD (gratis): They gave us (2) different breads.


APPETIZERS:


Salad of Roast Beets & Mache: I noticed that they had a beet salad--DING! We're getting that! It's impossible to mess up a Beet Salad. My 2nd fav. dish.
The Foundry Tots ooked like donut holes, which came with 2 dipping sauces - cheese fondue & violet mustard. The cheese fondue was the winning the sauce. It was very fluffy inside.
The Spicy Albacore Tartare was most disappointing-too fishy & mushy for me.


Crispy Pork Belly was the grossest.


I spitted it across the room, ok not really, but it exited out of mouth as fast as it entered. I didn't realize that Pork Belly was basically fat. You need a chainsaw to cut through the meat.



ENTREES:


Grilled Cheese w/Short Ribs: I can't believe this won the 2008 Grilled Cheese award?! WOW was it SALTY! My friend was funny & thought it was the cheese that made the sandwich salty, so she removed it, but soon realized that the short ribs are ruining the sandwich. Granted it supposedly had apricot-caper puree, but they should use a sweeter fruit to balance the saltiness -maybe green apples-oh, Asian pears would add a nice touch, no, with caramelized Asian pears!
Hangar Steak - Crispy Fingerlings, Mushrooms, Anchovy Butter: The steak was not memorable. The mushrooms were funky -maybe a little too "earthy?" The potato fingers were standard.
Chorizo Crusted Jidori Chicken: If for some reason you have the urge to try the Foundry for Dine LA week (month), get the Chicken. Don't go for the steak or the fish. Normally I would avoid ordering chicken because it's such a standard, boring item, but oddly Jidori Chicken was the winning dish. The chicken was juicy & it came with some "plantains" that tasted like stuffing; I love stuffing.

DESSERTS:


Spiced Doughnuts - Pineapple Saffron Sauce, Chocolate Hazelnut Sauce:We were almost going to go with 2 desserts, but thank goodness I decided to order the Spiced Doughnuts because the other 2 sucked.

Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding - Rum Raisin Ice Cream (I don't know which photo is best... both bad)


Ok, I'm not an expert on bread pudding, but it tasted like a cinnamon roll. I am told that good bread pudding is supposed to melt in my mouth. I needed to chew several times...had a weird after taste too... Meh.


Chocolate Coffee Banana Tart: The flavors did not gel. Meh.
COFFEE: The chef is starting his new coffee called, "Cafe Bravo," not to be confuse with the amazing kabob place. The coffee is strong and not bad, but I still prefer Intelligentsia Coffee.


It's too bad the food didn't match up to the stellar service. The hostess was nice. Our waiter was great, & I thought it was really cool how the chef introduced every entrance to each table -talk about outstanding hospitality! Even though the people are great, I am a foodie & this is not a cheap hobby, so if I'm dropping more than $50 on my meal (excluding drink) for subpar food, I will be sad.


I can check this place off my list!

Address: 7465 Melrose Ave Los Angeles, CA 90046
Phone#: (323) 651-0915
Rating: 3 out of 5

Bazaar

Despite Bazaar’s great reviews, I'm going to have to go against the grain...

Lee, Dee, and I agreed to check out Bazaar’s LA Dine Week menu. Lee was like "When are we going to check out Bizarre?" I corrected her & said it's "Bazaar," but turned out that Lee was right...

Lee said that their interior was inspired by the famous Spanish artists (Dali, Gaudi, Picasso, etc), & that's why you feel like Alice in Wonderland. You have the 2 restaurant areas to the left, the "studio 54" bar in the middle, candy land (you are courted to this area when it's dessert time...) in between the bar and the open "store" where you can buy ugly puppet fingers for $90 to $30 shoe horn. They also sell Commedia Dell'Arte figurines. Oh, there's a cool hill billy outdoor patio with free Wi-Fi.

After realizing that everyone who came after us, & yes I had reservation, were seated before us, I was determined to be seated immediately. I was in front of the hostess who completely ignored me & helped the lady behind me!! I was like, "HELLO!?" Are you blind!? No, no I wasn't going to have my own Christian Bale rant n rave, "WTF is wrong with you!? Are you a professional?!" Needless to say, we were seated immediately.

Unfortunately service was just as slow as getting a table. We ordered 40 minutes after our reservation time. I will have to say they were good at refilling our water. Anyhoo, so we ordered:

"Philly Cheese Steak" beef : It was the size of a potato wedge (4"x1"). I had the beef & it wasn't memorable, but forgettable. Seriously. I don't recall anything...

King Crab ($16) : I'm allergic to crustacean, but it looked like the sickly, sweet pineapple Chinese dishes that you just want to hurl. Lee & Dee confirmed my intuition.

Galician Lobster Medallions ($15) : They said that this dish was the worst. Thank goodness I'm allergic to crustacean.

Not Your Every Day Caprese ($12) : This dish was not bad...I've never had "liquid" mozzarella. It's just too bad they didn't give more...

Scallops ($10) : I'm allergic to scallops, but Lee & Dee said the scallops were underseasoned.

Tuna toro nigiri ($16!) : The watermelon was not ripe & the overall taste was bland.
Seared Tuna w/ red bell peppers ($12): It was standard & safe, --probably the most filling tapas that I ordered.

Lamb loin ($14): I don't eat lamb, but Lee said that it was overcooked. Potatoes & mushrooms were good.

Japanese Tacos, seared eel ($10) : They should call this "Japanese Cigars" & not "Tacos." Not filling & put too much ginger -I couldn't taste the eel.

Japanese Peach w/ Persimmon & Goat Yogurt ($12): This is actually a MUST order dish. Unlike the other dishes, which tried too hard and failed, the sweet, salty combo flavor really worked wonderfully. Should you come to Bazaar just to order this dish? No.

However, if you really needed a reason to come here...You have to come here not for the food...but... for the bathroom. Did you think I was going to say desserts? Their bathroom is AWESOME! Before I start praising it let me return to wasteland...

As noted before, you get to go to the "candy land" area and check out the desserts, but we were forbidden; the area was too crowded, so we ordered off the menu & ate...

Clementine Sorbet & Rose Ice Cream ($10): This was the best dessert, but is it worth $10? Hell no.

Chocolate Cake ($10): It reminded me of cheap milk chocolate.

Creamy Chocolate Heart ($10) : I thought it was going to be a heart shape? Nothing spectacular, but better than the Chocolate Cake.

Let's move on to the best part of Bazaar -the bathroom. After we paid, I told Lee & Dee that we must go to the bathroom & shoot ourselves, not for being robbed, but to fulfill the narcissistic side of me and take pictures of the millions me in the bathroom stall... they didn't believed me when I said it was going to be fun taking pictures in the bathroom...1 star for the fun, cool bathroom.

Bazaar was more of a fiasco than Katsuya-Hollywood. I was still hungry after my meal! Thank goodness I didn't order any cocktails cuz my tab would have been $100 on nothing, but a good strong buzz. Poor service, poor food, poor portions AND pricey! I'll need to be dragged here again...or if I want to take more pics.

Address: 465 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Phone#: (310) 246-5567
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COMME CA

I love, love the interior of Comme Ca! After all, we are in Los Angeles, where everyone is vain and checking themselves out... I figured if they put into that much details with the interior, they would put more attention into the their food and service, and boy...was I disappointed.
After being seated for 15 minutes, I hollered the waiter down to take our order (we didn't get an LA Dine menu, but that's ok, cuz I knew what exactly what my colleague and I were going to eat).

It took about another 15 minutes for our appetizers to arrive, the Roasted Beet Salad and the Soup DeJour, Cauliflower.
The soup was bland; it needed black pepper.
The Roasted Beet Salad was excellent.

Our entrees the Mushroom Risotto and Scottish Salmon were a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT! The Salmon was incredibly salty!
We were sitting next to (2) fellas who had Comme Ca's burgers and complained that their meals were salty too! What's wrong with the chef's taste buds? The Mushroom Risotto was very rich and more like a Parmesan Risotto with a few mushrooms tossed in there.The saving grace was their desserts -well they weren't actually Comme Ca's desserts but Boule's desserts (same owner though...so I guess it's the same...) the Brioche Chocolate Pudding and the Profiteroles with Pistachio and Vanilla Ice Creams. The hippo has died and gone to heaven!
The Brioche Chocolate was definitely better than sex and the Profiteroles were Yummalicious!
Our waiter was nice, but service was rough. I couldn't believe that they only had (2) waiters and (2) bussers for the entire front restaurant (don't know if there's a back area...) and the restaurant was packed due to LA Dine Week!! Oh, it gets loud there -"cafeteria" loudness.

Come here for desserts and drinks only.

Address: 8479 Melrose Ave West Hollywood, CA 90069
Phone#: (323) 782-1104
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Photo credit: Kalea D. (top photo only)