Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Bazaar: Grand Opening

Tonight was the Grand Opening of Jose Andres' The Bazaar at the SLS Hotel. I was going to sleep but I bumped into KevinEats and Tangbro and decided to beat them to a post while they're still making their drive down to OC O:)
You guys will read their posts anyway with their 48-dish reviews ... I'm certainly going to read it.

The Bazaar is separated into different sections including the Patisserie, Bar Centro, private dining area Saam, a retail area Moss, and dining areas Rojos y Blancos.

My seating area features light colored wooden tables and leather couches, along with this light bar seating where guests can see their food being prepared.At 10 pm it wasn't crowded and I hope it won't get too crowded later on, as I've found that I adore this place!

Our waitress was very courteous and knowledgeable (enough) about the dishes and had some great recommendations.
The menu is divided into "Rojos" - more classic, Spanish tapas, and "Blancos" - more modern tapas, lighter, smaller dishes. We ended up ordering mostly from the "Blancos".

We started with some "Olives Ferran Adria"
These are olive juice capsules. Ferran Adria was Jose Andres' mentor and hence the name and influence. I did love the olive juice but these olive capsules were, well, expensive!

Moving on we had the Jamon Iberico with Pineapple and fennel sherry dressing
Delicious. The jamon iberico is of course amazing, and the thinly shaved pineapples somehow retain their juices and the combination was really great! Refreshing. Loved it.

Next we had the sauteed cauliflower couscous with vegetable harissa broth
The harissa broth was divine. This dish as a whole was just divine. Probably our favorite of the night and we'll be getting this over and over. Plus this one was one of the cheaper dish at $9.

Japanese baby peaches with yogurt and olive oil
To me this was more like a dessert but it was delicious. The yogurt was pretty rich and thick, but the combination with the slightly sour baby peaches were great.

The Bazaar also does something cute - since (so they claim) Spain is the best canned foods producer in the world, they serve "canned" seafoods - that's really made fresh daily.
We had the king crab with raspberry vinegar
Loved this one too. Fresh meaty king crabs went well with the raspberry.

Next we had Japanese eggplant with yogurt, soy caramel, and bonito flakes
The flavor combinations were good, but the eggplant was much firmer than what you'd normally get with miso eggplants and such. You might or might not like it.

The last dish was from the "Rojos" part of the menu and was the biggest one yet. This was the Rossejat de fideos: "Traditional paella-style pasta with monkfish, shrimp, in seafood broth".
The pasta was small angel hair pasta cut into small pieces. It was cooked so that some were crispy which I really liked. A simpler, heartier dish than the rest, but one that I felt we needed.

The dessert menu is similarly divided into Rojos and Blancos. There's no chocolate item though ... but hopefully the Patisserie which would be open later this week can satisfy that craving.
From the Rojos side we had Apples Carlota, bread pudding
Nice and simple. The ice cream was great on this, but I thought the apple bread pudding was a wee bit dry without it. Tasty, though.
From the Blancos we got the Beet Meringue with pistachio, pistachio foam cake
Beautiful presentation. The taste was ... interesting. The ice cream with the pistachio foam cake I liked. The pistachio sauce and the beet meringue had a bitter aftertaste which I can't quite get over ...

Overall a really great meal with great service and ambiance (hope it doesn't get too crowded later!). I'm loving this place so far.
This meal would've been $111 without tips originally - each dish was about 8-15$, average 12$. We got 50% off for today only since they had to reschedule us from last Monday (their original opening date). The 50% definitely made this meal that much more awesome, but I'll be back regardless :)

The Bazaar
465 S. La Cienega Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA
310.246.5555

http://www.thebazaar.com/

The Bazaar on Urbanspoon

13 comments:

Kat

YAY First to comment! WOO HOO! How come I was not informed of this event. =*( Where is the love! It sounds amazing and a lot of fun

I would have loved to try the Iberico with Pineapple. We had it in Italy with melons and it was paired very well too. ^_^ Keep me posted on these events!

Also I would love to meet fellow bloggers from the OC!! We should all get together sometime to hang out and chat.

If anyone is interested in joining us, we are going to Leatherby's in Costa Mesa this Friday at 7:30PM ^_^ Anyone is welcomed! Just message me.

Kat

Ooh the canned King Crab looks great too! Let me know if you know what brand. Maybe I will pick some up for home! I wish I knew about it earlier and smuggled some back from Europe. O=)

kevinEats

Fiona, yes, I stayed up until 7:00a to write my blog post! I'm suffering for my art. ;)

gourmetpigs

Kat - the "canned" king crab has no brand. It is made in house daily at The Bazaar - it's just an homage to the canning production in Spain.

Kevin - 7 am! Crazy ... and now you go to work? :P

mattatouille

man you guys are quick

kevinEats

Yeah 49 courses takes quite a while to go through. It was pretty painful actually.

I just got in to work at 9:30. We're pretty flexible on the time. I didn't sleep though.

jesse

I love the look of those capsules! Can practically taste them already... =D

FoodDigger

Those baby Japanese peaches were amazing! Really refreshing. Good running into you.

Will

Frequent Traveler

I've got it on my list - between your pictures and the ones on Kevin eats, I'm totally salivating !

Right Way to Eat

Wow! I'm impressed!

This is on my waiting list for so long. Can't wait to check it out. Thanks G!

Aaron

Haha take that Kevin and Ryan! Good for you Fiona, faster on the draw. It's a pity that the patisserie wasn't open yet. I'm guessing the desserts weren't quite up to par then.

Epicuryan

Aaron, I am no competition I hadn't even done Totoraku yet. I am finally getting around to Bazaar. I left the competition to be first to market to Kevin and Fiona. Although I sympathize with Kevin, a longer drive and a longer meal he was doomed from the start.

Fiona, sounds like you had the right idea, pick the courses that sound good to you. In true business student fashion, I am going blame others, in this case Kevin, for our grander yet less successful outing.

Alice Yoo

Great review! Been meaning to check SLS out - thanks for the review. Pictures came out great, too!

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