Thursday, January 16, 2020

Ktown's Caffe Concerto Gets New Chef and Tasting Menu

Caffe Concerto in Koreatown has been around for a while, serving Italian food with Korean inflections (you can read my previous review here of their pasta including a kimchi carbonara).
They recently hired a new head chef, Terry Kim, and have added a tasting menu component (the rest of the a la carte menu remains the same).
Concerto Tasting
After the amuse bouche we started off with some beautifully plated Tuna tartar and Granny Smith apples
Concerto Tasting
This was a good rendition of a classic, with the sweet apples juxtaposing the fatty tuna nicely.

The tuna was followed by a Tomato salad, persimon dressing, cherry tomatoes, tomato sorbet, parsley oil, olive crumbs
Concerto Tasting

The salad was an interesting combination of flavors and textures. As a fan of persimmon, though, I wish you could taste more of it in the dressing.

The next course might be my favorite of the night: Basil shrimp ravioli, crab sauce, coriander
Concerto Tasting
It's a "ravioli" but the delicate skin is more reminiscent of a well made dumpling. Loved the shrimp filling and the crab broth as well.

Duck breast, barley risotto, raisin, braised red cabbage
Concerto Tasting

Tenderloin steak, kimchi dumpling, fried quinoa, mashed potato
Concerto Tasting
This steak was my second favorite. The steak was tender and nicely cooked, and the fried quinoa added a crunchy texture. The kimchi dumpling (wrapped in pickled cabbage) was a nice Korean touch to the whole dish.

Concerto has always sold cakes and pastries alongside their coffee and pasta and the dessert course was one of their chocolate cakes, shared between two people.
Concerto Tasting

It's nice to see an old-school K-Town place like Caffe Concerto trying to change it up by incorporating a tasting menu and offering something different. For now, they're not changing up the tasting menu frequently and it's by reservation only, which you can request on their website. I hope they would set aside a different section for the tasting menu diners, though. We were seated downstairs next to a crying baby, but if this had been a couple on a special date, that would've been a bummer.

Caffe Concerto
610 S Serrano Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90005
https://www.concertousa.com/


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