Eva Restaurant: Sunday Family Dinner, and Free Wine?

It's not everyday you walk into a restaurant greeted by the chef and his baby girl in his arm. Plus that baby girl is the restaurant's namesake herself, Eva.

Between receiving LAist's Sam Kim's email saying "What are you doing for dinner?" and us joining him and MyLastBite + hubby at Eva was about 40 minutes. We were there for Eva's Sunday Family Dinner - a $35 family-style prix fixe that included, yes, included, wine.

Here's what we had for dinner:

Heirloom Tomatoes with Crushed Basil
Delicious, juicy heirloom tomatoes lightly dressed to accentuate the natural flavors of the tomatoes.

Risotto with Shrimp Scampi
Good texture on the risotto and good flavor on the shrimp.

Fried Chicken
These are great fried chicken with crispy skin and the meat is tender and juicy. "Succulent" is a great way of describing it. I did want more ... maybe I should've asked for another piece.

Creamed Corn
Quite the addictive side dish, creamy and the sweetness of the corn really came through.

Braised Short Ribs
The braised short ribs were quite good, tender and flavorful. I did, however, at that point feel that the meal was overall too heavy and wasn't perfectly tied together. I thought that the fried chicken and the short ribs belonged to two separate meals.

Chef Gold came by and asked us if we wanted some egg cream. Egg cream? We had no idea what an egg cream was, but sure, we'll take 3.
According to Wikipedia, it apparently contains neither eggs nor cream, but instead is a concoction made of milk, chocolate syrup, and soda.

For desserts: chocolate and banana cupcakes.

Probably because we were sitting with MyLastBite who knows the chef well now, Chef Gold brought to us a plate of Cuttlefish with Matsutake Mushrooms & Kyoho Grapes
Eating cuttlefish apres-dessert is strange, perhaps, but it matters not because the cuttlefish was delicious and wonderfully chewy.


Eva Restaurant
7458 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 634-0700

Save the Date: Truffle Dinner at Minestraio Trattoria Oct 19

Last year I enjoyed an all-truffle prix-fixe meal at Gino Angelini's former La Terza, to the dismay to some readers who said the would definitely have gone if only I had let them know in advance!

So here goes my advance notice. La Terza is now replaced by Minestraio Trattoria but Chef Gino is still throwing a truffle extravaganza. Last year's 7-course black truffle menu for $75 is now replaced by a 4-course menu for $90. Less courses, more money? But wait! This year's menu includes ... can you guess? White truffles.

Here's their full menu for the night:

First Course

Pure of Leeks with Scallop and Summer Truffles

Second Course

Ossobuco Agnolotti with White Truffles

Third Course

Beef Tenderloin Tagliata with Parmigiano Sauce and Summer Truffles

Fourth Course

Black and White Chocolate Mousse

Menu $90

Exclusive of tax, gratuity and beverage

Reservations required 323/782-8384

Minestraio Trattoria
8384 W. 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048


Just don't say I didn't tell you.

Cafe Pinot: A Refuge from Bustling Downtown LA

The outdoor dining area at Cafe Pinot transports you out of the busy, loud, crowded downtown LA. Next to the Maguire garden, their patio escapes the busy foot traffic and gives you a more tranquil setting for your meals.

This Patina group restaurant offers a pretty good prix fixe deal during lunch time. Their Lunch Spa Menu offers a changing two courses (where you'd typically get two choices for each course) for $24.

We tried this place at the beginning of summer and ordered the Tomato Gazpacho to start our lunch prix fixe.
A solid gazpacho. Nice flavors and cooling for a warm summer day.

For the entree, we ordered the Grilled Arctic Char with miso-based sauce.
The fish was quite nicely prepared. The skin was cripsy while the fish meat remains moist and juicy. We also really enjoyed the sweet miso based sauce pairing.

The lunch spa menu didn't come with dessert but Mattatouille convinced me that the peach crumble here is definitely worth getting, so we ordered one to share.

Warm Peach Crumble, vanilla ice cream, star anise essence ($8)
Absolutely worth ordering. This is one of the best peach crumble I've ever tasted. The focus here is definitely the peach, which was deliciously sweet and is not overwhelmed by the syrup. The crunchy crumble adds a nice contrast to both the flavor and texture. This is something worth coming back for.

I was pleasantly surprised by Cafe Pinot. The al fresco garden patio dining was very enjoyable, the prix fixe quite reasonable and the food well prepared. But as you can imagine, the peach crumble clinched the deal for me. As long as that stays on the menu, I'd come back for sure.

Cafe Pinot
700 W 5th St
Los Angeles, CA 90071
(213) 239-6500
www.patinagroup.com/cafePinot/

2009 5x5 Dinners Announced!

Five of Los Angeles top chefs gather together each year and hold five dinners at five restaurants, each of them, along with a guest chef, would prepare their own dish. This 5x5 Chefs Collaborative not only give us foodies a wonderful dining opportunity, it also promotes camaraderie among chefs and also benefit the Southern California Chapter of Special Olympics.

Come on, what more do you want?

This year's participating chefs are: Michael Cimarusti (Providence), Josiah Citrin (Melisse), David Lefevre (Water Grill), Gino Angelini (Angelini Osteria), and Neal Fraser (Grace) -- Fraser a new addition this year, replacing Walter Manzke.

This year's 5x5 dates have also been announced! And it will start with a dinner at Providence featuring Alex Stratta (from Alex, at the Wynn in Las Vegas). Here's the full lineup:

Tuesday, April 28, 2009: PROVIDENCE with Alessandro Stratta of Alex
Sunday, May 17, 2009: MELISSE with Gabriel Kreuther of The Modern
Monday, June 15, 2009: GRACE with Sean McClain of Spring
Sunday, August 23, 2009: WATER GRILL with Curtis Duffy of The Avenues
Monday, September 21, 2009: ANGELINI OSTERIA Guest Chef to be Announced

Prices for the dinners remain the same from last year at $150/year or $215 with wine pairing.


Here are some reviews from last year's 5x5 from around the blogosphere:

my review on the 5x5 at the Water Grill.

From Only Eat What Feeds Your Soul: Providence, Water Grill
From KevinEats: Providence, Water Grill
From Food Destination: La Terza

Sunday Supper and an Old Fashioned at Lucques

3 PM Sunday and we decided on Lucques Sunday Supper for dinner. The $45 3-course prix fixe Sunday suppers at Lucques have been constantly popular and booked. Luckily they can still accommodate us at 6:30 PM.

We were initially seated at a small table inside but after requesting a patio table, they kindly moved us outside.
The bread was served with butter, sea salt, and almonds and olives.I quite enjoyed the almonds and olives (they were under the almonds). I've never thought to pair them together but they go well.

I debated whether or not I should drink tonight ... but since they really reccommended this drinks, I got the Lucques Old Fashioned: Maker's Mark with muddled amarena cherry, blood orange and housemade tangerine bitters
A strong drink. A better bourbon would've made this that much better, but Maker's Mark isn't bad ... The muddled cherries and blood oranges made this a tad sweeter than a classic old fashioned.

Our meal started with a salad: blood orange and arugula with parmesan, dates and crushed almonds
A light and refreshing salad. The blood oranges were so good! The dates were also really sweet and delicious - by themselves. I'm not sure about putting them together in this salad though. I ended up eating them separately.

Slow-roasted lamb sirloin with roasted carrots, dandelion, chickpea puree and tapenade
An incredibly tender lamb sirloin and very flavorful already even without the tapenade etc. With the tapenade and chickpea puree this dish is quite heavy but luckily the dandelion leaves help cut the richness. Overall a very well prepared dish!

The other entree option was: Tasmanian salmon with english peas, fingerlings, meyer lemon and chive creme fraiche
This was also good, the salmon was moist and the skin was nicely crisped. The sourness from the meyer lemons balanced the dish quite well.

For dessert: hazelnut brown butter cake with coffee ice cream and bittersweet chocolate sauce
This dessert was simple and good. Nothing mind blowing or special, but good nonetheless. the cake could've been a bit more moist.

A satisfying meal in a relaxing patio with great music (Cat Power!). I don't know why I haven't been back here for years til now. The well-thought out preparation and and the focus on in-season ingredients make the food here more than just 'solid'. While it isn't a meal to Wow you with in-your-face creativity, it's definitely an extremely satisfying, relaxing meal to end your Sunday.

Lucques
8474 Melrose Ave
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(323) 655-6277
lucques.com

South Coast Dining Deals: March 20-29

Don't cancel that hot date because of the recession just yet!
For 10 days on March 20th-29th, the restaurants in South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa are offering prix-fixe $20 3-course lunches and $40 4-course dinners for a promotion they're calling Fashion Plates.
We're talking the fine dining establishments here, and these ten days span the weekend also - sounding better than DineLA already here ...

Participating restaurants include:
Pizzeria Ortica (David Myer's new restaurant)
Marche Moderne (Lunch only - but their lunches are always $20 weekday, $25 weekend anyway ..)
Morton's the Steakhouse
Leatherby's Cafe Rouge (dinner only)
Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale's
Pinot Provence
Hamamori
etc.

For more info, visit http://www.southcoastplaza.com/ or just call up the restaurants directly! :)

DineLA09: Fish Dinner at the Water Grill

Water Grill was supposed to be my dineLA finale - before they decided to extend it LA&OC Foodie had planned this dinner and extended invitations to me and Rumdood, which we jumped on (or at least I did).

Since Water Grill is participating in the extension - all throughout February, I decided to blog about it sooner rather than later.

Although our party was late for our reservation, Water Grill graciously held our table for us. As the night went on, all tables were filled - good sign. The $44 prix-fixe dinner menu is, naturally, all seafood (except for dessert).

I started with the House Cured Salmon, with Potato and Brown Mustard Seed Salad with Dill.
The cured salmon was great, but I thought that the dish as a whole was a bit too busy. I would have preferred it simple and highlight the delicious taste of the cured salmon itself. I suppose I could've just picked off everything else.

For the entree I went with Grilled Columbia River White Sturgeon - Coriander Spiced Yam, Rapini, Baby Roasted Beets, Pearled Barley and Oregano
I really enjoyed the fish. It was quite meaty with a nice grilled flavor, but still moist. I liked it with the pearled barley but although I did enjoy the yam, I thought the two of them were better off being eaten separately.

For dessert, I had the Red Velvet Pudding with Mascarpone Ice Cream.
It's like an extra moist red velvet cupcake with ice cream rather than icing. It was quite rich. Tasted pretty good but got too rich for me at the end, especially when the ice cream was all gone.

Throughout the dinner, our server was very nice, friendly, and even funny. The food was very solid and with the great company, we all really enjoyed ourselves. Considering the regular price for a fish dinner entree is about $36, the DineLA menu is quite a deal. If you guys considered checking this place out for the extended DineLA, I'd recommend it!

Water Grill
544 S Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90071
(213) 891-0900
watergrill.com

DineLA 09: Filet Mignon at Wolfgang's Steakhouse, So-so.

$34 for a 3-course meal that includes filet mignon. Sounds pretty good, right? That's what I thought and so I went to try Wolfgang's Steakhouse for the DineLA week - it was the cheapest of the steakhouses (no, Ruth's Chris is not even in the running) and seems to have pretty good reviews. I dragged Rumdood and Pepsimonster here with me.

I started with the lobster bisque.
The bisque was a tad too salty - maybe they had been heating the whole pot up all day/night long? I did find two bite-size pieces of lobster in it (ooh yay).

All three of us ended up getting the filet mignon (sounds like the most worthwhile!)
As always, I ask for my steak medium-rare. Here, the middle part was indeed medium-rare, but the outer sides were rather overcooked so I didn't start enjoying it until I get to the middle part. This steak was not as flavorful as we've had elsewhere. Good, not great.

The portion for the sides are generous. Among the three of us we got all of the available offerings: creamed spinach, german potatoes, and mashed potatoes.
Oh, and not only were the portions generous, they messed up and brought us extra servings of creamed spinach and mashed potatoes. But no, we didn't eat them (we didn't even finish the first serving). Spinach anyone?

For dessert, I tried the Apple Strudel
I thought this was okay - the pastry was rather soggy and it was served room temperature. They should've kept it crispier and warmer and this would've been much better.

Overall we were underwhelmed. The food was good enough as to not ruin the great company and we finished dinner just fine - but it definitely could've been better.
I guess we have to fork over more $$ for better next time? Like the $130 wagyu beef rib eye at Cut like Pepsimonster wants :)

Wolfgang's Steakhouse By Wolfgang Zwiener
445 N Canon Dr
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
(310) 385-0640
http://wolfgangssteakhouse.com/

NYC: Pre-Theatre Deal at Center Cut Steakhouse

I decided to go to Center Cut since:1) it also happened to the OpenTable Stimulus Week when I was in NY and wanted to take advantage of the deal, and 2) it was right next to the Lincoln Center where I was going to see the musical South Pacific (AWESOME, btw).

It turned out though, Center Cut has a $39 pre/post-theatre prix-fixe deal all the time anyway! Oh well ...
The $39 deal is called the "Center Cut 4^2" so as you can deduce, it comes with 4 items: Soup, Salad, Entree, Side (and bonus cookies at the end).

First came the bread - which looked like a popover. It had a different texture and taste though (still hollow in the middle, however).For the soup I opted for the Golden Potato & White Truffle Cream w/ crispy shoestring potatoes
Nice texture (rich, creamy), and pretty aromatic with both the white truffle cream and the sliver of black truffle on there.

I also tried the Five Alarm Wagyu Chili Soup corn bread crisps and sour cream, that someone else ordered.
This tastes great, except that it was somewhat spicy for me - I had to finish it off with the rich, creamy potato soup to calm my tongue down.

For the "salad" I got the Mozzarella Compression opal basil and virgin olive oil
A great and simple appetizer. The tomatoes were amazing: sweet and juicy. All four of us ordered this dish and are glad we did.

For the entree I ordered the Steak Au Poivre: 6oz brandt beef filet, red peppercorn crust and braised belgian endive
This is actually a great steak! Well-prepared (I asked for medium rare), tender and juicy - it wasn't at all overcooked! The peppercorn crust really adds a nice flavor.
Really enjoyed it over all.

The other ppl on the table got:
Hot Smoked King Salmon poached asparagus, morel mushrooms and dried cherry butter
Jumbo Pink Shrimp Scampi basmati strudel
They seemed to be enjoying these dishes too.

Some of the sides were pretty interesting, like these Eggplant Fries:
All the food was good quality and well-prepared. While not mind-blowing, they were very solid and enjoyable. Plus with the prix-fixe deal, we believe this was the best deal we got in NY this trip!

The $39 meal also came with cookies and milk (!) which you can take to go (to take to the theatre with you) or eat there. What we didn't know before was how big these cookies were going to be!
This huge stack was for ONE person. They were WARM, right out of the oven, and moist.

The milk came in individual ceramic bottles - CUTE.

Being stuffed and happy (and happy for the bill too), we ambled to the Lincoln Center - just across the street pretty much.

I would definitely recommend Center Cut's theatre deal for people who are in New York. It's no Jean Georges but it's very solid food and quite a deal. The restaurant is also not loud, allowing actual conversations, with very courteous servers.


Center Cut (at The Empire Hotel)
44 W 63rd St, New York 10017
Btwn Columbus Ave & Central Park W
Phone: 212-956-1288

Wakasan: One of Westside's Best Deals

Wakasan is one of my favorite recent discoveries. Why? Well, 1) they're open late - 11:30PM M-Th, and 12:30AM F-Sat (they close at 10:30 on Sundays). I don't know if you remember my ordeal on finding late night places on Mondays, but, well, this about fixes it all! 2)It's a great deal. They prefer you to do their prix fixe menu that's $35 - when I did, I ended up getting 12 items and was stuffed - probably too much so for 11pm on a Monday ...

Thanks to Mattatouille for pointing this place out to me!

1. Cold bean sprouts

2. Bean curd - before it's formed into tofu with vegetables, and
3. Ankimo with ponzu sauce, cucumbers and salmon eggs
The tofu curd had a very interesting texture and the dish overall was great.
The ankimo was also good, and I really like the combination with the cucumbers!

4. Sashimi: Tuna, old yellowtail, red snapper

They're not the best quality sashimi, although it wasn't bad. I wondered why the "old yellowtail" - because, yes, it tasted pretty "old". Anyway it wasn't bad and for $35 for this and a lot more I wasn't going to complain.

5. King crab legs
Yum. They're king crab legs, I don't know what else you want me to say O:)

6. Grilled items: Miso salmon and green beans wrapped in wagyu beef
Pretty standard, salmon's a bit overcooked and hence, dry, for my taste, but overall everything was solid, even though not remarkable.

7. Braised Skate wings
This was my first time having skate. It was pretty fishy, but also pretty meaty. The braising has made it tender, so it was quite tasty - although I wasn't able to finish it because I was full and also because it was too fishy for my taste.

8. Shrimp with sweet potato fried rolls
This was served with cocktail sauce, which I wasn't too keen about. Overall this was pretty bland in my opinion, although it did have nice textures.

9. Chawanmushi
With ginkgo, small shrimps, etc, this was one of the best chawan mushi I could remember having.

10. Miso soup

11. Chirashi with tuna, scallops, uni.
Again, the fish quality is not the best, but the uni is not bad. I didn't really like the scallops as they were not fresh, but I thought the other two were decent.

12. Vanilla ice cream
I can't say for sure but this tasted very much like Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream. Which meant it was good :)

Overall we had a great variety of dishes, and some of them very interesting ones I've never had before, and all for $35. Plus they're open late daily. I'll be back here, and I think you know when :P

Wakasan
1929 Westwood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 446-5241