Winter DineLA Menu at Commerson

It's been a while since I've done Dine LA Restaurant Week, but I recently checked out a new (to me) restaurant, Commerson on La Brea. I've read that this place is one of the underrated gems in LA, so I was excited to try it.

Commerson's Dine LA dinner menu is $39 per person for three courses. The first course option includes:
Red snapper ceviche with avocado and plantain chips.

The portions were quite good for the price and as you can see, the ingredients they use were obviously fresh.

One of the other choices was the butternut squash agnolotti with parmigiano reggiano and brown butter sage.

This agnolotti is always a good pasta dish to have in the colder months, and Commerson's rendition was a good one.

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Preview: Greater Palm Springs Restaurant Week, June 1-17, 2018

by @discovering_LA

The annual Greater Palm Springs Restaurant Week is currently taking place through June 17 with over 100 participating restaurants throughout Coachella Valley offering prix-fixe lunches from $15-25 and dinners from $29-49.

Executive Chef Jason Moffitt of Chi Chi at the Avalon Hotel Palm Springs recently collaborated with Executive Chef Michael Reed of Viviane at the Avalon Beverly Hills for a pre-event tasting that I was fortunate to attend. We were seated outside near the hotel’s famous hourglass pool. It was rather chilly and we benefited from the non-obtrusive heaters. This hotel is historically preserved from Beverly Hills in the 1990’s and was renovated to make this property retro-chic to restore the glamour of Beverly Hills. I thought the exterior pastel colors really set the tone for the evening.

We began with Spanish Octopus.

The octopus was perfectly grilled with a pleasant wood-smoked flavor. The combination of smoked eggplant labneh, bulgur, pickled fresno chile, mint and zaatar gave it nice flavors with a bit of spiciness. It was served on top of grilled lavash.

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BOA Steakhouse: dineL.A. Restaurant Week Exclusive Series Preview

by guest blogger Bryan Tsunoda @discovering_LA

Dine L.A. Restaurant Week for Winter 2018 begins Friday, Jan. 12 and runs through Jan. 26. Approximately 300 LA area restaurants are participating for this event. Also returning is dineL.A.’s exclusive series: 16 select restaurants have created a special menu only available during dine L.A. These exclusive dinners start at $95 and BOA Steakhouse in Santa Monica and West Hollywood both return after successfully participating last year.

BOA Steakhouse is modern and has an impressive decor which quickly establishes the tone of the restaurant. We sat in the expansive outdoor patio which is designed to protect its diners from the elements. In January, al fresco dining is unheard of in most cities and I appreciated the experience.

Their dine L.A. menu is a four-course dinner featuring multiple selections per dish and the choices available are quite impressive. Foie Gras Torchon, black truffle cannelloni, Japanese Wagyu and pan seared scallop are just a few of the savory selections. A duo of exquisite desserts round out the last course (you can check out the full menu here).

BOA Steakhouse is well known for their caesar salad.

Prepared tableside it is fun watching the preparation, but it is also prepared to perfection. Foie gras lovers will appreciate the torchon method because it is prepared sous vide and is the ultimate way to prepare foie gras. It was placed on top of a funnel cake with blood orange marmalade giving it a salty and sweet experience.

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Spending Bastille Day at Taix French Restaurant (Los Angeles, CA)

by guest blogger Bryan Tsunoda (discovering LA)

I look forward to eating out on the holidays of other countries because it is an opportunity to experience something new. For that reason, I enjoy eating out on the French National holiday of Bastille Day.

I was happy to learn that Taix was featuring bouillabaisse as their special that day. Given a choice or proteins, I veer towards seafood and within that food group, I prefer shellfish. Therefore, bouillabaisse satisfies that craving.

Visiting Taix is like taking a trip backwards in time. Driving into their lot, you are warmly greeted by a valet. Entering the restaurant, you walk down a dimly lit hallway. To your right is the bar and straight ahead is the maitre d' station. Inside the dining room are large comfy booths and frosted glass for privacy.

On Bastille Day, the male employees wore red felt berets. My server, however, was female and she wore a ribbon with the French national colors around her neck.

The Tour de France was taking place in France and Taix featured specials each race day. Even the highlighted wines were from areas near each stop on the tour. Also taking place through Friday is Dine LA and Taix is one of the participating restaurants.

When you sit down in one of their plush booths, you receive fresh sourdough bread and crudité. I ordered Claudia’s beet salad from the Dine LA menu and the special that day, bouillabaisse.

The beet salad was nicely plated. I like that the ingredients were chilled, the butter lettuce was crisp, the oranges were juicy, and the garlic vinaigrette complemented the beet salad.

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Preview: Dine LA Menu at Loteria Grill

by: guest blogger @iam_robot

Ever since Jimmy Shaw opened the first Loteria Grill in 2002, it immediately became one of the most sought after fine Mexican eateries. Not only the food packs bold flavors and fresh ingredients, Shaw’s cooking technique makes you feel as if you were bequeathed with home-cooked feasts. Incorporating long-cooked stews with contrasting flavors of herb or chilies, Shaw is never afraid to offer specialties we rarely see. While the Lengua De Res En Salsa Verde – Braised Beef Tongue in Tomatillo Sauce – has a certain luscious beefiness, the Pollo En Pipian Rojo – Chicken Stewed in spicy pumpkin seed and Chile Guajillo Sauce – is a cohesive dish with interchanging flavors of savory and heat. Or if you’re a thrill seeker, try their Cochinita Pibil – citrus marinated pork slowly roasted in banana leaf- and wash it down with their vast display of Margarita selections.

Last Thursday I had the chance to taste of some of their current Dine LA offerings. Dinner starts out light with offerings such as Crema de Chicarron (Cream of Pork Rind Soup) or Ensalada de Flor de Jamaica (Spinach salad with Grapefruit and highly addictive Hibiscus Vinaigrettte).  But if you’re like me and have a bottomless hunger, you should start with a heady dish like Tostaditas de Atun 2 ways – 2 Mini Tostadas of Tuna Ceviche with Salsa Negra and Pepper Salsa.

Crema de Chicarron

Ensalada de Flor de Jamaica

Tostaditas de Atun 2 ways

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Newport Beach Restaurant Week Menu: Great Maple at Fashion Island

Newport Beach Restaurant Week starts today, January 17, and goes on until January 26. I took the chance to explore some Orange County eats, since I'm not there much, and tried out the Restaurant Week menu at Great Maple Libations and Seasonal Plates, located inside the Fashion Island. The Great Maple will have a 3-course dinner menu for $30.

After driving to OC in LA traffic, we needed a refreshing cocktail to calm down! Lucky for us, the cocktails here were pretty good.

We started with the gin drinks. I had the Midnight Pineapple with cucumber and caramelized pineapple.

I like that the drinks here weren't too sweet. This was refreshing and hit the spot after the long drive.

Newport Sunrise Cooler made with G'Vine gin, basil, grapefruit, lime, Cointreau

The appetizer choices included Crispy calamari, lemon caper mayo, chili flakes, olives

The salty olives in the calamari were a great and unexpected addition. More fried calamari should come with olives!

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Dine LA Menu Preview: Loteria Grill, Summer 2013

Mark your calendars for this summer's Dine LA Restaurant Week on July 15-26. To help you decide where to go, here's a preview of Loteria Grill's Restaurant Week dinner menu, available at their Studio City, Santa Monica, and Hollywood locations.

The Loteria Grill menu is $35 for 3 courses and there are three choices for appetizers:
Huarache Azul de Medallon de Res (blue corn masa oval disk with black beans, grilled beef medallion, roasted tomatillo and Poblano salsa, queso anejo, cilantro, onion)

Cuarteto de Sopecitos de Camaron (four mini shrimp sopes, two with Morita salsa, two with salsa verde cruda, black beans, avocado, crema Mexicana)

I really liked the sopecitos and we argued which salsa we liked better. The morita is creamier while the salsa verde had a fresher taste.

The vegetarian option is Crema de Elote (cream of white corn soup, roasted corn, Poblano chile strips, quesillo de Oaxaca, crispy corn tortilla)

The slightly sweet corn soup is poured over the cheese, corn, chile, and tortilla so that the cheese melts.

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Palm Springs Restaurant Week Preview: Dish Creative Cuisine (Cathedral City)

Dish was opened in October 2012 by Joane Garcia-Olson, a former trial lawyer who has loved cooking since she was a kid. Tired of the life of a trial lawyer, she threw in that towel and picked up another to serve up some of the most creative food in the Palm Springs area in a small restaurant in Cathedral City.

During my media trip, we had a preview of the menu for the upcoming Palm Springs Restaurant Week (May 31-June 16), plus a few small bites in between. Dinner at Dish typically starts with some sort of donut. We had some savory donuts with butter and sunflower seeds

Because it was a media dinner, the chef sent out quite a few amuse bouche to show off what she does, including pressed watermelon with golden tomato tartar, 18 year old balsamic, and pistachio crumble. I personally liked the Arancini made with cauliflower cooked risotto-style.

The $38 three course Restaurant Week menu starts with a choice of three "conversation starters", of which we tried .. well, all (in taster portions, though):
Mesquite smoked tomato bisque, goat cheese and white truffle oil foam
Red and green baby Romaine leaves, bacon buttermilk dressing, deep fried goat cheese
Black-eyed pea falafels, roasted garlic aioli, red rooster "caviar"

The falafels were perhaps the most interesting one, although I also enjoyed the bisque.

Another small bite was sent out, and this one was quite intriguing: Green grape filled with blue cheese semifreddo, port wine glaze, walnut.

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Sneak Preview: Loteria Grill's DineLA Menu

DineLA Restaurant Week is upon us once again, and Loteria Grill had invited the media to preview their DineLA menu so that we can tell you what's in store and what to order.

Order this one!

I went to their Studio City location. There are still the cards adorning the top of the walls, but thanks to the distinct crowd this location is not as loud as the Hollywood one and seemed brighter.

The chef/owner Jimmy Shaw was there to explain to us his inspirations behind the menu while we sip tequila infused with kiwi and a hint of Chili.

 There are three options for each of the three courses. Unfortunately, I can't show you all of the three appetizers since our whole table went with the Tostadita de Salpican do Jaiba.

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DineLA 2011: Lunch at Napa Valley Grille

The first summer DineLA Restaurant Week started earlier this week, so I thought I'd do a quick post on one of my Dine LA visits from last year. I had lunch at Napa Valley Grille last Fall, and the $22 per person for three courses was a great deal! (The format this year unfortunately does not have dessert for lunch. It is $20 for two courses. Not sure why, I want my desserts!)


I used to go to Napa Valley Grille a lot when I worked in Westwood, but since then I haven't gone as much. The lunch was a pleasant reminder of Napa Valley Grille's good food and generous portions!

Chopped Kale Salad, toasted almonds, golden raisin, lemon parmesan vinaigrette

Very fresh and light! I don't like salads with too much dressing, but this one had a nice light dressing and a lot of the flavors came from the almonds and raisins.

Tahitian Squash Soup, pomegranate syrup, pistachio pesto

The entrees:
Marinated Ahi Tuna Salad, heirloom cherry tomatoes, dry cured olives, anchovy vinaigrette, country croutons

This lighter option still had plenty of tuna to fill you up for the rest of the day.

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Old Town Pasadena Restaurant Week

Pasadena residents can look forward to the first week of June, when Old Pasadena Restaurant Week 2010 will be held.

From June 1st to June 8th, over 25 restaurants in Old Town Pasadena will be offering 3-course prix fixe lunches and dinners priced $15/25 and $25/35.

That's not all, you'll be doing good, too. 10% of the proceeds will go towards Union Station Homeless Services.

Check back on their website for updated menus and list of participating restaurants. Right now your options will include Crispy Soft Shell Crab at BarCelona, Acqua Pazza and Olive Oil Cake at La Grande Orange, and Farro Risotto at Vertical Wine Bistro, among others.

DineLA 2010 Quickie: Fogo de Chao

When I saw Fogo de Chao on the Restaurant Week list and their price point, I was immediately interested. I had never been there but I knew that their lunch regularly costs $34.50 and dinner $56.50. And that doesn't even include dessert. During dineLA Restaurant Week, weekday lunches cost $28 and dinners cost $44, both include a choice of dessert (although not all choices are available).

I thought this was a really good deal and I had been wanting to check out this place for years now. Since the meat selection is the same for lunch or dinner, I scheduled a lunch with Wandering Chopsticks here.


I had the same problem I always have on buffet lines: I get everything. The veggies were fresh - I was impressed considering it was a "buffet".

Fresh spinach, big and sweet asparagus, juicy tomatoes to go with your burrata. Nothing outstanding, but definitely meets the standards.

Their pão de queijo were warm, big, and nicely cheesy. These were much better than what you may get at a random chain store in Brazil (especially if you're at the airport ...).
I could eat a lot of these, if only I didn't need to make room for meat.
Flip your card to the green side and the men will come bearing skewers of various meats to your tableside.

Fogo de Chao offers a variety of cuts and meats - 15 to be exact. Besides your typical sirloin, rib eye, beef ribs, pork ribs, they also have bacon wrapped pork and chicken, etc etc. For more details, you should check the dine LA's Fogo menu here.

Among our favorites were the picanha (prime sirloin flavored with sea salt and garlic) and the lamb chops.
Not that I've gone for all-you-can-eat Brazilian bbq that much before, but this is definitely one of the best I've had. Just make sure you ask for it to be cooked the way you like it - that's medium rare for me. I couldn't eat that much so towards the end I ended up sticking to just my two favorite cuts above.

With the meats came three sides: mashed potatoes, fried polenta, and plaintains.
This is the one place where WC noticed the difference between restaurant week and a regular experience - we got all our sides, but she said that usually they refill your sides when you get low or run out. Not these 2 weeks, apparently.

Today's selection of desserts were only the papaya cream or the key lime pie. WC got the key lime pie.
The key lime pie was actually pretty nice - rich and tart.

I got the papaya cream, which is papaya pureed with vanilla ice cream, topped with creme de cassis.
Yeah, okay, so it's a pretty simple dessert, and it tastes exactly as it's described: papaya pureed with vanilla ice cream, but I liked it since I like papaya and rarely gets it in the US.

To recap the deal: Lunch $34.50+dessert $10 = $28 during dine LA week, you do the math. Even if the service isn't as good, I'll live with it for the savings.


Fogo de Chao
133 N La Cienega Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
(310) 289-7755
www.fogodechao.com

DineLA 2010 Quickie: Dinner at K-Zo

Dine LA dinner at K-Zo in Culver City is $44 for 3 courses and the choices seemed pretty good. When I saw the regular menu though, I noticed they have 5 courses for $58 any day, so whether or not the $44 is a special deal or not gets a double take.

The appetizer options are 1) Rokuten Mori (a selection of 6 appetizers), 2) Seafood salad, or 3) Bouillabaise.

The Rokuten Mori gives you a sampling of a variety of cold seafood appetizers including crab sunomono, oysters, yellow tail sashimi, ankimo, etc. All of them were well prepared with fresh ingredients. The bouillabaise was pretty good, but it doesn't compare to the one I had at Bond St.

For the entrees we had a choice between: 1) a plate of nigiri sushi + popcorn shrimp and asparagus roll, 2) grilled rib-eye steak, or 3) braised Chilean sea bass.Having a plate of sushi means you're not getting each piece fresh from the hands of the itamae, but nonetheless they were still good with fresh pieces of fish - although they are mostly your standard orders.

The Chilean sea bass was well prepared and tender. The mashed "purple potato" and steamed bok choy were good accompaniments and filled you up.

For dessert, we ordered the apple "tatan" (hey, that's how they spelled it :P).
The apple tatin was pretty nicely caramelized - although the strawberry accompaniment seemed an afterthought and deterred from the sweetness of the apples.

I ordered the purple sweet potato parfait because it seemed most interesting.
This was a very enjoyable dessert - like a sweet potato zanzai - with red bean, mochi balls, and vanilla ice cream. The "sauce" was made with Okinawa purple sweet potato. I would definitely get this one again, especially since this was one of the more unique desserts they offer.

Overall the K-Zo dineLA meal was good and satisfying (although the portions are smaller than many other restaurants), but as I mentioned, since they normally have a 5 course meal for $58, I probably wouldn't hurry here if you only have limited opportunities to do dineLA.

K-Zo
9240 Culver Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 202-8890

DineLA 2010 Restaurant Week Launch! What's on Your Agenda?

The 2010 Dine LA Restaurant Week is here! Has everyone started dining out?

Last week Dine LA held a launch party at the Hollywood Roosevelt and dozens of Los Angeles chefs, restaurateurs, and media people gathered over cocktails served up by the Library Bar.
Starting from the refreshing arugula gimlet to the interesting umami-driven-but-I-probably-can't-drink-a-whole-glass-of Shiitake Manhattan (shiitake infused bourbon, yes) to the sweet strawberry cocktail as a finisher, Library Bar was hard at work to keep us happy.
My favorite was definitely the arugula gimlet. I haven't been to Library Bar before but am definitely planning a visit after this party!

We mingled over Mexican food provided by the Roosevelt hotel, me trying to find all the LA chefs around and listening to Villairaigosa gave a short speech.
Chefs in attendance were almost everyone in town from Joachim Splichal, Ludo Lefebvre, John Sedlar, Ben Bailly, Mark Gold, Josie Le Balch, Akira Hirose, Keizo Ishiba, and many many more.

On one of the tables they had a chef's coat that all the chefs in attendance had been signing. I recognized Josie, Neal Fraser, and David Myers among others (it's hard to read signatures :P )
I wonder what they'll do with this coat ... it might fetch a fun price for an auction!

During the launch party they also released their Los Angeles chefs/restaurants family tree, the first ever! It looks something like this, but is actually more interactive than that, so you should just go on their website and check it out.

It's quite interesting to see which restaurants have been responsible for launching these great chefs! Spago, Campanile, and Patina are definitely some of the more productive ones.

Dine LA has also been running a DineLA-a-Day! daily giveaway of $100 certificates to various restaurants! You can check out this page for the day's giveaway, and be sure to look at the hints (you may need to refer to the family tree).

So far here's my agenda (and other tentative plans):
Lunch at Cube
Lunch at Fogo de Chao
Petrossian
The Lazy Ox Canteen
Ortolan

If you still can't decide from the menu, feel free to check out my old dineLA reviews.

DineLA 2009: Spago. One of DineLA's Best Deals.

Just last week LAist released tips on how to get the most out of dineLA and one of their points is to not go for restaurant week menu offering dishes not originally on their regular menu.
At Spago, none of the dishes (minus desserts) offered are on the regular menu - you can get on-the-menu New York Steak for a hefty supplement of $35 though.

Does this mean Spago dineLA is not a deal?

Spago, one of the longest-standing LA's star eateries, the flagship of the Wolfgang Puck empire. Overhyped, you say? Let's not forget the Michelin stars this place got (before Michelin decided to abandon our city) and the fact that Nancy Silverton of La Brea Bakery and Mozza and Mozza hailed as a pastry chef from this place. Fact is, Spago got famous for a reason, and it managed to maintain that reason.
Not to mention they have one of the best patios in town.

Now, the deal. Let me see here. Burrata fig salad with jamon serrano and either poussin or kurobuta pork chop+dessert seems worthy of a $45 Spago meal to me.
If you actually look at their regular menu, you'd notice that their cheapest entree offered is $38. A $45 3-course Spago meal? That would be impossible without restaurant week!

Yeah, but they might give you crappy dishes, smaller portions, etc, so let's see what you actually ate.

Fig salad with burrata and jamon serrano.
Great figs, great burrata, great jamon. I am not sure about the combination of it all though. I certainly loved the burrata with the jamon and the greens, but not with the figs. I ended up eating the figs separately.

Kurobuta Pork Chop.
Smaller portion? I think not. This pork chop was so big I managed to take leftovers home. It was a very good pork chop, quite tender and moist, well seasoned. Great flavor and very complementary sauce and garnish.

Getting the supplements make dineLA much less of a deal.
A sweet corn agnolotti which runs for $19 on the regular menu is available for a $14 supplement.

Amazing agnolotti, though. I stole a couple of bites from PepsiMonster's plate and it was sooo good. It's definitely worth trying, although I'd rather get it as an extra order for $5 more :)

An order of New York Steak is $61 on the menu and available for a $35 supplement for DineLA.
A great steak, no doubt, but I was happy with my Kurobuta pork chop for much less money.

The desserts offered actually do come from the regular menu. I got the Apple Cider Upside Down Cake.

The cake had a great flavor but it was a bit too dry for my taste. I should've remembered these types of cakes are generally too dry for my palate. A lot of people seemed to like this though.

PepsiMonster got the Dobos, 12 layer chocolate and praline cake with nutella gelato.

I like his dessert much better, the chocolate buttercream layer was very smooth but you get just a teeny crunchiness. Great taste and texture.

We had a great meal overall. $45 for this 3-course meal (plus leftover for lunch, mind you)? I'll take it any day.

Spago
176 N Canon Dr
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
(310) 385-0880
http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/restaurants/fine-dining/3635