A.O.C.'s Great Big Small Plates

AOC Wine Bar, another child of Suzanne Goin's, has become one of the most popular restaurants in LA, offering a selection of charcuterie and other dishes to share.

It's a wine bar so I had to get some wine - I ordered a Castilla y Leon which was very flavorful although not quite ready IMO.

Bread at AOC Wine Bar is served with these delicious spicy olives and tapenade. Most of us like it so much we just chow down on these olives by themselves.

The menu is quite varied, with a selection of charcuterie, fish, vegetables, meat and also items from the wooburning oven. We only had room for a small samplings of it this time around.

For veggies we ordered the Beets, Baby Carrots, preserved lemon and cilantro
Interestingly, the sweetest and most flavorful of the beets were the white ones! I thought the reds were just okay but the white ones were delicious. It was also a really nice change from all the beet-goat cheese preparations all over the city.

hamachi crudo, avocado, and pomegranates
Great crudo. I loved the combination with the avocado and pomegranate seeds here, all the contrasting textures playing around. The hamachi itself was also great and had just the right amount of fat. I'll definitely get this again next time.

Pork rillettes with pickled onions
Great pork rillette, albeit a bit fatty. The olive oil-drenched toasted bread was similarly delicious. The portion is actually quite big, but it made for an excellent lunch the next day!

Clams with garlic, cherry tomatoes, and vermouth
Great fresh clams with a delicious broth. I'm convinced garlic is the best thing to happen to clams. Or just the best thing period.

Marketfish (salmon) with braised cabbage, bacon, and apples
I wasn't crazy about the cabbage but the salmon was nicely done - tender, not overcooked- and goes very well with the apples.

Grilled skirt steak with black olive aioli
Delicious skirt steak with bold flavors. It's a skirt steak so tougher and a little chewier for some people but I actually love it, and the one at AOC is actually pretty tender. The black olive aioli is delicious! It did made the whole dish a bit rich, but hey, wine will cut that ...

Hosui pear and huckleberry crisp with vanilla ice cream
This may seem strange, but I actually like the crust part of crisps/cobblers/whatnot, so this one for me barley had enough of that. I also ended up eating the pear and huckleberry separately - not so sure about both combined.

Mexican chocolate pot de creme with caramel cream and spiced almonds
I think this was my favorite of the two desserts. I loved the flavor of spicy mexican chocolate. A bit on the small side compared to the crisp, but it's yummy.

AOC definitely deserves its popularity with its great selection of wine and delicious food.
I'm looking forward to coming back and trying more!

AOC
8022 W 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 653-6359
www.aocwinebar.com

Extravagant Lunch Omakase at Sushi Mori

Sushi omakase for lunch on a weekday. I probably shouldn't have done it - such an indulgence for a weekday lunch, don't you think? But too late now. I was meeting a good friend, Kat, and her sister who was coming straight from LAX that day and we decided to try out Sushi Mori.

Mori was marked with a fish sign on a small street corner of Pico and I had to loop around until I was kinda sure that was the right place. On a weekday lunch time they're fairly empty. I sat at the sushi bar and ordered omakase - but told the sushi chef (not Mori) that we would like mostly sushi - maybe just one kaiseki.

He started us off with some tofu and tomatoes in vinaigrette.A nice, light way to start off. The tofu was smooth and silky and the tomatoes were fresh and flavorful.

We had some soup with seafood
Pretty standard, too much soup for one person, in my opinion, and were antsy for the sushi, so we didn't finish this. I had this at Sasabune also and was never very keen about it. The one at Mori is better, but either way, I want to hurry and eat my sushi.

We also had a nice little platter with eggplants, beets, and a caviar gelee.
The eggplant with miso (yellow) was great, and the beets were flavorful. Everything was well prepared and we had a good variety of cooked appetizers this way.

We started with some red snapper marinated in seaweed
Really fresh, the subtle taste from the seaweed is amazing. Great first impression!

We then had some big eye toro
Again, very fresh. The big eye toro had a very smooth texture but it's not as oily and fatty. I personally prefer the fattier one but for those more health-conscious you might like this leaner big eye toro :P

Next is an interesting one I haven't had before: wild eel tail
So far I've only had unagi or anago, cooked with eel sauce, so this is new to me. A little fishy and chewy, but it has a nice flavor and texture.

Also had some japanese mackerel
Next is fresh octopus with yuzu chili
I was quite impressed by this one. I normally don't like octopus that much, but this one was delicious. Nice crunchy texture.

We also finally got some bluefin toro.
I think all three of us agreed that we like the bluefin better - it's oilier than the big eye, but hey, we're eating toro here, of course we want oil and fat :P
It's definitely very fresh, but it's not the best toro ever as far as the texture and taste though - although this preference of mine can't be very healthy for me ...

Another interesting piece we had that day was this baby barracuda:
It was seared and had a very nice seared flavor. The fish itself is a little fishy but it's very2 tender. First time I had this as sushi and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I finished the meal with some spanish mackerel
Again, very fresh fish, but the flavors are pretty subtle.

My friend and her sister had another dish, mirugai with yuzu chili
Didn't taste this so I won't say anything.

They served us some fresh fruits with azuki paste for dessert
Great fruits, although the mangoes weren't particularly ripe (then again I always compare mangoes to the South Asian mangoes, so ... ). Loved the azuki paste, a nice simple ending to the meal.

After tax and tips I came out of there for $102. Kind of a lot for a quickie lunch (less than 1 hour)! The sushi was definitely very fresh, no doubt about that, but it's definitely pricey. I think Sushi Zo is on par with Mori and for a bit cheaper, so I would be coming back to Zo more than Mori. That said, there's no denying the quality of fish at Mori. I don't think I can justify another $100 lunch anytime soon, but I'll come back one of these days!

Sushi Mori
11500 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064-1520
Phone: (310) 479-3939

Mole and Margaritas: Loteria Grill

I finally tried the somewhat-new Loteria! Grill in Hollywood about a week ago. A completely different ambiance than its predecessor at the Farmer's Market, this Hollywood outpost has high ceilings and a nice looking bar.

The salsa and tortilla chips at Loteria are amazing, but as some have noticed, they're pretty stingy about it. A small portion for the 4 of us, we chowed it down in 5 minutes. We flagged down 4 waiters to ask for more, but their 'yes' never materialized into more chips and salsa. Finally we managed to flag down a busboy who graciously actually brought us more!

Tacos aren't cheap at $3.50 a piece if you want meat. I ordered two cochinita pibil tacos (slow roasted pork)

No rice or beans were given - just two tacos at $3.50 each. The tacos were great, thought. The cochinita pibil was very flavorful, with a light spiciness. The meat was very tender.

For drinks I ordered a mango margarita (I believe this was $11).

A delicious margarita although the mango flavor was not that prominent. The only problem - bcs I ordered this the server didn't bother bringing me water ...
Loteria definitely has service issues :(

One friend ordered the chicken mole enchilada ($12).

I tried a bite of this and absolutely, absolutely loved the mole sauce! The enchilada is also a better deal with more food, and rice and beans. Next time I will get this instead of tacos..

As I said, I absolutely loved the sweet and smooth mole that I ordered another taco - this time chicken mole (I just wanted more of that mole sauce!)

The mole taco was great, and did the job of satisfying my craving.

A couple friends ordered the Michelada for a drink ($9), which is basically a bloody mary mix with cerveza.


We all really liked the food at Loteria, and I will definitely come back another time, if only for that mole. Again, though, service can be much improved ...

Loteria! Grill
6627 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 465-2500
http://www.loteriagrill.com/loteriahollywood