Gjelina, Venice

All the dishes were simply prepared, simply constructed. Make no mistake, simple doesn’t equal easy. Simple is often harder to do, due to the margin of error. Overcook the cauliflower and it’s mushy and tastes more like rotten cabbage. Over spice your sausage and the balance of the whole dish is off.

We started with the Escarole and Sunchoke topped with Smoked Almonds, Lemon Preserve and Parmesan was a clean with good acid balance . The lemon preserve was what keyed me in on the dish. The theme of North African resonated throughout the menu. As I said, straightforward, good flavors.

Our main, Moroccan Baked Eggs w/ Merguez, Chili, Tomato Sauce, Cilantro & Spiced Yogurt was a huge hit with me. This dish could be installed into the Best Breakfast in the World next to Chilaquiles in Merida, Fresh Pastry in Paris, and Bacon and Eggs at Home. I couldn’t get enough of this stuff.

Our side, Wood Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic, Chili & Vinegar. I made this dish a couple weeks later and I hate cauliflower. I added some golden raisins to my dish, but Gjelina did real justice to one of my least favorite vegetables.

Literally, no downside to any dish. All well prepared, good portions, well presented. Service was good, ticket times were good.

And I love their policy of “changes & modifications politely declined”.

I wouldn’t change a thing! (But how hard is that to do in picky LA?!)

Father's Office, Santa Monica

It’s hip, it’s happening, it’s loud, it’s chaotic, and it’s totally packed dude, like bodasciously mega-packed. I’ve heard about Father’s Office when I was living in LA. “Go for the burger dude.” Thanks Johnny Utah for the advice. 

I was talking with another foodie, James Collier, who was down in LA for a food bloggers conference and the Father’s Office Burger came up. I recall hearing that it was good, but not earthshattering good.

With all these recommendations, it took simply the suggestion from a former analyst and friend of mine, Monica to get me to go. I trusted her as an analyst; so why not trust her foodie senses?

As we walked in, I get carded. Really. This automatically makes me think we’re going to a bar that serves food, rather than a restaurant that serves drinks. All seating is first come, first serve, like a bar. All orders and drinks are taken at the bar. There are no waiters, only expeditors and bussers. The place is a 1200 square foot space with a narrow space in between tables.

The food was above average across the board, but unbalanced. To their credit, our food came out fast, hot, and generally well prepared.

We started with a smoked eel, slivered onions, and coddled egg. The four pieces of smoked eel was outstanding and delicate. I wish I could have had 4 more pieces of eel. However, the softball sized amount of slivered red onion that accompanied the eel was way too much. Talk about onion breath! The coddled egg, while wonderfully cooked, served almost no purpose since there wasn’t a starch on the plate or the table to mop up all that yolky goodness.

We also ordered the sobresada. It was good, but not over the top. The bread was crispy around the edges and not uniformly crispy, which bugged me. I know, I’m being picky. I think I used some of the bread to sop up the egg yolk from the eel dish and the egg, bread, and meat combo worked for me.

As I mentioned, Father’s Office is known for its burgers and the burger didn’t disappoint. I don’t think it was the best burger I’ve ever had, but it was well seasoned and prepared. I ate the burger through our entire meal. Lots of arugula, caramelized onions with balsamic, and medium rare beef all good. I think I might have even dipped my burger into the egg yolk from the eel dish as well. I can’t let quality egg yolk go to waste; I needed bread damn it.

One outstanding, yet simple item were the sautéed mushrooms. I loved these. In fact, I was using my fork and burger to scoop up the mushrooms and sauce (read butter) just so I wouldn’t waste anything. Probably the least technical item of the night, but the simplicity spoke to me.

Lastly, the sweet potato fries were good, but the ubiquitous alternative menu item to the humble,  regular potato fries, I’m tired of. I think I was tired of them 3 years ago. There’s nothing more healthy about a deep fried sweet potato than a regular spud. They’re Deep Fried. And ranch is less healthy than ketchup.

I’d say Father’s Office is an experience. The food is good. The beer is good. A busy crowd is good. As someone who has eaten many a meal alone because of work, I wouldn’t come here alone. I wouldn’t make this my regular stop if I were local either. It’s not an alone type of place. It’s a social place to be quickly served, well fed, and well imbibed. I still believe that it’s a bar, that happens to serve good food. Just not a bar I’d go to alone for a quiet drink and a burger.

Eddie V's, La Jolla

Eddie V’s is a concept restaurant group from Darden; who also run The Olive Garden (NOOOOO!) and Capital Grille. It’s a steak house, so I don’t need a menu. Red Wine, Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese, Rib-Eye, and if available Creamed Spinach.

Wedge Salad. The wedge was basically the entire iceberg head with the core removed. No joke. The entire head of iceberg was on the plate, cold to the core, with the bottom and top barely capped off to allow for toppings and a flat base to rest on the plate cleanly rather than rolling around. It was almost comical how large this salad was. I’m all for “going big” at steakhouses, but this was laughable. There’s a corporate bean counter somewhere at Darden’s that can’t be authorizing this.

Rib-Eye. The steak was a bit over crisp on the edges without an even char to the meat. While the steak was done medium rare as requested, the staff asked if we could cut the middle of the steak to check for desired temperature. Personally, I didn’t cut it. Based upon the heat coming from the steak and the plate, the steak wasn’t fully rested. It actually bothers me a bit that they asked me to cut my steak. I don’t want to do the work to check to see if it’s done, that’s what I’m paying the chef for. Considering the steak was $46, I just want to enjoy my piece of beef and not do any work in terms of preparation.

It's my job to eat the steak, it's their job to cook it to my liking without having me cut into it without it rested. Period. 

As for the wine, I brought my own. We sat at the bar during our entire meal. The junior bartender actually asked me how to decant the wine, as she’d never done it before. A little surprising, considering some of the trophy wines on the list.

I had a good experience at Eddie V’s, but it wasn’t my best steakhouse experience. I think atmosphere, sitting in the upstairs breezeway / bar had a lot to do with it. The weather was wonderful as is the view. If I have to compare Eddie V’s to Capital Grille, I’d give the edge to Capital. I’ve had both individual meals and banquets at Capital Grille and I’ve been impressed with the quality. Eddie V’s needs more time to age.

Gladstone's, Pacific Palisades

Los Angeles. Not necessarily my favorite place on Earth. I lived in Pasadena for a year and commuted into LA for a year. Knowing what I know now, I'd probably live on the beach.

If I could live on the real estate Gladstone's is bolted to, all of my 12 ficticious children could go to Harvard or Stanford and have money left over for their children to attend as well. The view at Gladstone's is outstanding. Outside of a few places I've eaten in Hawaii, Gladstone's has to take the cake for the best view I've had in SoCal (sorry, no pictures, it was a business lunch).

For such a grand view, I had a humble sandwich, fried cod with tartar sauce on challah with house made potato chips and cold slaw. Fantastic sandwich and all the sides were first rate. The chips were crispy and seasoned with salt. The cod fish was golden brown on the outside, moist on the inside. Even the bun was good. I have to say, I broke concentration during the meeting, simply to enjoy the sandwich and sides. Delicious.

I always find it fascinating that when I eat a really good, simple meal, the lack of a long narrative description (hence my LA story telling). I suppose if you’ve ever had really good panko breaded cod, you know it. I don’t see a downside to a single item of this meal, other than you’ve got to pay for the view.

Fig Restaurant, Santa Monica

Fig Restaurant at the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica has a great happy hour; half-off everything. I happened to stop in on the recommendation of a colleague of mine for a pre-dinner snack and drinks with good friends, Monica and Jackie.

Lamb meatballs with kale in a tomato sauce and Nduja with pickles and toast were the two apps we ordered. The meatballs in sauce were really good, as good as anywhere I’ve had them up in San Francisco, somewhat similar to Marzano’s in Oakland, just without the spicy characteristic. The meatballs were moist, well seasoned and the tomato sauce was solid.

The Nduja was also good, but I admit, I’ve never had it with pickles. I've only had Nduja at BarBacco in San Francisco or at my house courtesy of Boccalone. I don't think I'll serve it with pickles at my house. I might consider serving it with some form of marmalade or something other than a dill pickle.

The Fig Bar for a light app and a drink during happy hour is a good choice if you’re in Santa Monica.

Update on Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 7:08AM by The Cured Ham

As I have some of the smartest readers in the world (I sound like an online version of late-night radio), I recently transposed two letters in Nduja, the 'd' and the 'j" specifically. But I still don't like it with pickles. Thanks to Scheherazade in New York for the correction.