Recently in Restaurant Reviews Category
many years ago, feeling somewhat homesick for my childhood home in Okinawa, Japan, i was moaning about my need for cheap & cheerful Japanese eats. a friend who lived in Palms had an idea. "i know!" he said. "you have to go to this little Japanese greasy spoon/coffee shop in an alley! you can get something with rice & i'll have a cheeseburger."
i was, understandably, dubious. but hah! little did i know...
i fell in love that morning, deeply and completely. where else can you get yakisoba and fries? gyoza and a thick chocolate shake? a tuna melt and sunomono? the little obasan waitresses were friendly and efficient, and the food was simple & surprisingly ultra-delicious. i soon was taking other friends to Tokyo 7-7 myself.
nowadays, i live within walking distance, and the obasans don't even bring me, or my husband (who over the course of many breakfasts at Tokyo 7-7 went from boyfriend to fiance to husband) a menu anymore -- they just greet us with a cheerful "Ohayo!" (good morning) and give me my delicious cha-shu royal and green tea, and bring my honey his $2.35 breakfast special #1 with a root beer float.
once you find this little neighbourhood gem (park in the Cardiff structure & walk out into the alley, not to the street), you too can quickly become a regular and decide if you like the club sandwich or the udon noodles better. or heck, have 'em both!
3839-B Main St. Culver City, CA 90230 or call (310) 204-5728 for more information. hours: Monday-Friday 7 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. parking in said Cardiff structure is first 2 hours free. cash only!
Fraîche, since it's opened, has been one of those potential adventures. so it was with great anticipation that i made plans with Ms. Jen to finally try this restaurant that has been getting swooned over by critics and regular eaters alike...and then found myself making plans to go again a week later with 2 girlfriends who both wanted to go there. i figured this was a good thing: more menu sampling would be possible.
so, the nutshell reviews: Trip Number One. Ms. Jen & i had reservations, and were seated immediately. tables are close enough so that you can easily eavesdrop on the ones beside you if your own dinner date isn't that interesting. had a decent red wine and an order of the lamb spezzatino. Ms. Jen enjoyed the steak & frites. the food was...good. it wasn't anything super spectacular, and i failed to taste anything other than yummy lamb stew. that's fine, but for all the hype & the prices, i was hoping for a surprise tingle of the tongue; something to distinguish this dish from one i might make myself at home, or an unexpected or especially memorable flavour to emerge. Ms. Jen's steak had the same quality: completely good and delicious but nothing memorable.
now, i am not a foodie. i am not a gastroperson. i am a small girl of modest means who loves to eat and does so with great energy and pleasure. i associate good food with good company and love it when i get a food buzz -- when a meal just blossoms with flavour intensity or quality so that the next day you remember it and have a Pavlovian response. while Fraîche was a lovely restaurant, it did not provide that buzz. and due to the modest means of which i mentioned, when those sorts of prices are charged and that sort of difficulty in getting a reservation is involved -- my expectations will indeed rise.
Ms. Jen wisely pointed out that i would have another chance in a week to see if our *eh* reaction was a fluke, or would be repeated. i admit i really, really, really hoped it was a fluke. after all, i can walk to Fraîche.
so Trip Number Two. two nights ago, as you may recall, was a downpour. we had no reservations and were hoping that between the very Not Angeleno Friendly Rain and the weeknight, we'd be able to get a table. upon arrival we were told that yes, we could get a table in about 15-20 minutes. let's just say that about 70 minutes later, we were seated, and that after an ordeal ordering a glass of wine from very snotty bar staff. ah well, the price of eating at an "it" restaurant in L.A., we think. this time around i had the monkfish, which came in a delicious sauce with spinach. i also tried the roasted corn soup that one of my friends ordered. and while i did enjoy the meal, i again had the total *eh* reaction: there wasn't a whole lot of interest or subtlety to the foods i ate. maybe it was the rain, maybe it was being tired, but honestly -- i felt rather depressed going home. it was as if i'd finally gotten to meet a good friend's new wonderful/smart/funny boyfriend that she's so excited about, and all he did was drink cheap beer, tell poopookakafart jokes, and not know who Vladimir Putin is. does this make him a bad person? no. but not very sparkly or special.
so does the *eh* factor make Fraîche a bad restaurant? not by a long shot. but not very sparkly or special.
Fraîche is the new over-hyped, over-buzzed and over-priced for what one gets restaurant in Culver City. The food, wine, and service is good, but at the prices that Fraîche is charging, the food and wine should be more than just good. Fraîche bills itself and the reviews bill it as a fine-dining wine bar, it is neither.
Fraîche's food is decent heavy-protein-starch-very-little-vegetables comfort food and the wines by the glass are wildly overpriced for the bad selection of whiles (of the 5 whites, only the Babcock Chardonnay was decent) and an ok selection of 5 reds. For a place that is being reviewed as Culver City's best new fine dining and wine bar, it is not as the selection of wine's by the glass is poor, but barely decent or adequate for a restaurant of its stature. Do they think Los Angeles is London, to over-charge for bad to decent wine by the glass?
To earn the name, a wine bar should have at least 10 wines of white and red available by the glass and 5 of each should surprise you. The joy of a wine bar is not in buying a bottle of wine, but trying at least 2 different glasses of wine that you would not otherwise buy or try. A.O.C. delivers on this score, with over 15-20 wines each by the glass in red and white varieties, of which at least half can't be found out and about.
As for the food, it was good but not great nor delightful. I was hoping that Monday night was owner-chef, Jason Travi's night off and that the food's heaviness with no counterpoints were a result of an inexperienced kitchen staff reproducing his recipes. No such luck on Monday, as both Mr. Travi and his wife, Miho were in the open kitchen.
Did Fraîche know when the LA Times' critics were in the restaurant and they received extra attention? Or do we give credit the to the heavy starters and main dishes on Monday and on Tuesday, when hadashi encountered much the same with work colleagues, to a winter menu? I think not. Rather than buzz, Ford's Filling Station, Culver City's 'gastropub' which is a block or two down from Fraîche, serves delightful comfort food at the same price range.
A.O.C. is a full orchestra. Ford's Filling Station is a good three chord rock song with fast and slow bits as well as tart counterpoints. Fraîche is a single middle C note held for many measures.
If you find yourself in Culver City in need of a delightful meal and glass of wine, ignore the Fraîche's buzz, and walk down the street to Ford's for a meal that is worth the price.
1) A few new food blogs that I have run across this week or two:
Just Bento | meal in a box
Chocolate & Zucchini : Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen
lobstersquad : A Food Blog with Drawings
The Sensitive Baker Blog
CeliacChicks
2) The LA Times food section is recommending Osteria Mozza this week in its restaurant review, particularly the mozzarella bar. It sounds very intriguing.
3) Regardless what cranky commenters at Yelp may say, What's Wharf continues its reign as my favorite local restaurant and one of my top 10 of all time. I have always liked that Walt's serves good seafood and has a wait staff that is willing to help you find something on the menu that will work with one's food allergies. I first found Walt's while still in high school on the recommendation of my allergy doctor who said that they are one of the best restaurants in SoCal for catering to folks with food allergies.
Sometime this spring, Walt's brought on a new executive chef, Christopher Krajacic, who has been revitalizing the menu and rotating in new dishes, as well as adding a Chef's Tasting Menu, all the while keeping old favorites on the menu. Last week when I took my sister Allison to her "Last (gluten-full) Meal" at Walt's, I had a chance to talk to the Christopher the Chef about his additions to the menu and thank him for keeping the menu friendly for folks who multiple food allergies. He told me that in a previous job he was a caterer for the San Diego Celiac's Society.
last night we shot at a place in Koreatown called "Aroma Spa & Sports." it's a multi-story building with a spa (of course), multiple mall-style shops, salons, and restaurants, and the craziest yet most brilliant golf facility ever. some genius thought, "hey! if i chop off the side of the building and put a net over the parking garage, i could have a multi-story driving range!" (photos here.)
anyway, since we were shooting at the driving range, our (Asian) executive producer decided it would be easier if we all just got petty cash to eat at the downstairs food court, and the (Asian) director agreed. at first, there was a muted outcry from a few (non-Asian) crew, but the longtime (any ethnicity) Los Angeles dwellers/eaters quickly shepherded them through the delicious Korean food choices, and soon everyone was sitting down to pure deliciousness.
it was somehow a very joyous experience to look around and see all these people eating things they'd never heard of before -- hot and spicy tofu soup, various incarnations of bi bim bap (vegetables & meat layered over rice with a red sauce), all sorts of noodles, and of course, their discovery of the yumminess that is banchan (a particularly fabulous feature of Korean cuisine, which basically is little dishes of stuff -- pickles, kim chee, potato salad, onion cakes, fish cake, glass noodles, etc.) i had a scrumptious bowl of dol sot bi bim bap, which means it came in a hot stone bowl which literally grills the rice to a crusty gloriousness.
since this was all on petty cash (i.e., the production manager hands you cash, and you use it or lose it), everyone also had frozen yogurt with red beans or boba tea for dessert. more slurping hilarity ensued.
it was no accident that everyone was in unusually good moods the rest of the evening and we actually wrapped early, we were so efficient. it was gratifying to see that so many people were quite pleased with themselves for going out of their comfort zones and getting another stamp in the food passport.
Several times in the last few times I have visited London each of the Italian restaurants I have eaten at have had numerous extra and hidden charges in the bill that can't be reversed and the waiter claims it was stated on menu.
Tonight, I had a lovely risotto and glass of wine for nearly $50 USD after it was all said and done... WHAT!?!? Table fee, £2 extra on the risotto for God only knows why, and an undefined £3, plus 12.5% mandatory gratuity. It was not worth it. Good, but not that good.
I would tell you to avoid L'Accento on the Bayswater / Notting Hill border, but they are not the only ones. There was the Italian with the $45 tuna last year ($18 before bullshit charges) in the Pimlico/Chelsea area last year. And then...
Basically, unless it is cheap pizza, just say no to Italian in London as many of the authentic restaurants seem to be also cheating the customer. No need to be ripped off with extra charges when you can make a good risotto at home.
