Week in Reviews: Michael's on Naples, El Prado, South and More
This week S. Irene Virbila unearths a random Italian restaurant in Naples, the tony marina enclave in Long Beach. Michael's on Naples has all the right touches---sleek interior, rooftop deck with sea breezes, octopus carpaccio and handmade pastas from chef Marco Cavuoto, lots of Italian wines---and only a few hiccups (service is disorganized and not very professional, it's loud, "corny" Italian music). Her ambience note at the end of the review sums it up best:
Contemporary Italian in Naples with roomy booths and a stylish open-air rooftop dining area. Far outclasses anything else on the island and attracts an affluent, Italian-food-mad crowd.
So there's just not a lot of good food on Naples, and
Michael's gets two stars. Miss Irene overhears a LB customer ask why should they trek to West Hollywood when they can walk to Michael's. Indeed. Someone from WeHo is probably asking themselves the same question about Naples in Long Beach. Today the "S." stands for "stolid." [
LAT]
From around the blogosphere: El Prado, Fraiche, South, Amandine Patisserie and More >>
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Week in Reviews: Thousand Cranes
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This is one of those times we're happy to be in the same city as Jonathan Gold. Not only does he discover the Thousand Cranes' tempura bar at the Kyoto Grand Hotel (formerly the Otani Hotel) in Little Tokyo for us, but now we want all things fried and glistening: "There are prawns, huge as bananas, that come out of the oil as straight as rulers, crackle-crusted and spurting sweet juice when you violate them with your teeth. You may taste big sea scallops tamed to a luxurious softness by the oil, Japanese pumpkin and gleaming shishito peppers. Lotus root turns into the densest, sweetest substance on Earth in the hands of Shiono, and okra pods lose the gooeyness of their centers. You are glad that the restaurant exits into the still of the Japanese garden, because the shock of the downtown streets might be too much after this meal." [LAW]
Week in Reviews: Akasha, Amarone, Yum Cha Cafe, Father's Office Cocktails and MORE
We expected a total S. Irene Virbila love-fest for Akasha, Akasha Richmond's uber-green restaurant in Culver City, and everything is something: eco-friendly uniforms, great space, lighting is just right, noise level is "spirited but manageable," there's a pizza she's ordered more than once, her friend got all "dreamy-eyed" over a vegetarian bowl with Punjab beans, desserts are delcious. So what gives?
With the main courses, the difficulty of the stretch from caterer to full-fledged restaurateur shows most. The execution can be uneven, too. Roast Rosie chicken tastes like a real chicken but looks like something you'd get from an amateur cook who doesn't have experience in plating or making food look attractive. Asian-style short ribs are cloying. Lamb osso buco is a mess on the plate, braised too long and its flavor drowned out in a strong reduction. It's $30, incidentally, and the short ribs are $29. At that price point, Richmond is playing in the big leagues, competing with Lucques, or with Fraîche down the street.
Ah, so that's why Akasha gets
one-and-a-half stars. Miss Irene is "confident" the "fledgling restaurant with a strong point of view---and big dose of soul" will pull through. Today the "S." stands for "straightforward." [
LAT]
Amarone Kitchen & Wine, new dim sum in Chinatown and more ELSEWHERE >>
Week in Reviews: Bond Street Zeroes Out, Providence, Fraiche, Noodle Shops, Little Cambodia and More
Alen Lin, 1/22/08
The Los Angeles Times got our attention on the homepage: "Something's fishy in Beverly Hills. No stars for Bond Street." We can't say we're surprised. Sushi in trendy settings isn't S. Irene Virbila's forte; plus, she's on quite the tear these days. In a city where good sushi doesn't need stellar decor and designer uniforms, and the trendoids already have plenty of places to coo over, Jonathan Morr and the Bond Street chefs would really have to step it up. Oh how they did not impress:
After several evenings at Bond Street, I have a radical suggestion to make: Stay away from the raw fish and stick with salads, vegetables and main-course seafood and meat dishes. Your meal won't be inexpensive, but you won't come away as outraged.
This is a restaurant where sashimi comes two slices per order and where truffle butter, foie gras, pork belly, tarragon oil and other tricks of the new sushi chefs' trade embroider many dishes. Scallop carpaccio, for example, arrives looking very like an albino apple tart on an icy granita. "It's calamansi citrus granita," the server whispers as he sets the plate in front of us. This sounds as if it could be very delicious. Until I take a bite and find the raw scallop slice is funky and the granita is achingly sweet. I want to scrub off my tongue.
Right there we know this isn't a restaurant Miss Irene would normally even bother with, but she felt compelled. There are a few dishes that worked (seaweed salad, steak), so maybe that's what the crowds who flock there are eating. Maybe they're not eating at all. Maybe that's not the point. We don't know the last time Miss Irene doled out no stars (damn new LAT search), but there it is. Today the "S." stands for "scorched." [
LAT]
NEXT: Fraiche, Providence, Little Tokyo and Little Cambodia, more >>
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Week in Reviews: Bar Pintxo
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Jonathan Gold finds the seats unbearable after an hour, the tapas and paella pretty mediocre, and questions the lack of sherry or vermouth at Bar Pintxo. But it's pure poetry when he gets to the Ibérico ham: "You may be familiar with the sensations provided by good prosciutto or Kentucky ham, but Ibérico is something else. Slightly chewy, the rude red of a Francis Bacon painting, it dissolves slowly into a rondelay of flavors — hazelnuts, sweat, caramel, smoke, amber, Parmesan cheese — that dance around each other like sunlight reflected off a rippled pond...You could have the merely amazing jamón serrano, aged 18 months and also hewn to order, for half the price of the Ibérico here, but there is something about seeing a long knife flash into an $800 ham and knowing that those slices are for you." [LAW]
