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This week Jonathan Gold of the LA Times reviews Faith & Flower, the sizeable new eatery from Coastal Luxury Management's David Bernahl and Rob Weakly, as well as Stephane Bombet's Bombet Hospitality Group. With the kitchen under the supervision of chef Michael Hung, as well as pastry chef Indelisa Zarate and barman Michael Lay, the Goldster feels mostly good about the expansive Downtown restaurant:
Faith & Flower is enormous; giant, double-height dining rooms marching up the block. It is also fairly ornate, encrusted with wainscoting and swank wallpaper, wall treatments involving dozens of hand mirrors, candles and tractor-sized chandeliers trailing miles of gold chain....Gold has issues with some of Hung's dishes, calling the oxtail agnolotti bland and the gravy-drenched bone marrow waffles during brunch "unappealing," but overall the Goldster finds redemption in pizza, desserts, and Lay's cocktails. [LAT]So while his tiny, very French tarts of duck-liver mousse may come from the La Folie playbook, his deviled eggs feature yolks whirred with spicy kimchi. The terrific steak tartare is flavored with miso, black sesame and what tastes like seaweed, so it is less a celebration of raw flesh than an explosion of umami.
[Photo by Elizabeth Daniels]
Brad Johnson of Los Angeles Register goes to Beverly Hills newcomer, Shiki, which opened April 6 in the Golden Triangle:
The journey weaves in and out of raw fish, including halibut with fresh white truffles and kanpachi with serrano chilies and white miso. It is all unquestionably delicious.This kind of dining in Japan is usually heralded with grace and ceremony, the height of elegance, the epitome of Japanese hospitality. But not here. Service is slapstick and chaotic. And while the staff could not possibly be any nicer or friendlier, a lot gets lost in translation. [LAR]
The Elsewhere: FoodGPS tries the shrimp & potato at Chengdu Taste, Darin Dines tries Kali Dining, Refined Palate re-tries Providence, and LA Magazine rounds up alambres around town.
· All Week in Reviews Coverage [~ELA~]
