Jonathan Gold Reviews the Hotly Anticipated “Pleasure Machine” Redbird

This week, Jonathan Gold reviews Neal Fraser's Redbird, one of the most anticipated restaurant openings of the decade. Gold describes the restaurant located within the deconsecrated cathedral Vibiana as a "grand pleasure machine" with dishes that nod to the "big California restaurants of the 1980s and 1990s:"

When you sit down, you are greeted with what the waiters call an "amuse booze,'' a tiny, bitters-infused aperitif that recalls the Road Kill shots Fred Eric used to serve at his old Vida. The Dungeness crab soup, flavored to recall the chicken-coconut soup tom kha kai, is the kind of thing you might have seen at the mid-'90s restaurant Boxer, where you also might have seen a young Fraser on the line in his CIA baseball cap. Fraser likes smoke, chiles and farmers market vegetables; lingering tartness and mild funkiness; odd cross-cultural flavors like sumac, lemon grass and yuzu kosho; little crunchy things and lots of salt. If you accompanied him to a Japanese izakaya, you would probably let him order. [LAT]

While some of the food is "occasionally forgettable," Gold ends a rather neutral review delighted by the barbecued tofu and namesake Veal Fraser.

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The Elsewhere: The Offalo eats through the happy hour and dinner menus at Michael's, Eating L.A. unveils Thai hidden gem Lacha Somtum, and Gourmet Pigs has a boozy brunch at Harlowe.