This month, LA Magazine's in-house critic Patric Kuh shares his thoughts on Kali, Kevin Meehan and wine director Drew Langely's "tempered" take on fine-dining that's inspired by California cuisine.
This style of cooking, which the critic describes as having "the twin engines of extraordinary product and delicate abundance" at its core, manifests itself in beautiful dishes such as a "sea urchin orb containing preserved lemon and dehydrated sea lettuce tastes intensely marine" and Kali's avocado salad:
Meehan uses the Fuerte, a smooth variety that was supplanted by the pebble-skinned Hass because it could better withstand shipping. He slices the avocado in half, brushing the inside with avocado honey and charring it in a pan. Only when an order comes in does he slip the flesh from its light green casing, tucking between the two halves curlicues of carrots and sprigs of kale and sprinkling the crown with crushed pistachios and herbal ash. Without being diced or slivered, the avocado seems made anew—full and sumptuous and a dish unto itself. [LA Mag]
Ultimately, the collision of modern California fare and fine dining seems to go over well with Kuh, who awards the restaurant three stars out of five.