Big Views and Baller Mexican at Sunset Strip’s New Casa Madera

It’s always sunny inside the Mondrian Hotel on the Sunset Strip — or at least it will be now that Casa Madera has landed. The newest addition to the glitzy Sunset corridor nestled along the Hollywood Hills brings big coastal Mexican flavors and some seriously hard-to-beat views of the Los Angeles basin.

Casa Madera is the next step up for Noble 33 hospitality group’s Tosh Berman and Mikey Tanha, who have made a name for themselves with the slightly more casual-cool Tocaya Organics and the hip Toca Madera brand in West Hollywood, Las Vegas, and Scottsdale, Arizona. With Casa Madera the move is toward the blonde woods, rattan finishes, and leafy accents familiar to many places along the busy Riviera Maya in Southeastern Mexico. The restaurant is filled with driftwood tones and off-white paint, with a glowing bar, booths, and banquette seating that peer out over the city below. Much like Lavo Ristorante up the street this is indoor-outdoor dining at its LA best (at least when it’s not raining), offering breezy space for cocktails and grilled seafood or a dimmer, more intimate evenings inside.

The menu, meanwhile, is built to feed the West Hollywood crowds. There are upscale taqueria touches like $18 chicken al pastor taco plates and duck carnitas options alongside salads, hamachi crudo with Serrano peppers, tuna sashimi, and more. This being the Sunset Strip, expect luxury as well; a 44-ounce bone-in wagyu tomahawk will hit the table with accompaniments for $295, and Dover sole is available with capers, brown butter, and chile de arbol for $75 — plus caviar and Dom Perignon, naturally. The opening menus from Madera Group culinary director A.J. McCloud are below.

The new Casa Madera is just one of a handful of Sunset Strip projects that have either opened in recent years or are in development. Everyone from Wolfgang Puck to director/producer McG sees the area as a renewed hub for hot dining. And there really is nothing like the Sunset Strip anywhere else in LA, an area that over the years has held everything from the power scene at Tower Bar to Kris Yenbamroong’s first Night + Market, with tinned seafood and pastrami sandwiches in between. Casa Madera opens tomorrow, Saturday, January 14, atop the Mondrian West Hollywood at 8440 Sunset Boulevard.

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