dineLA Restaurant Week - Craft

Is it just me or...I feel like there's some sort of restaurant week event every other month?
Don't get me wrong, I ain't complaining,
You'll definitely see me dancing in circles if they hold this kind of promotion every day.
*munch munch.

So let me quickly share my thoughts on Craft before Restaurant Week ends,
*(October 10 - October 15, 2010).
By the way, I tried Campanile last time for lunch,
Here's the review,
The food was better than I expected,
You can even to-go some fresh bread since La Brea bakery is just right next door.

Back to Craft -

It's next to some commercial high-rise buildings,
I wonder if these executives dine at Craft all the time during lunch hours.

Right after walking into the restaurant,

Doesn't that makes you feel like shooting the maitre d' for fun??
Especially after 30 minutes wait,
oh yeah, we did wait for a while even after making a reservation few days earlier,
Maybe the Restaurant Week event is having an effect on this place.

Passing through the bar area -

As we settled down at our table -

Warm and cozy ambience,
Let me give you a brief intro of this place before my food porn starts,
Tom Colicchio is the man behind the entire Craft-series restaurants,
Sound familiar?
Maybe you saw him as the head judge on the Bravo TV show Top Chef?
Yes, That's the guy.
As for Craft - Los Angeles branch, Anthony Zappola and Shannon Swindle are the two head chefs in charge of the dishes.

Here it comes our bread -

I didn't get a picture of the butter that was being smeared all over the bread,
But seriously, it was good,
Pure buttery aroma, it was so creamy that I just wanna shuffle the whole thing into my fridge and eat it as dessert.
It is THAT good.

Friend brought a bottle of wine to go with our food -

Breathe -

(They didn't charge us the corkage fee)

Here it comes our first course, served in family style -

Braised octopus with mint vinaigrette.
Good but not spectacular.

Chicory salad with Asian pear and balsamic -

One of my top three dishes of the day,
Especially when you bite into the pear, together with little salt flakes,
They were having a little party in my mouth.

Sides, first is market vegetables -

Just regular veggies with some baby roots.

Italian butternut squash puree -

I seriously can't remember how it really taste like,
Everybody finished it way ahead of me because I was still taking pictures,
Sometimes my camera does get in the way of me enjoying food,
Oh well, feast with my eyes!

Second course, braised beef cheek,
Served with Yukon gold potato puree and orange -

You can really feel the collagen from the meat,
I was surprised how big these pieces are,
I guess same thing applies to beef tongue, I can never imagine a cow can have such a huge tongue...

Wild skate wing with Anson Mills grits and walnuts -

Never had skate before so decided to give it a try,
The texture is similar to flounder,
The semi-sweet walnuts definitely bring up the flavor, without it, it'll be a regular dish.

35 day dry-aged sirloin (not included in the dineLA menu) -

Comes with roasted bone marrow, topped with lots of chives.

How to describe the flavor of dry-aged beef..
It's a wee bit like eating a very well cured ham,
There were layers of different hints as you bit into the meat, really enjoyed it.

Room for dessert? Qui!

Chocolate panna cotta with hazelnut crumble -

I actually picked out the crumble even though it was made with my favorite ingredient,
Just..it was so salty...way too salty for dessert.
However, the panna cotta itself is very creamy, kind of like intensified chocolate milk in a panna cotta form.

Front: Ricotta cheesecake (not included in the dineLA menu)
Back: Spiced pear shortcake with Cajeta ice cream and candied pecans

Cheesecake - on the salty side.
Shortcake - tastes more like a scone but the ice cream part was good,
The pear that comes with it had a strong cinnamon aroma, if you are a cinnamon lover, you'll fall in love with it (sadly, I'm not).

Complimentary popcorn, chocolate rice crisps, and lemon marshmallows -

Chocolate rice crisps were so salty too...

Overall I think Craft did pretty well for savory dishes,
As for dessert, almost everything we had that night was over-salty,
I mean, I dig salty dessert..but this was way overboard.

Side note: service was attentive, friendly staff, always carry a sincere smile.

Cindy's Rating: 7

Craft Los Angeles
10100 Constellation Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90067
(310) 279-4180
http://www.craftlosangeles.com/

Stepped On A Landmine...Cham Soot Gol @ Garden Grove

Korean barbeque is one of these dishes that can hardly get all messed up,
You figure out the marinade, soak the meat for hours, and slap it on the grill,
The end result should be: 1. good 2. very good 3. non-stop drooling good.

Sadly, I had an awful lunch at Cham Soot Gol in Garden Grove,
I can proudly announce that this is my first Korean barbeque place that I would never want to step in again,
Back in Taiwan, we call this kind of unpleasant dining experience - stepped on a landmine,
Boom!

I actually searched Yelp for an all-you-can-eat Korean barbeque around Orange County area the night before my horrible lunch,
The 4 star rating caught my attention, and yes, it was Cham Soot Gol,
Being adventurous to try out new places, there I was 12 hours after -

Sunny day, bright blue sky; I was filled with delighted mood before entering the eatery.

Once the hostess set me and my friend down at the table,
Immediately, I can felt that everything was a wee bit sticky..oily per se.
Bleh, still tolerable, let's moved on to the menu.

$13.99 for lunch hour all-you-can-eat barbeque,
Menu includes:
Pork belly
Thin sliced beef brisket
Spicy pork B.B.Q.
Beef B.B.Q.
Chicken B.B.Q
Banchan (small dishes)
Choice of egg pot, bean paste stew, or tofu soup

What a deal (I thought).

Banchan came, they might look decent from the picture, but trust me, the taste is not.
The flavor was bland, definitely need more seasoning,
In addition to that, where's my kimchi?
Excuse me? I'm eating at a Korean barbeque place without kimchi!?
It's like going to a burger joint without french fries.

Good lord they did give me my duk bo sam (thin rice paper),
Otherwise I would just walk out the door without a word..
That'll be like eating burger without the buns!

Beer first, need to calm down a little bit...

Beef brisket came, normal quality,
Well, you can't really mess up un-marinated thinly sliced beef right?

So what people usually do is take some cooked meat, banchan, sauce, and just wrap them with the rice paper -

And eat it all at once, yummy!
The other Korean barbeque place called Shik Do Rak also offers thinly sliced pickled radish as another option to wrap the meat,
I'm totally in love with that,
The slightly sour-ish radish together with semi-greasy barbeque meat - to die for.

Then our "miscellaneous" marinated meat came up -

Put it this way, I had to dip them in a lot of chili sauce to make it more enjoyable,
I felt like the marinated meat from Korean markets can easily outbid this...whatever you call it.

The only highlight of the day, steaming hot egg pot -

Not letting my grudge get in the way of judging this dish,
It was good, especially when it's still bubbling hot,
The egg was silky soft with flavor similar to dashi.

Pork belly -

(Note that all their pots are semi...damaged?)
It came with a pot full of marinade in it,
Supposedly, you dip the pork belly with the marinade for a while before grilling.
This was my second favorite dish of the way,
Unfortunately, most belly pieces came with a few bits of unchewable cartilages that I either had to spit out or eat it with a broken jaw.

Will I come here again?
Hell no.
There're so many all-you-can-eat Korean barbeque around the neighborhood,
I seriously don't understand why this restaurant was 4/5 packed with customers.

If you ever crave for Korean barbeque (not all-you-can-eat type),
Check out Shik Do Rak or Park's Barbeque,
Especially Park's Barbeque,
Hands down still my number one Korean barbeque in Southern California,
It does come with hefty price though, but definitely worth the price.

In the meantime, I'll head back to the journey of finding that perfect all-you-can-eat Korean joint..

*I'll also visit Park's Barbeque again and write an update post on that.


Cindy's Rating: 4

Cham Soot Gol
9252 Garden Grove Blvd, Suite 10
Garden Grove, CA 92842
(714) 590-9292

Hours: Mon - Sun 11 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.   ( > _.< )"