Craft Los Angeles Review

I went with lowered expectations and was rewarded. The meal was not out-of-this-world-good or inspiring as the cost might suggest. This was the second most expensive meal I've ever had in my life and first place is very far-off since it involved an entirely new way of tasting. But the food at Craft was solid.

"regular" and pumpernickel bread and butter -- the bread is sliced in huge hunks, like slices of bundt cake. Tasty. For a long time I stopped spreading butter on the bread so I could conserve calories but at some point I decided that I wanted to taste the butter the restaurant offered. The butter served here had a nice creamy tang to it, almost like buttermilk.

The kitchen also sent out an amuse bouche of truffle cream filled gougere. It was not particularly interesting, but was a tasty one-pop bite. This was not popular at the table. I think someone said that the gougere tasted like a cheezit with a tone that meant that this was not a good thing. 

marinated octopus -- the marinade was delicious but the octopus didn't really taste like octopus; I can't decide if this is a good thing because this suggests an flaw in bringing out the pure taste of a food. One at our table suggested that it was more like ham in a good way. the tiny dice of potatoes were a surprising added delight.

chicory salad -- the pureed dates on the plate (was almost like apple butter in substance) did a lovely job marrying together the chicory, asian pear, and salty goat cheese.

At other restaurants the appetizers often outshine the mains, but that was not the case here.

roasted leg of lamb -- my friend has a "secret" recipe (even she uses the quotation marks) and the flavoring of this was reminiscent of that... but I can't remember now which flavors stood out to me the most. I ordered this because I wanted to know how American lamb compares to New Zealand lamb. American lamb definitely has less of the gamey flavor ever-present in New Zealand lamb.

braised kale and cranberry beans -- I love kale, so it was a foregone conclusion that I would like this, but the mouth-feel of the braising liquid stood out. It has this lovely velvety texture, like eating lusciously braised tendon, that made me lick my lips again and again. I just wanted to keep this taste on my tongue for as long as possible

pureed squash -- light, fluffy, tasty. not much else to say

market vegetables -- consisted of baby carrots and other vegetables I can't remember now. I can't remember now because of the brussel sprouts. No, the dish was not ruined by the little green gremlins. I don't know or care what they put into flavoring them, but they were seriously the best brussel sprouts I have ever tasted in my entire life.

I wonder if they made a mistake with dessert because we ate more dessert than dinner.

sticky toffee pudding -- really showing up everywhere. not as interesting as the one at Westside Tavern

ice creams -- light and creamy; texture was not rich but the taste was!

creme fraiche panna cotta with some-flavored shortbread and fermented fruit -- I disliked the shortbread. I have not idea what is meant by "fermented" but the fizzified fruit slices were delicious. The panna cotta tasted like sour cream. Wow, it was rich. The only way to continue eating this was to alternate with the chocolate dessert...

flourless chocolate cake (?) -- so intense that the only way to continue eating THAT was to alternate with the panna cotta.

Probably the best dessert of the night was the toasted lemon marshmallow the kitchen sent out at the end with the caramel popcorn and chocolate bark. At this point even my dessert stomach was full so I stopped at the lemon marshmallow and consumed nothing else after. It was really like a lemon meringue pie in a tiny bite. One dining companion declared it was by far the best part of the meal.

At the end of the meal we were also gifted with a banana muffin which I devoured the next morning. One of the better banana muffins I've consumed in my time.

So I was rewarded for lowering my expectations. Would I go back again? Probably not. I don't think I can lower my expectations twice and looking back at this meal, it was not so much solid but just delicious.