Best Of L.A.
4. Bäco Mercat
To the question "If you had one meal to eat in L.A., where would you go?" we often find ourselves answering, simply, Bäco Mercat. It's the follow-up question that proves more difficult: "Bäco Mercat ... what kind of food do they serve?" The best answer might be "Centenian," a cuisine specific to Josef Centeno, Bäco's chef and owner. But that's hardly helpful. Centeno is a wiz at taking international influences and turning them into something wholly his own: a little bit Spanish, a little bit Middle Eastern, a little bit Mexican, very Californian. The bäco, which could otherwise be called a Centenian sandwich, is kind of like a taco but bigger, kind of like a flatbread but thicker and chewier, and filled with beef and pork carnitas and a Catalan sauce called salbitxada made from nuts and red pepper. Centeno should win an award for his dedicated efforts to elevate vegetables: Half of Bäco's menu is dedicated to Centenian vegetable creations, each one a quiet triumph. Japanese eggplant comes as tender as pudding, set against the cooling snap of cucumber, with creamy feta and cipollini vinaigrette for added contrast. Sunchokes are showered with tarragon, dusted with dukkah and tossed with buttered croutons. Centeno runs two other restaurants around the corner but Bäco remains the shining example of the Centenian genre, a restaurant so original it is quite unexplainable. But you don't need to understand - just go. You won't regret it. (BR) 408 S. Main St., dwntwn; (213) 687-8808.
3. Lucques
It is sometimes easy to take Lucques for granted, to forget the profound influence Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne's restaurant has had since it opened in 1998. You might overlook the roster of other chefs Goin has trained, or the way of eating she gave us with her Sunday suppers and her market-driven, globally inflected California cuisine. If that's the case, go back for dinner. Sit near the fireplace in silent-screen star Harold Lloyd's former carriage house, order a seasonal cocktail or one of Styne's excellent wines, and taste what Goin has been cooking lately. Because what's coming out of her kitchen is as utterly creative as it was almost 16 years ago. Goin's food does something that seems effortless but is incredibly difficult, especially with the kind of consistency and duration she has managed. Pitched halfway between luxury and comfort and achieving both, both the food and the ambiance at Lucques come as a slow revelation, an epiphany in three or four courses, probably with kumquats or harissa. (AS) 8474 Melrose Ave., W. Hlywd.; (323) 655-6277.
2. Providence
While much of the attention given to Michael Cimarusti this year was for his new, much more casual seafood spot, Connie & Ted's, Providence remains the chef's crowning achievement. This is modern fine dining at its best: service that is formal but relaxed and engaged, a wine list to swoon over, cooking that is precise and elegant. Tasting menus here begin with a flurry of small bites - a Dark and Stormy in gelee form, which bursts on the tongue and channels the drink perfectly; a nasturtium leaf fashioned into a taco, holding delicate, raw scallops and puffed rice; a cracker made of salmon skin, served with a smoked salmon dip dotted with bright orange roe. From there you move on to anywhere from three to 16 courses, most of them quietly creative odes to the sea. It's a dining room that's regularly perfumed with black truffles, where waiters excavate Santa Barbara spot prawns from hot salt and plate them tableside, where a German-engineered cheese cart glides around silently - it's a place for quiet decadence. If the theater of a full tasting menu is too spendy for you, many things are available à la carte at the cozy bar, where - unsurprisingly - some of the city's most coddled and delicious cocktails are being served. (BR) 5955 Melrose Ave., Hlywd.; (323) 460-4170.
1. Trois Mec
When Trois Mec opened in April it had so much personality, and so much about it felt fresh and exhilarating, that it was hard to imagine it could get much better. But brace yourselves: Trois Mec has undoubtedly gotten better. The tiny nook of a restaurant, a collaboration between Ludo Lefebvre and Animal chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, still boasts all the excitement Lefebvre was putting on the plate in those early days - but if anything, the cooking has become more heady, more precise and more creative. And that's although it was pretty damn impressive to begin with. It's hard to think of another chef who could make the highlight of a meal out of a grilled cabbage leaf, but Lefebvre chars the sturdy leaf and serves it with a silken miso flan, smoked almond milk anglaise and fennel pollen. It's shockingly good. Every dish in the five-course tasting, in fact, is a small revelation (a dessert made out of brie creme, apple butter and toasted barley? Yes, please). The wine list, too, has matured into a thing of beauty, completely worthy of the food it complements. Yes, you have to buy tickets in advance through a janky website. Yes, the system often crashes. And yes, the place is a tad hard to find. But once you're here, it's like an intimate dinner party where the hosts play French hip-hop, pour amazing wine and serve what may well be the best food in town. (BR) 716 N. Highland Ave., Hancock Park; troismec.com.
20 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles
Comments (15)
By Besha Rodell
Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 7:00 AM
Categories: Best Of L.A.
Page 5 of 5
4. Bäco Mercat
To the question "If you had one meal to eat in L.A., where would you go?" we often find ourselves answering, simply, Bäco Mercat. It's the follow-up question that proves more difficult: "Bäco Mercat ... what kind of food do they serve?" The best answer might be "Centenian," a cuisine specific to Josef Centeno, Bäco's chef and owner. But that's hardly helpful. Centeno is a wiz at taking international influences and turning them into something wholly his own: a little bit Spanish, a little bit Middle Eastern, a little bit Mexican, very Californian. The bäco, which could otherwise be called a Centenian sandwich, is kind of like a taco but bigger, kind of like a flatbread but thicker and chewier, and filled with beef and pork carnitas and a Catalan sauce called salbitxada made from nuts and red pepper. Centeno should win an award for his dedicated efforts to elevate vegetables: Half of Bäco's menu is dedicated to Centenian vegetable creations, each one a quiet triumph. Japanese eggplant comes as tender as pudding, set against the cooling snap of cucumber, with creamy feta and cipollini vinaigrette for added contrast. Sunchokes are showered with tarragon, dusted with dukkah and tossed with buttered croutons. Centeno runs two other restaurants around the corner but Bäco remains the shining example of the Centenian genre, a restaurant so original it is quite unexplainable. But you don't need to understand - just go. You won't regret it. (BR) 408 S. Main St., dwntwn; (213) 687-8808.
3. Lucques
It is sometimes easy to take Lucques for granted, to forget the profound influence Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne's restaurant has had since it opened in 1998. You might overlook the roster of other chefs Goin has trained, or the way of eating she gave us with her Sunday suppers and her market-driven, globally inflected California cuisine. If that's the case, go back for dinner. Sit near the fireplace in silent-screen star Harold Lloyd's former carriage house, order a seasonal cocktail or one of Styne's excellent wines, and taste what Goin has been cooking lately. Because what's coming out of her kitchen is as utterly creative as it was almost 16 years ago. Goin's food does something that seems effortless but is incredibly difficult, especially with the kind of consistency and duration she has managed. Pitched halfway between luxury and comfort and achieving both, both the food and the ambiance at Lucques come as a slow revelation, an epiphany in three or four courses, probably with kumquats or harissa. (AS) 8474 Melrose Ave., W. Hlywd.; (323) 655-6277.
2. Providence
While much of the attention given to Michael Cimarusti this year was for his new, much more casual seafood spot, Connie & Ted's, Providence remains the chef's crowning achievement. This is modern fine dining at its best: service that is formal but relaxed and engaged, a wine list to swoon over, cooking that is precise and elegant. Tasting menus here begin with a flurry of small bites - a Dark and Stormy in gelee form, which bursts on the tongue and channels the drink perfectly; a nasturtium leaf fashioned into a taco, holding delicate, raw scallops and puffed rice; a cracker made of salmon skin, served with a smoked salmon dip dotted with bright orange roe. From there you move on to anywhere from three to 16 courses, most of them quietly creative odes to the sea. It's a dining room that's regularly perfumed with black truffles, where waiters excavate Santa Barbara spot prawns from hot salt and plate them tableside, where a German-engineered cheese cart glides around silently - it's a place for quiet decadence. If the theater of a full tasting menu is too spendy for you, many things are available à la carte at the cozy bar, where - unsurprisingly - some of the city's most coddled and delicious cocktails are being served. (BR) 5955 Melrose Ave., Hlywd.; (323) 460-4170.
1. Trois Mec
When Trois Mec opened in April it had so much personality, and so much about it felt fresh and exhilarating, that it was hard to imagine it could get much better. But brace yourselves: Trois Mec has undoubtedly gotten better. The tiny nook of a restaurant, a collaboration between Ludo Lefebvre and Animal chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, still boasts all the excitement Lefebvre was putting on the plate in those early days - but if anything, the cooking has become more heady, more precise and more creative. And that's although it was pretty damn impressive to begin with. It's hard to think of another chef who could make the highlight of a meal out of a grilled cabbage leaf, but Lefebvre chars the sturdy leaf and serves it with a silken miso flan, smoked almond milk anglaise and fennel pollen. It's shockingly good. Every dish in the five-course tasting, in fact, is a small revelation (a dessert made out of brie creme, apple butter and toasted barley? Yes, please). The wine list, too, has matured into a thing of beauty, completely worthy of the food it complements. Yes, you have to buy tickets in advance through a janky website. Yes, the system often crashes. And yes, the place is a tad hard to find. But once you're here, it's like an intimate dinner party where the hosts play French hip-hop, pour amazing wine and serve what may well be the best food in town. (BR) 716 N. Highland Ave., Hancock Park; troismec.com.
