Melisse

They say two Michelin stars is better than one.  I think they really mean that two stars is going to cost you more - a boat-load more.  And you won't be allowed to pull out your chair, pour your tea, or wipe your nose by yourself because the staff will be right there next to you (on your left, of course) waiting for you to attempt to lift a finger so they can stop you and take care of it for you because you're there to eat and pay money, and that's it!

Other than that general stuffiness, double Michelin-ed Santa Monica restaurant, Melisse, was great.  The food was delicious and absolutely worthy of the two stars of fame.  It's the fact that my pocketbook has been so sore from the expense that I've neglected, for nearly three weeks, to put together a decent review of the place.  Now that I'm well on my way through a recovery budget and diet, I feel much more capable of reasoning through an objective review of the elegant food offerred at Melisse.

Our visit to Melisse was for a birthday celebration, so the last thing I wanted to do was say "no, you can't have the anniversary tasting menu, it's too expensive" or "do you really need a wine pairing with that?"  Instead, I said "It's your birthday you can have anything you want."  Ahem...and so it began.  I will say, though, that the 10 year anniversary menu looked so inviting that I had a hard time not wanting to just spring for it, and so we did.  One wine pairing, not two.  One of us has a difficult enough time making it through a single glass of wine, let alone ten (small ones, don't worry).  However, the sommelier (aka wine guy) might have been the personality highlight of the evening, so in that sense it was kind of worth the $$$.

With our extravagant order placed, we settled in and watched the bread guy prance around with a tray full of colorful bread, that's right, colorful.  An assortment of homemade breads is teasingly waved in front of your nose, and you're required to choose from the tempting basil brioche, French country bread, bacon foccacia, olive bread, etc, which the bread man delicately places on your bread plate because that's his job.  I asked for two pieces, which was obviously shocking to the poor man, as I made him scramble back over to my left side to serve me the second piece, taking the long route around the front of the table rather than stepping behind me.  He moved my plate an inch over, too, because apparently I had placed it in the wrong location on the table.  But the bread was fantastic.  The basil brioche is incredibly unique, effectively blending the rich buttery flavor of brioche with the strong fresh flavor of basil.  A slather of butter on the roll perfectly tops this off with cold smooth texture to tone down the richness (so don't forgo that butter!)  The french country roll is much simpler conceptually, but perfectly executed, with a crispy-but-not-flaky, flavorful crust and a soft gooey middle.  Butter or no butter, this one's a winner!  (Yes, I just dedicated a huge long paragraph to the before-meal bread.  It's important.  The free bread is an indication of how much care is going to be in the rest of your meal.  If they served you Wonder Bread before your meal, wouldn't you be a bit skeptical of what else will show up on the table?)

I wish I remembered what the amuse bouche was...there was an amuse bouche...obviously it was not life-changing enough for me to remember it, so I'll move on to the rest of the meal (for which I saved the menu in order to remember what we ate). 

The first appetizer (there were many) was Egg Caviar.  As this was my first caviar experience, I wasn't quite sure I'd like this one, simply based on the fact that I detest the little tiny orange fish roe they constantly slop on top of my California rolls at sushi restaurants that pop in my mouth a million times as I attempt to chew.  The dish came presented so elegantly in an egg shell with the top neatly carved out.  The shell is filled with a poached egg yolk, cauliflower mousseline, and lemon craime fraiche and topped with caviar and chives.  They encourage you to dip your spoon all the way to the bottom to get every layer in your biteful, and they're right - it's absolutely delicious.  I scraped my egg shell so clean I might have made a hole in the bottom.  The salty caviar (that doesn't pop in your mouth!) combines beautifully with the smooth cream, and the lemon and chives add a burst of fresh flavor to lighten the dish under the heaviness of the egg yolk.  It's brilliantly planned in the way it achieves such an interesting flavor profile without adding textural complexity; you get a variety of different flavors, all in a smooth and creamy bite.

The second appetizer, according to my saved menu, was a duo of hamachi & tuna...because you can't go to a fancy restaurant in California without getting raw fish.  My menu says it was served with celery, meyer lemon, and black truffles.  I'll have to take my menu's word for it because this obviously didn't blow my mind.  And moving on...

White and green asparagus. That's right...that amaaaaaazing asparagus soup.  The soup (there might be a fancier name for it) is rich and creamy and asparagus-y and delicious.  By itself, it's a simple and delicious soup, but they dress it up by adding an asparagus panna cotta, and a crispy asparagus "crouton", this time playing on textural complexity with a singular flavor profile. Clever (and even cleverer that I picked up on the pattern!)

Seared foie gras - the epitome of fancy dining.  This one is served with pink lady apples, pain d'epices (french bread similar to gingerbread), and a vanilla-balsamic reduction.   Foie gras is one of those things that always gets attention when we see it on a menu.  I think that's because it's considered a delicacy, and we feel food-sophisticated when we have it.  Our first "foie" experience was at Tom Colicchio's Craft Los Angeles (which I can't wait to go back to so I can review it), and it was really incredible.  At the time it was hard for me to conceptualize what I was eating, as I was less daring at the time, but I do remember loving it.  Since then, we've compared every foie to the Craft foie, and this one, at Melisse, is the only one that's come even close to compare.  It's seared beautifully to preserve the rich, smooth texture, and the heavy flavor is cut beautifully with the sweetness and tartness of the cinnamon apples.  The pain d'epices provides balance with its mild nutty flavor and chewy texture. 

Since I had to act sophisticated while eating my foie gras, I was pleased that the next dish was a pasta, which allowed me to slurp my food like I normally would in an unpretentious way.  Lobster bolognese with fresh cappelini and truffle frothe.  I'll admit this was probably my favorite.  I do appreciate sophisticated food,  but I appreciate it more when it somehow allows me a slight memory trip back to childhood.  Not that I ate lobster bolognese as a child or had any idea that truffle meant anything other than chocolate, but I certainly slurped my fair share of capellini.  I enjoyed this dish just as much as I enjoyed every single bowl of angel hair with butter and salt that I ate as a kid.

Main dishes generally don't excite me as much as the appetizers or first courses or whatever comes before the main dish.  Our main dishes were New Zealand John Dory fish with chinese broccoli, kohlrabi, and pine-nut cornichon jus, and Cote de Boeuf with potato and braised short rib galette, fava beans, chanterelle mushrooms, and herb jus.  I usually love fish, and John Dory is a great one, but I must not have been wow-ed because I don't remember this one.  I do remember the beef simply because it was super beefy, a little too much so for my taste. The chanterelle mushrooms on the plate were delicious, though!

Our ten course meal came with a cheese course!  I so wish it involved a bunch of cheese, but alas, just one cheese was on our plate.  Luckily it was a super-creamy cheese, just like I like my cheese.   The cheese was paired with black truffle, poached pears, balsamic gelee, and micro-greens lightly sprinkled with olive oil.  Deconstructed balsamic vinaigrette salad.  Tasty.  I would have loved to have some cheeses off the cheese cart that was prancing around the dining room visiting other tables, though.  Oh well.

Dessert dessert dessert!  I was full when dessert arrived but I have this theory that there's always room for dessert.  The chocolate and hazelnut dessert was incredible, as chocolate and hazelnut usually are, and I loved and devoured every bit.  I was more shocked and amazed, though, by the strawberry-rhubarb vanilla yogurt that followed.  It was the perfect ending (almost-ending, actually) to the meal.  Light, sweet, and refreshing, it's as if the chef knew even better than I did what my taste buds needed at that exact moment.  I guess that's what he gets paid for!

Before we got our bill, we got a plate full of tiny cookies and some mini vanilla canelles, just in case we weren't completely full.  Maybe it was to "sweeten" us up before slapping us with the biggest food check I've ever seen.  We expected to pay $$$ for our evening at Melisse, and ended up paying 2x$$$, which came as a bit of a shock. (And FYI...spring for the valet service that costs $6, because if you park across the street from the restaurant, the city of Santa Monica will charge you 10x$6, which isn't pleasant since you've just spent 2x$$$ on your dinner.) 

Was it worth it?  I don't know...maybe.  It was an incredible meal...delicious, artisitic, clever.  I am glad we went for the experience, but I highly doubt I'll go back.  A great experience at a restaurant doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg and a kidney.

La Botte - Santa Monica

On a particularly crummy day, after a failed attempt at retail therapy, it became apparent that a nice dinner out would be just what I needed.  To me, trying new restaurants is like taking a mini-vacation; it's always exciting.  A spontaneous dinner trip, much like a spontaneous vacation, can cure a bad mood in a heartbeat, especially if the destination is as fantastic as La Botte.

La Botte was on our list of 'restaurants to try', but we had no idea how or why it got there.  Obviously we put it on the list, but couldn't remember where we'd gotten the hint to do so.   'The List' contains all the big fancy restaurants and the big famous chefs we hear about, and some smaller names that we somehow stumble upon.  Knowing very well that a spontaneous trip to the most popular restaurants would leave us without a table, we opted for the lesser known places, and somehow honed in on La Botte.  I consider us especially lucky to have been able to call the restaurant at 730pm on the evening we intended to dine, and make a reservation for 830pm...and it was Friday night!

We walked in and realized, within a couple minutes, that the reason La Botte was on our list was because it's a Michelin-starred restaurant, as we were informed by a large sign with the marshmallow guy waving and smiling at us.  That's right, the same Michelin that brings us tires for our cars also tells us where to eat and who's who of chefs in restaurant-land.  I find it a bit odd that we take, as gospel, the advice on the best restaurants from a bunch of guys that make tires, but the coveted Michelin star (or two or three stars) is like the Academy Awards for restaurants and chefs, and don't we all run out and watch the Oscar-winning movies after they've been recognized by the illustrious Academy?

Nevertheless, there we were at our first Michelin-starred restaurant, and I have to say, aside from the huge sign, I'd never have gotten the "who's who" feeling from this place.  Not because it wasn't a nice place, but because it was quaint - cute and quiet, with just the rumblings of restaurant, without the noise of the over-dressed, over-excessed crowd of trend-followers.  The decor is simple and lovely  - the room lined with bottles and bottles of wine in a gigantic wooden rack, and tables simply decorated with tea light candles in holders that allowed the light to shine in a sweet pattern on the tablecloth.  The staff is friendly and surprisingly entertaining, goofy almost, which I consider a key ingredient to the experience of eating at La Botte, as so many fine dining establishments train their waitstaff to be uber-professional, which I find stuffy and uncomfortable. 

Everything on the menu sounded incredible, so in order to avoid a drawn-out decision-making session, we opted for the tasting menu.  Yes, it's a lot of food, and yes, it's more expensive, but there's something wonderful about not having to make decisions and something exciting about not knowing what you're going to eat next.  "Please just make my tummy happy, chef.  And yes, we'll have some wine. Red please."

And so our first dish arrived, the cold appetizer - ahi tuna tartar.  Ugh, I thought, tuna tartar is so overdone.  It's lost all sense of intrigue and interest because you find it literally everywhere.  I hoped to be shocked and amazed by this tuna tartar, so I eagerly dipped my fork in the sauce and took a small bite of tartar.  Shocked and amazed and relieved, I was so happy that my tuna tartar did not have the usual harsh ginger, soy, and wasabi flavoring (and why would it? it's an italian restaurant).  This tartar is sweet with a balsamic reduction and accompanied by smooth avocado puree, and is so pleasant and refreshing to eat.  Topped with an edible flower, it's a beautiful start to an incredible meal.  Still, I would have preferred something a little more unusual, a little more Italian.  But that's what you get for avoiding food decisions!

Next up, our hot appetizer - potato leek soup.  Again, I thought, "soup? really?"  Fortunately, I've been on a leek kick lately and was excited about that aspect at least.  Well...I polished off my soup like it was a snowy day and I had just finished shoveling the driveway (which I've never actually done since I have spent most of my adult life here in sunny california missing the fluffy white winters).  The potato leek soup is not on the regular menu, but was a special at the restaurant for the day.  So lucky were we to have gotten such a wonderful off-menu item that we may or may not be able to get ever again. 

Our first pasta dish, a clone of which is currently underway in our kitchen, was a plateful of the most scrumptious gnocchi imaginable accompanied by some incredible flavorful chanterelle mushrooms.  Another off-menu item, which is quite unfortunate, because it is likely one of the best things I've ever eaten (are you listening, Food Network producers of 'The Best Thing I Ever Ate'?)  The tasty little pillow-like gnocchi are lighter and fluffier than I ever thought they could be.  The chanterelles are rich and earthy, but the powerful flavors are restrained enough to play the supporting-actor role to the subtle pasta, allowing the gnocchi to shine in a starring role.  Truly incredible. (FYI...the attempted clone in my kitchen was very good, but not quite La Botte-tastical).

The second pasta dish (two pastas is better than one!) was the pistachio pappardelle with braised lamb ragout, a regular menu item.  This one had a tough act to follow with the gnocchi, but still, it was very good.  I had a bit of a difficult time picking out the pistachio flavor beneath the pronounced lamb flavor.  I generally find that lamb has such a strong flavor that any subtly in accompanying flavors, like pistachio, gets completely overpowered and lost to the meat.  A touch of saltiness might have helped a bit, possibly in the form of parmesano-reggiano generously grated over the top (which the waiter offerred but never returned with).

So...these are all generously sized dishes here.  I'm not talking one or two noodles.  Each of these pasta dishes could have been a nice-sized meal, but we got two, and then a main dish.  By the time the meat came, we were stuffed, but the waiter so enthusiastically shoved plates of meat in front of us and informed us that the main dish was spectacular this evening.  Wagyu beef with chanterelle mushrooms (it must have been chanterelle day at the farmer's market) and roasted artichokes.  Wagyu beef, also known as kobe beef, is well-known for its intense marbling which enhances the flavor and tenderness of the meat.  This was my first wagyu/kobe experience, and I was amazed at how tender the meat was.  The accompanying flavors are quite similar to the gnocchi with the same chanterelle earthiness, but this dish feels much heavier given the intensity of the meat.  Perhaps it was the fact that we'd just polished two plates of pasta, a bowl of soup, and some tartar.  I forced the last biteful of wagyu and prayed that my dessert would still fit.

Sometimes I wish I went out just for dessert.  It is my favorite part of the meal, but I am almost always stuffed to the brim by dessert time.  I commend the chef at La Botte for his choice of dessert to finish off our tasting.  The light and sweet berry sorbet is completely refreshing, and the token chocolate dessert, made with special European chocolate, is creamy, rich and indulgent; a perfect pair of sweet treats to finish of a remarkable meal!

I waddled out of La Botte, plopped myself in the car, unbuttoned my pants for the ride home, and promptly proclaimed, "...so that's what a Michelin star tastes like!"