Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Grace Restaurant

After sitting in horrendous traffic for 1 hour coming from the westside, my BF and I finally arrive at Grace 30 min late for our 7:30 reservation. The host greeted me by name even before I spoke. How nice is that?

It wasn't busy at all last night and pretty quiet that if a coin was dropped, you would have heard it.

The service was great, no complaints. We got our wine and water pretty fast. Our waiter was attentive, but not obtrusive, something that is very important to me. I hate when I'm in the middle of a conversation and someone comes over and interrupts.

Food was excellent and pretty big portions.

BF ordered the Kabocha squash and roasted chestnut soup. It was pureed and tasted had a nutty flavor to it. He liked it very much, I was so-so on it.



My Dungeness crab salad was amazing! I loved how the potato crisps separated the layers of yummy crab. The small apple slices gave it a nice tang to it. It was really a lovely salad.

best crab salad ever


BF ordered the sauteed New Zealand Sea Bream (fish) which was tasty, but didn't really wow me. I guess I'm more into unique/odd flavors.

Sea Bream


Which is why I ordered the braised pork shank with chorizo fries and rapini.



Holy shit! This pork was the size of my head and weighed about 5 lbs. I could only finish 1/6 of it and took the rest home. I must say the pork was very well seasoned and damn tender. Mmmm mmm braised! The chorizo fries were great and very creative. Who would have thought to put crispy chorizo with roasted potatoes? Genius. The rapini was good, although a little bitter.

We each had a glass of German Riesling which was pretty damn sweet, yet tasty. No martinis for us! I think I'm taking a break from drinking for a while. Oh wait, who am I kidding?

So, overall Grace serves great food and provides great service. I just thought they were pretty dead, even for a Tuesday night. We left around 9 pm and we were the last customers there. They were even starting to close up shop. Hmm.. bad economy?

If you go here, get the pork shank. It will last you for days. Definitely worth the $28 it cost.

Valet parking is up front, but I scored a sweet parking spot just steps away from the restaurant! That made up for being stuck in traffic forever.

(sorry for the bad pix, I only had my iPhone with me)

4****

Grace Restaurant
7360 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 934-4400

4 comments:

Tricerapops said...

i had the same dish, only it was a lamb shank at the time - but with same sides. glad to hear you liked it - it's one place that i enjoyed a while back, but last trip left me underwhelmed (every place has an off night i suppose). relatively speaking, it's been around longer than other restaurants in the area, and with same owners - so that says something.

Pandalicious said...

ooh lamb might have been better!

yeah, it's a decent place, i'll probably go back, but not in a rush.

Daniel S. said...

Great review! I know how dark it is in there, so taking pics really requires a steady hand. And yes getting to this area from ANYWHERE is pain :(.

During my DineLA visit, I also tried the pork shank and yes it's sized for an NFL linebacker. It was good, meaty, and juicy. Loved the chorizo fries. We couldn't finish this, no way.

Everything looks good. I want to go back on Sunday Burger and Milkshake nights. Yums!

Pandalicious said...

ooh, sunday burger and shakes?! that sounds fun!

yeah, Beverly Blvd is a huge pain..