Disappointed at Comme Ça

I finally got to Comme Ça this weekend. I have been dying to go. DYING, I tell ya. But I was disappointed, which is unusual. I should have done better research. After failing to find out their hours on their home page:

http://www.commecarestaurant.com/

I went to Yelp for the pertinent info:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/comme-ca-los-angeles

Yup, breakfast, lunch and dinner, opening at 8 am and staying open all the way 'til midnight. Their home pages shows breakfast, lunch, dinner and brunch menus, and again I should have done my research to find out they only serve brunch until dinnertime on Saturdays. I am not a big bruncher. I don't love breakfast and most brunch menus are far more breakfasty than lunch. This was so at Comme Ça. Disappointing. I almost left. But, we were already seated, the room is gorgeous and inviting, we were ravenous, and they thoughtfully provided extra red silk cushions on the banquette which is great for short people like me who have a hard time reaching the table when sitting at a banquette.



I started with oysters, as usual whenever possible. These were Fanny Bay and Virginica east coast oysters. The wait person/actor told us both were from the east coast, which I know is wrong, but I don't really care. Both types were delicious, the presentation was lovely (I love some sea weed) and the mignonette was sharp and vinegarey.



I also love looking at barnacles. They are strange creatures.






With nothing much to order that resembled lunch, I ordered the angus burger. It was pretty delicious. Medium rare and cooked perfectly. Medium-rare. Even the mayonnaisey dressing the onions were mixed into was nice. Not a fan of the fries at Comme Ça. They were overcooked, IMO. D switched his nice little green salad for my fries. The lettuce was pretty wilted, but a better choice than the fries. Although the burger was well cooked, I can honestly say that the angus burger at McDonald's is better. Sue me, but the Comme Ça burger is nothing that special.




D ordered a Croque Madame. He had never had one, and it sounded delicious. Again, IMO, the Croque Madame was overcooked. The bread was too dark and the cheese was crispy all over and didn't have that nice meltiness I like with a Croque Madame.



A couple of other fun notes. My rosé was corked, and the waiter/actor handled it in a lovely, unquestioning way. Brought me a new glass post haste. The floor manager came over later to tell me he had tasted the corked glass, and it was indeed corked (really?) and apologized. This was a nice and unnecessary move. I have a pretty sensitive palate, and can always tell when a wine is corked, even if it is just in the beginning stages. But I appreciated the way this was handled. One floor manager at a wine bar in Los Feliz, that will remain nameless, had the audacity to argue with me. He told me that was simply the nature of the wine. Um, no. This did not fly. Point being, they handled the concern well at Comme Ça. In case you don't know, roughly 7-10% os all bottles of wine are corked, and this is never in any way the fault of a restaurant or vineyard.

Also, I wondered who the Asian woman in the corner was. She was receiving much respect and deference from the floor staff. At one point she told a bus person to fix a picture that was slightly tilted, he did so and turned to look at her for approval of his straightening. Her table also ordered several items from the menu, and when the quiche came, she bent her nose about an inch away from the quiche and took a long sniff. Fun to watch the machinations of the staff around her table.




I am interested to try Comme Ça again for dinner. The menu looks more up my alley, and I enjoyed both the service and the atmosphere.

Sushi Days & Shorter Nights

Was it the discovery of a new most favorite lunch spot or the emergence from another winter's short albeit sunny days that has caused me to return to my blog? Who can say. And who really cares?






Fat Fish. South-western corner of 6th & Berendo, in the heart of K-town, my old stomping grounds. I sometimes work in the UTLA building around the corner, and when I do I ritualistically walk through the doors of Fat Fish the second they are unlocked at 11:30 am. I am not a fan of sushi belt restaurants & would never darken the doorstep of an all-you-can-eat sushi joint. I have eaten sushi at the Tsukiji fish market so fresh it wiggled. While the plates at Fat Fish may not meet this standard, the fish there is certainly fresh and surprisingly succulent enough for a mid-week lunch. The price is certainly right. All plates are half off at lunchtime, and by noon every seat at the sushi bar is full. The chefs set food out in a predictable pattern. First come seaweed salads, small bowls of spicy albacore sushi salad, dome lidded salmon sushi with rings of red onion and 5 minutes later or so more exotic offerings start popping out the window. Kaiyaki, ebi, sweet shrimp with roe, and the beautiful whole wheat soba bowl in brown broth with a quail egg cracked on top.






The eda mame is liberally seasoned with sea salt and small hot bowls of tempura (zuccini, yam, onion & shrimp) never make the complete loop past the customers and back through the kitchen.





This is not your typical dark wooded, economical of space sushi restaurant. This has modern day Tokyo writ all over it. Plate glass walls let in the socal sunshine and the mod furnishings remind me ever so slightly of the Milk Bar in A Clockwork Orange. As of yet there is no liquor license but they allow BYOB. When they get one, I expect this to become a destination sushi bar for the hip & hot in the happening K- town neighborhood.