A Tale of Three Dinners

Dine LA Restaurant Week. What a brilliant idea! Restaurants sign up, and create several three course menus, which are served up for a prix fixe. Last year, Super Woman invited me out to dinner at Sofitel's Simon LA restaurant. There were three of us, and three menu choices for appetizer, main course and dessert ... perfect! We ordered one of each, and ate family style. The food was tantalizing ... enough to awaken and invigorate the taste buds, but not enough to stuff. It was a gustatory exploration. And as he might have noticed our eyes popping out when we saw a similar bowl at the next table over, our charming waiter brought us a huge bowl of cotton candy to top it all off. It was a heavenly, and not outrageous way to sample a new restaurant.

This year, I made reservations for three restaurants. Valentino's in Santa Monica, Katsuya in Brentwood, and 9:30 at the W Hotel in Westwood.

Valentino's was passable. In fact, I'd made the original reservation at Chinois, until I realized that they were only participating for the lunch menu. Changed to Valentino's. I liked what I had: mushroom torte, ligurian style veal stew, and chocolate/walnut/espresso mousse. However, the rest of the menu seemed rather dull and uninspired. Certainly, Valentino's is no Pizzicotto. However, the company was fabulous. Super Woman, Miss Congeniality, Girl Friday and Ski Fanatic all joined in to make the conversation engrossing and sparkling. Especially Miss Congeniality has a lot of "social lubrication" (my new term!) that made a possible awkward evening delightful.

Katsuya in Brentwood was simply amazing. Firstly, the decor was stunning. The restaurant is actually quite large on the interior, and very sleek. We ate in a side room that had ornate mirrors scattered across the walls, black walls with a tented ceiling, and white leather couches for those sitting around the inner island. There were four of us (Super Woman, HSAAL, Ski Fanatic and myself), so we ordered one of everything, plus an extra something of whatever looked good. I knew the dinner was going to be good from the first bite of the rock shrimp tempura. Delicate, warm, inviting and delicious. The crispy rice (served with a topper of creamed fish) was divine. However, my favorite was the albacore onion ... one little bite and I exploded in sensations of herbs, vinegar, onion, salt and spices that left my mouth watering for more. And that was just the appetizer.

For the main course, we had nigiri sushi, chef's rolls wrapped in decorative soy paper, miso soup, lotus root salad, miso marinated cod, beef and mushroom tobanyaki, and salmon cedar with tomato salsa. Absolutely fulfilling. The sashimi was delicately seasoned, without cream sauces. The cod was the best protein. The mushrooms were delectable, and the tomato salsa invigorating. So much goodness.

Dessert was not extraordinary, but a nice afterthought to a delicious meal ... panna cotta with fruit and fruited mochi ice cream. Before leaving, I did my customary visit to the restroom ... to see if the design there matched the ambience. However, I was so disconcerted by the lack of light in the stalls (more like closets) that I totally missed the surprise that observant visitors caught while washing their hands. I'll have to find out next time, since I'm sure to return!

Dinner at 9:30 At The W Hotel was okay. The food was tasty, but not exceptional. The best part was the cheese plate for dessert. I would write more, but the events were overshadowed by what happened when I got home, and now it's been so long, that the unexceptional meal has faded from my memory.