Los Angeles Gets A New Wave Of Blockbuster Restaurants
Meatballs are made with grass-fed wagyu at Matū Kai.
Los Angeles dining is showing its resilience with major players opening prominent restaurants around the city.
In Brentwood, Matū Kai (the sibling restaurant to Beverly Hills meatery Matū) is showcasing its luscious wagyu steaks and its bar cheesesteak alongside new dishes like tenderloin satay with crying tiger sauce and rib eye/New York strip brochettes with harissa spice. This restaurant, which serves 100 percent grass-fed wagyu from First Light Farms in New Zealand, wants to take guests around the world for an exploration of beef. Hand-torn maltagliati (from Uovo, another Los Angeles restaurant co-founded by Matū's Jerry Greenberg) is made in Italy and served with a toothsome rib eye ragu. Meatballs with marinara, meanwhile, taste like an Italian-American classic.
In Beverly Hills, Mei Lin (the Top Chef champion who previously ran Nightshade and also operates Daybird) is serving Chinese food that's both traditional and upscale at the new 88 Club. Wontons, stuffed with prawn meat and bamboo shoots, are bathed in soul-warming umami-rich chicken stock. A whole sweet-and-sour squirrel fish is sauced at your table. Nam yu roast chicken, with ginger scallion oil and aromatic soy, is a nod to one of Lin's favorite childhood dishes. Jasmine milk tea custard buns are a nice sweet-but-not-too-sweet finish.
Brighten your day with a citrus salad at Beethoven Market.
In Mar Vista, veteran operator Jeremy Adler (who also runs Cobi's in Santa Monica) has opened Beethoven Market, a grand but welcoming neighborhood spot that was born out of his obsession with creating a custom rotisserie for perfect roast chicken. Beethoven Market also serves crowd-pleasing Italian food like housemade pastas (the spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino is beautiful simplicity) and standout pizzas like a Meyer lemon and clam pie. Zippy giardiniera and elegantly calibrated tuna carpaccio shows that this restaurant is paying attention to the little details. For dessert, there's tiramisu, served out of a tray at your table. It's a flourish, but the kind you can enjoy on the regular.
In El Segundo near Jame (the restaurant that started it all for Memento Mori Hospitality), prolific chef/operator Jackson Kalb has turned his attention to California-Mexican food at the vibrant Jaime Taqueria. Kalb (who also recently opened an outpost of Ospi in Costa Mesa) and chef Marco Arreguin (previously at Wes Avila's MXO) are slinging beef-cheek quesabirria and shrimp gobernador tacos while making flavorful salsas that run the gamut. Other menu highlights include queso fundido, a kale salad (if you've ever been to Jame, you'll know why), ceviches, a crispy pork shank and branzino zarandeado.
In City of Industry, Lynn Liu has turned what was 19 Town into the newest location of mala standard-bearer Sichuan Impression. This is billed as a 'concept' restaurant, so Liu will likely be trying out many new dishes as she uses this as a test kitchen for her restaurant empire. Sichuan Impression, of course, already serves bangers like stir-fried cumin lambo, oxtail tomato soup, mapo tofu and its signature boiled fish with rattan pepper in Alhambra, West Los Angeles and Tustin. It will be exciting to see what Liu, one of the most talented and creative Chinese chefs in Los Angeles, plays around with at her new location.
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