My wife and I couldn't wait to celebrate our anniversary at the supposedly fabulous ""brilliant steakhouse"" (S. Irene Virbila/LA Times) on August 31st. We ordered many of the items that she wrote about in her article, bone-in NY steak, Kobe Beef Shortribs, Creamed Spinach with Fried Egg, Polenta w/Parmesan, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Potato Tart Tatin, and Black Forest Chocolate Pudding Cake and inside-out Profiteroles. We were so disappointed that these were not the best meat dishes we've experienced in other restaurants such as Spago, Maestro's, The Palm, and Ruth's Chris. The side dishes sounded great but were poorly executed. For example, the Potato Tart Tatin was mashed potatoes encased in a potato chip like coat, and it had no flavor. It was $16 and we left half of it. The spinach was not nearly as good as The Palm's creamed spinach and too salty, and the ""organic"" egg was just an egg. The Polenta was a tragedy, it was gluey, too salty, had too much cheese in it, so you could't taste the Polenta, which is profoundly delicious at Spago. The Roasted Fingerling Potatoes were not edible and were described by S. Irene Virbila as a ""must."" Instead, they arrived swimming in oil and were underdone. We left them uneaten. I suppose we should have sent them back but we were in shock by this time. We ordered 2 $14 desserts thinking we might be able to end this celebration on an upnote, but such was not to be. Instead, the Black Forest Cake was pretty, but very bland, and the portion was small. The Profiteroles were unremarkable. We were suprised that the wait staff didn't ask us if we wanted our leftovers boxed up to take home as we left so much behind. The staff was pleasant but inattentive. We thought this would be a restaurant we'd want to come back to over and over again. Needless to say, we won't return and we were shockingly disappointed.
Pros: Great Onion Bread, Cheese Puffs, Sauces and Mustards
Cons: Not good enough to go back, very expensive, not worthy of the hype
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