Destroyer (Culver City): A Pictorial Essay

As the Chowpup used to say (after turning himself around): “That’s what it’s all about!”

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Yep… That is what it’s all about.

Some thoughts on Destroyer…

It’s hard to know how to evaluate this restaurant. But let’s start here: the food is seriously excellent. For the last couple weeks, when I work from home, I eat here. The menu continues to change regularly.

The best dish I’ve had is probably the beef tar tare. I am a huge fan of this dish in general. I’ve had it all over town. This is the best one in LA. It has everything you want. It retains the beefy flavor, which many nice ones lose. It has excellent textural contrast. It is addicting. I could eat a triple portion of it.

On the negative side, the place is not a comfortable place to eat. You’re likely eating at a communal table. You’re likely eating with bohemian designers, that may or may not drive you crazy. There isn’t a lot of space. There is a lot of work going on. It’s not pleasant.

That said, the dish quality here is absolutely on par with the very best fine restaurants in the world. I had a burnt sunchoke soup that was as good as an excellent sunchoke soup I had at Pierre Gagnaire in Paris. It was $13 here. Another way to put it: the six dishes I’ve had here were better than any dish I had in 18 courses at Mofofuku Ko.

You’ll generally need to order two things. So with a coffee, your meal is going to be in the $30 range. That is a lot for lunch. It’s also fine dining level quality food, served at prices impossible with a bigger, more comfortable operation.

One other thing to add: it is BUSY! So any idea that this is a passion project that will be gone within six months is wrong. If anything, they need to find a bigger space.

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Beef Tartare has been one of my favorite dishes since I was a little girl. I agree with you, Destroyer’s is one of the best I’ve had, and the best in Los Angeles. It’s so perfectly balanced.

The holiday break seemed a good time to finally try Destroyer during its illusive weekday breakfast/lunch hours.

It’s tough to find things to say that haven’t already been mentioned here already.

All of the food was great. It was different and interesting and, well, it tasted great. There were different textures and temperatures, and there was a certain comfort within each. Really great.

But the criticisms or eye-rolls are well founded. The space is beautiful, but almost feels like a caricature of itself or an interactive museum exhibit of an artsy cafe. Those looking to be full will have to order full menu and drop a lot of money. You don’t leave dissatisfied, but you don’t leave full. I haven’t eaten at Baroo, but it sounds like a similar experience.

BEEF TARTARE (smoked egg cream / pickled mushroom / radish)

BABY ROMAINE (fresh cheese / chicken skin / pistachio)

BABY POTATOES (poached egg / smoked dates / brown butter)

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Hmmm… That certainly does put the prices in a different light. Thanks for the insight.

Obviously everyone has different tolerances for the amount of food they like, so it is not surprising my experience was so different, from yours. I was actually very full just from the Baby Romaine - I found it super delicious, but quite heavy. I thought I would be ordering more but that was all I could do for a lunch.

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Beautiful photos!

I think they’re going for a Nordic aesthetic, as far as the decor.

And I agree with @CiaoBob regarding the portion size. I usually order two dishes, because I’m greedy and indecisive, and usually end up taking home half of each.

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Yes. Beautiful photos. I hope with all this rain my nasturtiums come back :slight_smile:.

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Interesting takes @CiaoBob & @Bookwich. It seems like it comes down to dish selection mayhap. For instance, I don’t think the tartare would be enough, but I could see the baby romaine dish fitting the bill.

For what it’s worth, I should clarify that I didn’t have those three dishes by my lonesome. I had the tartare 100%, split the baby romaine and had prolly a quarter of the baby potato dish.

Irregardless (wink), I definitely agree that everything I had was delicious, and I look forward to going back at some point.

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I finally made it today.

I must agree with others, I actually wish portions were smaller here, the chicken confit was massive. Thankfully the tonka rhubarb was smaller and lighter as a dessert.

I was hoping they would have that baby romaine dish, but they did not sadly.

For some reason I went for the chicken confit. It turned out to be perhaps a less stellar choice than I imagined, but at least it had lettuce. The charred lettuce was by far the best part of the dish although sot of odd to eat since they don’t have knives. Still, it was stunningly good, yields a lush vegetal explosion of flavor. The chicken confit was…odd… Parts were a touch dry, some parts were ok and yielded a pungent schamltz flavor that was pleasant enough. There were sieved potatoes, perfumes sprigs of some foraged herb, intensely funky sheep cheese snow, tart yogurt, bright peppercorns, fresh roasted hazelnuts… The components are bizarre on their own, but combine into something sort of vaguely Nordic and comforting. If you can get everything into a single bite it makes sense but it’s virtually impossible to manage to do that for more than maybe 5 bites due to the portions, layout of the dish, and impossibility of cutting up the whole lettuce leaves.

Weird feeling. It’s totally unique; can’t think of anywhere else in LA you can eat a dish with this flavor profile. The veggies are exemplary, foraged and presented with the care of a 3 Michelin star spot. But then the proportions and dish layout sort of ruin the experience. I would have been happier with 5 bites only in a properly controlled dish. It was also weird to feel like the protein was neglected when it is obvious the kitchen can execute other elements with such finesse and care… They could charge me the same amount of money and I would’ve had a better experience. Extremely mixed feelings on this dish, perhaps it is the worst thing on the menu? Maybe it was better when it was cabbage and burnt onion?

Layering:

Second what Tonka, Almonds, Rhubarb, and Skyr. This was a far better dish, much more appropriate in size. Basically tonka foam encasing chunks of stewed rhubarb with finely grated almonds and a dish of frozen Skyr. There should have been a larger Skyr disc, but it was sublime. Thick, tart and immensely creamy when it exploded with an icy creamy splendor in your mouth. The tonka foam was quite light and sort of evocative of vanilla without being cloying. The rhubarb was a touch sour a bit sweet, tangy and chewy. With lightly crunchy almonds there was a masterpiece of textural weaving and light flavors balancing each other in this simple dish. Every dish here should be this size in my opinion. Turning things like this into massive lunch bowls doesn’t seem to work as well to me.

Rhubarb:

Parking was super easy but I went late. None of the designers here were Bohemian, all upper class. Extremely hipster-y, plenty of beards to go around. I agree that if this place is trying to pretend to serve anyone other than the wealthy elite of the world it’s disingenuous, but hopefully that’s not the major selling point. The wealthy employees of the design firms, movie studios, and tech giants all tucked into this neighborhood do have a literal hunger for food like what Kahn is preparing. The couple next to me were bang banging after lunch at Sushi Tsujita and discussing traveling the world.

Also, one thing I fee a little odd about was that the girl taking orders pretty obviously had a cold… I don’t want to be unempathetic, but can they not afford to pay her to stay home for a day or two? When you have to hand a card over isn’t she de facto getting a bunch of people sick?.. It felt weird that a restaurant so seemingly obsessed with foraging ingredients doesn’t care about their kitchen environment or their employees well being more… If you’re going to have an ethos of caring for a community, maybe start with yourself??

Incredibly odd experience. I feel I will almost certainly return because of the glimmers of brilliance and the uniqueness of the place. To me $27 for dishes like this mostly felt like underpaying; I didn’t feel ripped off or anything, but at the same time it’s not perfect, but it seems like it COULD be. I guess perhaps the juxtaposition of obsessive perfectionism and seeming recklessness is part of the charm?

As a Baroo comparison, I would say that portions are farmers appropriate at Baroo. However, flavors for certain things are more pronounced at Destroyer. I need to return to Baroo, maybe tomorrow, to refresh my memory though.

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You do realize that chef Kwang Uh is no longer at Baroo, at least for the next several months (probably 1/2 a year).

Yes, but his partner is still running it right? Or are they closed? I thought I read they were still open hah Shit…

No, Baroo is still open.

But Kim is not the cook/food engineer that Uh is.

Ah… It’s declined that much in quality huh?

Very sad I guess. It seemed like they were pretty close when I was there last. Figured it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.

they don’t have knives.

I make lettuce wraps, then take home the leftover chicken (there is a lot of chicken in that dish) to make the boy a sandwich.

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I love how much you get this place. You take the leftovers home and make them into an ordinary sandwich for a kid. That’s deconstruction in reverse.

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You’re funny! I never thought of that, but yes, I suppose it is. :slight_smile:

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Doesn’t seem like it would make a very good sandwich…

It the fact that that is necessary speaks to a weakness of the component to me.

A subtle complaint, admittedly, as you can just trash the unsatisfactory bites of the dish, but I have a personal preference for eating things that are portioned properly or good enough to take home leftover and eat on their own.