E.P. & L.P. - West Hollywood

EP & LP is a restaurant and rooftop bar on the corner of la cienega and melrose in weho. The second floor contains the restaurant known as the “EP asian eating house” and on the roof/third floor is where you’ll find LP and “frankie’s private bar”, whatever that is. Come here after 8pm and you’ll be met with a bouncer, a rude hostess, velvet ropes and a line of beautiful people hoping to be on the A list to get to the roof.

The chef, Louis Tikaram, hails from Tetsuya’s and Longrain in Sydney, Australia where he learned to make his curry paste from scratch. The waitstaff, all seem to hail from a jcrew catalogue.

baby green lip abalone
These were wood grilled with some curry paste, very tender. solid.

kakoda - fijian ceviche with baja rock shrimp and coconut milk :fried_shrimp:
Milky and acidic with a touch of sweetness from the cherry tomatoes, very good.

Hot and sour wagyu beef tartare :cow2:
These came with cassava and rice crackers. The beef was definitely hot and sour, maybe a tad too much.

wood grilled lamb neck :sheep:
This was great, the neck meat was tender and had a nice crust on it from the grill. I enjoyed poking the marrow (or is it spinal cord) out with my chopsticks. This is what pf chang’s lettuce wraps should be. #spinaltap #sliceofthelambs

clam and soft-shell crab curry :crab:
This was very good, the crab was fried and still crispy, the clams are cloudy bay diamond clams from new zealand and were extremely plump and flavorful. I don’t think i’ve ever had these clams, but the meat was almost as big as the shell. The curry was thinner than what i’m used to but still very flavorful. You definitely need to eat this with rice, it would be too salty to eat on its own.

You certainly can’t accuse this place of being subtle, it reminds me of Animal with its bold and aggressive flavors. I’m glad i tried it and i would come back for that lamb neck.

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Thanks for that!
Was supposed to go this past week till I was felled by a summer cold. Will reschedule soon.

Feel better boss.

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Thanks - I am back in business now but had a lousy week.

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Thanks for the report @PorkyBelly.

The food sounds pretty solid, but your comments about the hostess and the velvet rope / doorman policy seems annoying.

Is it the best Thai food in LA?

I would assume if you had a reservation for dinner you could bypass all that nonsense, okay maybe not the hostess. I went early so all the bros hadn’t lined up yet.

Trouble Maker

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I forgot to ask

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Well, I mean, from your estimation of the food? Would you say this is better Thai food than Night + Market or Luv2Eat? Etc…?

I am being a bit cheeky, but also genuinely curious.

I would say no. I think a closer comparison would be with cassia or little sister.

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Glad to see you went and loved the lamb neck as much as we did. We did the same with the marrow. Lucky they must have gotten some soft shell crab in. Curry was definitely too salty on its own, by design I’m sure, but great over rice.

Did you get any dessert? They had some interesting ones that were also really good.

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I did not, but i was eyeing the coconut s’mores and mango custard. which ones did you like?

This place is like Andy Ricker trying to fuck a xanaxed out Jenna Jameson and birthing a platypus as the result. Weird and uncomfortable service. Ok thai food priced at 5X what the good shit costs. Every La Cienega bottom feeder rubbernecking the room. The rooftop bar was a nice enough space.

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This is my vote for post of the year. And the first sentence is my vote for the sentence of… ALL TIME.

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My husband and I went to EP last night based on PorkBelly’s review and pics. Thanks PorkBelly! We had a great time even though we were the oldest people in the room (we hover around 60). We had the fijian ceviche, abalone, wood grilled lamb neck and the clam and soft shell crab curry with jasmine rice. Everything was delicious and the service was great. I’ll definitely go back; hopefully with a larger group so I can try more things.

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Glad you enjoyed it. How did you like those monster diamond clams?

Delish! I’m really looking forward to going back before soft shell crab season ends.

Glad you pointed out the clams, awesome right? Best meat to shell ratio in the game. I like to eat them raw personally.

An audio-less vid if anyone wants to check out where they’re catching them.

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just noticed your profile pic, are those diamond clams?