Simone - Arts District

Americas - USA West Los Angeles
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Simone is the new arts district restaurant from jessica largey, the former cdc of trois macaron manresa.

The menu is pretty vegetation-forward with plenty of succulents, seeds and grains which should please all the vegan-hamsters.

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menu
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burrata, plum confit, nigella, purslane, mint
This was fine, the plum confit was a little too sweet.
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charred squash, nectarine, macadamia salsa macha
I enjoyed the celery root puree, but the chili oil on the bottom kind of overpowered everything. fine.
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avocado, abalone toast, yuzu cucumbers
Delicous. Umami and flavor bomb #fbomb. I think there was some shiitakes in there too.
FTC confession - i’ve never ordered avocado toast until tonight.
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hoja santa sturgeon, roasted corn, blistered shishitos
Wow. Highlight of the night. The best damn cooked fish dish I’ve had in a long time. The sturgeon was firm and moister than judi dench at a neil diamond concert.

Very generous portion of three filets wrapped in hoja santa leaves. The leaves gave the fish a unique liquorice/herb-y flavor. The corn puree was made with the husks and had a sweet, smoky chipotle flavor.
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japanese cheesecake, umeboshi, pluot
ok.
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toto
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Celebrity sighting of the night: hugh laurie, @J_L, and @CiaoBob.

Simone
449 S Hewitt St
Los Angeles, CA 90013
424-433-3000
https://simoneartsdistrict.com/

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Nice pics and report as always @PorkyBelly. :slight_smile:

We had the opposite feeling on some of the dishes, mainly the Sturgeon was really muddy for us (tasted like uncleaned Catfish). :sob: Really ruined the dish. But otherwise, the fish itself was very firm, meaty, but moist. (Also interestingly, we only got 2 pieces of Sturgeon where it looks like you got 3 pieces. Oh well.)

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wow, that’s too bad. mine tasted clean, meaty and fresh. did you have any favorites?

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The concept looks a bit Manresa-y which isn’t bad at all!

Anyone asked about the chef’s counter?

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it reminded me of hearth & hound or rustic canyon.

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I’m a visual guy :dizzy_face::woozy_face:

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you’re welcome.

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I went tonight as well. It’s funny how @PorkyBelly photographed the bathroom because I too thought the bathroom was very beautiful. I also took a picture of the flowers in the bathroom, but won’t post it since PorkyBelly already posted a bathroom picture.The whole restaurant is beautiful and very “grown up” as opposed to, for instance, Bestia where I finally made it last night for the first time and which looked to me like it was furnished out of Ikea and which had truly ugly bathrooms . . .

Back to Simone. Our waiter and the sommelier were delightful. I asked the somm what white wine by the glass he was most enthusiastic about and he said the Cuvee Marie Jurancon Sec. We got it and I loved it. I was less enthusiastic about the bottle of Spanish red that he recommended. Not a bad wine, but just didn’t love it (which was okay because it wasn’t that expensive). The restaurant has a very interesting wine list and lots of lower priced options, which is nice.

My favorite dish of the night was the sourdough bread and cultured butter for $10. The bread was very good, as was the butter. We also had the burrata, plum confit, nigella, purslane, mint and I agree with PorkBelly that the plum confit was too sweet. It overwhelmed the burrata.

I didn’t love the avocado toast with abalone. It was interesting, but just didn’t work for me. The maitake mushroom brown butter dish had way too much brown butter for my taste.

We also had the sturgeon. It was fine. Nothing wrong with it. But I didn’t leave with the same craving of OMG, I have to go back and have that again as I experienced last night after eating the smoked salmon at Shibumi.

I thought the Japanese cheesecake was awful. So awful that when the waiter asked how we enjoyed it, I was in a blunt mood and said, “that needs to leave the menu.” He took it off the bill. He also took our tea off the bill because the tea came out way after the dessert and was served lukewarm (which is about as enticing as being handed a lukewarm cup of coffee).

I predict that Simone is going to be the new “hot” Los Angeles restaurant. I personally wouldn’t return, but they won’t need me.

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How many doctors in 'da House?

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Looks interesting. So impressed that so many of you great folks made it to the public opening night!

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parents were the first ones at the chef’s counter. couple more months for the public.

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Thanks so much for putting your review here rather than a separate one. It makes it so much easier, IMO, to be able to read all the comments in one place.

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Hi @PorkyBelly,

Probably the squash. :slight_smile:

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Seems somewhat polarizing thus far! Does the vibe make it feel like a NorCal tasting menu restaurant (on the serious side)?

I made my resie for late October to give things time to settle in.

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Based on the menu it felt more like one of the many “california cuisine” alc garden-forward one-michelin sf restaurant that could have been plucked right out of the mission e.g. al’s place, common wealth, lord stanley, octavia, the progress

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I read the menu and also thought of San Francisco.

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What did you like about the bread and butter? Have you tried the $8 baguette and normandy butter at republique or the $6 bing with cultured butter and honey at majordomo? Curious how they compare. $10 is probably the most I’ve ever seen for bread and butter. Thanks.

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Or the baguette with buerre de barrette and shmaltz butter at rose cafe. 7.5$

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Baguette et beurre, $3, Petit Trois… Pretty effin’ great.

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i definitely have to try Petit Trois. Someone recently told me that Petit Trois makes a perfect omelet as well.

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