Sotto's, quite good, better than good

Sounds like a fun night. You even got to gnaw on some good bones, excellento.

So, it was actually pretty bad? I am not sure I am reading the review correctly.

I didn’t realize you were a young partier, whew, 3 strong cocktails + a bottle of wine each + more drinks…if you weren’t indulging in a little “holiday snow” somewhere in there you must have quite the system to have been up till 4 am without blacking out lol

I think I messed up, if you’re into warehouse shows and pounding cocktails and wine like that, you should definitely go to Bestia. You can stay in the same place and do both =) Probably meet some other people pre-gaming a warehouse show, too haha

The food may also be better at Bestia than Sotto than I recall based on this review.

Dammit, I have to reread it now. It was a vastly positive experience and I loved everything i ate there. Pizza wasn’t perfect but that’s all. I’m 40. The warehouse thing comes from entering a 3rd decade long obsession with house and disco. Not any kind of trendy or upscale warehouse thing. Dark and dirty, music and dancing first warehouse thing. Yea i can drink hard. I’m from a people quite adept at handling vast blood alcohol levels. Honestly we weren’t even drunk. Just had a nice big buzz going steadily.

Ah ok, maybe I am just reading some things that are meant as humor without proper inflection because of the nature of text over the Internet, then.

I still think you would fit right in at Bestia haha

I am a bit envious. I drink mostly for the enjoyment of the drinks themselves, but I would probably blackout at just 3 cocktails and a bottle of wine =/

1 Like

In the course of 3 hours with a huge dinner ? C’maaaan. Let’s train that liver to work hard before it’s too late.

Not about the liver in my case, have some complicated blood issues.

I wish livers could be trained and that was all there was to it haha

1 Like

Sotto is one of the best Italian restaurants in LA period. It rivals Bestia to me.

6 Likes

Careful with big proclamations lol

They’ve dropped a few notches on my rankings after dropping the calzone from the menu.

1 Like

I take Bestia in a head-to-head, but I respect this. Both very good.

Great report!

I’m a huge lover of pork chops, but I think so many places, including Sotto, do it all wrong.

I follow the Joe Beef school of thought: thin, seared hard, lots of caramelization, multiple chops.

For me, the flavor is in the caramelized crust. Treating a pork chop like a NY strip is a difficult path to walk.

Well, I personally strongly disagree. Great pork chops to me are top notch pork cut thick, cooked with a great crust but rare, rendered fat, like a fine ribeye steak.

But if you want flat hard seared stuff on Tuesdays at Bliegold in HB they do “pork schnitzel” which is not schnitzel but something more like what you’re describing. Basically the way my mother always made pork chops as a kid. Not sure where they get off calling it Schnitzel though.

Unfortunately my photo of them is not great:

I can swing both ways, but I have a strong preference for a thinner chop. These days, heritage breeds with some intramuscular fat are common enough so a chop treated that way can work. I’ve had some iterations that almost changed my mind. Still, I want maximum Maillard reactions on a chop. Just a preference.

Now a pork collar steak is a different story. That can be worked like a rib eye with amazing results.

I don’t know what the picture is, but I appreciate the info. Chops are something I can do at home to my peculiar preferences.

You ever had Hatchet Hall’s chop? Or Salt’s Cure’s? Just curious.

Yeah…terrible picture because they put salad over the thin pork chops. Maybe you do them better yourself, idk, but they were at least decent for hard-seared crispy thin pork chops. Good olive oil potato salad under them as well.

the middle of the pork chop is almost never satisfying and needs to come with some serious sauces etc

Have not found this to be true when eating pork chops at a few places, especially Hatchet Hall. The middle is often by favorite part there. Also cannot recall this being true at Chi Spacca, Bestia, or Salt’s Cure.

This is so true, especially when dealing with quality swine like Japanese Berkshire hog (or Kurobuta)

I’m not gonna say no to a big ole chop. It’s a nice enough thing. And a Berkshire/Kurobuta chop is quite good, too.

That said, pig breeding has progressed quite a bit since kurobuta became de rigeur. For instance, the crosses with mangalitsas that breeders like Peads and Barnett are bringing to market are next level.

Still. I think a chop much thicker than an inch just isn’t properly balanced. It’s past the apotheosis of flavor.

I’ve had the Sotto chop and some fatties elsewhere. They aight. Haven’t done the HH or Bestia monsters yet. Always ready to be converted so now I’m itching to try one of these recommended big boys.

If you like a monster chop, though, consider getting yourself a whole collar from Peads and Barnett or its ilk. Cut steaks to your preferred thickness. Now that is a pork-as-steak experience.

HH uses Peads and Barnett’s chops. They are about 1" thick.

No monster to speak of really…so not sure what you are referring to. Seems like the apotheosis of pork chops.

Since you’ve never been to HH, you don’t realize they make pork chops that are better than most steaks I guess.

I have been to HH a couple of times. I really like them. I have not had their pork chop. I’m excited to try theirs at some point.
I don’t have an unkind word for HH.
We all have our preferences. I stand by my preference of a thinner chop. I’ll take two thin chops on a plate over one thick cut. That’s what I like. I also like thinner burgers. I’m a heretic . . .with insomnia evidently.

1 Like