Had a surprisingly good dinner at tartine bianco. Given the menu at the sf manufactory and the new partnership with chris bianco I was really surprised when i saw no pizzas, flatbreads or pastas at all on the menu, you’ll find those next door at the “market.” I also liked that the menu wasn’t dominated by seeds, grains, and vegetables like some places and had as many offal dishes as vegetarian ones.
Service was extremely friendly and knowledgeable for their first night as well. The kitchen just needs to work on its pacing, the first four dishes all came out within the first 15 minutes.
menu with prices for @ChineseChou, @hppzz, @js76wisco, @Bookwich
smørrebrød - uni, kohlrabi, mustard seed, lardo
Great start. Uni was super fresh and lardo was silky smooth, nothing overpowered.
marina di chioggia soup, pumpkin seed, maple gastrique
Squash soup was creamy and rich with a bit of sweetness. Very good.
grilled chicken oysters and hearts, xo sauce, mint, basil, gem
Super tender nuggets of chicken came with veggies to make your own wraps. Loved the xo sauce.
sweetbreads, crispy red rice, yam, fermented chili, amaranth, mustard frill
Surprise highlight of the night. This was like the best crispy parts of a dolsot bibimbap. Perfectly balanced with the crispy rice, tender sweetbreads and soft, sweet yams. Delicious.
whole “hot” fish - new zealand tai snapper, dilly bean, watercress, country croutons, delta sauce
This couldn’t have been cooked anymore perfectly, skin was crispy and the meat juicy and moist. They could make this a bit spicier, this was maybe a howlin’ ray’s mild in heat.
spiced date cake, spelt, brandy toffee sauce, orange creamsicle ice cream
The top was creme-brulee’d. Good.
Haven’t seen this before
toto
Tartine Bianco
757 S Alameda St,
Los Angeles, CA 90021
I got to try the (off-menu) flatbreads and they’re great. Apparently they’re only temporarily offering them in the tartine bianco dining room if you ask nicely. The server explained they eventually want the flatbreads to be exclusive to the market bar, not sure how well that’ll go over with the crowds. Almost every table around me had multiple orders of it and i watched every new table, after eyeing their neighbor’s flatbread and discovering it wasn’t on the menu, asking their server about it.
Pacing is still off, even after asking to have everything coursed out i still got everything at once and had to send the morcilla back to the kitchen.
ham, comte, mustard seed, thyme, honey
great
crushed bianco dinapoli tomato, parmigiano reggiano, basil
good
eggplant dip, fermented red pepper
bread was delicious as expected. the dip was okay.
chicken liver, kumquat, blood orange
the liver was a bit thinner than i’m used to but still tasty. like a chicken liver pb&j, or a cl&j.
morcilla, apple, mustard, fines herbes
A little crumbly and not very hemoglobin-forward, served with a sweet apple like sauce, fine.
grilled wild blue shrimp, carrot sofrito, hoja santa, ember roasted carrot
as soon as they put this down i could tell by the decapitated shrimp that something was off. taking a bite, my suspicions were confirmed. the meat was soft and mushy like it was sitting in a marinade for too long. i sent it back and it was taken off the bill. they said after inspecting the rest of their shrimp they’re taking the entire dish off the menu for the night. not sure how a whole batch of bad shrimp went undetected and made it out of the kitchen.
ginger tart, almond cream, rye, lemon marshmallow, meringue kisses
Coffee and ice cream window now open. Grand opening early feb.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs8kCyThytZ/?hl=en
The Manufactory
757 S Alameda St,
Los Angeles, CA 90021