calabrian chili pork ribs, almond, scallion, cabbage
This tasted like the illegitimate love child between a buffalo wing and a char siu rib. Meat was crispy, tender and fell off the bone.
spaghetti, dungeness crab, basil, bottarga breadcrumbs
Delicious. Perfectly cooked thick, chewy spaghetti about the size of the tsukemen noodles at tsujita. Plenty of crab and the breadcrumbs gave each bite a nice crunch.
I used to love Alimento, and I probably still do, but my last meal there was awful. We ordered the chicken liver, pork meatballs, dungeness crab spaghetti and the Radiatori. Besides the chicken liver, which was good as usual, everything else was so overly salty and spicy. It’s like Zack is in love with chilis and putting it in all his dishes. Dishes definitely lacked balance in seasoning and had a hard time finishing anything. Hopefully it was just an off night. Odd though given Zack was actually in the kitchen and not over at Cosa Buona.
Nice pics and report @PorkyBelly. Do they still have the ridiculous +3.5% (or 4%) surcharge + FOH Tip Line + BOH Tip Line in the final bill?
That was the reason we ended up just skipping this place. It felt like the the level of absurdity reached an all-time high with that. (Note that we have no problem wanting to see all staff fairly compensated, but for Alimento, stop trying to turn the dinner bill into a hassle; you might as well start adding in line items for +Fire Insurance, + Vacation Bonus for Staff, etc.). They should build it all into the menu prices.
Thanks, no there’s no surcharge (i’m not sure if there ever was), but yes there’s still the ridiculous two tip lines for the FOH and BOH with the explanation that “it’s not a requirement or an expectation.”
I think the servers ultimately get shafted with this policy if most diners do what i do and just tip their normal percentage on the total and split it evenly between the FOH and BOH.
I agree with you that everything should be built into the menu prices, but I’m more okay with this than the many places that automatically charge you a 3-4% “healthcare surcharge” or add a “mandatory 20% service charge” to your bill (ahem bestia, republique, animal, jon & vinny’s, broken spanish, redbird, chait inc, shibumi, felix, gjelina, MTN… et cetera et cetera et cetera)
Thanks. Yah I think as a customer it’s frustrating: Do you tip… 9% to the FOH and 9% to the BOH? Does that make it look like we’re being “cheap”? Does it make the servers upset? I certainly don’t think it’s 18% FOH and 18% BOH because that’s absurd (36% Tip for a regular meal every time you eat out).
It’s just a headache and something I think should be on the restaurant to deal with their employees and adjust menu prices accordingly. Thanks again, it looks great.
Multiple tip lines reflects the state of California law, which says that restaurants can require tips to be shared, but only the employees who actually go to the table can get a share.
Surcharges reflect the weird terms of restaurant leases where the landlord gets a share of the gross receipts. Surcharges that go to health care can be excluded.
Good meal here last night. The quality of the cooking is obvious and you get nicely sized portions for the price, though we found some of the flavors a bit strange.
chicken liver crostone - same as reported, very good
farro salad with feta - simple, but yum yellowtail collar - this was fine, cooked fine, but didn’t reach the heights of what you can get at Majordomo, Bavel. Might even prefer the style of preparation at Inko Nito better. Needs some punch. Ricotta dumpling with lamb broth - lamb broth was great, dumpling was maybe a bit dense. Unique dish mushroom maccheroni - great chew, perfectly cooked, but the sauce had a slightly odd sweetness to it
I think we could have ordered a bit better, maybe that comes with time in knowing the menu.
Service was good, they comped us the chicken liver because we had to wait 20 minutes for our outside (couple before would not leave, took their sweet time, and even sat back down once they realized their uber was far away).
Going Sunday night, decided to attend an event short notice in DTLA and not many options available for post event. Anyone been recently, seemed to be lots of time slots open which is a bit disconcerting.
Went within the last few weeks. Good, not special. Like most restaurants post covid, the consistency isn’t there. But I may be romanticizing the past.
Menu now is quite small. Radiatori, chicken liver, and sprouting broccoli the highlights. I’m aways suckered by the clams and smoked butter pasta, and it always disappoints. Reads great, but never any smoke or acid.
Oh they got rid of the inane, confusing front of the house/back of the house separate tipping. So that’s a plus lol.
Warrior: There are things to like about this restaurant, but we haven’t returned in a while. How many times can we eat exactly the same fish with white bean purée underneath? It would be nice if they changed up the menu more often, expanded it, or offered specials.
Do they still have the ridiculous +3.5% (or 4%) surcharge + FOH Tip Line + BOH Tip Line in the final bill?
They should build it all into the menu prices.