Sorry I missed this, only just got the notification of your post!
Without reading the entire thread, one would have to ask/find out where this marbled flounder is from. If it is their fresh live fish from the tank, it is possible they do ikejime as they take the fish out of the tank, Mortal Kombat instant death when preparing it as sashimi…of which Saison did it for their diamond turbot from pictures that I’ve seen. And if the texture is indeed representative of what it should be, then they can justify whatever price they charge. (Personally I have never been to any Angler and not to Saison).
(If they are importing makogarei from say, Hokkaido…that is a very expensive premium white fish. )
In my experience it’s the more corporate developers of malls, hotels, etc that pretty aggressively court LA-curious out of town chefs/operators. I imagine this is why developments like the row, platform the “new” beverly center and even “mission junction” tend to attract big names from out of town.
Salazar has been offered all sorts of spots in places that make no sense for us, and these offers usually come with lots of fancy renderings and too good to be true (or sustainable) incentives that probably look pretty enticing to people who are looking for the path of least resistance to break into this market. It seems to me most LA natives know better.
How the fuck would anyone know how you get anything? I don’t think anyone even knows you had your own farm and this is your, a single udder butter, and shit like that?
They covered a lot of topics in two and a half hours. This is only the second podcast I’ve ever listened to (the other being his show with the Joe Beef guys).
I’m not sure what Skenes meant in saying Angler’s not expensive. He didn’t seem to get Chang’s response that the total bill is higher than at other places that use top-quality ingredients.
Around 35 minutes he said the prices are comparable to other restaurants that use top-quality products. From his response to Chang’s comments, Skenes seems to have a blind spot about Angler’s check averages being high compared with other a-la-carte competitors.
Completely agree there. He doesn’t seem to realize that LA isn’t used to the SF restaurant pricing in general.
He also doesn’t seem to get why people would expect a $14 potato to blow you away and suggested that the potato simply being good and executed properly should be good enough.
I actually don’t find SF restaurant pricing to be all that different from LA if we’re comparing similar type restaurants. Angler seems expensive regardless of which city it’s in.
The semi-higher end SF food crowd is used to splurging $200+ pp on a meal given the plethora of those restaurants there. There are only a handful of those here in LA.
trying to compare the most similar apples possible:
Angler SF
antelope tartare 22
big eye tuna 26
bread and butter 12
potato 16
hen of the woods mushroom 16
radicchio 16
chicory caesar 15
beet 18
whole roasted chicken 68
Angler LA
antelope tartare 18
big eye tuna 20
bread and butter 10
potato 13
hen of the woods mushroom 14
radicchio 15
chicory caesar 13
beet 15
whole roasted chicken 60
