Birdie G's

[PorkyBelly]

Jermey Fox’s latest restaurant, Birdie G’s (named for his daughter and grandmother), is Fox’s take on murican comfort food. The menu is huge and should have something for everybody.

Birdie G’s is located in the self proclaimed “arts district west” and just a few hundred feet from the expo line’s bergamot station. The parking literally stinks here depending on how the wind blows; the restaurant is across the street from santa monica trash collection. If you can’t find parking on michigan ave, try 26th st.

Overall a solid meal with very friendly and attentive service. Willing to go back to try the sweetbreads jocko’s style, lamb, and the wood-grilled chicken.

menu

sergio

summer tomatoes & burrata - fermented tomato vinaigrette, basil, capers & cantabrian anchovies
agree with @Omotesando this dish was a highlight, loved the double bang of umami with the anchovies and tomatoes.

sand dabs grenobloise - squash, brown butter, capers, lemon & croutons
generous portion of four filets and pretty good even though only one of the filets was cooked with a crispy crust.

dungeness crab & prawn cake - brentwood corn, creole sauce & scallion
this was delicious and the use of santa barbara spot prawns to give a nice snappy textural contrast was brilliant. the sauce tasted like a dark seafood gumbo and was balanced nicely by the sweet corn. highlight.

spicy tripe stew - pig trotter, crispy pig’s ear, chickpeas, tomato & pecorino
crispy and homey, not bad.

“world famous” rose petal pie - raspberry, strawberry, rose, hibiscus & pretzel crust
this was like a pretty flavorless ambrosia salad, the tastiest thing were the candied rose petals.

gettin jiggy wit it

---

menu
sand dabs are now fried and there’s a new “figgy duck” on the menu.

sweet & sour beets, whipped chevre, horseradish & stonefruit-pecan “charoset”
a lot going on here (sweet, sour, creamy, spicy) but the whole thing was nicely balance. highlight. #justbeetit

sweetbreads “jocko’s style” wood grilled, with jus roli, radish & banyuls
i really liked the jus and the sweetbreads had a nice smoky flavor, but it was pretty rich and i had enough about halfway through.

steak & uni tartare, avocado, jalapeno, basil & white soy
i liked this better than the sweetbreads. pretty good, but didn’t taste much uni.

jeremiah’s wood-grilled chicken, tropical sauce
excellent and perfectly cooked and juicy. i didn’t realize this was a jerk chicken with a nice kick to it. the sweet-bright pineapple tropical sauce complemented the dark and spicy jerk rub perfectly. highlight of the night.

coconut-vanilla sorbet float, tapioca, meyer lemon granita, & a bottle of derr’s cream soda

Birdie G’s
2421 Michigan Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90404
(310) 310-3616
https://www.birdiegsla.com/

[Ns1]

Starting the Andy Gavin plagiarism clock

[Omotesando]

@PorkyBelly

spicy tripe stew - pig trotter, crispy pig’s ear, chickpeas, tomato & pecorino
crispy and homey, not bad.

Hmnn “not bad” – talk about damning with faint praise.

Glad @PorkyBelly enjoyed the tomatoes and burrata. One of the posters on Yelp said it was “your pretty standard burrata salad with various tomatoes” and that if you didn’t like anchovies because “It’s a very strong flavor,” you could shove them aside. Wow – that’s one of the reasons I never take Yelp reviews seriously and I hope that reviewer is not emblematic of Birdie G’s target audience as the tomato burrata dish will soon be off the menu. Of the various things we tried, that was the only dish that wowed me.

If you go back, please report on the wood grilled chicken. I was debating between that and the sand dabs and because I didn’t like the sand dabs, I ended up with menu chooser’s regret. I’m actually surprised that based on @PorkyBelly’s menu picture, the sand dabs are now on the daily menu (they were a “blue plate” special when I went). Maybe they are for people like the Yelp poster who describes anchovies as “a very strong flavor” and who apparently prefers bland food. None of the sand dabs I had were crispy and to my palate they basically tasted like bland fish with lots of butter.

Finally, based on @PorkyBelly’s description, I’m glad I passed on the

@PorkyBelly

flavorless ambrosia salad,

aka world famous rose petal pie. I guess that one is only for the Instagram hordes.

Based on the tomato and burrata dish, Birdie G could be great, but I think I will wait to see how the menu evolves before returning.

[bruins]

Some of my own photos from opening weekend (now updated with descriptions–sorry I’ve been absolutely swamped!)

Gonna be honest: don’t remember what this was

Summer tomatoes and burrata. Absolutely delicious–even the wife, who doesn’t enjoy anchovies (they’re in here somewhere) loved it. I know GQ or Esquire had some article recently decrying burrata-centric dishes, but this was a big winner.

Artizan Matzo! It’s…pretty good? I dunno, it’s still a cracker (though one with a nice covering of butter) at its heart. You also can see the fermented green chili butter for the corn bread

Cast-Iron Cornbread: No issues here; flavorful and well-baked. The butter (pictured above with the matzo) was a good addition.

Wood-Grilled Artichoke with Miso bagna cauda: I’m a sucker for artichoke, and these were properly tasty and I loved the dipping sauce

Kasha cakes: easily the best part was the crackling over the top. Wish it had 10x as much of that.

Gnocchi sardi with pesto: Very solid pesto pasta dish. We learned something new too! Gnocchi sardi is not the same as gnocchi, though I found these a very good vessel for the sauce.

Dungeness crab and prawn cake: This was a big winner with the table. The cake and the sauce worked very well together

Dessert: Rose petal pie and sticky date bundt cake. The pie was gorgeous though I didn’t find it super strong-flavored. Bundt cake, by comparison, was a flavor bomb, with plenty of ice cream to go with it.

[aaqjr]

First impressions?

[TheCookie]

Hi @bruins - Care to say what the dishes are?

[moonboy403]

He/She already said a thousand words

[TheCookie]

You mean the photos?

[moonboy403]

[bruins]

Added my descriptions to the photos finally

Overall impressions: Great selection of pet nats and the enormous space was well-appointed. Bar looked pretty, though we didn’t spend any time at it. Service was pleasant, though pacing of plates could use some work as we had a ton of plates coming at once (keep in mind it was literally first weekend so I’m sure they had stuff to iron out). Happy this exists in the neighborhood.

[PorkyBelly]

Where Dessert Is Much More Than an Afterthought (Published 2019)

[PorkyBelly]

menu
sand dabs are now fried and there’s a new “figgy duck” on the menu.

sweet & sour beets, whipped chevre, horseradish & stonefruit-pecan “charoset”
a lot going on here (sweet, sour, creamy, spicy) but the whole thing was nicely balance. highlight. #justbeetit @Bookwich

sweetbreads “jocko’s style” wood grilled, with jus roli, radish & banyuls
i really liked the jus and the sweetbreads had a nice smoky flavor, but it was pretty rich and i had enough about halfway through.

steak & uni tartare, avocado, jalapeno, basil & white soy
i liked this better than the sweetbreads. pretty good, but didn’t taste much uni.

jeremiah’s wood-grilled chicken, tropical sauce
excellent and perfectly cooked and juicy. i didn’t realize this was a jerk chicken that had a nice kick to it. the sweet-bright pineapple tropical sauce complemented the dark and spicy jerk rub perfectly. highlight of the night @Omotesando, @TheCookie, @Chowseeker1999

coconut-vanilla sorbet float, tapioca, meyer lemon granita, & a bottle of derr’s cream soda

[TheCookie]

Putting Birdie G’s on the top of my “when in SM” list. Love the color of the skin on that jerk chicken.

[TheCookie]

Thanks for the update @bruins!

[Bookwich]

You are so good at finding perfect salads! It’s so inspiring at snack time.

[NewTrial]

The figgy duck is terrific, comes with a nice creamy polenta.

[formersushichef]

Went here last night and came out so disappointed! I was really excited to try it but everything that hit the table was a huge miss except for the chicken liver mousse toast. My friends & I ordered the pickle plate, chopped salad, beets, corned brisket, chicken liver toast, steak & uni tartar toast, and the cornbread.

$30 for the saddest looking pickle plate I’ve ever had- honestly it’s embarrassing that they have the audacity to charge so much for this dish. 5 raw carrots, 5 cornichons, slices of jerusalem artichoke, and some pickled green beans and raw peppers…are you kidding me?

corned brisket tasted like they took the brisket out of the brine and placed it immediately on the grill- SO salty and portions were tiny. Fries tasted like they were frozen previously.

The steak and uni tartar was average, I don’t understand why they mix the uni inside the steak to the point where everyone at my table questioned if there was any uni in there at all. Presentation-wise, it would have been a lot better to see actual tongues on top to contrast with the red and green colors.

I don’t understand what the hype surrounding this place is all about. To me, everything was just very average. I don’t see Birdie G’s lasting more than 2-3 years.

Drinks were very good however. Service was good until halfway through our waiter just stopped coming to the table and completely ignored us - maybe he overheard us talking about how disappointed we were.

[Ns1]

this thing is $30?

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/birdie-gs-santa-monica-2?select=RB9lzZEVZJYlWNMxNDYepg

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/birdie-gs-santa-monica-2?select=PqfefgaNH_KUs6d1va2deg

[formersushichef]

Yes, $29 to be exact. Absurd!

[Bookwich]

I guess they figure if Majordomo can charge for a $15 Bounty Bowl, they can serve some preserved leftover vegetables for $30. Because of the effort.