I like my game better. 
I do too
I posted my lunch today on another thread, but thought Iâd share here, too.
http://foodtalkcentral.com/t/october-2016-weekend-rundown/4358/176
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So this place sounds like where my food would go to eat dinner.
âYouâre going to hate this restaurantâ is a pretty funny thing to say in a review thatâs basically positive.
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Great review.
ââŚbuildings that look as if theyâd been hip-checked by Godzilla.â
Itâs sentences like these that confirm Goldâs Pulitzer Prize was well deserved.
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It is the perfect line for Destroyer and Kahn as a chef in general. Virtually anyone headed in would think itâs pretentious lunacy outside of a very select couple of foodie types.
Indeed, agree or disagree with him, no one else does food writing the same,
Scooped JGold by 1 month and 10 days⌠Isnât there some sort of badge for that?
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âYou are not going to find parking within a quarter-mile of the restaurant.â
Iâve parked in front or on the side each time Iâve been there.
âThe landscape is post-apocalyptic, dotted with seedling starter packs the size of battle tanks and buildings that look as if theyâd been hip-checked by Godzillaâ
Sorry the place isnât surrounded by soaring office buildings or in a seedy section of East Hollywood. Theyâre small one-story buildings with some sculptural design architecture thrown in. And if you look up, there are hills and blue skies.
Iâm bored with quoting J.'s unhappiness, so let me just say that the less jaded among us think the hand thrown pottery is beautiful and find the space calming. The chefs are focused on the food, and no one working there is snooty or pissy or tense.
I think itâs fabulous and an oasis. And yes, the food is wonderful. Kahn can pick all the marigolds and nasturtiums he wants in my neighborhood, and J. Gold, you can go back to snuffling out the best Szechuan pig snout soup in SGV strip malls.
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30 posts were split to a new topic: Of Jonathan Gold, Destroyer, restaurant reviews, semantics and logomachy
My post about Shibumi = Jun 23; J Goldâs review of Shibumi = August 12.
Scooped him by 1 month and 19 days, nearly 2 months.
It would be funny if there was a literal one of these âforum badgesâ to go along with scooping Gold by over a month or something. =)
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I think itâs a mistake to assume that J Gold was scooped. Just because he doesnât write it up doesnât mean he hadnât heard of a place, received direct info about it, tried it, or eaten there multiple times.
By nature of his position and reputation, he is a magnet of info and is an intrepid professional eater. Posting here about some place is far far easier than J Gold sitting down with the editors, deciding what place would work best for his Counter Intelligence article of the week.
You can (and have) posted multiple reports here in one sitting. Unfortunately, these donât go into wide print/distribution on multiple media formats with the viewership of the LA Times and itâs syndicates. The Times is a business, and they have their readers as well as sponsors to balance between. So unlike us, they have to give a damn about what they print, and when they print it.
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No one is being serious.
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Yes J_L may be patting his/her (his i think) self on the back. But I think heâs just having some fun. Not being serious.
But you made a good point⌠as usual! I donât want to keep embarrassing you. But I do like the way your thoughts translate on to paper or should I say the keyboard?
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JGold has said he eats at a restaurant at least 3 times before writing a review, preferably with some time in between. He also usually gives a restaurant at least a few weeks from open to get their footing, and has said in the past it was standard for restaurant critics to give several months, but obviously thatâs not happening these days.
As the Chowpup used to say (after turning himself around): âThatâs what itâs all about!â
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Yep⌠That is what itâs all about.
Some thoughts on DestroyerâŚ
Itâs hard to know how to evaluate this restaurant. But letâs start here: the food is seriously excellent. For the last couple weeks, when I work from home, I eat here. The menu continues to change regularly.
The best dish Iâve had is probably the beef tar tare. I am a huge fan of this dish in general. Iâve had it all over town. This is the best one in LA. It has everything you want. It retains the beefy flavor, which many nice ones lose. It has excellent textural contrast. It is addicting. I could eat a triple portion of it.
On the negative side, the place is not a comfortable place to eat. Youâre likely eating at a communal table. Youâre likely eating with bohemian designers, that may or may not drive you crazy. There isnât a lot of space. There is a lot of work going on. Itâs not pleasant.
That said, the dish quality here is absolutely on par with the very best fine restaurants in the world. I had a burnt sunchoke soup that was as good as an excellent sunchoke soup I had at Pierre Gagnaire in Paris. It was $13 here. Another way to put it: the six dishes Iâve had here were better than any dish I had in 18 courses at Mofofuku Ko.
Youâll generally need to order two things. So with a coffee, your meal is going to be in the $30 range. That is a lot for lunch. Itâs also fine dining level quality food, served at prices impossible with a bigger, more comfortable operation.
One other thing to add: it is BUSY! So any idea that this is a passion project that will be gone within six months is wrong. If anything, they need to find a bigger space.
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Beef Tartare has been one of my favorite dishes since I was a little girl. I agree with you, Destroyerâs is one of the best Iâve had, and the best in Los Angeles. Itâs so perfectly balanced.