It was dinner with an old friend in town for the evening.
We also ordered:
Shrimp & crispy greens
Pork belly
Green Beans
Oysters
Chocolate hazelnut ice cream
Sesame cookies & cream ice cream
The cocktail and wine program here is nice. I liked the two drinks I got. Well balanced and paired well with food.
The shrimp & crispy greens were the best thing we had all meal. The shrimp were succulent and well-cooked. Salad was just the right amount dressed. Elements made sense.
Oysters were a second as was the goat liver mousse. The oyster was covered in so much stuff and the crostini had additional sauce…so it was hard to discern the oyster. The goat liver mousse was not terribly goat-y and while it tasted good and the picked kumquats and the blueberry mostarda were nice…I was not a fan of the crumpets. They were fried and oily. Because they were fried, you needed both the pickled kumquats and blueberry mostarda to help balance the mousse and the hot and salty fried dough. I actually enjoyed the biscuit crackers more. My napkin has oil streaks following the course.
The pork belly was good, but stuck in an overdressed salad that was reminiscent of a papaya salad. My friend caught notes of star anise that was slightly displeasing only because she doesn’t like star anise.
The green beans were over cooked and a bit floppy. I did enjoy the sauce, but I was really looking forward to blistered green beans.
The chocolate hazelnut ice cream was solid. A nice way to end the meal.
I had high hopes for the sesame cookies & cream, but it was a little too savory and the there was too much cookies for the textures and flavors to be right.
Service was very good and I am surprised the place was packed on a Tuesday night. Music was great, too…lots of hits from the aughts until now.
I parked in the structure for $10 since I couldn’t find street parking.
Thanks all for the tips.
It was fun to catch up with my friend, but I’m in no hurry to return.
Just curious… I’ve always been intrigued by G&tG, but what holds me back is that many of the dishes look heavily sauced with heavy sauces. And even the dishes that aren’t sauced look like they’d sit in the stomach pretty heavy. All that to say, I’m sure it tastes delicious, but I’m not a fan of feeling the gut bomb after dinner and this seems like a meal more in that vein. Am I off on that assessment? Sometimes, you can’t really tell from pictures alone… Thanks!
yeah i think that assessment is fair. Lots of flavors, textures, and sauces very busy food. Some of it is pretty good but most of it is just alright. Worth checking out maybe once but only if you’ve been to pretty much every other good restaurant in downtown and only looking for something new.
They do have a very reasonable corkage policy though.
The dishes are complicated but I thought they all worked. If I go again I’d order fewer dishes to avoid palate fatigue. I wouldn’t do corkage, too many interesting wines on the list.
There’s an amazing sounding Girl and Guerilla event with proceeds supporting Regarding Her.
Here’s the link and below is the blurb. If not for my shellfish allergy I’d be there.
Let’s take a trip
Please join Chef Stephanie Izard (The Girl and The Goat) and Chef Crystal Espinoza (Guerrilla Tacos) for a unique culinary journey through the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles.
THIS FOUR HOUR EXPERIENCE WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS:
COURSE ONE - THREE Girl and the Goat LA
COURSE FOUR 6th Street Viaduct
COURSE FIVE - SEVEN Guerrilla Tacos
A portion of ticket sales will be donated to Regarding Her. Regarding Her (or RE:Her) is a national non-profit on a mission to advance women-identifying and nonbinary food and beverage entrepreneurs and leaders.
Despite my concern about the richness / saucing of the food, my wife wanted to go… So we went. First, I love the space - it’s very “Chicago” in feel, just open, warehouse-y, dark wood tones with large windows throughout so as to not feel too heavy. As for the food, we had the salmon tartare, the oysters, the beet salad and the tomato / grape salad. G&G clearly loves its textures, which I greatly enjoy. Every dish had a nice balance, from crispy seeds/nuts, tender greens, firm pickled blueberries or grapes to the softer oysters / salmon tartare. But, as I feared, the saucing is just too much and we were done after those 4 dishes - it’s not a ton of food, but it sits heavy and you just don’t want to eat anymore. I also felt the dishes all had the same flavor profile, being fairly rich from the sauces, salt-forward offset by bright acidity… I enjoyed on the first dish or two, but by the final dish, it was basically becoming somewhat one note.
All-in, I don’t think I’d go back for dinner. But I could be convinced to go back with my wife to sit at the bar, grab 2 dishes and drink and then go to dinner somewhere else. Glad I tried it though!
