Michelin California

I have to respectfully disagree on Addison. I ate the chef’s tasting menu there last month. If it was in Europe, I don’t think it would get one star if you were only counting what was on the plate. Service was top shelf however.

Michelin, the inspector and me.

If anyone has a Le Monde subscription, there’s a journalistic ride-along with a Michelin inspector as he inspects different LA restaurants.

Some choice snippets. About Dominque Ansel’s 189:

Nice presentation, the flesh was well cooked, while the portion was rather large [or rather fatty? edit]. The dish should have been warmer. The fennel pollen placed on the fish brought a sweet and slightly earthy taste; the aroma was slightly lacking in power and sweetness, but it was offset by the presence of onion petals.
When reading his report, it is clear that Tom appreciated the restaurant of Dominique Ansel for its good quality / price ratio, the home-made cooking, the fresh and seasonal products … but it is impossible to guess which distinction it will allot to him. We begin to understand the frustration of the chefs trying to decipher the Michelin psyche.

About Rustic Canyon:

In the evening, we head to the trendy, family-run Santa Monica neighborhood to join Rustic Canyon and Chef Jeremy Fox’s kitchen, which is very focused on vegetables. A colleague has already given it a pass, this means that the sign is a star: if the restaurant can earn a star, another inspector goes there to confirm the judgment. If they do not agree, a third (sometimes from abroad) can decide.
The quality of this restaurant leaves no doubt: at first, the taste of radish-kumquat-chilli is crazy. As Tom would say, A stimulating dish for the eyes, colorful. The radish is revived by the taste of citrus fruits, but also and especially by the butter of Macadamia nut, which gives a toasted, earthy side. It’s delicious, and that’s exactly what people want to eat today. He also finds that the room is dark and noisy and that the service is a little too urgent, but these are not parameters that come into the note. We only judge the plate, recalls Tom. And he finished them all. We bet on the star.

Sea Harbor:

…when he leaves for the third restaurant, a family-run Cantonese in the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles. Even if the guide does not respect any quota, he tries to represent in his selection the various communities present in California and to reward tables that are not necessarily in the hypercenter.

That’s how we find ourselves at Sea Harbor, a dim sum specialist frequented almost exclusively by the Chinese community. The huge room is full, smells like grease, children run between the tables of rotating trays supplied by imperturbable waiters in costume. Tom chooses half a dozen dishes on the photo card. The bao, ravioli, rolls of rice noodles: everything is good, just out of the oven (steam).
It’s better than I expected, said Tom, grabbing a steaming brioche.

And finally, Vespertine:

When we arrive at Vespertine, the receptionist walks us in the garden, makes us smell perfumes on the ground floor, sends us to the second floor to meet chef Jordan Kahn in the kitchen, then takes us back to the first to start dinner. “This is the kind of place where I can not come alone, it would be fishy,” says Tom. The succession of dishes begins to scroll.
Among them, a black alga that looks like a sculpture of Anselm Kiefer (“sea lettuce, watercress”, announces the server) or a pile of rainbow flowers (“savory cake and blackcurrant”). The best is still this plate entirely covered with a shiny black powder, where cutlery abut when they try to dive. It is only in the middle, on a surface ten centimeters in diameter where the plate is hollow, that the spoon comes out with a mixture of scallops, bone marrow and salt plum absolutely delicious.
Tom is absent three times in the bathroom. He is carried on his small bladder, he will explain later that it was to take notes. If not, how to retain in detail this deluge of refined dishes? Four hours of meal later, we leave delighted … but the belly heavy. “If I was doing this type of restaurant five times a week, I could not take it anymore,” said Tom, still looking so fresh.
He too liked what he ate. There is a real personality that develops from plate to plate. Spectacular cuisine tends to lack taste. That is not the case here. And it’s a change from restaurants in Los Angeles that spend their time [talking about the unique produce. edit]. So, two or three stars? Tom … but reports that the last time he came, the meal was a little less successful. To have three stars, you need a lot of stability.

Google translated and some things lost in translation edited by me. By the way, this came out on June 2, so you can guess that some of these restaurants might have already known.

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I heard there were free hors d’oeuvres, so I came to check it out…

… and I ate here afterwards (my ode to California):

Congrats to ALL the winners! And though the tourists may now bypass the lesser-known restaurants not on this year’s guide, let us FTCers never forget the Mom&Pop places which instilled in many of these chefs their hunger, their drive and their passion…

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Another snub for not being a major global city where Michelin probably didn’t spend much time eating in: The Angry Crab, a 2015 Viet-Cajun novelty for Chicago, gets bib gourmand. Boiling Crab in Little Saigon, Orange County, arguably pioneered this whole trend. Just sayin’ :thinking:

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One star is supposed to mean “a very good restaurant in its category,” based only on what’s on the plate.

One star is supposed to require consistency. Per the then-director of the guides that’s why Chez Panisse lost its star.

https://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2010/10/26/michelins-jean-luc-naret-discusses-chez-panisse-danville-the-future-of-michelin-in-america-book-sales-and-more/

There were 28 when I went.

Laurent Gras took over in July of last year, which should have been in time to be reflected in the SF guide that came out in November. August was the cutoff in 2010, when it came out in Octobrer.

But I guess it wasn’t good enough to earn 1 star…

Spago not getting a star is newsworthy, especially given that it had two stars 10 years ago. I don’t go very often, but I don’t have a sense that it has changed that much.

Did they announce the Plate list yet? I wasn’t able to find online.

All the Plates are in the print guide.

… and Andy Wang has chimed in.

Meh he just sounds bitter

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I can say from experience that Bavel at best lacks consistency.

The Plate should be searchable on viamichelin.com soon if it’s not already.

Bazaar, Chi Spacca, and Auburn didn’t get a star.

I thought Auburn and Chi Spacca could’ve gotten one star seeing that Kali got one.

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All of the LA stars, Bib Gourmand and Plate restaurants are searchable on viamichelin.com. It wasn’t when I checked last night at 7pm.

At best, Bavel has some of the most delicious food I’ve eaten in LA. But Michelin is not about deliciousness; Michelin is about refinement and craftsmanship. A most delicious food list would look a lot different. And it would be very subjective.

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"There’s just one starred restaurant, Bistro Na’s, in the entire San Gabriel Valley, where the Chinese food rivals any other place in North America. "

It’s a fallacy to think that Chinese restaurants deserve stars just because Chinese food in LA is better than the rest of the country…

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There’s a back story to it. Next time we break bread…

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la plate:
189 by Dominique Ansel
A.O.C.
Alexander’s Steakhouse
Alimento
Alta Adams
Angelini Osteria
Animal
Arroyo Chop House
Asanebo
Avra
Awash
Babita Mexicuisine
Bäco Mercat
Bavel
Beauty & Essex
Benten Ramen
Best Girl
Bestia
Borneo Kalimantan Cuisine
Bourbon Steak
Carlitos Gardel
Chateau Hanare
Chi Spacca
Chongqing Special Noodles
Chosun Galbee
Connie & Ted’s
Corner Place
Cosa Buona
Culina
Dama
Destroyer
Din Tai Fung
Figaro Bistrot
Fishwives
Flame
Freedman’s
Genwa
Gish-Bac
Golden Deli
Gracias Madre
Guelaguetza
Guisados
Gusto
Gwen
HaiDiLao Hotpot
Here’s Looking at You
Hinoki & the Bird
Hippo
Hock + Hoof
Hunan Mao
Jar
Jean-Georges
Jun Won
Katana
Kazu Sushi
Kiriko
Kiwami by Katsu-Ya
La Boucherie on 71
La Casita Mexicana
Lucques
Lukshon
Luv 2 Eat
Ma’am Sir
Maestro
Marino
Master Ha
Matsuhisa
Matsumoto
Mayura
Mini Kabob
Mistral
Momed Atwater Village
Nerano
Newport Seafood
Night + Market
Norah
Odys + Penelope
Officine Brera
Olympic Cheonggukjang
Openaire
Osawa
Otium
Otoño
Park’s BBQ
Parkway Grill
Parsnip
Patina
Petty Cash
Post & Beam
Quarters BBQ
Raffi’s Place
Redbird
Republique
Ronan
Royce
Running Goose
Saladang
Sapp Coffee Shop
Shaherzad
Shojin
Simone
Soban
Soot Bull Jeep
Soowon Galbi
Soregashi
Spago
Sushi Enya
Sushi Ichi
Sushi Park
Tempura Endo
Tesse
The Bazaar
The Bellwether
The Belvedere
The Cat & Fiddle
The District by Hannah An
The Exchange
The Little Door
The Raymond
The Tower Bar and Restaurant
Trois Familia
Umeda
Union
Vernetti
Water Grill
Xiang Yuan Gourmet
Yong Su San
Yxta

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What happened to Tsujita ramen and Sushi Tsujita?

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ok what’s la plate? i can’t believe how much brain power i’m wasting worrying about all of the tiers of michelin… still no Lasa?!

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