One Trick Pony - A New American Steakhouse Where You Come For the Short Ribs - APL Restaurant [Thoughts + Pics]

Americas - USA West Los Angeles
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duplicate

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Prime rib with no accouterments = wtf

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Oh man. So sorry you took two bad visits to the gut.

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:frowning: :frowning: :frowning: :frowning:

Thanks for saving some of us some $$$. $24 for 3 shrimp? I cannot. And I also can’t understand how the server didn’t know the sourcing of the meat.

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Thanks, @Chowseeker1999, for taking another one…two for team. This is disappointing indeed. I was thinking that this would be a place my meat & potatoes husband would enjoy. But I guess we’ll head to CUT instead for both quality and experience.
In your opinion and based on your experience, do you think that APL is resting on the laurels of Chef Lang’s pedigree? Do you think they’re trying to pull a fast one over the L.A. crowd? This question likely applies to anyone of our FTC folks who have tried APL out. I’m still rather offput by @PorkyBelly’s $10 onion experience.

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Hi @Ns1,

We felt the same way; just shocked that this Prime Rib was just a slab of lukewarm meat with nothing else. It needed something else on it.

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Thanks for the report @Chowseeker1999. Wow that prime rib looks fucking sad and wtf no horseradish?

Are they still trying to pawn this off as an “ode to peter lugers” with 50% of the dish and the main ingredient missing?

I got absolutely zero smoke too. Nothing like the smoky delicious rib I got at his pop-up.

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Thanks @J_L. The 2nd visit was better than the 1st (in some ways - the service got worse), but the best part of the 2nd meal was the tender, moist short ribs, but it had almost no smokiness at all (nothing like his original, great pop-up a few years ago). And at that price, it felt like a good dish that wasn’t amazing, and lacked the core of what should make it standout (great smokiness), so none of us felt like there was anything compelling enough to return.

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Thanks @attran99. Yah it was disappointing, especially because we loved Chef Lang’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! BBQ Pop-Up a few years ago.

As @PorkyBelly said, Sergio was in the kitchen. I don’t think they’re trying to pull a fast one, but it’s pretty underwhelming so far.

Yes, for a great Steakhouse experience definitely try CUT. Please report back when you go. :wink:

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Thanks for the report.
I have to believe - in large part from reading stuff that “we” put out - they will get it together and have a fine product in a few months.
Is it going to reach or surpass what we already have in places like Cut, Gwen, Chi Spacca, Arthur J, Wolfgangs, Majordomo?
We’ll have to see.
I know from Alex’s Lemonade Stand the ribs, when done right, are incredible.

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That’s a bummer @Chowseeker1999. I had actually cancelled my reservation to APL before the disappointed reviews started coming out because, from looking at the menu, there don’t appear to be enough interesting sides to keep those in my group who aren’t solely into dry-aged beef interested. So I switched to Chi Spacca.

Clearly APL has talent, hopefully he is able to right the ship quickly, because first (and second) impressions can be hard to shake.

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I make fun of anyone i’m with who gets super excited about duck fat fries… i swear beer belly survived on everyone screaming duck fat fries!! lol… if cooked at the right temp they’re not even supposed to soak up a lot of grease and the fat is only faintly ducky as is… it’s just a waste of good duck fat (i always have a jar i keep from rendering my duck roasts)… much better to roast potatoes or fry eggs in it… also buckwheat crepes

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Sorry to hear about your disappointing meals. You are truly doing the Lord’s work for the rest of us.

In regards to the lack of smokiness on the ribs, looking at your pictures, I’m not surprised. Those ribs are missing the dark bark that’s classic of long smoked meats and almost looks like they were roasted in a conventional oven. Really odd considering that’s his signature dish and I’m sure he’s made it thousands of times before.

So did you order the cold sweet onions? Curious if the presentation is the same as @PorkyBelly .

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Hi @PorkyBelly,

Thank you for taking one for the team initially and even with cautioned expectations, it was still disappointing.

“Yes,” they are still selling the Onions as an “ode to peter lugers” and I didn’t see any tomatoes on a plate that passed by.

I remember that monster pic you posted way back in the day! :grin: It made us drive out and try the pop-up! Thank you. :slight_smile:

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Hi @CiaoBob,

Thanks. BTW, you just reminded me: How is Arthur J’s? How does it compare to Chi Spacca, CUT, etc.?

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Love these reports. Very helpful. That being said, why do we often have separate threads created when there is already a thread on the restaurant? It diminishes the utility of the forum when many of the great restaurants have two very helpful, but separate, threads.

It’s a real bummer how lackluster this place is, given how great his BBQ has been at the pop-ups…

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Never been but heard very good things.

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Thanks @tailbacku. Nice observations on the color and bark.

No we couldn’t bring ourselves to order the onions, even at the new price.

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'Cuz on full restaurant writeups, personal writing styles get cramped when only adding information to pre-existing threads. To start a new thread is like having a blank canvas to work with. I don’t mind the thread redundancy at all.

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Esp when the posters tend to do very thorough reviews and have such distinct writing styles.

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