Republique

How many plates of short ribs did you get?

Just one (so not a lot of beef per person), but at that stage of the meal we were already getting quite full, and still had the duck to go. Coincidentally, two years ago on my last visit, the short ribs also took a long time and we ended up cancelling it.

Republique is a truly excellent restaurant and definitely in my LA top 10. I’ve never eaten anything at Republique that wasn’t very good.

Then you need to try their fried chicken during brunch. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

amuse bouche
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heirloom tomatoes, gioia burrata, o’henry peaches, terre bormane olive oil
Delicious.
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atlantic sea scallops, roasted cauliflower, ladyfinger grapes, hazelnuts, australian black winter truffles
Fantastic, perfectly seared. The scallops were so fresh spongebob kept them as pets.
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octopus, arnett farms plums, cabbage, pistachios, chile, lime
The only miss of the night. More overdressed than a penguin at a beach party. Not enough plums to balance out the tartness of the dressing.
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bread, normandy butter
Some of the best bread and butter in the city. You butter believe it.
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mafaldine, maine lobster, santa barbara uni
spoiler alert it’s still fucking delicious
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corn agnolotti, brown butter, parmesan, basil
great as always
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farfalle, australian black winter truffles, pork belly sausage
reminded me of bestia’s cavatelli, really good.
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brillat savarin cheesecake, figs, graham cracker ice cream
#figsonaplate
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Possibly, but I wasn’t impressed w/ Arnett’s yield this year (the few times I tried the plums). Just my random $0.02.

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You guys have the pics covered so i’ll just drop the gorgeous Barbera the Somm suggested. He lead me away from the Jura I wanted deep in the wine book.

I’m really glad that we picked to go back to Republique for birthday dinner, years since our last visit. They tried to sit us at the communal table which isn’t a deal breaker but not special so luckily on a Tuesday the request to be moved to back room was granted. Nobody wanted to take a drink order and server came asking about food, I made sure he felt the pain of me being sober on my birthday lol. Nice dude though.

Barbera flowed. Gorgeous. Typical lightness and big aroma but a lot more body and complexity than usual, just as he called it. Stellar wine. Unfortunately it was not improved by ANY of the pairings because 3 of 4 were spicy and shockingly and I don’t know why ribeye cap (probably the saucing) was bringing out a lot more bitter notes in the wine.

Bread stick was a hit with our 6 year old. Steak tartare was really awesome for us but too spicy for him. Really loved the octopus salad, total Vietnamese presentation. Sadly too spicy and sour for kiddo also, more for me. Chef M’s Baguette with the Normandy butter was enough to warrant the night’s bill. Out came the malfadine and as expected blew us away with flavor and texture. That’s one hell of a pushed pasta right there, wow. Probably could have used a couple more urchin in the sauce but amazing. Was too flavorful for kid, chilis in the sauce i think, so the kid’s pasta really worked out (which they forgot to order but who cares). Ribeye cap on succotash was really great. What a fantastic cut of meat. Going to seek it out for home use.

Brown butter cake with peace and icecream with a candle was really great. She raved about the chocolate cake but ew. She finished it for breakfast :slight_smile: Ice cream was perfect.

Overall i’m going to say that this modern trend of over-spicing food to make it exciting for people takes away from the flavors BIG TIME. This is not permitted in France. Does this have something to do with the large Asian patron population (just a curious observation, dont intend insultingly)? So we drank our wine in between food because it was a waste on the food of that spice level. A bottle of chilled table wine would have
paired better. It’s a bit surprising by the way given the level of food, the thought about everything there, and the absolute monster of a wine list. I suppose if we just ordered meat dishes only i’d have had a better pairing experience.

just notes and didn’t at all impact our good time… i’m always going to analyze a dinner we drop so much on. superb dinner overall. little lad wore a jacket and scarf.

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I love your kid…ours like yours really enjoyed the breadstick. I think we ordered some of the same dishes, and our kids didn’t find them to aggressively spiced…and I have one who hates pepper. Everyone’s palate is different.
Glad you enjoyed your birthday meal!

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Yes spice tolerance varies ( i actually love super spicy food ). I’m positing that it’s at a level it shouldn’t be no matter your tolerance. The quality of the prime beef used for the tartare is so crazy god… but all i you can taste is the kimchi smashing mild beef flavor. No biggie. I think my thinking mostly applies if drinking really good wine with it

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Granted it’s been a few years since I’ve been, but I don’t recall the food being spicy, and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t handle spicy foods very well. Interesting…

Glad you enjoyed your birthday!

Sometimes when a wine has good tannins or high acid, it can interact poorly with spice. Bummer it didn’t work out well. As noted above, during my last visit I thought the beef tartare had a slight spice, but it was fine with the wine we were having at the moment. Besides the octopus, which were the other spicy dishes? From my last visit, there are plenty of more classically spiced dishes on the menu. And naturally, when you have a large menu and a large wine list, not every wine-food combination is going to go well together.

It depends on the actual culture and generation, I think. Chinese people of my parents (in their 70s) generation are not necessarily known for wanting food to be highly spiced. But people who are Korean, Japanese, and Indian will have desires, as will people of different generations (I like my food more highly spiced than do my parents). I also assume it depends on the type of spice used (some of my Indian friends have said they like eating Thai and Mexican b/c they get a different burn than what occurs w/ Indian food).

I’ve only been to Republique for brunch, so I can’t realy comment on the spicing myself.

Glad you had a good dinner.

i’ve tried most of the menu and didn’t think anything was spicy at all, except for maybe the recent mafaldine, but even that was pretty mild. the octopus salad i think is more tart and acidic than spicy.

Dont meant to pile on or complain or anything. Just wanted to point out that 3 of the 4 dishes were more spicy than expected. Didn’t enjoy them with wine and kid couldn’t eat them (most little kids i know cant handle any heat) So it’s fine and delicious but for what it is and with wine didn’t work for me. Without wine they were all super.

It’s common for me that red wines with that much alcohol taste bitter with beef.

Excuses, excuses … :wink:

Glad you had such a great meal! Next time, ask if you can sit upstairs. You get the lovely view of that big room but in a slightly more intimate setting. Feels like the service is more attentive too.

Yeah the only thing I remember having any kind of heat was the aioli that comes with the beignets, and I think that was horseradish. Maybe they’re trying to mix it up a bit?

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Tartare, octopus and malfadine were varied degree of spicy. I’m not saying they were to spicy for me but they were spicier than expected. Whether they were spicier than needed is the debate in my head. It makes it exciting for sum but takes away from ingredients shining for others.

In case you didn’t already know Costco carries Prime ribeye cap. Unfortunately they roll it up and tie it but its still a great cut of meat. Just sent my brother this, https://www.snakeriverfarms.com/american-kobe-beef/steaks/american-kobe-cap-of-ribeye.html, for his birthday.

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We dont have Costcos around here sadly. But I’ll be looking for it at Marconda’s

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Could always make the drive to Glendale!