My second visit to the permanent Wolvesmouth space for a Sharksteeth dinner. Really delicious. Always nice to have such a high level of cooking in such a relaxed atmosphere. Super gracious staff. I took two bites of the gazpacho dish and told my dining companion, “This tastes just like Los Angeles.” I don’t think I can rightly explain that, but she concurred. Hard to pick a favorite dish if pressed as they all had distinct, forward flavors. A very satisfying meal.
That’s a lot of round food.
…in puddles of liquid
That’s funny. When I saw the puddles of liquid I thought “I wonder what PorkBelly would think about this?” The two green dishes do look pretty good though.
I’m sure everything tastes good to very good but presentation fails in every dish.
Has anyone replying in this thread actually been there?
Nope, we’re just commenting on the presentation.
Nope… Just goofing off.
I’ve been.
Plating definitely feels “off”. Sort of like if your kids played “fine dining chef” somehow, a cute attempt at fancy plating that sort of makes you chuckle. Perhaps it is simply intended as some kind of ironic thing to amuse the guests, who are all supposed to be in on the joke of eating “fine food plated not so finely” or some such thing.
My experience with their food is that it is fine food, but my dining experience was one of the worst I have ever had. I don’t know if the kitchen had a collective emergency call or what but we were served the entire meal in 50 minutes… I’ve had meals at In-N-Out that lasted longer… No wine service, so you have to keep running over to the table away from the main table to get more liquid, but you had almost no time to do so. I brought 3 bottles of wine and running to the table to open them, get a glass, and rush back to my seat before the staff would steal my barely eaten dish (or possibly even take away the uneaten dish they had set down while I was fiddling with the corkscrew) was like playing the most awkward food-based gameshow ever… I was the only one who actively fought for my dishes and kept several dishes on the table at once to finish them. Others glumly let their dishes go with only a bite or two taken. The bonding I experienced with other diners was like being in a foxhole, and our conversation afterwards took the tone of telling old war stories… I think all of us were somewhat still in shock though.
The food was good, though kind of a blur since it was served so fast it was hard to contemplate, but not so good as to be worth such a disastrous experience. I can hardly think of a dinner I’ve enjoyed myself less at despite the food being good. The food does have a very “LA” taste to it, and you can sense the potential in all of it, which just makes it more tragic.
I left thinking the secrecy and the kitsch factor is what keeps it going. If you tried to run a brick and mortar like that, it would go under in a month.
There is also the possibility that they just had a weird/bad night, but for the money and hassle of going, it didn’t really compel me to take another risk.
That is so interesting. I wonder why they kept taking the food? I’m a slow eater, I would have not known what to do.
I am also a slow eater but I would be damned if I was letting them take the dishes. They actually tried to take one I hadn’t even taken a bite of yet at one point because I took too long getting wine and I had been chatting leisurely with my fellow dinner guests.
As for why they were taking the dishes… Mostly because they were setting down new ones. A new dish hit the table every 8 minutes and they had probably 12 bites so if you chew your food you would have to have been constantly eating and doing nothing else to get through the meal and eat everything.
I felt like Lucy when her and Ethel worked at the chocolate factory.
It was memorable but not in the way I desire to repeat.
And lest you think they needed to do this oddball service to fit in seatings… We were the last seating of the night. I had expected a more lackadaisical service if anything… Hence the massive quantity of wine I brought.
I wish we had been given some kind of explanation.
Perfect
An update on Wolvesmouth:
Tried this for the first time. Email the address on their website and hope to get two seats. After 3 tries, we snagged one finally. BYOB affair, sharing is encouraged, so you leave your wine at a table off to the side. I brought two bottles that cost about $15 each, but turns out these were the most expensive bottles anyone brought. No price to the dinner, you simply make a donation as to what you think the meal is worth. Crowd was quite diverse, with many experienced eaters and some not so experienced eaters.
As laid out below, overall there were a few quick delicious and tasty dishes, but also some bad dishes and some forgettable ones. The quality of the cooking seems to be quite good, but some of the flavors were just too brash for my taste. And this is from someone that likes spicy food and strong ramen broth etc. We enjoyed the meal, and the experience of dining with strangers, but probably won’t be back. I really applaud what the team here is doing and their passion for their work.
You will leave full, satisfied, and something to talk about for sure! Please give me that short rib and blueberry dessert again.
Menu:
Short Rib: Very strong dish, nicely balanced, charcoal sauce was rich, and the profiterole was delicious.
Albacore gazpacho verde: Way too tarte for my liking. I had heard that this chef likes to keep diners off balance a bit, so he is not afraid of strong flavors. A refreshing dish, especially after the prior dish, but I did not enjoy it the stark contrast.
Rabbit: A more balanced dish, but don’t remember much else.
Duck gyoza: Don’t remember much about this.
Halibut: This came with a soup/sauce to pour on top of the fish. The fish itself was perfectly cooked and had juicy and meaty bite. The soup itself was way too salty for me, perhaps you were not meant to eat as much of it as I did.
Celery root: Remember liking this dish quite a bit, ate it much very quickly.
Pork belly: Easily the worst dish of the night. The pork belly itself was flavorful, but the sauce around it was terrible. Way too spicy and it felt as it someone realized that, and tried to “fix” the sauce by adding a bunch of sugar to it. I would rather have had the pork belly with a few drops of Cholula sauce.
Butterscotch / pears / blueberry: AMAZING dessert. Tons of components with different textures and temperatures. The chalky looking rocks you see are some kind of dehydrated blueberry component. Underneath you have pears and meringue. Best dish of the night.
Cherry / marscapone: Also quite strong, but not as good as the last. At this point, we had so much food, I was starting to feel a bit sick from being full. Still, I finished this. The cherry ice in particular was very refreshing.
Thanks for the report @DTLAeater. Looks like you took one for the team (and had some good dishes also).
That duck gyoza looks like someone let their 4th grade kid play with neon food coloring in the kitchen. 
That pork belly also looks (and sounds) pretty bad.
