Status Kuo has been written about before, in both words and pictures, and since my flight arrived early today I figured it would be a perfect time to check it out.
Taiwanese Sunday Gravy is probably better in theory than in reality. Not bad, but to me it was like a big plate of meat sauce with some 酸菜 or pickled mustard greens. And those pasta things just didn’t work. The entire dish was also a bit on the salty side, and I like me some salt, but not like this.
We also tried the fried chicken, which was pretty good, although the skin was a bit thick. The mac n cheese that came along with it looked pretty good, like glistening piles of gold rubies.
Final thoughts? Sort of like Sqirl met Sam Woo, had a one night stand, and, well, we all sort of know what happens next …
I just went last last week. Chef David is getting the liquor license in early 2016.
As for the Taiwanese Sunday Gravy - I freaking love that dish. They’re using a new Italian technique with their pastas which infuses even more flavor (just came online last week actually).
The grilled red snapper at $24 is a great deal. We bought some Rayu sauce for home. Porchetta was a bit on the dry side; but I went there at dinner time when traffic was very low that night. Overall it was an enjoyable meal.
Restaurant has great potential, but needs tuning in a few places.
Not sure how it is now, but it needed a lot of tuning from my experience with it the first time I went when they opened.
There were a ton of mistakes in our meal…including forgetting to be the chilaquiles in the chilaquiles omelet, and not putting any rib tips in a dish that was supposed to have rib tips in it (something called hair of the dog IIRC).
The porchetta tasted extremely gamey to me at that time, which made it seem like it was very low-quality pork. I’ve only experienced such gamey flavors in pork at very low end places, that personally always disgusts me, so I doubt I would ever have ordered it again.
They forgot to salt a couple dishes (they acknowledged as much).
Still, flavors were nice in some things, and it was relatively cheap and creative. I might have returned except that despite acknowledging all of the mistakes, the kitchen and chef took no responsibility for them. Nothing was taken off the bill, or even discounted.
Too many other places in LA you can go eat very well, where if the chef takes a risk and messes up, they will take responsibility and remove the item from your bill. Without that trust at a place, I don’t personally feel safe dining there.
Perhaps they have changed since then though, one certainly hopes so.
Agreed. I really wanted to love them but each time I’ve tried, then have stumbled. I might have been more forgiving even, but each time they have seemed to have an attitude about it. The space and food don’t live up the “CHEF DRIVEB SERIOUS RESTAURANT” shade they throw. For similar concept with better food and attitude I would rather hit Stir on Beverly and lament the loss of the Rico Suave concept that fell apart when Zarate imploded.
