Go West, Young Cliche

West. By now you've all read a review in one form or another on the various LA foodsites. Seems like a smart PR firm knew unpaid foodwriters would be primed to accept free meals in exchange for a few good words.



Either way, I was prepared to be objective, as I always am. I have a considerable amount of Fuck You money, and my political influence enjoys worldwide exertion, so I don't care about what I say about anybody.

When we arrived atop the newly remodeled Angeleno, it was a deep, rich scene of underlighting, dark wood, and directed spotlighing. Real Cool. I like modern spaces and sparse warmth. It is already attracting the neo-hip westside crowd, or that just happens to be the clientele staying there. Either way, it reminded us of the crowd at the uber-hip Viceroy.

Angeleno -The Hotel Previously Known as Holiday Inn- was purchased by Joie De Vivre Hospitality. They specialize in buying, renovating and remodeling boutique hotels. We stayed in the Hotel Carlton when we visited San Fran a couple of months ago, which is one of their properties. I can only imagine the old Holiday Inn was underutilizing the space, since the exterior of the building was blemished with their trademark faded green palette. The Angeleno has moved far away from the old look, installed blue lighting on the exterior, and gave the pool area and reception space an upgraded facelift. How's that for an LA pun.



Obviously, the top floor of a cylindrical hotel affords a riveting view of the city. Of course, since we're unabashed high rollers reviewing the restaurant, we got a southern view of the 405. We eat late, so our reservations were at 8:30, in time for the Klub Krowd to start jiggling in.



Our waiter was informative and succinct. Everyone was extremely tolerant of my picture taking. Out of the chute you get a hunk of bread that was soft, and had a nice, pliable crust. Dark and malleable. Three accompanyments (I would even qualify it as amuse bouche) were marinated olives, hot pepper oil, and chunks of parmesan cheese.



The olives were mellow with little bite, liked that. Hot oil is always good, on the body or dip for bread. Parmesan was the kicker. Never had fresh chunks served like that, and I have a particular weakness to fistfulls of parmesan. It was crumbly without being dry, and had nice salt crunches like I like.



Good, this was shaping up to be a decent meal. I mean, after all, they needed to make sure we had a positive experience. My wife ordered the special lobster salad (I told her not to over do it, but she was going to exploit this experience for all it was worth. Amateurs.). That would be preceeded by antipasti of roasted garlic and white bean puree with foccacia, and bookended by the skillet-seared petite filet mignon.

I ordered the crudo of grappa cured salmon and horseradish masarpone, followed by a small plate of dungeness crab/maine lobster bolognese in a bowl of herb tagliatelle and masarpone. My entree would be the ominous dijon crusted rack of lamb with mint vinegar.

So how did I milk it? Glasses of Audelssa cab sav. Nayan had a mojito. One good thing is they assist you in getting tanked. A 'glass' comes accompanied by a modern decanter, for at least two refills. Nice touch. The mojito was minty and refreshing, though not excessively strong.



Our first course arrived, and Nayan's was very good. Creamy, perfectly salted and blended, it made a nice dipping sauce, but the portion was enormous. Not that I'm complaining. They need to give you at least 10 extra crustinis for the amount of dip, but I respect big food.



Mine wasn't so dead on. The salmon was very salty and lacked the cured subtlety. The masarpone wasn't infused with enough horseradish to even notice there was horseradish in it. It didn't taste bad, I finished my portion, but one flavor was too subtle, and the other too bold. The salmon, however, did have a good texture, and went well with the supplied capers.

That was followed up by the bowl of pasta and Nayan's lobster salad. My pasta was good, you could taste the crab and lobster, which is important as so many restaurants obscure the taste to the point where you wonder why they even included the signature protein. The crab and lobster mingled well with the tender pasta and just the right amount of sauce.



Nayan's salad was a winner. The frisee was peppery and fresh, the lobster sweet and substantial (not lobster flakes, but good chunks of lobster meat) and the dressing was not overpowering at all. I always like it when you can taste the seafood in a seafood dish.



Service was very attentive, which we expected, even as the Klub Krowd really started to arrive. A DJ was spinning electronica and downbeat the whole evening, set up just to the left of the bar in another eating area. That gave the whole experience a good energetic vibe.

The portions were fairly generous, yet I wasn't near to being full, which is a good balance when you're tucking into a big hunk of meat. The portion size for both entrees was quite generous. Her 'petite' filet mignon looked to be about 8 oz, so it wasn't all that small. The three dipping sides were a chunk gorganzola sauce, garlic bernaise and jus with a hint of rosemary. The tenderloin was perfectly salted and peppered, with a great dark crust. This was one of the few filets that really didn't need sauces, but each one was a good compliment. My favorite was the bernaise.


I left the "s" off of jus to see if you were really paying attention.

Mine was a double cut, interlaced rack of lamb. The medallions were quite hefty and cooked medium rare. The dijon crust did crack and fall off while I was cutting (I debone mine first, so I can gnaw on the bones like an animal later). I got around that by placing the dijon crisps on the lamb, but that made it hard to dip. I didn't mind so much because I wasn't a great fan of the dip. It was a minty gastrique, but it reminded me too much of Binaca, so I just dipped my lamb in Nayan's sauces.



So, we were chatting and discussing and evaluating the meal, and I noticed that even though the furnishings were undeniably modern, there was a nice comfort. Our chairs were round and full of cushion, with rollers instead of casters for ease of scooting. Technically, if West weren't carpeted, you could turn the center aisle into a race track and push the chairs around.

We rounded up the evening with a fruit fondue. Sliced peaches, whole strawberries, pineapple and banana were accompanied by two cauldrons, one with caramel and one with chocolate. The chocolate was a tad bitter, so I stuck with the caramel, and it complimented the fruit wonderfully. Paired with a nice dessert wine, which I have forgotten thank you very much, it was a great end to a perfect meal.



Perfect, of course, since it was free.

Until they handed us the bill. Uh oh.

I didn't think it would be a big deal to tell the waiter we were guests of a PR firm for the purposes of reviewing the restaurant, and I was right. He wisked the bill away, returned and apologized for the mix-up, but I said there was no need to apologize. The Maitre d' came over and explained he hadn't told the staff who we were.

Well, that puts a new spin on things. The whole evening we had been running under the assumption that we were getting royal treatment to give a favorable review. In fact, they had been unaware of our mission, and extended their courtesy and attention thinking we were 'regular' patrons. Seen through that filter, I would certainly recommend West to anyone willing to throw down a couple of Benjamins for dinner and drinks.

West has been open three weeks now, so there are probably some kinks to work out, but we weren't really hit with anything significant. Overall, and in light of our anonymity, I can comfortably say it is a well recommended restaurant with a good vibe, cool scene, solid staff, and hearty food.

One thing I wanted to note is if you get the filet mignon and parmesan whipped potatoes, pour your leftover jus into the potatoes and mix, it tasted dynamite.

West is located on Church St. right off the 405 taking the Sunset exit. It is on the top floor of the Hotel Angeleno.

As I've said previously, I was comped the entire meal (except for tip, of course), but I have given you my objective and honest assessment. You'll have to decide yourself whether my words have credibility.