Grace Restaurant - Los Angeles

7360 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
323.934.4400

http://www.blogger.com/www.gracerestaurant.com

We used the excuse of my birthday to allow ourselves to indulge at Grace Restaurant as a celebratory dinner. They are currently offering a 5 year anniversary tasting menu of 5 courses for $55 until the end of the year, so we had to take the opportunity to try out Grace. I unfortunately do not eat seafood, so when my wife made the reservations, she asked if the chef could accommodate us. Upon arrival, we were promptly seated and they were kind enough to wish me a Happy Birthday and also mentioned that the chef will be creating some non-seafood dishes for me.

Apologies for the dark pictures. We were trying to respect other diners from flashes of bright light.

Beef Carpaccio - green papaya, chili peanuts, carrots, mint

This was my first course as a replacement for the house cured king salmon. The chef must have had some sort of training in Asian cuisine as this dish was very similar to a Thai papaya salad or a Vietnamese Goi. The beef was very tender and went well with the other Asian flavors. This was a nice and light start to my meal.House Cured King Salmon - heirloom tomatoes, beets, brioche, creme fraiche

The salmon was soft, supple, and melted in my mouth. The cure on the salmon was mild with all the flavors complimenting each other. Sauteed Day Boat Scallops - aged goat cheese, risotto, chanterelle mushrooms, garlic nage

My wife is a huge scallop fan so she enjoyed this dish. The scallop had a nice sear on the top as you can see from the picture. She said that it was a tad bit overcooked. The risotto was cooked well with the goat cheese flavor present. Pork Belly - cabbage, black lentils? Couldn't remember the rest of the items.

Pork Belly seems to be on the menu of every single restaurant nowadays, but I am not complaining at all. This particular pork belly had a nicely crisped fat while still retaining some moist pork meat. The cabbage, lentils, and the other items went well the the dish. Grilled Sonoma Duck Breast - forbidden black rice, braised red cabbage, Black Mission fig sauce, persimmon

The duck breast was nicely cooked to a pinkish red color and had a good sear on the outside. I have no idea what forbidden black rice is or what's forbidden about it. After some research, I found out that it is a heirloom rice. The not overly sweet black mission fig and persimmons contrasted well with this duck. Braised Colorado Lamb Shank - socca galette (crisp chickpea pancake), cerignola olive gremolata

The lamb shank was our last course, and after eating the first 3 courses, we were both slowing down considerably. I am usually never one to complain about the portions of food being too big, but after eating 5 courses, portion size does matter. The lamb shank itself was nicely braised with a very tender and fall of the bone consistency. Neither one of us cared too much for the chickpea pancake. I would have been fine with just the lamb shank and the gremolata. Coffee came out served in these nicely polished silver sets. I really liked the presentation aspect of the coffee and the container it was housed in. (I actually ordered a "cup" of coffee but they brought out a coffee press that poured for me 4 cups..nice...) Butterscotch Doughnuts - vanilla ice cream and candied pecans

I have heard many praises about the doughnuts at Grace and was really looking forward to tasting them. The doughnuts at Grace have different fillings with these particular ones being filled with butterscotch. The insides of the doughnuts were still moist with a sugar coating on the outside. They were good, but not spectacular. We were so stuffed by the time dessert came around that neither one of us could finish all three. Overall, we enjoyed all the dishes and the service was good but not exceptional. I think that pretty much sums up our experience at Grace - good, but nothing exceptional, or at least nothing that really sparks our eagerness to return anytime soon. But I think it's definitely worth a visit for the price, good food and experience.