Wine Raconteur

Bazaar is a contemporary Spanish tapas place in the SLS Hotel in West Hollywood. Menu & concept were created by the man, people called, the ambassador of Spanish food & culture, Jose Andre. He who had worked for the high acclaimed chef, Adria Ferran, now resided in the US, owns a numbers of restaurants in the Nation. His style of cooking has a lot of influence by Adria Ferran. His recent collaboration with SLS Hotel helps to develop his new concept of restaurant.
I was a bit skeptic at the beginning about the concept in LA. I had been to many of the celebrity Chef’s restaurant in LA which mostly I had disappointment. Mostly, they are more of a hype and the usual scene of seeing or be seen.
However, Bazaar turned out to be one of my favorite restaurant in LA. I like creativity , however, a lot of chefs neglect the importance of the real meaning of cooking which is deliver tasty dishes. The reason I like the restaurant is that I got the flavors of the ingredients. The Jamon Iberico Bellota are the best you can find from any spanish restaurant in the west coast. The menu also offers traditional style of Tapas for people offended by Olives in a liquid or cotton candies types of ideas of food.
Overall the dinning experience is casual , relaxing, enjoyable. Normally, after savory dishes, they will move you to the dessert bar to sit down and enjoy their great selection of fine desserts. The restaurant is (again) designed by the Philip Stark, extravagant and eye-candied.
Anyway, lets go thru of what I had …..

1) Cocktail: Cotten candy Martini
Before the pour…

After the pour…

2) The Bellota fed Jamon Iberico

3) Not your everyday Caprese

4) Sautee Cauliflower couscous

5) Tuna ceviche avocado roll

6) watermelon tomato skewers

7) Sea Urchin steamed buns

8) Cotton candied Foie Gras

9) Brussels sprout leaves, lemon puree, grapes, Lemon air on top

10) Jicama wrapped guacamole with micro cilantro

11) Japanese taco, grilled eel, shiso, wasabi, chicharron

12) Just shrimp cocktail.

Recess time in the mirrored restroom

13) Japanese eggplant , honey dashi, dry bonito

14) Rossejat, paella style pasta, shrimp

This dish was the least I like.

15) Braised veal cheeks, orange

16) Croquetas de pollo, chicken fritters

17) 1st dessert: Coconut-Berries-Lime, Albert Adria

18) 2nd dessert: passion fruits Nitro coconut floating lsland

Delicious !

A digital display photo slide show by the entrance.

The bar area

Dessert bar

Yes, this restaurant deserved the title of one of the Best restaurant in United States. Every single course from the 16 course tasting menu were SPOT ON ! The amount of exotic ingredients, like hibiscus, umeboshi, angelica etc., they used were mind boggling. It was not only look attractive but tasteful too. The whole meal left me speechless. It was one of the most unforgettable meal in my life. Lets take a look at some of the dishes I had.

The above is a video clip of the Halibut on Pillow of orange air, Its quite amazing. I got the smell of the orange slowly airing out from the pillow underneath the plate while I was eating the fish. It was BRILLIANT !!

There are two dishes in this video. 1st one was the Tenderloin of a Kobe beef with lime rocks, honeydew and cucumber. 2nd dish was the Squab in strawberry, sorrel and long peppercorn. It was a bit dark. Hope you enjoy it though.

If you happen to visit the Museum of Modern Art in New York city, don’t forget to drop by the restaurant right next door, The Modern. I had lunch there for the last 3 times I was in NY. The quality was exceptional. The food are simple but honest and flavorful. They even open on Sunday. Here are couple of courses I had for lunch.

People always brag about the number of great restaurants in the wine country, Sonoma & Napa. Though, I have to agree only to a certain degree. I cannot argue one of the best restaurant in the nation, French Laundry, is in Napa. And I had been there twice, both times I have to say I was very impressed. This time I stayed in Sonoma side, so, it gave me a chance to explore couple of the highly acclaimed restaurants there. One of them is Cyrus in the town of Healdsburg. The overall quality wasn’t as good as I had expected. Firstly, the service wasn’t even come close to any of the top restaurant in NYC or Chicago. And it gave me an impression of being tacky. They eagerly pushed the Caviar & Champagne as a refreshment even before you even got the menu. I never experienced anything like that from a high-end restaurant before. I understand very well what Haut-cuisine dinning is, but to show that a client could do Caviar & expensive Champagne wasn’t one of my dinning scene. It might turn on some wannabe sophisticatee, but definitely not me. Anyway, the rest of the meal didn’t improve the poor impression early either. Here are the Chef’s tasting menu I had… Let me know what you thing.

This tasting menu cost $ 175.

Since I have re-designed my new wine/food blog, Wine Raconteur.net last month, I have lost many memorable posting from my previous website. This is one of the most interesting dinner experience that I think many new readers would not want to miss. So, I decided to repost my documented dinner experience in Joel Robuchon in MGM, Las Vegas from last winter. I believe there were 16 courses all together. Every single dish was labor intense, virtuosically executed, harmonious and thoughtful. I simply cannot say how much I adore Maestro Robuchon. I was so excited when I heard Joel Robuchon debuting his very first restaurant in America was gonna be in Las Vegas couple of years ago.
The overall experience in the restaurant was flawless. The friendly and knowledgable staffs. The bread monger who you will find in the pictures below was so friendly and helpful, she made me felt like at home. The amount of bread on her cart was incredible. The maitre d’ was very knowledgable although he wouldn’t waive the corkage fee of $100 for me. But I totally understood , we all have a business to run and I was happy to pay for it since the bottle of wine that I brought would cost me $ 2000 or higher to order in his restaurant. At the end of the meal, the maitre d’ not only comp us a fabulous dessert, Sugar Sphere, but endless amount of chocolate truffles and a sponge cake in a gift box to take home ! It was definitely one of the best meal I had for as far as I could remember. Moreover, they were very generous of the expensive ingredients, it was really best bang for the buck ! What a contrast to the hyped up restaurants in Los Angeles. What a shame to them !
Lets not waste time and take a look at the courses below….

This mind-boggling, playful restaurant in NYC is one of the pioneer of Molecular-Gastronomy in the nation. Its kinda like a routine for me to go there everytime I m in NYC. The menu is ever changing. Chef Wylie Dufrense is always being creative and surprise you.

Believe me, when it comes to food I have a very high standard. I always tired of those over-hyped mediocre restaurants in the west side of LA. Everything here is about marketing. Majority of the people going to restaurant wasn’t about the food but the scene to see or to be seen.
However, there always few exceptions. I truly think Melisse is one of the best restaurant in LA. In terms of food , every dish is well executed and flavors are well balanced. The quality is consistent. The only complaint I had was the service. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that bad. It was just required patient with them and the way they interact with their clients are like a robot. I wouldn’t expect them to be very friendly, but they never smiled, at least the last couple of times when I was there. The atmosphere is so up-tight. Nonetheless, they delivered the beautiful of true French cuisine.

All the dishes are very flavorful and execution is solid !

First of all, I went to this restaurant few months back. I thought I lost the photos until couple of days ago, I found it !
It was the 2nd time I went there. The menu was very ambitious and I was fascinated by it. Chef Ryan Farr is an amazing guy. Very experimental dishes one after another. It kinda reminded me of WD-50 in New York city. The bartender also came up with some creative herbal cocktails. So, this time I did not order any wine with the meal at all. I enjoyed the ambience a lot , however , the chairs wasn’t quite comfortable specially if you going to stay couple of hours for the chef’s tasting menu. Overall , a very pleasing dinner. Our server was very informative too ! Anyway, here the courses I had…

I totally forgot how I found out this restaurant. It is nestled with many other restaurant in the busy street of Geary in central downtown of S.F.
The ingredients in the menu are mind boggling and courses are reasonably priced. I have to say after all the top notch restaurant that I have been to, such as Fleur de lis, Gary Danko, Michael Mina etc, this is one of the most surprising one. The service was impeccable too. It lived up to every standard of a 5 star restaurant. Here are the courses below… {Sorry for the orientation of the pictures, I couldn’t fix it to vertical}

Soup shot for two.
Citrus, Chicory & Avocado salad, kumquat coffee caramel, pomergranate & kaffir lime.
Toasted Marcona Almonds spiced w/teecino & chilies. (Teecino is type of herbal coffee without caffeine)
Roasted baby beets & Burrata, Bergamot, liquorish herbs & salad burnet. This dish was out of the World !
Prawns a la Plancha, creamy crab rice. Simply Delicious.
Duck & Fuyu Persimmon 3 ways with riliette, foie gras torchon. Great combination.
Roasted Venision, poached Seckel pear, celery root puree, hazelnut & long pepper. What a balanced dish. The meat was done perfect.
Seared Pekin duck breast, Trumpet mushrooms, leeks & baby rucola. Another favorite of mine.
Coconut Frangipane w/ caramelized bananas, Teecino ice-cream & passion fruit. This dish brought me euphoria ! I m still craving for it now !
Pistachio Milkshake shots for 2. What a great finish!

I decided to go vegan tonight, just a night I promise. I heard a lot of hypes of this vegan restaurant which located on Main St. of Napa downtown. So I was quite curious. Ubuntu is the name and it roughly means Humanity toward others. There is a Yoga studio inside the restaurant on the second floor which is quite smart.
Here is the tasting menu I had:
The Garden Menu

2 of my favorite dishes above all are the Garlic confit in summer stew and the Alliums & fregola in Bordeaux sherry broth

Unfortunately, after all this….Mmm… I was still hungry