dinner at the newly opened otium.
months ago, we reserved tickets to the new broad museum. coincidentally, it ended up being the opening weekend of neighboring (and much anticipated) restaurant, otium. the space is beautiful, and the food was excellent.
they were busy. we arrived two hours before our 9.30pm reservation because we finished up at the broad earlier than we expected. we were seated nearly an hour after our reservation. it's their first saturday night service, so i understand things not going very smoothly, but they definitely need to work out some things in the front of house. luckily though, we were able to snag seats at the bar not too long after our first round of drinks. the bartenders were awesome, and we ordered two appetizers first, so the three hour wait didn't feel too bad.
unfiltered sake with yuzu, green chile, ginger, japanese cucumber, vodka and old fashioned with fig leaf, chairman's reserve forgotten rum, tobacco, coffee.
oysters with shallot mignonette and horseradish.
we can't ever pass up oysters, and these were simple and fresh. the sea urchin, truffle butter and lardo on brioche was ridiculously good. there is definitely something magical and inexplicable when seafood and lardo are combined (like those clam and lardo tacos from b.s. taqueria..!).
sea urchin on brioche with lardo, pistachio and truffle butter.
foie gras with funnel cake, strawberry, fennel, balsamic.
when we were finally seated, it was hard to decide what to order - as usual, i wanted to try everything. regardless, we were not disappointed; everything we ordered was amazing. usually with meals like this, all the dishes are so good that there's usually one or two dishes that, while they would be amazing on their own, end up falling flat relative to the dishes around it. not this time. every single item that came out was as good or better than the last.
snapper with rice, ginger, smoked soy.
dry aged beef tartare, lavash, bulgur, yogurt, mint.
spinach bucatini with egg, bacon, clam, creme fraiche.
as amazing as everything was, if i had to name a few standouts, it would be the snapper (which i could literally eat every single day), and the duck (with chocolate! who knew?). oh, and the beef tartare. i really enjoyed that everything felt very simple, and was even comforting, without feeling too familiar, regardless of how complex the dish actually was. we'll definitely be back!
scallop with bone marrow vinaigrette, celeriac, celery.
duck with pear, chocolate, turnip, onions.
222 South Hope Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
