Us gals dining at the Penthouse
YES! This was the first time I actually got to do DineLA! Every other time I have been out of town/busy etc. I think I might have accidentally done DineLA at that French place at the Grove for lunch... so this was the first time ON PURPOSE. I was told that The Penthouse looks cool and the food is just ok. You pay for the view and ambience. With this in mind, I entered The Penthouse. The Huntley itself is a GOREGOUS hotel. The only exceptions were the pillows in the foyer which look like dead shaggy dogs. So we got a fabulous table-- one of the huge ones with the gossamer curtains, where you feel like you are having an intimate dinner experience. I asked my friend Julie if they knew I had a food blog, for surely that was why we got this table. She POINTED OUT I had not published a review in forever (which is true) and that it was probably due to her open table VIP status. Humph! Well, at least she got me to get off my lazy butt and write. Plus, my sister-in-law is posting a blog a day, so surely I can do one every six months, no? And while nobody else will read this except for maybe 10 people I know, at least I am getting some satisfaction from it. This blog helped me make it through law school, and I should let it help me get through more of my life too! Doing little blurbs on Yelp is just not the same. Ok, ok, now for the FOOD!
We all got the DineLA menu. For the first course the options were crab cakes with mustard butter and granny smith apples, lentil soup with sour cream and chives, and some romaine caper salad thing. Since the romaine salad thing seemed like a less-than-inspired version of a caesar, nobody ordered it. The soup was very flavorful, although there was not enough sour cream for my dairy loving ass, and the texture was not quite whole lentil nor puree... almost like half way through they decided not to puree it. The crab cakes were AWESOME. I love a good crab cake. ESPECIALLY one that is 99.95% crab. Yes, I had them analyzed. The mustard butter was fantastic. It was a thick sauce with mustard seeds and I almost licked it off the plate. I did scrape up as much as possible without bothering the other diners with my plate scraping noises. The apples were sliced so thinly, but still retained their juice and flavor. Quite delish overall!
Crabby cakes
The chef offered us an amuse bouche, which looked kind of like sashimi but was acutally pear. It had a great flavor and cruch, and the little dots of balsamic heaven really finished it off well.
The main course options were bass with rock shrimp tomato risotto, chicken breast with onion risotto and chicken jus, and papardelle with chicken ragu. I had the chicken breast, which was cooked PERFECTLY. One minute less and it would have been underdone. It was juicy and flavorful, and the skin was crispy and fantastic. The onion risotto had a great flavor (a bit mushy but I'm a risotto snob... I don't even like my OWN risotto) but the star was the chicken jus. It was a deep brown and packed with chickeny goodness.
Chicken breast with chicken jus
The bass was also fantastic, albeit a HUGE portion. My husband would definitely not go hungry here like he did at Church & State. The bass had a bright green sauce which we couldn't quite figure out. Was it basil oil? Parsley? It complemented the fish nicely. The fish was also tender and flaky and well cooked.
Fish delish
The pappardelle was not bad but not really remarkable. It was just a decent pasta dish. I expect a ragu to be rich and this sauce was chunky and yet thin at the same time.
Julie and I ordered a mac & cheese side to share. Imagine our chagrin when they did not bring it out until after the main course! Apparently there was some kitchen/computer issue so it didn't come out on the ticket until after the courses did, but in any case they comped it which made us happy. It was so cute in its deceptively small looking cauldron. The top was crusty and cheesy and the inside was appropriately creamy with no weird texture issues or oiliness. My only complaint was that the cheddar flavor was not the pronounced. But I will definitely order it again. Getting the texture right on that sauce is very difficult. I know, I've tried many times!
Cauldron of mac n cheese
Now for the desserts almost everyone got the white chocolate caramel tart with feilletine (sp?). From the description I assumed this would all be stacked together. Instead there was a white chocolate mini panna cotta looking thing, caramel drizzle, and little circles of not-quite-rich-enough pound cake. I think the cakes were supposed to be the fuelletine (sp?), but shouldn't that be like mille foglie??? Anyway the panna cotta thing did not taste like chocolate and was just mushy. I got the chocolate ganache with chocolate gelato and espresso powder. The coffee actually brought together all the flavors nicely, but the portion was too big and in the end the ganache was a little to jello-like for me to finish.
Chocolate ganache
The true start of the dessert course was the creme brulee. Now normally I don't order it, because just like risotto, if it is not perfect I don't want it. This was FANTASTIC! The top crust was caramelized to perfection and the underlying creamy center was perfect. The accompanying amaretto cookie and fruit truly made it perfect!
Perfect creme brulee
Would I go to the Penthouse again? Sure! However, only if it's DineLA again. Their regular prices are just ridiculous for what you get. If I am going to pay that much I want steak or Church & State (i.e. complete perfection).
