"Tell us about your first impressions when you arrived. This Michelin-starred restaurant is tiny, sitting only 24 lucky diners per night. Featuring concrete floors, and lots of illustrations, paintings and photos in mismatch frames that hang from the subway tiled walls, the dining room feels relaxed and welcoming. Pre-pandemic, the monthly tasting menus focused around a single, hero ingredient, but these days, chef Curtis Stone and his team have shifted focus to highlight the best of SoCal's fresh ingredients, from sea and land. What was the crowd like? The Beverly Hills location attracts locals as well as Hollywood types on dates and UCLA students with their parents (and their wallets). What should we be drinking? The tasting menu can be accompanied with the "classic wine pairing," ($155) that leans towards California vintages, with a few standouts from Rioja and the Loire Valley—or spring for the "reserve wine pairing" ($255). Main event: the food. Give us the lowdown—especially what not to miss. Each course, which arrives in the kind of dainty little plates you might find in your eclectic great aunt's home, is a thoughtful and well executed homage to the season's bounty and flavors. Offerings might include standouts such as abalone with koshihikari rice, seaweed and oyster mayonnaise; a delicate buñuelo stuffed with blue cheese and macadamia nuts. Dessert takes place upstairs in a temperature-controlled room (in essence, the wine room) that's decorated with cozy sofas, upholstered armchairs and bric-a-brac. The entire experience is surprisingly delightful, though the only thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is the 1980s soundtrack—think Journey, Foreigner, Thompson Twins. And how did the front-of-house folks treat you? Because the dining room is so small, the staff go above and beyond to really take care of every table. Each dish is carefully described, each wine pairing explained, and just the right amount of chit chat takes place to keep guest entertained. What’s the real-real on why we’re coming here? This is the kind of place you'd take a special someone on a first date, a parent on mother's or father's day, or a couple of BFFs on a much-needed quiet night out." - Celeste Moure
