Laurel Hardware in WeHo: Great Space, Cool Atmosphere and Delicious Oozing Egg Sandwiches

I love discovering gems in my own 'hood. Laurel Hardware was one of those places you always drive by but never got a chance to try. It was actually a real hardware store before going through a transformation into the coolest restaurant that I'm happy to report has pretty good food.

Let's deconstruct this fried chicken biscuit sandwich that came with a side of pancetta gravy. I'm not a big gravy person. I find it rather distracting. So I just used a small dollop of gravy for my sandwich but frankly, I don't think it needed it -- especially in light of this perfectly oozing egg. Kudos to the kitchen for getting the egg just right -- a beautiful soon-to-be runny sunny side up.

True, I didn't think the chicken was nearly as mind-blowingly crispy and juicy as the one in Son of a Gun. But it was a thicker cut and managed to stay quite moist and nicely seasoned. It came with collard greens in a biscuit bun that wasn't my favorite biscuit but it was ok. Think the biscuit could have had a harder crust but I still appreciated the different experience of a fried chicken biscuit sandwich.

I liked the Gangster cocktail that was cucumber vodka with watermelon and lime juice. It was so refreshing -- the perfect summer drink. Very appropo considering it was 100+ weather.

I didn't care too much for the mojito that came with a "summer float," which I found too sweet.

I did, however, love the decor and vibe of this place, at least during the day. It features floor to ceiling windows and has different spaces in the back with booths, communal tables, couches and an outdoor patio area. It's a very long and slightly narrow space and I loved it. I wonder what it's like for late night drinks. Note to self: must try.

My brunch companion had the turkey bacon sandwich in a pretzel bun with heirloom tomato and homemade ranch sauce. I usually never rave about turkey -- sorry but what's there to rave about -- but this turkey tasted home-roasted and freshly sliced. The bacon was chunky and cooked just crisp. I didn't mind that the sandwich came with fries, which were good but not terribly memorable.

I'd like to return soon to check out other brunch items and dinner/drinks menu -- and perhaps sit in the outdoor patio in the back. The space looked so inviting. Service was good too. Recommended.

Providence: Fancy Seafood Using Asian Ingredients is a Winner But Save Up Before You Go

I had high expectations of Providence, a fancy shmancy place known for its seafood cooked using Asian ingredients and sauces. Oh, and its multiple dollar signs when listed indicating it's a pricey place. I'm normally a pretty demanding customer when it comes to restaurants that charge an arm and a leg. If I'm going to pay bank, I expect the ambiance to be wonderful, the service attentive, knowledgeable and unpretentious and the food stellar.

Shortly after my dinner companion and I arrived, we were told we needed to wait as our table "was not ready." As we sat there waiting for our third friend to show up, it dawned on me that they were just being lame and not seating us to wait for the entire party to be present. I have to vent a bit here. I don't understand why restaurants do this! It is the most frustrating, customer-UN friendly practice ever! Don't make your customers wait for the sake of your convenience. If there's a reasonable reason restaurants do this, I have yet to hear it. It's not like we had a 8-person party. So we were seated after I asked our hostess what the holdup was. Overall food was very good. Service was above average but short of my expectations for a restaurant of this caliber (and price tag).

One thing I do love about fancy restaurants is that at least they give you a few freebies like amuse bouche in the beginning of the meal to whet your appetite. Providence was no exception and I took diligent mental notes of what everything was but unfortunately, my brain has limited memory so I wasn't able to remember everything.

The first soupy one was a bright green concoction that was likely a cold cucumber soup with some foamy thing in the bottom, paired with a cheese puff. Presentation was gorgeous and it was nice having a cold starter in this scorching weather although the interior felt a bit over-air conditioned after a while.

The most effective "mouth-amuser," as it translates from French, was the salmon skin chips that came displayed on a marble-like plate with compartments, accompanied with a trout roe dip topped with chives. The chips were a revelation. 1) I'm not a huge salmon fan, much less a salmon skin fan, 2) it was as perfectly roasted/toasted/torched as you can imagine -- crispiest of crisp and 3) and how green of them to not throw anything away and transform them into these beauties.

I liked the butter and the bread selection was not bad, but again -- high standards alert -- I like my fancy bread warmed up so it almost tastes like it came fresh out of the oven. The selection included bacon bread, olive bread (both of which were bland and too salty, respectively) and a very interesting seaweed focaccia-type soft bread. Who knew seaweed had so many permutations like seaweed mashed potatoes and seaweed bread? Bonus points.

Of course there's always the more disciplined part of me telling me to stop filling my stomach with useless carbs and save myself for the really good stuff that's about to go down. The crab appetizer was, yes, pretty, and a mix of sweetness from the crab meat and juicy sweetness from the melon that lined the plate, which was drizzled with what tasted like balsamic vinegar to add some savory to the sweetness. It also had mango, which was a lot of sweetness on the plate that was tempered, or saved, rather, by the addition of this sriracha mayo that gave the dish the flavor and kick it needed. Another rant: I couldn't believe I bit into at least three shells. I most definitely don't think this should happen when I'm paying $$ for my food. This ain't the Crab Shack, y'all. Am I being too demanding here?

The scallop ceviche that came with "sea lettuce" that basically resembled a type of seaweed, was fresh and naturally sweet.

The main dish was spectacular in its presentation and flavors. French rouget, aka red mullet, pan fried whole and fileted with a green as grass pistou that was a mix of parsley and jalapeno.

Our server had cautioned that the fish is naturally fishier than your average fish a la Spanish Mackerel but the fish was perfectly cooked and seasoned -- and not fishy at all. The flesh was soft and tender. Obviously the quality of the ingredients was solid.

Another main dish, the sea bass, came with blocks of blood sausage, celery root, pickled celery that I didn't care for and shishito. The fish was equally well-cooked although I didn't love the celery.

The seared duck breast had a croquette-like fried ball with some deliciously smoked eggplant, chanterelle mushrooms, black figs and shiso leaves. There was a lot going on on the plate but the meat was well-cooked and the sides complemented the gaminess of the duck well.

We tried three desserts, including a trio of house-made sorbets and two extremely creative desserts -- a peach crumble over a bed of miso pot de creme and a combination of soft cakes, muscat grapes (my new favorite fruit of the summer), rice crispies and a muscat grape sorbet.

The sorbets were good but the best one was the muscat grape flavor. What did I tell you about my new obsession? They were all like biting into the original fruit transformed into icy scoops sitting daintily on avant garde glassware.

The peach crumble over the creamy miso creme was divine. I suspect both the chef and pastry chefs are masters of mixing sweet and savory that seemed to be a common thread throughout the entire meal. This dessert was very creative and it worked well.

The grape-rice crispies-sorbet dessert was also a nice mix of textures and temperatures but not as memorable as the miso peach crumble.

After stuffing ourselves silly with all this crab, mullet and miso peach crumble, the restaurant offered us a sweets sampler plate including macaroons, raspberry jellies and plum caramel. I can't believe I'm saying this because I'm not a big candy person but the plum caramel was incredibly good.

The macaroons were too sweet for me. I'm no big fan of jellies either but I still finished them because they were home-made, so to speak.

I brought a nicely chilled rose from a cool winery in Napa I recently visited for a hot summer evening so we could enjoy a whole bottle and not pay a hefty check. Corkage is $30.

Service was not as good as other high end restos like Bazaar or Mozza.

I will likely be returning although it is, after all, a special occasion restaurant.

It's located in a weird part of Melrose -- not quite WeHo nor Hollywood. A bit grungy for the type of restaurant, actually. But street parking is easy so that I like.

Faux Pas Bistro: Are Smashed Home Fries a Faux Pas in a Bistro? That's The Least of Their Problems.

I really wanted to like this place. The location is great, the ambiance and open-air setup take me right back to bistros in Paris or New York and service was excellent. But alas, the food just didn't deliver. To be fair, the place just recently opened so line cooks are still "in training," we were told. But it held so much promise.

I mean, look at that incredibly photogenic burger with smashed fries, which, by the way, seem to be the fries du jour. But more on that later. Let's talk about this beautiful burger. No sooner had I bit into it did I discover the patty tasted good but it wasn't cooked right. Not enough redness. It was overcooked the first time and then the second time around as well. We didn't want to be too harsh so didn't ask for yet another round but...I won't belabor the point.

So the patty itself was flavorful enough with decent texture but again, it was somewhat ruined by overcooking. I also had issues with the works -- shredded iceberg lettuce, really? One, it was a royal pain to eat and didn't add much to the mix. Two, iceberg? Who does that for a $12 burger? Could hardly taste the roasted garlic aioli or the cheddar cheese. The sesame brioche bun was ok but it could have been less dense. Yes, I have issues with dense buns. And I just wanted to write that.

The "fries" were more like smashed home fries, which our server had warned us about but I had read the posts about these beforehand so it wasn't a surprise. I thought it was well executed -- even better than at Short Order at the Grove. It's true I not-so-secretly longed for double-fried-in-duck-fat-kind of super crispy "frites" you get at bistros (think Schillers' Liquor Bar in New York) but I still appreciated these for their uber crispiness. And the fact they weren't over salted, a topic I have been known to rant about.

Let's balance the bad with the good. Look at adorable the bread "basket" arrived at our table with a side of tomato spread. The tiny breads were nice and warm although they weren't stellar, they were good, especially with the spread.

I must now judge the Margarita pizza, or Pizzette Marguerite. Not sure it's the correct use of the word, pizzette, at least according to a rudimentary search I did to figure out the difference with a pizza. It's apparently plural for pizzetta, a small pizza in Italian but maybe it means something else in French.

Anyhow, it had none of the airy lightness I recall from the OG pizza in Napoli. The dough was too thick and doughy. There was far too much cheese that made it even heavier. The balance of dough, cheese and tomato sauce was all off. Sliced fresh basil on top was the only decent thing about it and that's not saying much. So we took it back...They were thankfully very gracious about not charging us for something we weren't going to want more of.

So gracious were the host, server and sous-chef that they gave us a pineapple tart with chantilly cream on the side on the house. Again, I didn't love it but it was very generous and nice of them to make sure we left happy. The tart was too sweet and dense but I liked the pineapple brulee that I cracked with the tip of my spoon.

My final rant about the place is the green salad, which was absolutely nothing special. Ok, it's just a starter salad but some tossed greens and two pieces of tomatoes doesn't make a salad. Disappointing for a fancy bistro that presumably takes its food seriously. Why not try to wow us with a seasonal salad like the incredible carrot salad I had recently at Son of a Gun? Bo-ring.

I'll probably be banned from this restaurant as they'll know it was me. I'm not sure I'll be returning though because while service was really attentive and I appreciate them going out of their way to accommodate us, they really need to work on the quality of the food and execution. Like I said, I really do want them to succeed. Honest to God.

But for pizza, must confess that I'd much rather go to Olio a few blocks away. And for burgers, well, you know my faves (Houston's in case you don't!).

The Fat Dog: Good but Expensive Burger, Fancy and Delicious (but Tiny) Potato Skins

I always drove by the Fat Dog on Fairfax but apparently never noticed it. The verdict is it's overpriced but has decent food and I'll be returning. Oh, and its burger, while a tad overpriced, is good.

What I liked about this place is that it offers a different take on classics like potato skins by adding asparagus and hollandaise sauce. It also claimed to have crab in it but I could barely taste it. The chunky bacon bits added crunch. True, the portions were small as were the potatoes themselves but they were a nice reprieve from the usual blobs of cheddar cheese swimming in a massive potato skin.

Let's talk burger. I ordered the grass-fed version from Lindy & Grundy next door that was $17 -- medium rare. The first one that came out was overcooked on a dry, day-old bun. Of course, I sent it back. The second one was better. The bun was warm and soft. The patty a bit on the fatty side (not in a good, marbling way but in a bad, chewing into a fatty knot kind of way) and too coarsely ground for my taste. The flavor of the patty was good enough, though. Not as good as the Lazy Ox burger but better than many I've had recently.

 The redeeming factor about the overpriced burger was that it came with fries, which were just above average. They were hot when they arrived and nested in the cutest little brown paper bag. The sweet potato fries we got as part of the happy hour menu (which isn't all that much cheaper, actually) were solid, if not a bit fried too many times over and on the salty side.

The beet salad was tiny and a bit overdressed but had three different kinds of beets, chevre and a hazelnut dressing that went well together. What's up with the minuscule portions?

The desserts looked more promising than they actually tasted. We got the bourbon bread pudding with chocolate topped with vanilla ice cream and some ginger donuts.

The bread pudding was pretty good but didn't blow me away.

The donuts, on the other hand, weren't edible. They were dry and terrible. Good thing they didn't charge us for them.

The place has a great beer and wine selection. Parking in the lot is free. The crowd is a bit young (or maybe I'm old) -- twentysomething hipsters -- but I won't hold it against Fat Dog.

Service by our table server was great. However, one HUGE pet peeve was that every other person working there was overly zealous to clear the table, even if we clearly hadn't finished the plate. Hey, we're still working on those two shriveled sticks of French Fries, ok?

Will return since it's in the 'hood, serves decent food and not too crowded.

Food+Lab in WeHo: Good For a Ham Gruyere Omelet + Latte-Kind of Brunch

I've always driven by Food+Lab, a cafe in West Hollywood that I finally visited and gave it my thumbs up.

Sure, it had its downsides, like mixing freshly squeezed orange juice with concentrate, which shouldn't be done. It offered many different kinds of juices, but the bad experience with the OJ didn't make me want to try the pomegranate or other good-sounding ones. But overall, it was a respectable breakfast/brunch spot with decent coffee and omelets.

We got the omelet with avocado, fresh cheese and another one with ham and gruyere cheese. The ham -- and there were layers and layers of it, to my delight -- was very good and took me back to Paris (maybe it was because it was called Paris Ham and I became a victim to marketing), or at least those really cool complimentary breakfast buffets they have at European hotels where they have all sorts of yummy cold cuts displayed next to the cheeses.

But I digress. So the ham was good but I was surprised to see slices of gruyere cheese in my omelet, which for $10 should really be shredded rather than be layered like the ham. So there wasn't much stringiness to the cheese -- in fact, the layers got lumped and stuck and made it clunky to eat.

As much as the flavors melded well, I prefer the ingredients to be incorporated into the omelet batter rather than have a cooked omelet as a pocket for the ham and cheese. Ok, I'm getting picky but again, it's these small things that make an omelet a great omelet.

I did like that it came with a green salad, although I wouldn't have minded having the option of hash browns or home fries. The omelet came with two sad slices of bread, one like a sourdough and another walnut raisin. They were both good but should be heated when served.

Coffee was good -- it came in what could only be described as a bowl. Here's your bowl of latte...

Good vibe and decor, with a nice outdoor patio that I hope to visit on warmer days. Parking lot in the back and it also sells packed ham and ready-made food to go. Ah, I may try some of its picnic fare for the Bowl this summer. Looked promising.

Silver Lakers -- it has a location in your hood too.

Rant of the Week: What's the Deal with the Uber Dense Buns at High-end Burger Shops? Short Order -- I'm Talking About You

I get that buns can be dense in places that don't purport to be the end-all, be-all burger joints. But any self-respecting, self-proclaimed "burger joint" that calls itself Short Order should take care to ensure the buns are NOT dense and in perfect harmony with the patty and the works.


As I've said over and over again to the point of sounding like a broken record, the perfect burger is the sum of all its great parts. The patty was cooked medium rare but it wasn't particularly flavorful.

Burgeries take note: do not overdo any part of the bun, whether the upper or lower half. This was especially disturbing for a place owned by none other than the queen of breads, Nancy Silverton, of La Brea Bakery and Pizzeria Mozza fame. Not to mention the wait.

Yes, the bottom line is, Houston's burgers are the best, including their buns.

Full review coming soon...

dineLA Roundup: Scallops at Culina, Lobster Veloute at Tar Pit and Cauliflower Almond Soup at Sotto

I inadvertently booked mostly Italian restaurants for DineLA this past week, and by the end of the week, I was completely Italian food-ed. It'll be a while until my next pizza or pasta bite.

Overall I wasn't blown away by the three joints I tried, which were Culina, Tar Pit and Sotto.


There were, however, some notables. I'm going to start with the good dishes.

As an entree, Culina in the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills served seared scallops with fennel and grapefruit that was well cooked, crispy on the edges and served very warm, which was good. The scallops were on the gigantic side and were extremely meaty. I wasn't crazy about the licorice taste of the fennel with the scallop (I don't mind it with the right combination, though) but the citrus flavor and texture of the grapefruit went great with the scallop, which was fresh.

The Tar Pit also served scallop but a single one atop a delectable lobster broth that our table couldn't get enough of (we asked for bread to absorb all that goodness). The menu called the broth veloute, as in velvety in French. It was also topped with tobiko, fish eggs, but I'm not a fan so skipped that. The rice puffs didn't add much to the dish.

The charred octopus at the Tar Pit that came with smoked paprika and white cheddar grits was a tad chewy but a nice starter. You know how I feel about white cheddar grits so I won't repeat myself but suffice to say that the octopus, soft grits and smoky paprika were a good match.

The cauliflower and almond soup at Sotto was very innovative and good. The texture of the soup was pretty thick, which I didn't mind, and super soft. This creamy soup was dotted with spicy chilies, briny capers and golden raisins. I love being pleasantly surprised at flavor and texture combinations and that's exactly what this dish offered. I liked tasting the cauliflower and nutty almond paired with some kick, saltiness as well as sweetness. If the flavor components don't work well together, I'd say it was a bad flavor explosion but that wasn't the case here.

I also liked the grilled mackerel scapece over a bed of chopped cauliflower (I'm not a cauliflower junkie, I swear) and other goodies at Sotto. Scapece is the Italian equivalent of escabeche found in many Spanish-speaking cultures, meaning grilled or poached protein (fish or meat) that's been marinated in some kind of vinegar or citrus-like mixture.

The fish was ok -- could have been a bit more fresh -- but the kicker was the bed of cauliflower, cured lemons, It's a speciality of the island of Pantelleria and a sauce used on fish, made of tomatoes, capers, basil, parsley, oregano, almonds, garlic, oil, chili peppers. There was a lot going on but I liked it. Again, a pleasant surprise.

The "short rib mignon" at the Tar Pit was not bad although not exactly melt in your mouth as ribs should be. Then again it was far better than the outrageously dry braised short ribs at Culina. The Tar Pit's short ribs came with apple-chestnut puree and pickled leeks. Although I could hardly taste the leeks, the puree went ok with the meat.

The tortelloni of sweet potato, amaretti cookies and sage brown butter at Culina was good but not nearly as good as the pumpkin ravioli at Girasole that I have raved about in the past.

The bucatini all' amatriciana at Culina held so much promise but they poured so much salt on it that the only way I was able to enjoy it was at home, topped with an unseasoned fried egg to temper the sodium. The yolk mixed into the pasta and made it more palatable. I'm not big on the hollow pasta either, mostly because I don't think it adds anything in terms of integrating better with the sauce as with farfalle or fusilli and it's darn hard to eat because it keeps slipping!

Don't get me started on the less than stellar dishes. The roasted chestnut, canellini beans and porcini soup at Culina sounded great on paper as I like all three of those things, but was too heavy and needed something light to balance out the starchiness.

The vegetable terrine of roasted vegetables and caramelized kumquats and fried plaintains at the Tar Pit was hard to eat and served room temperature, which I didn't like. The roasted vegetables were hard to mess up, but I wasn't sure about adding the sweet and tart kumquats. As for fried plaintains, what's not to like about them?

Other culprits: margherita pizza at Sotto that looked great but the crust was disappointingly soggy and chewy, instead of being crispy like it should be. The tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil were all great but the crust is half the battle, am I right? If the crust ain't there, forget about it.

The braised lamb ragu with egg and pecorino on casarecce pasta at Sotto was outright bad. The lamb was stinky and just because I don't like to waste food, I did the fried egg trick again but this time, it barely made a difference. Maybe next time, I'll have to add a ton of freshly ground pepper to mask the not-so-fresh lamb.

Ditto for the root vegetable pasta at the Tar Pit, which was bland period. No amount of fried egg-ery could salvage this one. The snapper and crab ravioli dish was probably the worst one of them all. Dry ravioli that's been frozen for far too long, as was the snapper. Awful.

Let's talk desserts. The best was the bittersweet chocolate crostata with hazelnuts and salted rosemary caramel at Sotto. Because I don't have a huge sweet tooth, I liked the sweet-cum-savory aspect of the not-too-sweet chocolate cake.

The cleverly dubbed "gelato pie" (how could one not like something called this?) consisting of meyer lemon, blueberry marmelade and hazelnuts atop some biscuits was too heavy on the cream for my taste.

I haven't met a hazelnut I didn't like. But too much cream is too much cream.

As far as service, Culina was alright but I don't think I'll be returning. Just too many good alternatives for Italian, including Osteria Mozza for special occasion or Girasole for amazing seasonal ingredients prepared fresh and no corkage!

The service at the Tar Pit was, er, pitiful. The owner/chef, Mark Peel of Campanile fame kept a constant watch over the restaurant floor featuring beautiful decor, but service was extremely slow. I didn't care for the live music either that was too loud but my fault for coming to a lounge/restaurant. It's more like a bar than a restaurant. Hard to keep a conversation.

Service at Sotto was curious. They made us wait for our table when we could see there were two tables that were visibly available right by the hostess area. Our server, however, was good.

Red Medicine: Good Amberjack and Chinese Lion Peppers (?), Save Room for Dessert

I wasn't sure what to expect at Red Medicine, which makes it abundantly clear on its site that it does NOT serve Vietnamese food. Rather it serves Vietnamese-inspired food. The chef/owner did stints as pastry chef for both Thomas Keller and Grant Achatz of Alinea (in Chicago) fame.

Overall nothing too special. The best savory dish was the amberjack served raw with something called succulents, which tasted very fresh and looked like thin asparagus spears; deep fried lotus roots that gave the dish a crunchy texture; red seaweed that didn't do much for the flavor but looked pretty -- all on a bed of buttermilk and tiny tapioca balls that doubled as dipping sauce for the fish pieces.

The next best savory dish was something we got because we happen to take the Brussels sprouts back. The sprouts were supposed to be caramelized with fish sauce and vermouth, topped with those shrimp fritter you get out of a box. We took back the sprouts because they were beyond caramelized. They were burnt. So were the new ones we got.

On the house, the kitchen sent over what were called Chinese lion peppers, smothered in some ground almond (the menu said "almond skin" so that was curious), honey, soy, and garnished with some slivered dates and violet basil leaves.

The nuttiness reminded me of the nutty Korean drink in its powder form, misugaru, but I digress. The peppers were roasted or flash fried and weren't that spicy. The nutty almond powder and spicy peppers liked each other, as Jaimie Oliver would say. Some bites were accentuated by the occasional sweet and chewy date slivers. The violet basil gave a subtle but decidedly aromatic basil presence to the mix.

We naturally had high expectations for the dessert, since he made his name as a dessert guy. They didn't disappoint.

The more memorable one was coconut Bavarois, which combines coffee, condensed milk, Thai basil frozen balls like beautiful green gems and peanut croquant (French for "crisp") that were like crunchy and soft peanut cakes.  Once mixed with all the other components, made for a creamy and delicious dessert I'd never experienced before. Approved!

The other dessert was rhubarb leaves atop a mountain of lemongrass meringue and cream (fancy name: mahlab cremeux) that, in turn, sit atop a biscuit with hibiscus jam. The whole thing was decorated with rhubarb that had been sliced uber thin and deep fried (we first thought they were beets) and some gorgeous violet flower petals known as gentian.

The verdict? Too much going on, unfortunately. Beautiful, no doubt, but not sure it lives up to the insane description or aesthetic.

Service was ok until it made the cardinal sin of all time -- brought the check before we asked for it. It doesn't matter if we've ordered all there is to order and we've had our dessert and said we didn't want coffee. I don't think any fine dining establishment should do this, regardless of how packed it is -- and this place most definitely was not packed at all. That is a HUGE pet peeve...Done ranting now.

Salt's Cure: Overrated and Overpriced -- Needs to Use Less of Its Namesake

Salt's Cure is one of those places I had always driven by and been meaning to check out. I finally did and I must say, I was disappointed. Amazingly, I'm somehow willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, saying it must be more of a breakfast or brunch place. After all, I've seen the long lines forming on weekends (although that doesn't necessarily mean it's good -- think Blue Jam Cafe).

Sadly, I wasn't impressed with any of the food except the burger. It wasn't the best one I've ever had, but it was the most interesting and tastiest thing we had. The burger patty was good -- the meat was fresh and I could tell freshly ground -- but there were some fatty parts that I could have done without (you know, when you chew on it and it's so fatty you can't so you have to somehow get it out of your mouth). The cured ham on top of the patty was ok but I don't think it added a whole lot of value in terms of flavor and texture. The house-made poppyseed bun was an interesting touch but ultimately too dense for its own good. The fries looked promising but were a bit greasy and soggy -- just not as crispy as they could be.

We got the potted pork that message boards raved about but it was clearly overrated as it had an unpleasant porky smell and tasted like smelly tuna salad with too much mayo in it. It had the same texture but what was particularly egregious was that it was far too salty. The accompanying (also house-baked) bread was toasted and hard (but not warm) like biscuits. The also house-made pickles were ok but nothing special.

I was excited to try the house-made (ok, they pretty much make everything in-house) carpaccio -- called raw dry aged beef on the menu -- with leeks, parsley and drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Downer: the carpaccio was too salty on top of not being sliced razor thin as they should be and the texture was too chewy, like it hadn't been cured for long enough. It tasted like fake carpaccio. I've had far better carpaccio at other fine dining establishments.

Don't even get me started on the salad. It sounded promising enough: avocado, grapefruit and red onion salad with greens. I'm guessing the place grows the greens too? Well, for a $12 starter salad, I expect it to look a bit more sophisticated looking than this mush of overdressed greens with other ingredients thrown in. If the ghastly-looking thing tasted half-way decent, I wouldn't mind at all. But the lettuce was literally drowning in an overpowering citrusy dressing and as if to stay consistent with the rest of the meal, was also too salty. The dressing was so overpowering that I could barely taste the grapefruit, red onion or avocado. Not good.

I was pinning my hopes on the dessert but alas, it was too sweet. It was raisin bread pudding with caramel. I'm a bread pudding lover but a picky one so didn't find the texture to be substantial enough. It was a bit too mushy. I know caramel is supposed to be sweet but not this sweet! So I only had a bite or two.

Maybe I'll return for brunch but why go here when I could go to the solid Square One?