D and I were totally excited about our date night, sometimes upscale, sometimes low-key, and yesterday, it was dressed to the nines and wining and dining. Maybe that set our expectations high. Maybe it was because E described this place as Heaven coming down in the form of food. Or maybe it was just because I was so hungry. But all in all, we were wildly excited for a wonderful meal that just ended up falling flat on its face.
Don't get me wrong--there were some dishes that were pretty good. Not orgasmic, but pretty tasty. The foie gras was better than your standard cheap French restaurant. In a mini sandwich, the delicate flavors of the foie gras complemented the salty-sweetness of the toasted brioche, with touches of sea salt on the top. In the cotton candy swirl, the flavor of the foie gras managed to nudge its way past the crushed cornuts (yeah, you heard me. CORNUTS. I had to ask the waiter to make sure I heard right). The vanilla cotton candy added a gentle sweet touch at the end and the whole dish was good enough to get D and me to order another portion each, since the order is just one bite and very time-sensitive.
Another one of my favorites was the Japanese eel tacos. The tacos were mini bites wrapped in cucumber and a shiso leaf, with chicharron crumbles on top. Yes, it was eel with cucumber and PORK RINDS. It was light and crisp at the same time.Dislikes? Well, pretty much everything else we ordered. "The Ultimate Spanish Tapa!" turned out to be mayonnaise slathered all over some hard-boiled egg and mixed with carrots, potato, and all of two pieces of cooked tuna belly (which in my mind is absolute defiling of toro). It almost seemed ready to be sloshed in between two slices of bread and eaten as a "[Blah Blah] Salad Sandwich" at some sad sandwich to-go place with a man in a giant pickle costume holding a sign outside. Needless to say, D and I left half the dish intact.
We also left half of the Bunuelos, the codfish fritters that ended up being little more than crabcakes made with fish. The aeoli sauce made it a little better, but the garlic aeoli that comes with the fries at Comme Ca is waay better. Even the Embutidos platter was mediocre, with very dry salami slices and a dry, almost sour chorizo, which is usually one of my favorite flavor pallates. And it's not that it tasted BAD, it's simply that it tasted..... meh. For the price you pay, you'd expect Iron Chef GENIUS. I actually half expected "foie gras cotton candy" to mean that the cotton candy itself would be made out of foie gras, not cubes of foie gras covered in vanilla cotton candy.
I will pay my respects to the sangria, which was a mix of half a bottle of wine, fruit-flavored vodka, freshly sliced strawberry, and Hennessey, mixed using a thinly sliced sugarcane stick. Cute idea, excellent presentation, and a great taste--it was smooth as a fruit juice you'd drink everyday at breakfast. For the types of alcohol that were in it, it didn't seem that strong, but it tasted pretty good. For the price point (~$50 for a pitcher of 6 glasses), it didn't give me enough of a buzz. :)
All in all, we loved the foie gras dishes, but honestly you could find better tasting, home-made foie gras at Saint Amour, in Culver City, just down the street, and better-priced appetizers at Comme Ca. The Bazaar sangria was good, but nothing you couldn't make at home, and half the meal was either "Meh" or unfinished. For a largely expensive meal in a Beverly Hills hotel, I really expected more, but I suppose for that, it's back to Maison Akira for the tasting menu that outright made our toes curl!
The Bazaar by José Andrés
465 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048 - (310) 246-5555
http://www.thebazaar.com/
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