Dining the best of LA

DineLa is a two week two time per year event. It is where the best of the culinary arts are exhibited at fixed price menus. $15, $25, $35 lunches and $25, $35, $45 dinners.

It does sound like a great deal doesn't it? but why is it that I always walk out of the restaurants spending a magical $75. It is like the target cover charge of LA restaurants. My first dinela experience was a year ago at Nic's Martini Lounge with my friend E. I started off the regular menu had an amazing snapper in papillote a couple of their signature martinis and the next thing I know i am wearing a furcoat and hat, locked in a cold room tasting vodkas and speaking Russian like I knew it. I won't disclose the amount I spent that year, but the vodka versus food ratio set the need for a mcdonald's french fry stop mid commute home.

In the end I was a rube for tipsyangratron.

This year I was excited to try a lot of the restaurants on the list. There were so many, so many that I wanted to try, but weren't really ever in my budget. This year I had learned my lesson, no triple digit dinners. The prix fixe and maybe one drink. That was the plan.

But as I walked out of each place $75 poorer I wonder what happened.

My first choice of the dinela week was Ray's at LACMA and it was one of the best meals of my life. It was a three course with little bonuses, like a sorrell potato soup amuse bouche and a better than oreo dessert with the check.

Here is what I chose: (3 courses)
Charred octopus with burrata (fried greens with a siracha like sauce)
Short ribs in a mustard sauce with brussel sprouts
Toffee pudding with lightly cinammoned ice cream and tiny baked apples (I didn't understand that it was pudding in the English sense but ate it, wheat and all and it was totally zombie worthy)

Bouchon was the second on my must list and was a perfect reward to a weekend of tango bootcamp. I have always been too daunted to try this place, Thomas Keller, Beverly Hills, dollar signs. I have to say I rocked the heck out of my clearance Target dress. I loved our waiter. I wish I would have remembered his name. He was great like a friend, giving recommendations like he already knew us. The food was great and their normal menu isn't as pricey as I thought.

Here is what I ordered: 4 courses
Olives (um what was I thinking, where do I put the pits and how do I politely expel them from my mouth)
Warm goat cheese salad
Salmon with quinoa and a meyer lemon sauce
Rice pudding with apricot compote

We snuck in a place that we didn't know was on the dinela list, so many to keep track of, was MEET in Paris. I did not have the dinela, but had moules a la creme, while my date had escargot, fish a meunier and creme brulee.

Last was Lukshon, which unfortunately was not open during my stint of employ at the Helms Bakery Building. Lukshon is great place for sharing dishes with friends. I think it is pretty reasonable and has pretty fantastic flavors.

Here is what I ordered: 3 dishes
Green tea salad(which I could eat everyday in the summer)
Grilled squid salad
Steamed cod


Until next DineLa. I hope I didn't make you too hungry.