Green Zebra [Chicago]

If I thought San Francisco was a mecca of dining, it was only because I hadn't yet opened my soul up to the possibility of Chicago. While I always believed that LA lacked a substantial foodie restaurant scene, I never thought I would find the Bay at a lack for culinary excellence in any category of cuisine. I was wrong and Green Zebra--with its small plates vegetarian concept--has thrown my faith on shaky ground.

While Greens and Millenium meet the demand for upscale vegetarian in the Bay, they do not meet my new standard for sophistication. Though, I have often been impressed by meatless side dishes, I have yet to encounter a successful wholly vegetarian establishment. So what I really mean is that SF and LA lack vegetarian restaurants of the same caliber.

There were only two dishes with protein on the entire New American menu. Our waiter recommended that we order three dishes each, unaware that we had small appetites and affinities for dessert. We settled on four and were started off with an amuse of Watermelon and Vanilla Soup. The watermelon was clarified to the level of a consommé, though there was added pulp for texture—kind of like a smoother watermelon agua fresca. Refreshed, our palates waited for the coming night.

The Lacinato Kale Agnolotti and Turnip Risotto Cakes were the lighter of our four dishes and were paired as our first course. The Agnolotti ($13) were filled with kale, snap peas, baby squash, and marscarpone, though the most predominant flavor came from the ramps (wild leeks). Scattered on top and pureed in a sauce, the ramps gave the pasta a full-bodied flavor reminiscent of Asian dumplings. An additional balsamic reduction allowed the components of the dish to shine even brighter and you could have fooled me into believing the pasta was filled with a strong, aromatic lamb. It was my favorite dish of the night.

I enjoyed the contrast of textures in the Turnip Risotto Cakes ($14), which were crispy on the outside without sacrificing the glutinous quality of risotto that I am so fond of. The turnip was subtle, though the foraged mushrooms more than compensated.

We wanted to make sure that every major food group received equal representation, so took it upon ourselves to order both the Prospera Farms Chicken Egg ($11) and Roasted Halibut (the two proteins on the menu).

The key success factor for any poached egg is the interplay of the yolk against the other liquid elements of the plate—smoked potato and parsley purees—and the “sponge element” (sourdough bread), which is used to mop up the mixture. The smoked potatoes tasted of pure bacon and together with the parsley and the egg, made for the ultimate comfort food. Needless to say, we used every last crumb of that sourdough to lap up the sloppy mess we made of the dish.

The Roasted Halibut ($17) was less successful and while moist, had flavors which were unfocused and flat. The fingerling potatoes, asparagus, and fennel were good in and of themselves, though their flavors were neither complementary nor unpleasant to the fish. A mediocre dish on the whole--not bad, but not very good either.

Service throughout the night was impersonal, though our waiter seemed to warm up as his night drew to an end. I guess I wouldn’t want to be working on a Friday night either.

The dining room was appropriately Zen chic with moss green banquettes and sandy brick walls, while the shadows of palm fronds took on lives of their own under the soft lighting. If I had to put a name to the type of restaurant commanding a “Smart Casual” dress code, Green Zebra would be it.

Overall, one of the best vegetarian concepts I’ve come across yet.

Green Zebra
1460 W Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
(312) 243-7100

Sushi Kappo Suzumaru [Tustin]

Many years ago, a Japanese friend took me here for dinner. It was on my mind for quite some time after the initial visit, but I didn't venture back because I had forgotten where it was located. A recent trip to the nearby Kairakutei ramen house just down the strip rekindled memories.

Suzumaru humbly seats approximately 50 patrons, and the sushi bar is sectioned off from the main dining area with a bamboo partition. The semi-low lighting, accomplished with paper lanterns, easily fashions this restaurant into a date spot.

My company and I decided to skip the entrees and just order tapas.

The boiled spinach with sesame sauce may look boring but the peanut flavor was bursting and pleasing to the palate. The fishcake and cheese dish was well-drained and served with a cup of tonkatsu sauce. The fishcake itself was light and soft, but the cheese wasn't melted nearly enough. After seeing the portions of the spinach and fishcake, I expected the remainer of our dishes to be equally large and overwhelming but the meatballs proved me wrong. For $2.80, we got three dry meatballs on a skewer; this was the least favorable dish of the night.

The "entree" was the Suzumaru Pizza, which, in actuality, has nothing to do with crust, cheese or marinara sauce. It was a small filet of salmon topped with mayonaisse, a dot of hot sauce and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. Alone, the salmon is dry, but the mayo masks that aspect.

Sushi Kappo Suzumaru
17292 McFadden Ave. #B
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 665-1300

Il Chianti [Lomita]

Update September 1, 2007. See original post below.

Thank you Il Chianti for another stellar meal. Our choices this time leaned towards Southern Italian-Mediterranean preparations and seemed lighter on the whole. See the following montage of photos and accompanying descriptions below.




The Caribbean Salad was your standard green salad with a variety of cold seafoods. It was nothing spectacular, though the miso hybrid was a touch more interesting than your average dressing.

The Tuna Tartar initially elicited a sigh of resignation from me. While the concept is quite stale, Il Chianti does a fabulous interpretation, macerating the tuna into a puree and pairing it with fresh green onions and a light lemon-scented olive oil.

The Fried Octopus in a Balsamico Sauce was excellent as well.

The Crab Pilaf was a spin-off of the popular Squid Ink Risotto with the addition of a gigantic crab leg and clams and minus the fancy sizzling clay pot. Without the table-side presentation, the rice is as good as ever with the seafood adding even more flavor and interest.

The Fresh Tagliatelle with Pancetta and Paprika was the star of the night. The chewy tagliatelle was made in-house and easily one of the best pasta choices I've had yet. The sauce was tart with an earthy savoriness from the pancetta.

The Bouillabaisse was a cornucopia of shellfish with a broth spiked with sundried tomatoes and olives. Even after our server told us, we still couldn't identify the fish, which was chewy like calamari and flaked like black cod. The fish didn't work for us, though the rest of the dish was conceivably good.

---

June 5, 2007

We wanted to share Il Chianti with some friends, so we came for a second visit only one week after our first [I'm going to combine both visits into one review]. We were disappointed that the May specials hadn't yet turned over, but the extremely tall menu gave us more than enough options to choose from. Since we had pretty much exhausted the specials on our last visit, we opted to delve more deeply into the regular menu this time around.

Il Chianti is the type of restaurant where you can dare to be adventurous without regret. It is suitable for business affairs without being overly stuffy for a casual night out. And best of all, it is very reasonably priced.

The restaurant is well sectioned off with a few patio areas, an eat-in bar, private rooms, and a raised seating area with views of the open kitchen. Even if Il Chianti was packed to the brim, you would never notice because of the intimate set-up that makes you feel as if the restaurant is only a handful of tables. The vibe is of an Italian trattoria, though the chalkboard specials are written in Japanese.

The Japanese-Italian fusion restaurant serves up salad, pizzas, pastas and entrees divided up by primi and secondi courses.

Every meal at Il Chianti comes with their special bread, which isnt so special in of itself were it not for the olive oil and balsamic onion confit. A step above your average balsamic vinegar and oil combo, the onion confit adds both texture and depth.

Appetizers

We started with the special edamame appetizer ($5), which came shelled and with parmesan. I didnt think the Italian treatment did much for the edamame, but the dish wasnt bad by any means. Then came the soft-shell crab rolls ($3.80 each), which were not what we expected at all. There is a two order minimum on these, which are billed as an Il Chianti special. They come with two crepes, two soft-shelled crabs (one of which is encrusted with sesame], lettuce, a miso dipping sauce, and a spicy mayo dipping sauce. After you assemble them like spring rolls, you can toss your head back and revel in the melody of flavors. They are simple, but very good.

Pastas
On our second visit, we also tried the Il Chianti crab cakes from the Specials. We were misled by the vague description, which cited only that the crab cakes were served with two sauces when it also should have mentioned that they were more like potato latkes with crab inside. The cakes were so starchy that we could barely even see the crab, let alone taste it. The tomato and cream cheese sauces that it came went were equally lackluster.

After filing through the Chowhound boards, we decided against the heartier entrees and went straight to the pastas. The first was the gnocchi of the day ($13.50 medium), which came with an herbed tomato cream sauce, dried tomatoes and duck meatballs. The flavor of the duck in the meatballs wasn't as pronounced as I would have liked, but they were robust nonetheless.

On our second visit, we tried two more specials including the gratin of the day ($8.50) and the chef's pasta ($12.50). The gratin was a baked penne in a spinach cream sauce with seasonal vegetables and while we loved the decadence of the high-end mashed potatoes, we didnt care much for the zucchinis and bell peppers. The chef's pasta is always a duo and this time, it was spaghetti prepared two ways: (1) Marinara sauce with mushrooms and bacon (2) Cream mentaiko [cod roe] sauce. While the pasta was undercooked, the sauces played well off of each other with the thin red sauce balancing the heavier cream base.

Risottos & Pilafs
The restaurant's specialty is the squid ink risotto ($12.50 medium), which is served in a hot stone pot. They mix and serve the risotto tableside and between the two of us, we each had one piece of squid to share (three pieces to share when we had four people). Though that may seem skimpy, it's really the risotto that's the star attraction.

Pizzas
To make sure we had adequately visited the menu, we added the Umibe pizza onto our order for round two. It was a seafood pizza topped with mozarella, baby clams, dried tomatoes, and an egg. It was unique in both its toppings and its treatment of the egg, which was baked separately from the pizza. Interesting flavor-wise, but not necessarily mouth watering.

Dessert
Dessert has been disappointing on both occasions with the tiramisu being too heavy for my taste (though my SO enjoyed it) and the cheesecake souffle lacking in both texture and flavor. We wanted to try the pineapple panna cotta, but were told they were still making it. We asked how long it would take and our waiter told us, "many hours."

Although some of the dishes didn't live up to their menu descriptions, we attributed that more to a language barrier than poor marketing. While the waiters speak enough English to answer your most basic questions, come equipped with a Japanese menu if you have other special requests that involve ingredients and preparations not already listed on the menu at some point or other. We have thoroughly enjoyed our dinners [both this week and last], which came out to a reasonable $47 with dessert for two people and $96 for four.

*Thanks to Sheepathon for taking photos of our dinner.

Il Chianti
24503 Narbonne Ave
Lomita, CA 90717
(310) 325-5000

La Paella [Mid-City West]

I probably cant make any sort of testament as to the authenticity of the paella, but it sure is damn good. I was looking for a tapas recommendation in the area and La Paella was all over the Chowhound message boards and elsewhere.

The owner was very helpful in accomodating our last minute reservation change and we exchanged about four phone calls just to get it right. On the one hand, it's a hassle to deal with, but on the other, most restaurants arent as hospitable with their reservation policies.

The space is tiny and incredibly romantic. You'd never know from the looks of it outside, but the interior mimic an intimate dinner at your house over candlelight. We were the only large party in the place, which was otherwise filled with couples falling in love across the table.

We ordered 11 tapas dishes and the patatas bravas and the calamares a la plancha were amonst our favorites. Though I didnt think the tapas were anything special, we all agreed that we loved the garlic mayonnaise and olive pesto that came with our four baskets of freshly baked bread.

Again, the paella was delicious and we ordered fourservings for six people, which was more than enough. They served the women at the table first and our plates were much more abundant than the rest. If you're like me and dont eat much, switch with one of the boys.

La Paella confirms my suspicion that the best food in LA is a little off the radar, ethnic, and not overpriced.

La Paella
476 S San Vicente Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 951-0745

clarklewis [Portland]

When clarklewis opened a few years ago, it earned critical acclaim for its innovative take on organic Northwestern cuisine. As an out-of-town foodie from the Bay Area, I would agree that it lives up to the best of them in San Francisco.

The clarklewis menu is unconventionally horizontal, listing menu items and descriptions by their ingredients only. This introduces an element of surprise as you anticipate what a crostone with farm egg, frisee, sage roasted chanterelles, duck sugo, and aged balsamic is going to taste like as it awakens your taste buds with the subdued tartness of a sauce that you cant enough of. Or when you start to ponder the chewy texture of cavatelli with strawberry beef cheek bolognese.

All of the dishes on the clarklewis menu can be ordered in small, large, or family-sized portions. Each of our six dishes was unexpected and dazzling.

Make your way over to the retro woodgrain bar (if only to find enough light to read your menu). The entire dining room is flanked by open-air windows on either side, which makes for an enjoyable early autumn dinner when the air is crisp and still warm.

clarklewis
1001 Se Water Ave
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 235-2294