Review: Blue Velvet, Downtown Los Angeles

Since I live in Pasadena, I'm always looking for new restaurants within a 5-7 mile radius. I spend time some time each week on the west side for work, so when it comes to the weekends, the closer the better.

So when Steve and Tawny (childhood friends, pictured above) and I decided to go out for dinner on Saturday, we chose Blue Velvet. Though we decided before last week's LA Times review came out, the positive comments of Irene only made us more excited to go.

The first thing that strikes you about Blue Velvet is how absolutely gorgeous it is. The interior is split into two rooms: a large lounge area complete with a sunken seat communal table and lots of sleek couches to sit on; and a dining area with frosted glass tables and comfortable dark wood chairs. The outside is even more stunning with a open patio and pool area with a fire pit, all overlooking the city lights of LA.

But on to the food: Our amuse was some glass noodles with a golden beet puree and some red pepper flakes. Not the most attractive amuse I've ever seen, but the combination of flavors was surprisingly good.

For the wine, we chose a Cotes du Rhone, but the sommelier informed us they were out of the one we chose and offered another pricier selection but at the same price of the bottle we wanted. Music to our ears! He chose the Domaine de Ferrand Cotes du Rhone which was, at first, spicy but opened up nicely after 20 minutes to reveal a slight touch of fruit - we loved it.

We decided to split three appetizers, since they were all relatively small in size. I chose the seared foie gras with sweet & spicy tapioca. This fresh foie gras was excellent and melted in my mouth, and the tapioca cake was a pleasant accompaniment to the dish. Everyone gave it a thumbs-up.

Steve chose the spring vegetable (I believe that's what was inside) tortellini in some sort of broth. It was very good, though not spectacular.

Tawny chose the real winner: Lobster cassoulet with flageolet beans, boudin noir bread pudding and herbs. The lobster meat was succulent and rich, and nicely balanced by the beans (which had more lobster in it!) and bread pudding.

For my entree, I chose the squab with some sort of puree (sorry, this one's not on the website). The squab was incredibly juicy and rich and perfectly cooked, and the slightly sweet puree and crispy onions that came with it made each bite perfection indeed.

Steve opted for the free range chicken breast with duck fat potatoes. I know...duck fat potatoes! The chicken was moist and succulent, and those potatoes...I'm sure you can just imagine how nicely crisp they were on the outside and hot and tender they were on the inside.

Tawny went for the filet mignon with a beet hash, oxtail and some sort of beet puree. Not only did the beets offer a flash of beautiful color, it also added great flavor to this dish. The hash was an eye-opener...I would have never thought of making hash out of beets, but I will most definitely try this at home now.

If you're asking me if we had room for dessert after all this, the answer is a resounding "YES!" The great thing about restaurants like Blue Velvet is that you get a decent taste of great food without the huge portions. If I wanted monster-sized platters, I'd go to the Cheesecake Factory. OK, who am I kidding? I would never go the Cheesecake Factory, a prime example of everything wrong with American food today, but you catch my drift.

For dessert we shared two things: The fried banana with some sort of chocolate ice cream and I think some amaretto shake type dealio. Sorry, this isn't on the online menu either, and I think Steve chose it so I can't remember exactly what it was. It was very good, though none of the flavors popped for me. The ice cream was slightly bland, and the banana didn't taste sweet enough for my flava.

Our second pick was the creme caramel with caramel corn. This was excellent. Who would have thunk to put a flan and caramel corn together? The flavors and textures really worked well with this.

All in all, we loved Blue Velvet. It's great to see these types of places springing up in downtown LA. You can get fabulous food, service and atmosphere somewhere other than the west side, so check this place out if you get a chance. I imagine it'd be a great place to go for drinks and appetizers after work as well.

Opus: A Delicious and Slow (in a good way) Dinner

When I lived in San Francisco, my favorite restaurant up there was (and still is) the Slow Club. Located on the outskirts of the Mission District, this is the type of place where you could spend 2-3 hours immersed in conversation, great food, innovative drinks and a perfectly balanced atmosphere. It's elegant but not fussy in the least. One could feel as comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt as they would in a dress and heels. And the pace of the courses was always pleasantly slow and easy going.

I'm lucky to have found a similar restaurant in Los Angeles: Opus. I've now been to Opus a few times, and it's always a pleasure introducing people to this relatively new restaurant. So when my friend Tawny wanted to catch up over dinner, I knew it would be the ideal place.

We sat at the bar and decided to go for the 6-course tasting menu. I asked Dustin, the bartender (who has a very good knowledge of wine and spirits, I must say) to ask Chef Josef Centeno if he wouldn't mind doing a tandem tasting menu for us - meaning, we'd both get six different plates. I had just been to Opus a couple of weeks prior, and was interested in trying some new dishes. Dustin came back and said that the Chef would be more than happy to, so we ordered our drinks (a celery margarita for Tawny - Dustin's creation - and I had a glass of barbera) and we anxiously awaited the first course.

Dustin - bartender extraordinaire!

For my amuse bouche, Chef sent out a golden beet salad with Parmesan and spring onions. The nutty Parmesan was the perfect contrast to the slightly sweet beets.

Golden beets - nutty and sweet.

Tawny got what I think was a fennel pane cotta (I have had this before but it was mountain potato last time, I think) which she loved. BTW, I am not going to be 100% accurate in my food descriptions because it was a lot of different dishes and I didn't take notes :). Anyway, she really liked this and said she was surprised by the new flavors.

One shot of deliciousness

Next up for me was the avocado cream with caviar and creme fraiche. It was creamy and cool with a nice salty bite from the caviar. It may be meant to eat alone, but I scooped it up with some pita chips that came in our bread basket, and it was just lovely.

Creamy avocado and caviar

Tawny got the egg with creme fraiche and (I think) bacon inside - it was soft boiled and she said she could eat this for breakfast, lunch or dinner every day. I'm a sucker for this as well - my mom used to make soft boiled eggs like this for my sister and I when we were kids. OK, maybe she didn't add creme fraiche, but you get the idea.

Egglicious

Next up was one of my favorite courses at Opus - the soup course. Tawny got the creamy clam soup with a generous helping of fried pork belly bits on top, while I got a silky, sweet pea cream soup with a lobster dumpling - perfection. The soup could stand alone but the addition of the lobster dumpling really rounds out the fresh, pea flavor.

Clam soup for Tawny



Sweet pea soup for Clare

Before I go on, I should update you all on what we're drinking at this point: Tawny asked for straight tequila, so Dustin chose the Corzo Silver. He warmed up a snifter glass before pouring the tequila in, a process that opens up the wonderful aromas of the tequila. I had a white wine that he chose, though I can't remember the name. It was crisp and light, much like a Marlborough Savignon Blanc - one of my favorite types of wine.

Back to the food: For my next course, Chef sent out a sesame encrusted mackerel on these curly root vegetables that had the texture and mild flavor of sunchokes mixed with Japanese radishes. I've seen these at the Farmer's Market in Pasadena, but have never tried (except for once, at Opus a while back). The fish was wonderfully oily and delicious. My mom makes a seaweed-marinated mackerel sushi for our traditional Japanese New Year's celebration, which has always been a family favorite, and I always order this fish at sushi restaurants. But I hardly ever see cooked mackerel on the menu of a non-sushi resto; most people just don't have an appreciation for this blue-collar fish.

Mackerel with curly Q veggie

Tawny got a seared scallop with what I think was some sort of potato pancake with caviar. She said it was melt-in-her-mouth goodness, so I'm guessing she liked it. It's scallop and it's caviar; to borrow from my favorite Ina Garten, "How bad can that be?"

Scallop with caviar

You're probably thinking that we're completely stuffed at this point, but the pace of the meal was nice and slow and we were actually feeling quite fine. And because there are very few starchy carbs in the mix, it's totally possible to eat everything on your plate (which we did) and still have room for the next course. That is, unless you raid the highly tempting bread basket with its cheese bread, cardamon bread and pita chips.

The poultry course was next, and Tawny got quail with green beans and some other veggie, and I got fried squab. I love the flavor of squab, and this fried version really blew me away. Light and crispy, this is better than any fried chicken I've ever had. And the vegetable accompaniment was a surprise: buttery brussel sprout leaves and fresh, slightly cooked cherry tomatoes and a few slivers of preserved kumquat. I make brussel sprouts frequently, but have never considered using just the leaves. I think even those who abhor brussel sprouts would love this. Tawny said her quail was the most tender and flavorful quail she's ever had, so big thumbs up from both of us on this 5th course.

Quail, lovely quail



Fried squab, lovely fried squab

For the meat course, I got steak and veggies while Tawny got a braised veal. Her veal was fork-tender and delicious. My steak was cooked perfectly and I got more of the brussel sprout/tomato side along with what I believe were cubes of squash. Fantastic.

Tawny's veal and vegetables

Steak and veggies

I'm ashamed to say I forgot to take pictures of the next course, which was a cheese plate Chef put together. It had an amazing blue, plus two other cheeses and almonds and apples. We devoured it before we had a chance to take pictures...guess that's all I need to say about how good it was!

Last but not least was the dessert course. The pastry chef sent out her version of a funnel cake - light, crisp and slightly sweet ribbons of warm donut with a lemon-curd center, fresh strawberries and a side of whipped cream. The only thing that could stand up to this was the other dessert dish: A peanut butter and banana cake topped with salted peanuts. This was my favorite of the two because I am a serious sucker for banana desserts and I love the balance salt gives to something so rich and sweet. It was absolutely perfect.

Funnel cake


Banana and peanut butter cake

At some point before dessert, Tawny switched to Glenlivet and I got a glass of white port (after her Glenlivet, Tawny also went for the port). Then later, Chef Josef came out and had us try a new beer he just got in - dark, slightly sweet and not-at-all bitter (I am not a big beer drinker, especially the dark ones, but this is something I could drink easily). I wish I could remember the name, or where it was from, but I think the food and wine coma set in at that point so I'm afraid I can't describe it beyond what I've just written.

I am thrilled to have found my Slow Club here in LA. The food, atmosphere, service and prices (we dropped $100 each for food and drink) combine to create a relaxing, fun and eye-opening culinary experience that anyone can, and should, enjoy.

Opus Restaurant - click for more info