Restaurant: Hatchet Hall
Location: 12517 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066. (310) 391-4222
Date: August 27, 2016
Cuisine: New American
Rating: Interesting flavors and presentation
Hatchet Hall takes over the “old” Waterloo & City space in Culver City.
The logo hangs over the street in cryptic glory.
The frontage isn’t so different.
But inside they have this whacky new game and “period” decor.
And a great patio.
The menu is organized into dishes by vague progression and features a lot of meat and vaguely North African and middle eastern flavors in a very Modern American presentation.
From my cellar: 2005 Simon Bize Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru La Garenne. BH 92. A deft touch of pain grillé highlights the airy, clean, pure and elegant white flower and green fruit aromas that serve as the apt introduction for the textured, concentrated and mouth coating flavors blessed with abundant dry extract levels and an intense stoniness on the wonderfully complex, vibrant, dry and penetrating finish. This is a very classy effort and recommended. (Drink starting 2010)
stone fruit. country ham (we left the ham out), farmer’s cheese, date vinegar, mint. A very nice combo of simple cheese, herbs, and fruit.
watermelon. cucumber, vinegar dressing, cilantro, mint, peanut. Quite a bit of chili kick! Nice crunchy texture.
chop steak. fried oysters, watercress, horseradish. Interesting combo of steak tartar and fried oysters!
cornbread. shishito, cheddar, good butter, honey. Some super buttery cornbread goodness!
chicken liver. onion jam, grilled bread, pickles, apple vinegar. Like Jewish liver toast! Pretty yummy too.
sea bream. bagna cauda, soft herbs, lemon.
lamb porterhouse. mint salsa verde, lemon. Have a bit of lamb! Nice tender medium rare meat. Not the cheapest slab of meat on the block.
Sweet peppers, muhammara, walnut, raisin, mint. That whole muhammara and mint thing is so Middle Eastern.
carrots. charmoula, labneh, honey, benne. Great texture and Moroccan flavors.
The dessert menu.
Icebox cake. Vietnamese coffee bavarian, caramelized milk jam, chocolate crunchies. Like a sort of more solid tiramisu.
Overall, Hatchet Hall had some really great flavors going on. The plating and presentation was fabulous, and the melding of North African/Middle Eastern flavors into the modern American was quite on point. Lots of flavor and interesting. Also fascinating how the Middle Eastern thing is downplayed in everything but the actual flavors. Vibe and build out are great too. Service was slow and a little weird. They got the job done, but the crew helping us out was a tad confused.
I’ll definitely return, as food is more important to me than service.
