Restaurant: Belcampo Restaurant and Butcher Shop
Location: 1026 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (424) 744-8008
Date: September 2, 2016
Cuisine: American
Rating: A little flat
Apparently, opening a restaurant/butcher shop is all the rage recently. Seems everyone is doing it.
Belcampo has half a dozen or so locations, but I can’t attest to the butcher shop itself, having merely poked in.
The restaurant, despite a hidden entrance, has a nice clubby build out.
And a bar with lots of booze.
The menu.
And the cocktail menu.
Cherry Phosphate. The waiter claimed this was a real phosphate. I can’t be sure, but I’ve wanted to try one for a while. They’re a late 19th century / early 20th century thing where phosphoric acid was used instead of carbonic acid to add taste and fizz. It tasted pretty good either way.
“Free” crispy bread and pepper/olive spread.
Roasted red & gold beets. Burrata, kale, & balsamic reduction.
Veggie Burger. Avocado, lettuce, tomato, onion, & house sauce with fries.
Lamb burger. Romaine lettuce, roasted pobano chilies, & tourm, on Bread Bar brioche with fries and chipotle-tomato jam. The meat was tender and lamby but it was pretty much just meat on a bun. Yeah there was some chilies, but it didn’t have that much umph. Frankly, I prefer an Umami Burger (by a lot).
I didn’t try too many things, but what I did was just “fine.” Pretty typical modern American without much pizzaz. Call me jaded.