Restaurant: Hatfield’s [1, 2]
Location: 6703 Melrose Ave, Los angeles, Ca 90038. 323-935-2977.
Date: Aug 27, 2010
Cuisine: Modern Cal French
Last night I ate at Hatfield’s, so as a sort of prequel I dredged up last summer’s meal here. TO SEE MEAL 2 CLICK HERE.
Some of my foodie friends had recommended Hatfield’s. It’s now the 4th place we have tried in this space: Citrus, Alex, Mason G, and Hatfield’s. Most of the restaurants were quite good, but there just seem to be these spaces that have a curse about them. Hopefully this most recent entry sticks around, it’s very good. They also have a bunch of prix fix options, including vegetarian ones. I’m always a big fan of set dinners.
Crab, cilantro, and corn amuse.
Because it was just me drinking, I went with wine pairings on this particular evening. As one person it’s either getting very drunk in my attempt to finish off a single bottle all by myself (and hence avoid the wrath of Dionysus) or pick from the generally very small selection of half bottles most restaurants have. Wine pairs provides a nice third choice.
Tuna salad, with an aioli. This was really good.
A bright arugala, goat cheese, and wild strawberry salad.
The middle wine.
Fresh homemade pasta with heirloom tomatos and pesto/pistou.
Pork belly, with corn, a sweet potato puree. Rich on richer.
The meat wine. I’m not a huge Malbec fan, but this one was pleasant.
“Brown butter-roasted cauliflower”, golden raisons, corn, etc. Very nice.
A very rare lamb or beef with a mashers type puree underneath.
A kind of fruit tart.
“Sugar and spice beignets, venezulan chocolate fondue, preserved ginger milkshake shot.”
The Petit Fours, little cupcake/soufflé like things.
Very nice new entry in the “fine dining” category. Everything was very fresh, with bright innovative flavors.