Restaurant: Native
Location: 620 Santa Monica Blvd Suite A, Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 458-4427
Date: July 7, 2018
Cuisine: California Small Plates
Rating: Have to try more
When we last checked in with Nyesha Arrington, she was helming Leona. Now that’s closed and she’s opened a new place in the Santa Monica Yacht Club space. I never even made it to SMYC, always meant to, as friends were owners. Although I have mixed feelings about Tar & Roses (their other place).
Anyway, I mostly remember Native’s space as La Botte, Antonio Mure’s Italian some years ago.
The surface details are a bit different, and I don’t remember the bar before, but the bones are basically the same.
The brunch and dinner menus.
We sat at the bar for a quick meal and the bartender was very nice — and talented with the cubes.
Heirloom tomato peach salad. basil, banyuls vinaigrette. There was burrata too, even though the menu doesn’t mention it. Every place has one of these salads these days.
Yagyu beef tartare. Maui onion, aisoon sauce, korean mustard. This was a nice beef tartar, to a large extent because of the insanely mustardy mustard — loved it.
Special. Pan fried tandoori seasoned chicken with mini-naan. The naan was weird and soggy, but the chicken was solid and tasty.
We just stopped in for a quick bite, so this isn’t a fair test of the kitchen (not that the menu is that big). I’ll have to come back with a bigger group, and wine. We could order pretty much everything with 6-8 (of my) people.