Restaurant: Miro
Location: 888 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90017. (213) 988-8880
Date: December 13, 2018
Cuisine: Contemporary American Italian (not fully Italian)
Rating: Not super Italian. Some dishes great, some just good
After the Dama dinner, most of us in attendance decided to visit Sandi on her home turf (she’s the head sommelier at Miro).
Bracing the traffic, Erick and ventured downtown.
It’s a short building on a taller block…
But inside has a very attractive, if loud and cold, build out and a whisky bar downstairs.
The menu is sort of Italian — or Contemporary American Italian. It doesn’t feel like an Italian owned place and there are numerous dishes that have no analogue on the boot.
Before Sandi could enjoy herself she had lots of work taking care of all the bottles!
2012 Domaine Michel Voarick Corton-Charlemagne. 89 points. I’ve never heard of this CC producer! Most of these notes were by Peter at this dinner. Darker gold; muted nose, slight walnut, hazelnut, touch caramel, not pre-mox but seemed to have poor storage and prematurely aged aspect; pretty high acid, decent, but should have more going on IMHO.
Bonus from my cellar: 2011 Villa Diamante Fiano di Avellino Vigna della Congregazione. 92 points. Darker gold, almond color; Earthy note, walnut, almond nuttiness with sour fruit, ample bod, long, good acidity, slight bitter finish; really cool, good age now, excellent with a variety of the Italian dishes, esp. the grilled octupus.
2002 Domaine Roulot Meursault Les Luchets. RJ 92. Slightly dark, in good shape premox wise but had a band-aidy rubber reduction thing going on that was distracting. good medium mouthfeel, acidity, but didn’t excite.
ROASTED BEET SALAD. avocado, castelvetrano olives, orange segments, sumac vinaigrette, pistachio crumble. Good salad with a nice crunch.
CAPRESE SALAD. heirloom tomato, basil, mozzarella, balsamic reduction, olive oil. Not my thing as I don’t love (raw) tomatoes.
GRILLED PEACH. burrata, prosciutto, basil, honey.
WOOD-GRILLED OCTOPUS. chorizo, fingerling potatoes, pickled tomato, achiote paste. Really tasty but surprisingly VERY spicy (and I love spicy but it killed the wines except the fiano).
From my cellar: 1998 Gaja Barbaresco. 93 points. Dark ruby-purple, good depth of color for this age especially; blackberry and savory notes, showing a little brown sauce age, oak showing a bit compared to the Mascarello ’08; rich, softer tannins starting to resolve, more of a Brunello character to me, or even a Cali Pinot with a rich mouth, oak, and sauce thing. Not too complex, better with meats than pasta. Preferred the Mascarello for its elegance. Showing a little age, in a good place now, will hold for a long while.
2008 Giuseppe E Figlio Mascarello Barolo Monprivato. 93 points. Red cherry, dried cherry, lightly savory, elegant, just ripe, tannins starting to resolve, in a really good place, even if quite young. My WOTN, classy, pure, true.
SQUID INK CORZETTI. lobster, tarragon, cherry tomato, saffron. Very interesting shape, texture and color.
HAND-CUT SPAGHETTI. pork bolognese, gremolata, parmesan. Nice meaty bolognese.
UNI TAGLIATELLE. sun-dried tomato, braised leeks, gremolata, lemon. I thought I’d like this more than I did — not bad, but I expected to love it.
1999 Clos Erasmus Priorat. 93 points. Good dark purple, cloudy; rubbery aspect, reduction with age? 75 % Grenache but quite dark in character (5% CS and 20% Syrah), still a little Black cherry syrup thing going on, tannic still, a bit one dimensional, I little off on this bottle.
2011 Tua Rita Redigaffi Toscana IGT. Vinuous 95+. Nice dark berries with a hint of red cherry, some good lift, good balance, the youngest red of the night and pretty refreshing actually, oak showing up front but not obnoxious, good softer mouthfeel, balanced, delish, good with meats.
LASAGNA. pork Bolognese, spinach egg noodles, béchamel, fontina, parmesan. VERY GOOD classic lasagna. Lots of strong red sauce flavor.
1994 Dominus Estate. 95 points. Great dark berry notes, dried cassis, tootsie rool; cool complex stuff going on, tannins almost all resolved, really good right now, won’t get better, drink up, why wait. Actually worked with Uni pasta as I found older Bordeaux seems to as well. But the Fiano was best with the uni.
2004 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Martha’s Vineyard. 89 points. This had a strange rubber thing going on as seemed to be the case with a couple other wines tonight as well; just wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
TRUFFLE MUSHROOM. fontina, mozzarella, artichoke, green olive, avocado, chives. Did not particularly like at all. Weird.
SPICY ITALIAN SAUSAGE. fontina, mozzarella, Calabrian chili, pickled onion, oregano. I expected to like this but the dough was all wrong. Ruined both pizzas.
2002 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Spottswoode Estate Vineyard. 93 points. Earthy, dark leather, underbrush serious cab, still in its youth, structured, cigar tobacco, feeling quite youthful.
2007 Larkmead Vineyards LMV Salon. 92 points. Good Bordeaux blend softness to this as opposed to the more structured Spottswood Cab, and seemd a little more aged maybe b/c of this, despite the fact it was 5 years younger! nice, smooth, good cab blend, with the prime rib-eye.
BRAISED BEEF SHORTRIBS. wild rice pilaf, roasted young carrots, natural jus. A touch dry.
16oz. PRIME RIBEYE. roasted asparagus & rainbow carrots, pickled cherry tomatoes, garlic potato puree.
PISTACHIO CRUSTED LAMB CHOPS. grilled shishito, sweet corn, gremolata. These were very good.
Fries were just ok.
The first of many large batch holiday flavors — Peppermint Gelato — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — peppermint candy base laced with peppermint bark! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #peppermint #candy #holiday #winter
Overall we had a great time at Miro. We had the private room to ourselves — thank the big guy as the main room was so concrete clad and loud. Sandi did a great job taking care of us and service was excellent — particularly the wine service. And speaking of wine, we had a wide selection of really nice juice tonight.
Food had me slightly perplexed. The place is like part Italian / part steak house. The pizzas weren’t good at all, but most of the pastas were solid, some like the ragu and lasagna excellent. The apps were generally good too and the mains not really Italian at all, and not so much my personal style, but certainly tasty enough.
