Restaurant: Melisse [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 (Citrin), 14]
Location: 1104 Wilshire Blvd.Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 395-0881
Date: December 31, 2020
Cuisine: California French
Rating: Awesome takeout
To end the dreadful 2020 and “celebrate” the start of yet another pandemic year I ordered from one of my favorites, Melisse.
This is the 3rd time during the pandemic I’ve done Melisse takeout and they always do a good job. Tonight’s meal was a New Year’s special plus I supplemented with some extra truffle dishes.
This is the special menu, including prep instructions.
From my cellar: 2002 Bruno Paillard Champagne Nec Plus Ultra. JG 97. The newest vintage of Bruno Paillard’s N.P.U. is utterly brilliant and a glorious example of the magical vintage of 2002. The bouquet soars from the glass in a very refined blend of apple, white peach, stony minerality, hazelnut, fresh-baked bread and a lovely touch of orange peel in the upper register. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and displays marvelous mid-palate depth, with racy acids, very elegant mousse, laser-like focus and a very, very long, complex and simply stunning finish. This wine is young, precise and so beautifully balanced that it is already a joy to dink, though it is clearly built for the long haul and its true apogee is at least a decade down the road! Stunning wine. (Drink between 2017-2075)
agavin: lovely again
Left to right: Oyster in Champagne Jelly, Salmon Tartare and Caviar Profiterole, and Chef’s Surprise Bonbon.
Gelee de Caviar a la Creme de Chou-fleur “Joel Robuchon”.
You can better see the layered quality here. Note the fancy takeout plastic!
Artichoke & Black Truffle Soup “Guy Savoy”. This one I heated and “bowled”.
Now here with the caviar egg kit I had a bunch of work today, although they did organize it perfectly.
Egg Caviar. Just like at the restaurant. This is always one of my favorites.
You can see the layers of creme fraiche here. They provided a good amount of caviar.
Lobster Bolognese with Truffle Cream Sauce. Another Melisse classic and always delicious. I left it in the delivery container and poured the sauce over. I was pretty sure that any attempt on my part to transfer a pile of pasta would be disastrous.
Salmon Sorrel “Troisgros” — Plating (and heating) by moi. The salmon was perfectly medium rare and the buttery good sauce had that interesting sorrel “zing.”
Lobster Thermidor.
Duo of Beef, Charred Grilled SRF Wagyu Beef & Braised Short Rib Mushroom & Black Truffle Lasagna, Celeriac au Jus, Red Wine Herb Sauce. Plated by me. This was a lot of meat and very filling.
Gold Chocolate Sphere 2021 with Vanilla Sauce. In the takeout container, but I assembled and sauced it.
While this wasn’t quite a giant blow-out Melisse dinner of old with oodles of wine, it still managed to be some pretty excellent “fancy” takeout. The food quality actually translates at around 80%. Taste more like 95% but the temperature factor is a little off from the time and my efforts. And I was very full. However, stopping during the meal to go heat and plate every course is quite a bit of work.
Let’s hope we can get back (safely) into restaurants in 2021!