Restaurant: Tiato Kitchen + Garden
Location: 2700 Colorado Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90404. (310) 866-5228
Date: Oct 4, 2023
Cuisine: Vietnamese Fusion
Rating: Great food, funny location
The An family — of Crustacean fame — has this unusual spot in Santa Monica, right down the street from Naughty Dog’s office.
It’s a weird office park location with a pretty courtyard.
Mostly the food is fairly casual, but we had a custom menu.
Tuna “tacos.” With that classic Vietnamese sweet chili sauce.
Goat Cheese and Walnut puffs.
Chicken liver on toast with berry sauce. A bit livery for my taste — like shades of Rosh H.
Black Truffle & Parmesan Tapioca with toasted bread crumbs, uni & toasted butter bread roll. Very creamy, rich, and airy. It had a mild and pleasant flavor. Not strongly uni with a foamy and crunchy texture. Interesting and I really enjoyed the texture.
The roll was pretty awesome.
Coconut Shrimp Roll with red lettuce, fresh herbs, toasted coconut & peanut crumble. Very fresh and pretty awesome. A super fresh/Californian take on the Vietnamese spring roll (the fresh, not fried, style).
Jidori Chicken Dumpling with porcini mushroom broth. The dumplings were awesome, like a great tortelini, and the mushroom broth was first rate.
Filet of Sole with a white wine saffron sauce, heirloom tomato & roasted corn. Very nice with bright acidic flavors.
Wagyu Steak & Potatoes with fermented creama & smoked habanero salmon roe. This was the worst dish by far. Weirdly sweet and tangy at the same time. Just not that savory. The potato balls didn’t have much flavor either.
Sesame Crusted Lamb Roulade with a white peppered yogurt and fresh carrots. Stuning! This was kinda spicy actually, with very strong flavors reminiscent of the Western Chinese style of roasted chili lamb. I really enjoyed it and much to my surprise it actually went with SQN.
Awesome house-made cookies.
Matcha Almond Latte Gelato – Ceremonial Matcha Green Tea and Sicilian Noto Romano Almond gelato base — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #almond #matcha #GreenTea #Sicily
Overall, this was a super fun night. I very much enjoyed the wines because there were a mix of styles. I didn’t actually drink much of the post-Burgundy reds. Just a bit of the Euro ones. And I did have some SQN with lamb. I didn’t even try the QC or the Ridge — not my thing. Food was great (except for the beef which was just fine) but all the other dishes were really excellent. And the atmosphere, service, and setting were A++. The location (7 min from my office) was A+++.