Restaurant: Chateau Hanare
Location: 8097 Selma Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046. (323) 963-5269
Date: June 4, 2019
Cuisine: Japanese
Rating: Interesting, tres LA
I hadn’t even heard of Chateau Hanare until the day I went with the Foodie Club (regular member Larry arranged).
It’s “in collaboration with The Chateau Marmont Hotel & Bungalows” and located adjacent to the famed Chateau Marmont (final dying place of John Belushi & Chris Farley). It’s “fancy” Hollywood Japanese.
They have a a gorgeous outside patio — really lovely.
We setup shop in a corner table.
The inside is huge too, several decked out rooms like this — expensive build out.
Menu.
2000 Charles Heidsieck Champagne Brut Millésimé. VM 93. Bright gold. Smoke-accented orchard fruits, herbs and citrus pith on the the intensely perfumed nose. Deeply pitched but lively on the palate, with very good depth to its intense pear and lemon curd flavors. The smoky note builds on the back half and carries through a long, sappy, impressively focused finish. This year’s release seems tighter and more youthful than last year’s version.
Uni Toast sakura wood smoked santa barbara uni on housemade toast seasoned with soy.
You can see it hiding in the fog.
Then the theatrics begin.
Poof!
Blow this one off.
A nice piece of toast, but I found the smoke taste a bit distracting.
House Made Tofu, 8:30pm edition, freshly scooped tofu served warm with wari-joyu.
Spoons for the tofu.
Freshly scooped tofu served warm with wari-joyu. Super delicate and delicious. Like tofu creme fraiche or something.
2011 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Butteaux. VM 93. The 2011 Chablis Butteaux is subtle, gracious and utterly impeccable in its elegance. All the elements are simply in the right place. Articulate, energetic and nuanced, the 2011 captures all the qualities of this 1er Cru site, in miniature. This is another of the more approachable 2011s from Raveneau.
agavin: hehe, Beavis. I said butteaux!
White Asparagus. Chilled white asparagus in sakura dashi. In season, but I didn’t love this take. Medicinal tasting.
Uni Ice Cream. Savory housemade uni ice cream with fresh santa barbara uni. As a gelato maker I had to order this. It’s made in the paco jet, which is really the only way to make fully savory ice creams like this. Like cold ice cream textured uni. Interesting and pretty good.
From my cellar: 2006 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Charmes. VM 93-95. Rich aromas of wet stone, minerals, vanilla and hazelnut. Large-scaled but tight, with this wine’s typical firm acidity leavening its textural richness. This expands in the mouth like a top bottling of Perrieres. Perhaps less refined than the Genevrieres but bigger and more powerful wine. The mounting, expanding finish is almost painful.
agavin: this bottle was sadly a touch advanced.
Kobachi. shiro ninjin puree topped with ikura, kinoko yakibitashi, uni and white asparagus, bluefin tuna caviar toast
uni and white asparagus.
kinoko yakibitashi.
bluefin tuna caviar toast.
shiro ninjin puree topped with ikura.
Kim brought this sake.
Madai Yuan Yaki Wanmori. marinated grilled sea bream with seasonal vegetables in a yuzu ankake broth.
2016 Azienda Agricola Valentini Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo. 94 points. right pink-red. Aromas of sour red cherry, raspberry, sage, rosemary and minerals on the enticing nose. Then multilayered, deep and complex, with mouthcoating but vibrant flavors of small red berries, herbs and minerals. Finishes very long and suave with hints of orange zest and underbrush. Extremely serious, ageworthy Rosato, a real Cerausolo.
Lobster Shabu Shabu. Maine lobster hot pot with a side of ponzu.
The broth itself was insane, particularly with the ponzu and after cooking the lobster and veggies.
1988 Joseph Drouhin Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru. 90 points. Surprisingly youthful and dense bouquet of dark red and blue berry fruit. Quite floral with Chambolle perfume and some musty character. Each was a 2014 Drouhin Library Release. The ’88 was the best wine of the flight with the most leathery and earthy nuance to the darker perfumed fruit. A nice soily texture on the palate too. Imagine this is about peak maturity.
Wagyu. Miyazaki A5 wagyu topped with summer truffles, plum asazuke, dashes of wagarashi ponzu and rokuzuke salt.
Special fried rice.
Bowled.
Temari Sushi. assortment of Kyoto style sushi seasoned with truffle soy. This was the only dish I didn’t enjoy. The round shape was interesting, but the rich had no vinegar taste and the truffle distracted. Very dull.
Dessert. Strawberry Gazpacho with Basil Sorbet Straberry gazpacho, katafi, creme fraiche, anko, anko tuile. Awesome, actually.
Mangoberry Cheesecake Gelato — raspberry/mango cream-cheese base with blackberry/mango ripple and house-made graham cracker crumble — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #cheesecake #mango #raspberry #blackberry #GrahamCracker #coulis #ripple #creamcheese
Blackberry Mango Amaro Sorbetto! — like a frozen aperitivo — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — although I do need to improve at decorating in the Pozzetti –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #mango #blackberry #amaro
Peanut Chocolate Caramel Ganache Reese’s Gelato -Sweet Peanut Base with house-made Valrhona Chocolate Caramel Ganache and mini Reese’s Peanutbutter Cups! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — the ganache is delicious but the 80% Valrhona I used swamps out the caramel — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #peanut #reeses #peanutbuttercup #ganache #Valrhona
Together in the bowl.
Larry and Kim, al fresco.
Overall, this was a lovely scene, awesome patio. Service was mostly excellent, with a few oddities (like how they didn’t tell us that the extra apps we ordered were duplicated near exactly on the tasting menu we had ordered — #3). Chef came out with some visiting sake specialists as was super friendly. Did I mention the patio was so LA and really, really nice?
Food was good, some dishes, like the lobster shabu shabu, even great. A few misses like the terrible sushi. Really, no flavor at all without the vinegar except a touch of truffle (ick).
Wines were mostly great too — awesome night.
