Restaurant: Manhattan Beach Post
Location: 1142 Manhattan Ave, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266. (310) 545-5405
Date: February 18, 2016
Cuisine: American Tapas
Rating: Solid New Style Eats
I needed to find a good place in Manhattan Beach and two Hedonist buddies both unanimously recomended MB Post, a New American style share plates place — all the usual features: loud surfaces, wood tables, paper menus, shared plates, fancy cocktails. Let’s see how it is.
The small but appealing menu.
Bacon Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits, maple butter. The house’s signature dish — and well worth it. Awesome biscuit notched up with cheese and bacon. The butter was awesome too.
From my cellar: 1995 Gros Frère et Sœur Clos Vougeot Musigni. 92 points. The classic CVM cherry/strawberry nose and flavor. Light, but quite tannic still.
Assorted pickles. Nice crunch. Only mildly pickled. A bit of spice.
Blistering Blue Lake Green Beans, thai basil, chili sauce, crispy pork. This was pretty close to a Szechuan Green Bean dish. The pork ruled too.
Song Family Kimchi Fried Rice, butternut squash, Ha Farm’s Asian Pear, scallion, egg. Another great dish. A good bit of heat too, with nice eggy rich rice.
Albacore Tuna Tataki, Grilled Pineapple, Yuzu, Serrano. A hot/sweet thing. Not our favorite dish, just didn’t quite sync together.
Squid Ink Tagliatelle, shrimp, squid, maryann’s cherry tomatoes, breadcrumbs, serrano. More heat, but a nice pasta. Except the tomatoes.
Mac & Cheese, fontina, parmesan, mycella blue. A pretty straight up baked “fancy” M&C.
Solid stuff, sticks to the ribs.
BBQ Moroccan Lamb Belly, harissa caramelized onions, Japanese eggplant. Rich and tasty. Very soft flavorful meat.
Salmon Creek Roast Pork Shoulder. Apple Mostarda. Grilled Escarole. Good roast pork, but pretty straight up and not as complex as some of the other dishes.
The “Elvis.” A mess of chocolate pudding, peanut butter mousse, bacon brittle. Everything but the banana was great.
Chai Tea Soft Serve, brioche beignet, orange tapioca, caramel. Good stuff. This had a complex soft “chai” taste to it that really stuck with you. Nice combo of textures too.
Overall, MB Post is doing some good stuff. It’s not earth shattering, or haut cuisine, but this is creative tasty fare in a cute little setting and the chef has a good sensibility with combinations. I’m sure it is one of the best places in Manhattan Beach.