Restaurant: Rustic Canyon [1, 2, 3, 4]
Location: 1119 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica, Ca 90401. 310-393-7050
Date: May 13, 2011 & December 2, 2011
Cuisine: Farmer’s Market Californian
Summary: Excellent Seasonal New American
As a seasonal market driven California restaurant Rustic canyon can be counted on to mix up the menu a bit fairly frequently. It’s a friday night favorite for us, and we return every two months or so. Many of the specific dishes change, but the overall types and categories stay consistant. If you are interested in the previous meals at Rustic Canyon, meal 1 here, meal 2 here, and meal 3 here.
The front.
The menu on the two different days contained in this post.
Spanish style – olives on the table.
I got a glass of Riesling.
“Burrata, roasted artichokes, fava beans, stinging nettle pesto, ramps toast.” This is sort of like make your own cheese bruschetta as the blog of Burrata (here for more on this wonderful cheese) can just be slathered on the toast.
A slightly different take on this in the winter with figs.
“Asparagus soup, asparagus tips, smoked bacon.” It was of course the lardons that made this entire dish.
“Windrose farms dandelion greens. Honey dates, pine nuts, capers, lemon, pecorino-romano.”
“Roasted beets & farro, roasted beets, feta, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red onion, fennel, yogurt.”
“Pork meatballs. Spicey yogurt, pickled chilis, mint.” I’ve had a different version of this here before with lamb.
“squash blossoms. goat cheese, mint.” The classic Roman (as in the city) dish.
This was a special, not on the menu. A squid ink homemade pasta with botarga and fiore di sardo (Sardinian peccorino). Very nice, with a sweet and briny flavor.
“Cripsy duck leg. roasted apples, smocked bacon, brussels sporuts agro dolce.” What could make duck leg confit even better? Bacon!
Bone licking good.
The desserts, which are very good here, but we were full.