The 3 course menu (appetizer had a choice of 2), included the "popcorn bacon" so I had to travel the distance. I drove 4 of us from Torrance to Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles. Aimee mentioned before that they didn't take reservations so we left at 4:00 p.m. hoping to get there at 5:15 p.m. so we can fall in line. They open at 6:00 p.m.
The traffic was terrible and it took us almost 2 hours to get there. At 5:55 p.m. we were happy to see no line! We went in and the hostess asked for the time of our reservation. I told them we didn't have any since I understood they didn't take reservations. She told her manager and he apologized and explained that they started taking reservations just a month ago. They were booked and there were no tables available. At this time, we were the only ones except for a party of 2. By this time, my niece and her husband Elliot walked in. I told them they didn't have tables for us.
We asked about the bar, and they finally said yes if we didn't mind sitting at the bar.
Elliot suggested going to another restaurant if we wanted since it would be hard to talk in a bar setting. We decided to stay. The saving grace is the manager waived the $19 corkage fee since they were not able to give us a table.
We had the dineLA menu. We all had to have the "Popcorn Bacon". Aimee and Elliot have had them before and loved them. I picked up my first one with my fingers since it called on being picked up by my fingers, dipped it in the maple creama sauce and OMG, OMG, OMG....I was truly delirious! How can pure fat be so so very good?
They were bite-sized bacon morsels. It was amazingly delicious and not greasy; does that even make sense? I think I could have eaten a big bowl of them.
I also ordered the Brussels Sprout Hash for my 2nd appetizer. They were twice cooked which included Yukon gold potatoes and had bacon vinaigrette and a poached egg on top. That too was deeelicious and I definitely would order that again along with the popcorn bacon. Aimee's 2nd appetizer was the Pork Bun (pork belly) steamed Hirata bun with hoisin slaw and Kewpie Mayo. Love that one as well. Cindy's 2nd appetizer was the Garlic Scallion String Beans with candied Hazelnuts. This is not made for wussies...these were very salty so it really needed the candied hazelnuts. I love salty so I liked it.
For my entrée, I almost ordered the Octopus Chana Masala, grilled Spanish Octopus with potatoes, chickpeas served with a grilled naan. The reason I didn't order it is because they advised me it was quite spicy. Thank God for that advise because Aimee and I ended up ordering the Roast Mushroom Brioche Box. A big hunk of brioche bread, ever so light with Hen of the woods, Shimeji, and Crimini mushrooms in brown butter. This was another OMG! The sauce was so delicious and so were the mushrooms. I think I overdosed on my selenium intake last night. Sandi had some left over fries which she dispersed among us and boy did they make a splash on my pool of sauce.
Sandi ordered the Lamb Burger which was huge. I had a bite; I was not too excited about this one. It was good but I have had better burgers. She was only able to eat 1/2 and the other 1/2 was happily consumed by Elliot. Ana and Elliot ordered the Octopus which turned out not being too spicy. It was also good but it was just that.....good.
Cindy ordered the Mushroom as well but without the egg. Oh well, she's still growing up; maybe there's hope for her in the future.
There were 3 choices for dessert. Sandi had the Five Leches Bread Pudding which was made of brioche, brown butter apples and toasted pecans and a big dollop of whipped cream on top. I had a bite and it was yummy, the apples were truly buttery. Cindy had the Milk & Honey Pana cotta with lavender honey and honeycomb crumble. This was also delicious. The rest of us had the Churros con Chile Chocolate. This dessert was wonderful except I would have wanted it not to be spicy. These were Chai spiced churros with cayenne spiked Belgian chocolate. When I read the menu, all I saw was Churros con Chocolate which I have always loved and it's very hard to find good churros let alone the thick chocolate that goes with it. This had everything but I thought the spice & chile took away from the chocolate. That is just my preference.
All in all, we had a great time even if we sat at the bar. Jennifer, our server was right there and catered to our needs. I even ordered an extra popcorn bacon to go to experiment and see if it will be good heated up.
Black Hogg is located at 2852 W. Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles in the Silver Lake district. I will have to make another trip to try other dishes in the menu but also to have some more of the popcorn bacon! It is INCREDIBLE!
No comments:
Post a Comment