Lexington Social House

Yet another voucher led us Lexington the other night. The deal included a 3 course meal with a glass of wine and dessert. The only bad experience with this restaurant was our trip from Torrance to Hollywood. I allowed 1-1/2 hrs. and it took us 2 hours mostly on the Harbor and Hollywood Freeway. I called them when I knew we were not going to make it. They were very understanding and they just told us to take our time. This is near the Pantages Theater so Sandi and I already knew where we will be dining on our next outing in the area.

They call it a social house because there is a bar slightly above the dining room and an area for drinking and socializing outside in a nice patio/garden with red sofas. Since we were there to dine and not socialize, we thought it would be nice to go back with a bunch of friends.

The warm rolls they served reminded me of the native Filipino rolls, pan de sal (sal-salt). It was soft and a bit salty and with butter, we could have eaten a lot more. We stopped at 2 each.
We skipped appetizers and decided to share a salad of Roasted Brussels Sprouts with bleu cheese crumble, candied walnuts, pickled grapes in a sherry vinaigrette. This was a generous portion that could have been shared with 3 people, but it was just delightful and too delicious that we ate everything. I wonder if the chef would share this recipe...

For our main entree, Sandi had the Roasted Alaskan Halibut, romesco "potato salad", fingerling potato, lima beans, bacon lardon, and creme fraiche dressing. I had the Grilled Flatiron Steak with heirloom carrots, cipollini onions and carrot puree. We shared both entrees like we always do. The halibut was cooked to perfection; moist and fluffy with a "clean" flavor which went well with all its company. The steak had a lot of flavor, also cooked perfectly. The cipollini onions were so sweet it almost tasted like dessert (I love desserts).

Our 2 servers, Rafael and Jaycee (forgive the misspellings) were 2 of the most attentive, lively and knowledgeable waiters. They were always available when we had questions and were constantly checking to see if everything was good.  Since this was our first time at this restaurant,  I did not know who the chef was nor how long they have been in operation. Our server sent the chef over and we were privileged to meet Chef Michael Butler. He was originally from New Jersey, moved to Florida and made his way to California. He has worked with a lot of the famous chefs including Jean George. Lexington is  lucky to have this young, humble and enthusiastic chef. We told him how much we enjoyed everything we had and promised to return.

Chef Butler picked our desserts for us. We had the Chocolate Molten Lava Cake with vanilla ice cream  and if you like chocolate this was it....the lava just oozed out upon contact with the first spoonful.  The other dessert tasted better than it looked and it looked pretty good. It was the Monkey Bread, brown sugar, pecans and instead of the banana ice cream, we had it with salted caramel ice cream. I would enjoy this anytime; having this for breakfast would be a good way to start the day.

They have a 5 course Chef's Tasting Menu for $85 which is very reasonable.  I don't think we will wait till we have a performance to watch at the Pantages to return to Lexington. Lexington is located at 1718 Vine St. in Hollywood, California.

I have to mention that even if they had music in the background, it was just that....background music....so you could hear each other and it is what dinner is all about...enjoying good food, company in a relaxing and inviting setting.