beacon

after a long day of staring at my computer and willing the words to come out of my fingertips, i certainly deserved dinner out w/friends. seeing as how i hadn’t left the house all day except for my morning mocha, i showered quick, popped in my contacts, and put on my favorite casual brown dress. despite a fluke landslide on sepulveda, jenny showed up right on time. (even w/justin running late!)

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as a total sidebar, i want to say that i love on-timers. i swear i’m always 10 minutes early and everyone’s always 20 minutes late. i mean, WTF?! for those of who can add, that means i’m left waiting THIRTY MINUTES. yes, folks, THIRTY MINUTES!! geezus christ. one would think people would be a little more considerate and have a little better sense of time as they got older. if any friend ever leaves me waiting that long (or god forbid longer) more than twice (i’m giving y’all some leeway here), you’re OFF the friend list. ok, don’t say you haven’t been warned.

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after a long day with no live people interaction , i was busting w/verbal energy. and while i felt for jenny & justin, i must admit that they were troopers for listening to me babble on in the car.

so i’ve decided that the best thing about having foodie friends is that we always end up having the funnest conversations about the most random food topics! (a shout-out to dani, btw, for all our many email convos spent on food talk. they keep me sane!!)

for example, as we were zipping down westwood, jenny mentioned a great little place nearby that serves omikase, w/both sushi and non-sushi items. apparently you just walk in, sit down, and wait for the chef to serve you a series of small plates (approximately 10-15). for those of you who don’t know, omikase is pretty much a tasting menu, where you take what the chef gives you. so to truly appreciate this kind of experience, you need to be both adventurous and trusting. plus you need, at least for the time being, to set aside any food likes and dislikes. if you’re a really picky eater, this is simply NOT going to be fun for you, so don’t bother.

to that point, jenny told the funniest story about a friend who’d brought her boyfriend out to try this place. (and FYI that i’m waiting for jenny to read this post and comment w/the actual name of the restaurant. jenny, are you out there?) and it was apparently mayo day the day they went in b/c the chef put mayo in almost every single dish he set in front of them. and guess what? the boyfriend hates mayo! (as does justin, by the way. tsk tsk.) to be honest, i don’t feel for either of these boys. i mean, who the heck hates MAYO?! it’s creamy and tangy and goes w/EVERYTHING. (i mean, pretty much, right?) that’s seriously the worst dislike i’ve ever heard. ok, i’m lying, i’ve heard worse. but that’s pretty bad.

at any rate, this led me to mention how de’sha hates condiments. again, who the heck hates CONDIMENTS?! i mean, you’re wiping out like a bazillion yummy edibles! setting that issue aside (and yes, de’sha, i still love you), this led us to wondering what actually constitutes a condiment. justin suggested that it’s any additional item that needs to be squirted or spooned onto the main dish. like ketchup, mustard, relish, etc. and i commented that condiments tend to be gucky. (and no, this spelling doesn’t do the pronunciation justice. but gook-ey just seemed totally wrong and politically incorrect. so if someone else out there can spell it better, lemme know.) which prompted justin to smartly suggest that perhaps there’s some element of VISCOSITY that’s required. way to make my comment sound brilliant!

at that point, i was all ready to go on wikipedia and update the definition if necessary. then jenny brought up soy sauce. which totally stumped us. so we decided to wait for dorothy to weigh in at the restaurant. (who, btw, easily and breezily called soy sauce the “asian condiment,” thereby forcing us to re-think our entire working definition. *sigh*) and proceeded to discuss the questionable merit of studies showing the benefits of pomegranate juice.

by the time we showed up at beacon, dorothy was just pulling into the parking lot. so we were right on time for our reservation. (which i’m sure everyone appreciated since we were all semi-starving by that point.) we were seated right away and served by a really cute and funny waiter. (with actor aspirations, i’m sure.) who ended up waiting on us for the night (even though we weren’t his table) b/c we were so eager to order as soon as we’d skimmed the menu.

since most of the dishes were small plates, we decided to order a whole bunch and share. (my favorite kind of eating!) with recs from christine & brett, as well as from our cute and funny waiter, we decided to check out the black edamame, the crispy fried oysters, the stirfried mushroom salad, the stirfried eggplant, as well as the miso-marinated black cod, the miso-braised short ribs, and the duck confit. i must admit to being quite proud of myself for picking out a few of these dishes before the waiter even commented on them being top-notch and/or his favorites. i mean, did i call them or what? yes, i know, i’m so self-involved.

to be honest, i definitely wouldn’t have picked some of these dishes if i were on my own. (which is interesting since we ended up at some point talking about all the foods we generally never order when we eat out. my picks: chicken and salmon. if i order either of these things, that pretty much means the menu isn’t remotely close to being interesting enough for me.) then again, this is the price we pay for enjoying food w/others. you’re inevitably going to have differences of opinion regarding what you’d like to try (and definitely about what you end up enjoying), but hopefully everyone gets to order something they want. best case scenario is that you thoroughly enjoy something you wouldn’t have ordered otherwise. worst case scenario is that you get at least one dish that you picked – for better or for worse.

of the things i wouldn’t have ordered – edamame is so insubstantial that it’s definitely not worth paying for. i mean, that’s why all the sushi places give it to you for free, right? black or not, super or not (the waiter defined it as super edamame), definitely not worth two cents, much less three dollars (!!). totally uninteresting. as i’ve mentioned previously, short ribs are a total giveaway dish. seriously, who the heck messes up short ribs? (well, i suppose eri could.) i mean, it’s just a few hours of crock-potting to perfection, right? well, unfortunately, this place didn’t crock-pot theirs quite long enough. my attitude is that any short ribs that require knife pressure aren’t worth my time. the duck confit was a total last-minute addition, and again, not worth the money. maybe i’m a snob b/c french is my favorite cuisine and i’ve taken classes at the FCI (yeah, folks, YEAH), but i don’t think i’ve had really good duck confit outside french brasseries. i mean, they invented the concept, right? wouldn’t they know how to do it best? granted i didn’t get much sauce w/my few bites of duck, but i found the meat totally bland and unseasoned. i suppose that’s better than too salty, but not by much. and who lets any dish leave the kitchen w/o enough salt? you’d be knocked off top chef in two seconds!

of everything else – the crispy fried oysters (recommended by the waiter) were BY FAR the most delicious dish of the night. definitely something any of the ladies would’ve ordered more of if we’d been hungrier. (since there were only 3 of them, justin was nice enough to let us have them. that and i’m not sure he likes oysters? god forbid that’s the case. let’s just not think about that and call him chivalrous instead.) the oysters were lightly fried and sitting in small lettuce cups. i love most finger food, and this was the perfect two-bite dish. while my first bite tasted a bit too much of the sea, my second bite was AMAZING. a great contrast of flavors and textures: salty crust, fresh oyster, and crisp lettuce. i SO could’ve replaced any of the other dishes w/more oysters. mmm.... the mushroom salad was one of my picks but definitely didn’t live up to expectations. (honestly, when you’re used to absolutely perfect wild mushroom salads at palomino’s, your standards end up way high.) i had to prowl around to find the multiple types of mushrooms embedded within the salad, and when i found them, i was ultimately disappointed. even the chunks of manchego cheese (which i’d never had in chunk form before) couldn’t makeup for the measly mushrooms.

in total contrast, the eggplant was DELICIOUS. usually i find eggplant either undercooked (which prevents them from soaking up much flavor) or overcooked (which makes them soggy and sopping – think panda express). but the texture of the eggplant here was absolutely perfect. i wish i could’ve eaten more, but i was getting full and i didn’t want to be too piggish. (which is the only problem eating w/NEW friends. you can’t stuff your face the way you would otherwise!) after the eggplant, i think the cod was definitely my next favorite. to be honest, i don’t generally like cod or haddock or any other fish that’s associated with fish & chips (GROSS!). but perhaps i should ease up on these general dislikes more often, b/c the cod here was quite YUM. i’m not sure how it’s supposed to be cooked outside of fish & chips (we were talking about how ahi tuna should be raw or seared, and how swordfish should be well-done but not bone-dry), but i though beacon’s version was on point. the fish was cooked with a slightly crispy skin and just through enough that it pretty much melted in your mouth. i mean, who’d ever say that about COD of all fish? it didn’t hurt that there was a sweet layer of miso glaze on top. i must admit that the glaze was slightly sweeter and thicker than i would’ve liked, but still DELISH. i’m definitely not complaining.

and no fancy meal could end w/o dessert. so again, we ordered a few things to share: the coconut rice and mango brulee, the beacon “ring ding,” and the bento box of sweet treats. going backwards, i have to say that the bento box was my least favorite. i like my desserts to come together on a plate, so i really can’t appreciate cookies and candies when i could get those pretty much anywhere. (especially things like truffles and gummies – that’s why folks go to nijya!) the box also contained two fruit tarts (totally boring) and two fruit/meringue tarts. y’all should’ve seen the looks on jenny and justin’s faces when they bit into the meringue one! OMG. too hilarious. they had no idea what was in it. dorothy and i decided to be adventurous and split the other. we must have similar palates b/c we simultaneously decided that it had to be rhubarb! yeah, that yucky root that some bizarre baker decided to put into dessert and that everyone’s decides is ok to use in dessert. (original baker = idiot.)

for me, the ring ding was more an intriguing pastiche of chocolates than something hearkening back to hostess ding dongs. at any rate, i thought it was quite good, with the contrast b/w moist chocolate cake, thicker white chocolate filling, and vanilla choc chip ice cream (though there could’ve been more choc chips, in my opinion). last but not least, the coconut and mango brulee. OMG. i totally couldn’t get enough of it. as dorothy commented, it was kind of like a cross b/w rice pudding and creme brulee. the rice kernels were pretty substantial. and the brulee was perfect. i wasn’t quite sure what to make of it in those first few bites. but after a few more bites, i decided that it was pretty darn good. from what i could tell, there wasn’t any real mango flavor in the dish itself. but the tiny cubes of mango on the side complimented the dish perfectly in terms of flavor (tangy & fruity vs. creamy) and consistency (slightly crunchy vs. smooth & slightly chewy). also, i think the dish was slightly green, which made think that there must’ve been some green tea flavor added. and seeing as how i love green tea, i didn’t mind that at all.

for the most part, i thought the food was decent. the ambiance was nice and the service was good, but i suppose the food could’ve been better. even though some of the dishes stood out against the others, the meal as a whole didn’t make much of an impression on me. thankfully, the cost per person came out pretty fair. if it’d been any higher, this review might’ve veered negative. b/c when it comes down to it, you want to get what you pay for. and if the food doesn’t live up to what i’m paying for it, well, then the review’s definitely going to suffer. all’s fair in eating and reviewing, right?

beacon
3280 helms ave
los angeles, ca 90034
310.838.7500

http://www.beacon-la.com/index.php