Craft Los Angeles

For lunch today, my co-worker Madeleine and I decided to lunch at Craft Los Angeles (http://www.craftrestaurantsinc.com/craft-los-angeles/), Tom Colicchio’s restaurant in Century City (it’s just outside our offices).  While we had dined there before for work’s holiday party, I haven’t written about it before.  We both have had a brutal few weeks so this was our reward to ourselves to surviving!

We ate in the bar, thinking the bar menu – much lower in price – would be available.  Unfortunately we discovered that it was only available in the evening hours, not for lunch.  Regardless, we decided to eat there anyway.    I also decided to enjoy a nice glass of wine (a Cabernet-Franc to be specific).
We shared the Wild Arugula, parmesan and Pine Nuts salad, which was quite generous and very tangy.  The dressing was perfectly acidic and the cheese gave it a little pungency.  It was a nice intro to our ensuing meal. 

Madeleine ordered the Short Rib Sliders with Cheddar and Coleslaw – she shared one with me, and I ordered the Berkshire Pork Loin (I gave her a slice to try).  The slider was piled with short rib meat, which was incredibly tender and well flavored with BBQ sauce.  I could have eaten a platter of them.  She also had a side of potato chips dusted with parmesan that accompanied her meal.  The sliders are well worth returning to try again, and fairly priced at $18 for 3 sliders (given the amount of beef they put on them).

My pork loin was also very tender, the skin crisped perfectly.  It sat on a bed of polenta, and dressed with a sweet sauce and a few apricots.  The polenta was rather bland, but the sauce helped flavor it up.  The pork didn’t really need the sauce, but it was a nice addition, and the apricots added a sweet edge to the pork.  There was also a chunk of pork belly crisped up on the side that melted in your mouth.

To finish my meal, I ordered a scoop of their mint chocolate chip ice cream.  It was a small scoop, but bold in flavor and more than enough for a lunch meal.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take pictures as I had planned until the end (the ice cream), but trust me – the food was appealing not only to the palate, but to the eye.  Next time I will definitely snap a few pics.

The drawback is the price.  Craft is NOT cheap.  Our bill came to about $80 (my wine was nearly ¼ of that) which is pricey for a lunch.  However, we treated ourselves and it was well worth it!