Restaurant: Hatfield’s [1, 2]

Location: 6703 Melrose Ave, Los angeles, Ca 90038. 323-935-2977.

Date: Aug 27, 2010

Cuisine: Modern Cal French

Last night I ate at Hatfield’s, so as a sort of prequel I dredged up last summer’s meal here.  TO SEE MEAL 2 CLICK HERE.

Some of my foodie friends had recommended Hatfield’s.  It’s now the 4th place we have tried in this space:  Citrus, Alex, Mason G, and Hatfield’s. Most of the restaurants were quite good, but there just seem to be these spaces that have a curse about them. Hopefully this most recent entry sticks around, it’s very good. They also have a bunch of prix fix options, including vegetarian ones. I’m always a big fan of set dinners.

Crab, cilantro, and corn amuse.

Because it was just me drinking, I went with wine pairings on this particular evening. As one person it’s either getting very drunk in my attempt to finish off a single bottle all by myself (and hence avoid the wrath of Dionysus) or pick from the generally very small selection of half bottles most restaurants have. Wine pairs provides a nice third choice.

Tuna salad, with an aioli. This was really good.

A bright arugala, goat cheese, and wild strawberry salad.

The middle wine.

Fresh homemade pasta with heirloom tomatos and pesto/pistou.

Pork belly, with corn, a sweet potato puree. Rich on richer.

The meat wine. I’m not a huge Malbec fan, but this one was pleasant.

“Brown butter-roasted cauliflower”, golden raisons, corn, etc. Very nice.

A very rare lamb or beef with a mashers type puree underneath.

A kind of fruit tart.

“Sugar and spice beignets, venezulan chocolate fondue, preserved ginger milkshake shot.”

The Petit Fours, little cupcake/soufflé like things.

Very nice new entry in the “fine dining” category. Everything was very fresh, with bright innovative flavors.

TO SEE MY SECOND HATFIELD’S REVIEW, CLICK HERE.