My sister in law is stopping in LA to see us on her back home to Sydney. We’d like to take her out to a nice dinner while she’s here, most likely on a Saturday. Last time, we took her and her husband to Red O to try some upscale mexican food, which they enjoyed. So I’d prefer to take her elsewhere and not to do Mexican again.
What would be a fun, California/LA type place we could go to? She doesn’t care for unusual items (no foie gras or tripe or anything) and isn’t a big seafood fan, although we are. Proximity to Hollywood is a plus as we are supposed to go out there for another event after dinner and we like drinks, so wherever we go must have good cocktails.
EP/LP is like Australian takes on SE Asian… I think it’s very good but probably the worst possible choice if you want to rake someone from Australia to a CA-specific place. Amazing if you want to take an Australian to a comfort spot serving food to their liking I imagine.
Hubby and I just went to Animal this past weekend, plus SIL won’t eat the oddball items.
Cleo is on my short list, but we’ve been there a few times and I was hoping to find something different for us to try too.
I want to take her somewhere that she couldn’t necessarily find in Sydney, so that’s why I was thinking something Californian/LA that she can’t really find back home.
No oddball items whatsoever on the menu + American-specific + in WeHo area = Jon and Vinny’s.
You really have no other options. Just about the only thing they won’t be able to get in Sydney will be the American-Italian high-end stuff done there. Sydney is not exactly a small city after all.
The only other spot would be, as mentioned, Connie and Ted’s for their New England style seafood. I imagine that’s also not available in Sydney.
Thanks, but I mentioned in the OP that she’s not a big seafood fan. I like my sister in law. I wouldn’t take her to a seafood restaurant when I know she doesn’t like seafood. That’s just wrong!
Will check it out. I have friends who went a few days ago and said the menu is pretty Asian, but I know they have different areas with different menus.
I made a reservation at AOC in the meantime, just so I have something, but I’m going to keep looking to see if someone else comes up that makes me want to change my reservation.
I don’t think it gets better than PorkyBelly’s recs, given your criteria. Birch seems like the most obvious, with a very good Hollywood location giving you many options.
Ah yeah, missed the cocktails, I always forget Animal doesn’t have those.
But Animal has plenty of normal stuff on their menu…does the existence of foie gras on a menu disqualify the entire restaurant?? If so that disqualifies nearly everywhere in LA!
Odys and Penelope might be a slightly more “LA” experience than AOC, but otherwise it seems like AOC will serve the purpose pretty well. Always pretty good food there. I will be curious to see what the Australian thinks of it.
I think we can all agree that the theme of Animal is non-standard animal parts. If that’s not what you’re into, why bother going to Animal. Animal doesn’t have cocktails either, and there’s no way around that.