Being back in LA, I have been hitting up all of my old favorite spots, and Hatchet Hall was just about the first place I went back to. Man, I love Mexico, but they don’t have any quality of pork (or don’t know how to work with the meat properly) that Hatchet Hall does, and I missed vegetables and schnitzels, and really just everything about the place haha
Some of my photos did not work out so well, but the meal was as fucking amazing as ever.
Blurry photo notwithstanding, the benne yeast rolls are a masterpiece of bread making that don’t even need the utterly perfect salted honey butter on the side.
A spring pea salad showed off immaculately fresh peas, delightuflly tangy cheese, a poached egg, and house-made croutons. I remember being extremely happy eating such a well-composed salad; ahh, LA produce…how I missed thee
House-made pickles are an absolute delight to eat as well. Maybe I just have a penchant for beets though…
Mushroom spoonbread was awesome, like a cross between polenta and cornbread with perfectly done mushrooms. Really captured the essence of corn and umami blast of mushrooms:
Rabbit schitzel was an absolute joy. I have no idea how they managed to get the breading so crispy and perfect, and maintain such a luscious texture to the rabbit (frequently rabbit seems to come out too dry, especially in fried varietals). The hunter’s sauce was awesome as well. Altogether it almost tasted like a super high end version of an In-n-Out Double Double Animal Style in an interesting way. You are short changing yourself if you don’t go check this schnitzel out. I think it is better than Maringer’s schnitzels at Bierbeisel, and that’s saying something.
At the time, the pork chop was being done with cherries and a chocolate sauce which was not my favorite prep, but it was interesting, and something I had never had before. Plus the quality of pork is unbelievable here. Make sure they cook it rare, because it is so fucking good you may lose your mind when you eat this.
Then we got cookies and milk. The vanila iced milk was an absolute delight, a bit of a romp through childhoold. The cookies were served cold though, which sort of hurt the overall dessert, except that they were undeniably delicious cookies. I loved the PB&J streudel, and the chewy lemon cookie most of all. I would like it if they served the iced milk by itself though, it was really pleasant.
Overall, Hatchet Hall remains one of the best restaurants I have ever eaten at just purely in terms of the flavors on the plates. Just briliant.
The alcohol program has sort of become less creative with the departure of their past sommelier, Maxwell, however, but for some that will be a welcome change.
It looks like they reently revamped the menu again, so I will be returning shortly hopefully.
This is just a reminder that this place remains, to me at least, one of the best restaurants in LA, or maybe anywhere. It is rare to find cooking that gets every element so right that virtually anything you order is exemplary of its category and ingredients.