Yeah. If the restaurant doesn’t want to course things out, I can accept that, but they need to accommodate for their table size and shouldn’t be expecting me to eat faster or move my dishes around. I gave Leopardo a pass for that given they just opened.
We enjoyed our meal here and we’ll be back soon. Pacing was actually fine for us, and service was good throughout. We had a 5:30 reservation, and nothing felt too rushed.
Favorites were:
Oysters - really clean shucking (lots of liquid left) and the good temperature, with the granita melting so it wasn’t like crunchy ice. Tons of umami - maybe it was just the pickled seaweed granita, but I thought maybe there’s tomato water, too? Definitely getting a dozen of these next time.
Lamb saddle - delicious bite with the lamb fat and cherry tomato.
Grilled whitefish in the lord’s water - clean, flaky, with a delicious oil that maybe there was some aliums bloomed in there (and possibly some wok hei “flavor”)
Re-marinara pizza - delicious sauce. The caramelized cheese on the crust was faintly reminiscent of bacon bits to me (or maybe that was the country ham in the tomato sauce…I don’t know, I was already 5+ cocktails in that day). I liked the texture quite a bit. Side of straciatella was good.
Frozen milk soft-cream with rum honeycomb - super smooth, delicious with the rum honeycomb sauce. Not boozy. I preferred this to the tiramisu 2022, but actually together they were rather nice.
The cornicione was a bit different than what I had at 50 Kalo (below, for comparison). Yesterday’s pizza at Leopardo wasn’t that floppy to me. Anyway, I liked both pizzas a lot.
purple sea urchin - pretty good. I believe there was a tomato water gelee underneath. I’d love to see chef Josh do a gelee of coastal flora again (from several years back); that could be really nice with some raw bar preps.
elk tartare with bone marrow and machete - tartare was delicious by itself. There was a slight chili sauce flavor, almost like Cantonese. The machete was great itself, but I go back and forth on whether I think it’s a good option for spreading the tartare over. The marrow was good but didn’t add much for me. And the perilla leaf was a little strong.
ocean tilefish crudo - pretty good. The olive oil was quite buttery and this was nice enough, but I’d opt for the live prawn crudo next time for a little extra texture.
classic caesar - very tasty, but I wish the lettuces came cut or the were a bit firmer, perhaps like little gems. Nice sesame bread toast, but I was expecting more it to be more integrated in each bite like croutons. Delicious dressing nonetheless, but I’ll try the cali-prese next time. Whatever chef Josh has done with tomatoes has been excellent.
tiramisu 2022 - good, light, a little savory from the flaky salt, and maybe there was some orange zest?
Cocktails:
Artimaro (barbecue artichoke, sparkling cardoon, amaro, lemon) - quite good, not as bitter as I thought it might be. I believe there was Cynar in this, or if it was Cardamaro like one I had a Saison, it was tempered nicely. A touch like a savory cola? Salt on the ice’s top was a nice touch.
Rhubarb Like a Negroni - good attack, didn’t end super bitter. Nicely balanced. Served in a glass tea cup.
At the bar, the 3 mirrors had a menu on it with arrangeable letters. One for raw bar, one for cooked items, and one for cocktails. They did not provide a separate printed “bar menu.” I didn’t snap a pic, unfortunately.
I imagine it’s for what’s to come. For example, the grilled fish in the middle mirror menu “idiot fish” aka kinki, which I doubt is what the grilled whitefish was last night.
I don’t think the crackling duck is available yet. Will return next week to confirm.
I think the idea was that the grilled fish was going to be “idiot fish” perhaps better known as “kinki snapper,” but I’m pretty sure last night it was something else. I was told last night’s grilled option was ocean tilefish. Kinki is great steamed or braised, but I’ve never had it grilled.
Also, the honeysuckle sour wasn’t available, to my knowledge. But if the bar mirror menu is suggestive of the future menu, then I’m excited for “today’s rotisserie” and the crackling bird…
I noticed the mirrors too and was excited, but I suspect they are remnants of earlier intentions. The lead times for design, crafting, and installation of things like that likely meant they locked down the contents earlier and may have pivoted on the menu as they got closer to opening. I really hope I’m wrong, because those things they have up there sound good. So does the duck that Eater was showing off in their coverage!
Am I missing something here or do the photos not do it justice?
The crudos look very basic with sloppy knifework (i.e. the spot prawn crudo cuts look really odd, as do the herbs on the fish crudo). The pizzas while I’m sure taste good look pretty average at a high price point (more expensive than pizzeria sei which is also using all premium ingredients) and the pricing seems crazy, i.e. $72 for a dozen oysters and a $500 pizza.
I know the restaurant industry is struggling from high costs all over but I don’t know how I’d justify a meal this expensive unless it was truly doing something unique that I couldn’t get anywhere else (i.e. Hayato).
Curious if people felt the price actually matched the quality of the food or if money was just not a factor for others.
Thought the spot prawn crudo was a reasonable size/price compared to other live spot prawn dishes at restaurants. Didn’t order the oysters for that particular reason. But other dishes like the elk tartare were that good and worth the price.
I think a lot of the photos look strange cause the space is CRAZY well lit because of the massive windows and the decor…kinda sucks (but I like it for the weirdness)
$36 for a burrata pizza at Bottega Louie compared with $26 at Leopardo.
$48 for the whole fish at Bottega Louie compared with $43 at Leopardo.
Not a political statement but high prices are in large part a consequence of high costs of doing business resulting from California / LA’s political policies.
I think comparing restaurants one-to-one is very hard: different areas, rents, leases, suppliers, the list goes on.
My main point is I want to eat and support these new ventures but it seems like a lose-lose: restaurants are jacking up prices to offset cost of doing in business, as a result I’m less inclined to go to the restaurant because it is now too expensive for me to eat out and instead of paying $72 for a dozen oysters I’ll pay $12 and shuck them myself, pick up a pizza elsewhere, etc.
I am skeptical for how these spots will survive as costs continue to go up unless they have a strong list of repeat customers who will regularly be able to pay such a high premium.
I read an article about how Millennials and Gen Z are now in the mindset of spending whatever money they have on good food, experiences, fun times, etc. because they view the future as bleak and screwed anyways; Might as well have fun now kind of a thing.
It makes sense, considering that even though restaurants and dining out have never been more expensive, yet all the hyped spots around town are basically packed.
TBH I think your comparison to Hayato is apt. Both these places are ingredient, seasonality, and flavor focused. Hayato has more precise plating and aesthetics, but it’s nowhere near what you see from conventional tasting menu, michelin starred establishments. How food tastes and how you feel while dining there is not something you can tell without actually dining there, but if you just look at pictures of the food it can be hard to justify one of the highest tasting menu prices in LA.
Consider that Josh Skenes used to run a 3* kitchen and the former culinary director of the Saison group works at Leopardo… if they wished to they could put out perfect looking dishes that had been tweezed within an inch of their lives . The food looks the way it does intentionally. The tricky thing is you can’t easily tell flavor and quality from the appearance of the food and we often use presentation as a proxy for how tasty something is. The brevity of the menu descriptions don’t help, and that was true of Angler as well. There’s not a lot that tells you everything that goes into the dish, or even what it’s going to taste like outside the main ingredients.
That said… the food is good. It’s not cheap, but I, personally, don’t think the prices are unfair. You can pay more for less satisfying food at many places in LA. I felt this way about Angler, many dishes don’t sound like they’d be worth it. Then you’d have them and they surprise you. Whether they’ll be worth it to you is harder to say. Is the pizza better than Sei? No, it’s on the same level IMO, but you also can’t have the same range of dishes and drink selection at Sei either, they’re not trying to be the same type of restaurant. If you’re willing to pay for pizza at Sei, I’d say it’s worth test running a dish or two at Leopardo at the bar and see if ordering more is worth it.
that reads sarcastic but it’s genuine
. The food looks the way it does intentionally. The tricky thing is you can’t easily tell flavor and quality from the appearance of the food and we often use presentation as a proxy for how tasty something is. The brevity of the menu descriptions don’t help, and that was true of Angler as well. There’s not a lot that tells you everything that goes into the dish, or even what it’s going to taste like outside the main ingredients.