I’ve had nothing but good experiences at Tesse. Have not read this yet but quite happy to see it
Surprised he didn’t even talk about any of the six pastas.
I’ve been there maybe 4 times (only once it was my choice). The restaurant is good but not great. The only dish that was amazing was that blue crab with mashed potatoes and cognac sauce. The rest of the food…meh.
Service has been great on all occasions, decent wine/cocktail options. Really noisy towards the front/bar area.
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agreed, i went here once and was not impressed by the food. Service was good, but food was whatever.
For the price much rather go to Mozza or Republique.
I really enjoyed my experience at Tesse. The service is outstanding, the manager called us the next day to follow up to see if we enjoyed our meal which was a nice touch.
It sounds like a perfectly solid restaurant. It seems that LA has a lot of these bistro-level restaurants like Hatchet Hall that get very good reviews but no one ever talks about them again after they’ve opened. LA is becoming a very competitive environment even for very well-received restaurants.
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Nice review.
Addison notes “a massive pork chop…arrived over cooked.”
This was commented on here AGES ago…wonder why they cannot get that right?
Maybe they’re under the false impression that pork cannot safely be served less than well-done?
HIGHLY doubtful
Really thick pork chops are very hard to get right. I’ve had them at well-reviewed restaurants that were awful, tough and dry. It can be done right though, à la Chi Spacca. But if you’re not going to put the effort into it don’t bother.
P.S. The crabby shepard’s pie is my kinda’ thing! But tarragon upsets me.
Whoa, thanks for the heads up.
feels like a bad omen
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I wouldn’t disagree but doesn’t mean it’s not a good deal for us consumers!
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How can they claim reservations are going fast - in the post announcing this? Unless they announced it elsewhere earlier and I missed that? Agree with @caleb, seems like a bad sign…this sure would be one way to quickly get rid of all remaining food inventory. Hopefully we’re totally off base and this is just a fun promo to shake things up!
I would be shocked if this place is open after they conclude this promotion. It very much seems like a going out of business sale.
We went last night because my wife was at an event just down the block. We had an 8:45p reservation, but walked in at 8:15 and were seated right away. The restaurant wasn’t even half full. We’ve been a couple of times before and remembered enjoying it, but it has been years since we’ve been. The meal last night was utterly bizarre and it seemed like nobody in the kitchen was paying any attention at all. None of the dishes were bad to the point of inedible, but also none of the dishes were anything better than OK. There wasn’t a single one I would describe as good. Every dish was off in one way or another. Some were flat with no depth of flavor, others were under-seasoned, others were out of balance. It was just weird and unfortunate. For $60pp it’s hard to complain too much, but at full price it would be a giant waste of money.
Our dinner consisted of the following:
Pita w/ Paprika Hummus - perfectly adequate
Baguette w/ Chicken Liver Parfait - baguette was warm which was nice. good butter. meh chicken liver
Hamachi Crudo - my wife can’t resist ordering this dish on every menu. the gooseberries and wild rice were nice
Lobster Sausage - This is a lie. It’s seabass sous vide in a casing with maybe half a lobster claw chopped to bits mixed in
Beef Tartare - Shocked to see chive aioli on the menu now that I’m looking back. That definitely wasn’t on the plate nor was any salt.
Beef Ragu - tasted like tomato sauce
Tagliatelles - ordered but never came
Short Rib - texture was fine, but it wasn’t seasoned. the sweet potato puree was not sweet and the green foam tasted like nothing
Duck Fat Fries - 3 russets quartered lengthwise with an aioli sorta leaning towards a patatas bravas sauce
The kitchen may have just run out of salt honestly.
Oh and my wife’s first cocktail came in a box filled with a comical amount of smoke.
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Yikes. Thanks for taking one for the team.
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That’s not surprising for a Wednesday night in January, the slowest month of the year for most restaurants.
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Woww sorry to hear and thanks for taking one for the team.
When I lived in the area I always enjoyed tesse. Maybe not top tier but food and service were always of quality.
If they were going out of business, they’d just close, since it costs more to cook and serve the food than it does to buy it.