Glad to see they finally opened in the old Simply Thai space. I almost made it to one of their previous pop-ups.
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OMG yes.
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St. John vibes galore! Great find - Cheers!
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I feel you on this, but Iâm trying (with limited success) to not conflate my general dissatisfaction around the value proposition of restaurants with its specific instantiation.
Hope this place succeeds, will be interesting to see. Re: @mzonelli, $100/pp is not bad at all.
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I donât agree with you on portion size. This place needs to tweak things as itâs only been open less than a month. A lot of things need dialing in.
The wait is long, the room acoustic is loud, the food ainât St. John but let them grow into it.
And yeah, Iâm in the film biz.
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What did you think was small for the price?
We didnât mind the noise for a full restaurant and we also didnât wait for our table (showed up at open) nor our dishes. But again itâs been open for a week.
anybody know anything about the ec? the cdc used to work at rustic canyon, gwen and dunsmoor:
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Itâs semantics. You described the portions being quite big, but I found it proportionate to the price point and labor esp if a whole hog is being broken down in house for charcuterie. (Not finding any mention of it by the restaurant) These arenât share plates. It would be unrealistic to assume Cheesecake Factory sizes. BTW, I had bangers & mash. It was a banger singular. Made well enough. Had better at Tea & Sympathy and the former Breslin.
Iâm the âget off my lawnâ age so a loud room where I need to converse by yelling isnât what I look for. The room gets progressively louder with everyone trying to get heard. If you like a scene, maybe this works. The large windows and walls bounce sound and if the seating is as tight as Prune in NYC as a reference, itâs just not tolerable for long stretches of time. You will sit for a long time because the kitchen gets slammed.
I avoid All Time and Saffyâs for the very same reason of acoustics and jamming too many covers in a small space.
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This board does love its semantics. Yes the portions are big for a 30$ LA entree at this point. Or big to me. Or fair. I just mean itâs not egregious, if we want to word it that way. We also ordered lots of dishes to share and split it amongst 4 people. I donât like eating an entree to myself in almost any situation.
I did not find it as loud as Saffyâs but maybe itâs where we were sitting?
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solid neighborhood spot. space is small with about 30 seats and has a bit of a horses vibe. noise wasnât too bad and not close to how loud saffyâs can get.
I agree with @mzonelli highlights were all things pork (coppa and the cracklings on the salad tasted like it came from a lechon), stilton & persimmon with toast was a great match, a very nicely fried fish n chips, and a delicious sticky toffee pudding.
the welsh rarebit was pretty mild and could have used more punch or a sharper cheese and some of the guinea fowl in the meat pie was a bit dry.
I would wait for the hype to die down or grab one of the limited reservations.
stephanie breijo was also in the house, so la times forthcoming.
as an aside Iâm really curious how this place apparently taught a master class in buzz/hype. I never even heard of this place or the chef until @mzonelliâs post a few days ago. the ec, natasha price, had a stint at minaâs at moma ps1 in nyc but I couldnât find if she worked anywhere in la, maybe she was private cheffing?
theyâve only been open a week yet there was a 30+ person line before they even opened at 5. is it the location? is la really starving for british pub food?
review forthcoming @boourns?
stilton & persimmon
coppa di testa
welsh rarebit
crumbed rillette
kohlrabi & crackling
battered sea bass & mint
salt & vinegar chips
guinea fowl meat pie
greens
pork & cabbage
beans
eton mess
sticky toffee pudding
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Oh wow it was ALL over my feeds and a bunch of chef friends (people from Lasita, chainsaw, baby bistro, popups, wine folks I like) so it must just be a âdifferent pockets of social mediaâ thing because I assumed everyone here knew it was opening. Glad I could break it for some folks here!
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The executive chef (Natasha) and the other co-owner (Tatiana) are friends from childhood. I believe the two of them ran a popup that morphed into Wildes. Tatiana previously held FOH roles at other spots in LA including Lasita and before that she was doing branding, and as mentioned Natasha had a few chef roles at spots long ago but I believe was mainly doing private event/catering in recent years.
Theyâre young, connected in the LA restaurant scene, and social media/brand savvy. I have not spoken to Tatiana in pushing 15 years but she was always very nice (and we were actually quite friendly for a period of time). Putting all of that together, along with it being a rare cuisine for LA in a neighborhood with few great dining options - itâs not surprising itâs got some buzz.
Sadly, I live far enough away that I donât see myself stopping by until the buzz has died down or I can snag a reservation.
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What a nice neighbourhood spot. You could go to Saffyâs in the same area and it might be better, but itâll be 2x the price and itâs not 2x better. I feel like youâre getting some good value for the dollar. They have a point of view and are doing some good things with pork. LA doesnât have enough restaurants like this and I wish them much success.
+1 to wait for the buzz to die down and snag a reservation. They could use some time to get their feet under them. Generally concur with @PorkyBelly on highlights. Stilton + persimmon was way better balanced than I expected and a highlight! My bits of the pie didnât seem overcooked, but didnât stand out for tenderness. Nits to pick: I think some dishes could have used some more salt or flavoring. The kohlrabi could have used a little something more, I think there was mustard seed in there and I couldnât taste it, crackling sent it to the next level though. Greens (I think it was spigarello) needed some more salt. Eye of the pork shop was slightly over, but the cap was delicious and more forgiving. For my taste some parts of the eton mess were too sweet, but the sticky toffee pudding was bang on. Pacing was pretty good, just a slight delay on the main course coming out, but they pretty much sat the whole restaurant within 10 min so Iâm sure they were slammed in the kitchen.
The fries portion is enormous, would love to see an option for a half order add-on for the fried fish. They are also giant cuts of wedge fries so be aware if you prefer thinner fries, texture is pretty good. It makes me wish someone would bring back the fried potatoes from Marcel Vigneronâs Wolf, those were the best large size fried potatoes Iâve ever had. They were also quite time/labor intensive to make.
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They must have a lot of friends. One of my besties in New Jersey posted about it because her and her sisterâs daughters were friends with at least one of the owners growing up.
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I posted in the monthly thread about a wine dinner they helped put on in the spring. The food was memorable, we will look forward to a dinner at Wildes in the new year.
The influencer at my table was clearly friends with Natasha and name dropped some cool kid friends of mine from Baltimore (le Comptoir du Vin/the Wren). The hype machine for this opening has been spinning on instagram for a while.
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clearly iâm not one of the cool kids.
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in Baltimore.
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Is it mainly the neighborhood? See a lot of comments how thereâs not a lot of great/similar places in Los Feliz which is Hipster Central.
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Donât think itâs really hipster anymore. Itâs a huge celebrity neighborhood (north of Los Feliz Blvd especially). Lots of people who found some success in film/television/music. That scene has moved to northeast, and adjacent neighborhoods.
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