[Los Angeles] [Spanish] The Bazaar by Jose Andres

The Bazaar by Jose Andres
SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills
465 S La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(310) 246-5567
http://www.thebazaar.com

What is THE one new Los Angeles restaurant everybody's been talking about?  Gotta be The Bazaar by Jose Andres.  The restaurant recently received a rare 4 stars reviewfrom Los Angeles Times!  This was one of the restaurants I really want to try from the dineLA list.  Unfortunately, we didn't make it during that two weeks.  But since dineLA has been extended till the end of February, Dr. P took me to Bazaar to celebrate my birthday.  It was my first experience with molecular gastronomy cuisine.  I never knew "foam" could taste so delicious!



The Bazaar is located inside the posh SLS Hotel.  We checked in with the hostess at the lobby, and seated in the Rojo Room.  We could see the busy chefs + Marcel Vigneron working at the kitchen.  It was Marcel Vigneron from Top Chef Season 2!




Behind our table, there is the cheese/cured meat station.  A huge pork "leg" was resting on the counter.

We decided to go with the dinLA option.  For $44 per person, we can choose any 3 items from the menu, a philly cheese steak sandwich, and a dessert.  The items range from $8 to $16.  Of course we picked the more expensive dishes to make the money worth.


"New Way" Dirty Martini ($16.00)
Dry martini, olive spherifiation and olive brine air

Sorry I don't really know much about this style of cooking so I don't know the proper "language".  I am just going to describe it like an ordinary ignorant person who doesn't know anything about molecular gastronomy. 

We started out with the "New Way" Dirty Martini.  This new molecular gastronomy way involves a lot of foam, liquid, and smoke.  The top layer of the martini was olive foam.  I don't normally like olive, but strangely I like the olive foam.  It was almost sweet.  It made the usually "dry" martini tasted sweet and "wet" (as in contrast to "dry" haha).



The "olive" inside the martini wasn't real olive.  It looked almost like an egg yolk.  I let Dr. P have the honor to try the strange looking olive.  He said, "wow" after he tried it.  It was olive "liquid".  A thin membrane burst in your mouth and ice cold olive liquid was released.  He said it was very different and just makes you go "wow".  Hey, I wanna try it next time!


Watermelon Tomato Skewers ($8.00)
Pedro Ximenez reduction, cherry tomatoes

Since all the expensive dishes were meat and seafood, we ordered an extra dish of vegetable (well, veggie + food actually).  We ordered all the food at the same time.  We really like the order the food was served.  First dish was this Watermelon Tomato Skewers.  Do tomato and watermelon go well together?  It was our first thought when we saw this dish on the menu.  I love watermelon, and I love tomato.  I just never love them at the same time.  And man, it was love at first bite!  Watermelon was sweet and juicy.  Tomato (only the seed part was served) was slimy and a bit sour.  The Pedro Ximenez reduction tasted like vinegar.  Everything combined together, yumminess!  It was light, refreshing, and addicting.  I am definitely going to try this combination in summer time at http://www.eileenlikestoeat.com.


Sea Urchin ($14.00)
Pipirruna, Andalusian vegetables

Then seafood dishes were served.  The Sea urchin was served in a tin can dish.  It was small, just the regular tuna can size.  The uni looked great, but it turned out to be the least memorable dish of the night.  I love uni for its creamy texture and sweet flavor.  The salsa (onion & peppers) was supposed to be a supplement to the sea urchin.  But the vinegar and veggie actually was overpowering and I couldn't taste the flavor of the sea urchin at all.  The sea urchin was creamy alright, but I didn't taste anything in my mouth.


King Crab ($16.00)
Fresh raspberries, raspberry vinegar

King Crab was also served in a tin can dish.  Beautiful presentation with vibrant colors.  The big chunk of crab meat was so fresh, and fresh seafood should always taste sweet.  The slight tangy raspberry vinegar was perfect with the crab.  I even ate the flower pedals.  And it tasted like flower, very good flower.


Tuna Toro "Nigiri" ($16.00)
Wasabi, watermelon, red wine, soy, jalapeno

Next was Tuna Toro "Nigiri".  I have never ever had a "nigiri" like this before.  I bet none of you guys have, either (well, unless you've been to Bazaar and ordered the same dish before).  First, instead of rice, the tuna was sitting on top of watermelon cubes.  Yes, watermelon.  Second, no need to dip in soy sauce.  Because there were soy sauce "foam" on top of the tuna.  Tuna watermelon sushi with soy sauce foam.  Sounds good?  Well, it WAS good!  The slightly seared tuna was so delicious.  Even though it was cooked, it was still "melt-in-your-mouth" kinda good.  The sweet and juicy watermelon strangely went so well with the fish.  And the soy sauce foam, tasted just like soy sauce.  Freshly grated wasabi was a winner, too.  This dish definitely was unique, and we love it!


Galician Lobster Medallions ($15.00)
Olive oil, potatoes, paprika

More foam.  Galician Lobster Medallions, with a dollop of unknown foam on top.  I can't recall how the foam tasted like in this dish (thanks to the 2 apple martini at http://www.eileenlikestoeat.com + the dirty martini earlier).  I think it was some kind of paprika flavor foam that went quite well with the lobster.  There were 3 big pieces of lobster.  It was so delicious that I forgot I was dining in a fine restaurant and started using my hand to eat it (again, alcohol alcohol alcohol).


2006 Malbec Coleccion Privada, Navarro Correas, Mendoza ($10.00)

And yes, more alcohol.  We ordered the Spanish red wine in the beginning, but they didn't bring it to us until before the meat dishes were served.  We thought that was very thoughtful of them to do that.  I think the red wine was good, I think....  But after having 3 martinis, all alcohol tasted great.


Philly Cheesesteak ($8.00/per person)
Air bread, cheddar cheese, Wagyu beef

Philly Cheesesteak with Wagyu beef.  The raw slices of beef on top of the bread looked scary and good at the same time.  I took a big bite.



Mmmmm mmmm mmmmm mmmm mm!  The beef was tasty.  It tasted just like cooked beef.  The "air" bread was crispy and hollow in the middle.  Inside the bread was filled with cheese... gooey melted warm heavenly cheese oozing out.  Oh my god!  This was THE BEST philly cheesesteak sandwich I've ever had.  I think someone should make it official to have ALL philly cheesesteak be made this way from now on.


Beef Hanger Steak ($10.00)
Piquillo pepper confit

Beef Hanger Steak was more "triditional" comparing to the other dishes.  The steak was cooked a perfect medium.  It had a slightly burnt/bitter flavor.  It was good, but not as memorable as the other dishes.


Lamb Loin ($14.00)
Foraged mushrooms, potato

the Lamb Loin was much better than the steak.  The picture didn't really show the lamb.  The sliced lamb was super tender.  It was served with some kind of delicious wild mushroom and potato foam (or cream? or just creamy foam?).  It had the creamy foam texture, but it tasted just like potato.  It was weird, but good.  I dipped the lamb in the potato foam, lots of it, and it was wow after wow.

After the main meal, we were giving the option of staying in the dining room or move to the Patisserie for dessert.  We wanted to check out the Patisserie area.  Our nice waiter gave us a brief tour of the restaurant/hotel on the way.



This was the Blanca dining room.  It was quieter and more elegant than the rojo dining room.



You can also sit at the Bar Centro to have a less informal dinner, as well as many of their unique drinks.



Then there is Moss, where you can buy many beautiful and unique little things.  (More detail about Moss in next post.)



And there it is, the Patisserie.



Chocolate, truffles, candies, cakes....  Everything looked so yummy, and beautiful.


Coffee ($4.00)

We were seated in a little white sofa booth.  Dr. P ordered coffee to go with dessert.  No refill.  When he finished the cup, a busboy took the cup away without offering more coffee.


Nitro Coconut Floating Island ($10.00)
With passion fruit and vanilla

Dr. P ordered Nitro Coconut Floating Island.  Sorry for the blurry picture.  My vision was blurrier than the picture at this point.  Nitro Coconut Flating Island was a big coconut foam on a plate.  Yes, it was all foam, coconut flavor foam.  Beneath the foam were banana slices.  I had a few bite.  The foam tasted like cream.


Traditional Spanish Flan ($10.00)
With vanilla and fruit

I ordered the Traditional Spanish Flan.  It was silky and creamy.  Yum!


Tangerine Sorbet with Rose

I heart our dessert waiter because (1) he looks like Dwight Schrute; (2) he noticed my 5" red heels and complimented on how cute they were; (3) he gave me free sorbet for my birthday; and (4) and a rose, too.  But the rose was not just for show (nor love).  He asked me to take a bite of the sorbet first before he told me how to "use" the rose.  The tangerine sorbet was tangy and sour.  Then he asked me to take a big sniff of the rose, and try the sorbet again.  I did, and the sorbet tasted different.  It became sweet, very sweet, with the delicate rose frangrance sweet.  Wow, now I know... smell will affect the taste of food.  I bet stinky tofu will not be as tasty if it wasn't stinky.



And our nice dessert waiter offered to take a picture for us.  ^^  I heard Bazaar had a no photo policy.  What no photo policy?



One flaw of the night though.  We only had one wine, but got charged for two.  But our waiter quickly apologized and corrected the bill.  It's always a good thing to check your bill. 

I am in love with Bazaar.  Love the food, decor, service, everything!  Just found out the Patisserie serves afternoon tea for $25/person.  Will be back soon to try that!

Thank you, Dr. P, for taking me to Bazaar for my birthday!  I love you.

[ad#ad-unit]