Monday, December 13, 2010

Bottega Louie {Los Angeles, CA}

Bottega Louie is one of those restaurants that has mastered being both trendy and worthwhile. It's a place where, on a good day, which is about every other day, you can find a posh looking celebrity chowing on some great eats. 
To me, a restaurant shines in its details. Here, at Bottega Louie, they've got the details down pat. They have complimentary still and sparkling water which they pour at your table in these gorgeous glass bottles, and then leave on your table for self-pouring as needed. At the same table, you'll find little salt and pepper shakers. But these aren't your typical salt and pepper shakers, oh no. You'll notice that they have Himalayan pink salt!
Right when you are seated you'll also be greeted with little loaves of bread. Crusty and served right on the table. Oh, and paired with homemade jam and butter to boot! I wish the bread was served warm though.
To drink, we opted for their green tea mojitos, which is their clever concoction of green tea and mint, and a vanilla latte. The latte was splendid as well.
After reading many reviews on Yelp, I deduced that the Portobello fries were a necessary order. Meaty, chewy and a bit crispy on the edges and served with some sort of aoili. I was already stuffed and satisfied from munching on these, but we had much more to come!
My favorite dish probably had to be the mache salad with roasted chicken, avocado and lemon. It was lightly dressed, really fresh, and reminded me of a Vietnamese dish. It was really fantastic. 
The eggs benedict were enjoyed by a friend, who lives and breathes for eggs benedicts and who self-proclaims herself as an eggs benedict fiend. She said this one was among her top 3 that she's tried.
Lastly for lunch, we got the clam pizza. No, there was not any clams on the pizza, sadly. But with roasted peppers, and gooey ooey cheese, it was still good. Though I enjoyed the chewiness and crispy edges of the dough, this was not my favorite. It was enjoyable, just not spectacular.
Wandering their desserts was like walking through a mine field, each way I'd look there'd be an explosion of cuteness. Their selection of cupcakes makes me insanely jealous because they are too damned beautiful!

To take home, we settled on some French macarons. When choosing them, I was slightly disappointed because they didn't seem like they had much of a selection and pretty basic ones at that. But upon tasting them, I was definitely surprised. They were the freshest, most moist and light macarons I've had. The cookie almost melted in my mouth! My favorites are still Paulette, but these are definitely second.

6 comments:

  1. I also believe a restaurant shines through its small details like (complimentary!!) water, and superbe bread and rare salts and peppers.

    I would love to try that mache salad. The combo intrigues me so much.

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  2. I've had their macarons, and they seem to be hit or miss. I think that some of them are filled with a whipped cream filling rather than the more traditional ganache filling and I like those less. I agree with you that Paulette makes a great macaron, but my favorite right now are from XT Patisserie. Have you ever tried those?

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  3. Sylvie: NO, I haven't had those macarons from XT!!! Now that you say that, I must get my hands on some. I love macarons so I'm sure I'd loooove those, thanks for the tip :)

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  4. i love this post!! i love posts featuring restuarants and you have some awesome pictures that are seriously making me want to go here!! i feature a few restuarants on my blog as well if you ever want to check it out.

    xo
    http://dragonfruit-samnegs.blogspot.com

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  5. you have inspired me! I am going there on wednesday!

    also...I showed my best friend your blog. addicted.

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  6. your blog is so great!! i especially liked this post -- it made me want to move back to la and that is hard to do! :P

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