Larchmont Grill, oh how I love DineLA

Yes I understand that I said I had no money to go out and eat, and yes I understand that even if I did have a little bit of money Larchmont is not a $ it is a $$.  So I made a mistake.  Literally.  My dear friend Kara and I decided to out for dinner last night for dineLA and had decide on the ONE $ well reviewed Bld, unfortunately I was on the Larchmont website and made reservations there.  I know I'm an idiot, I reread the gchat conversation online and it clearly states:
Amanda: Lets go to bld
Kara: Okay, want me to make reservations?
Amanda: No no I can do it.

Apparently I can't.  Luckily in my head I thought we were going to Larchmont so I printed out the directions and just assumed this is where we were going until we arrive and Kara pointed out that we had decided on Bld.  Bah!  Oh well, we're here now, and for future reference Larchmont is VERY far away from my house, its off of Melrose past La Brea and the 10 was bad so we had to take surface streets.  Anyway enough back story, on to the food!

So to start it off Larchmont is adorable it looks like someones home that has been redone into a restaurant.  And not a restaurant with miss matched kitchen tables and silverware, everything was white linens and big comfy chairs.  We made reservation and the man seating us, Gary, was also the man who I had talked to on the phone.

So we sit down and the very first thing he says is that they were doing DineLa and that its a really good deal so we should look at that menu first, and that everything else is on the back of the menu a la carte.  I was so excited because too often I have been put off during dineLA when servers suggest NOT ordering the dineLA (hinting at us being cheap.)  If you don't want us ordering off the dineLA menu then WHY are you a part of dineLA?  Isn't it to showcase you're food in a cheap way so people fall in love with it and want to come back again?  Sorry for the rant but its something that really upsets me and always makes me feel awkward at the start of the evening.

So anyway, the bread was amazing.  It appeared to have been sliced, then toasted, but not toasted enough where you could see a color change but enough to where you had the slightest crunch when you bit into it. It also had this little dish of olive oil that had what I'm assuming it red pepper flakes, capers and some other tasty bits in the bottom. 

So I ordered the organic baby green salad, the pan seared white fish and the chocolate cake and Kara ordered the spinach salad, the braised lamb shank and the cobbler.  Yay six different bites!!

Our salads come out and although it was a very simple salad it was really good.  It had a creamy cucumber dressing which if I owned a bottle of it would be dancing on all of my salads.  It also had a hard boiled egg that was so cute and little I just gobbled it up.  Kara's spinach salad with blackberry dressing was really good too although it had a huge slice of shallot, which Kara loved, and I sort of avoided.

We also ordered wine.  Kara got really excited when she found that they had, by the glass, her favorite winery in Sonoma, Deerfield Ranch Winery Cab.  I on the other hand  was having fish and so I wanted a Chardonnay but there were three option and I do not have a favorite winery so I was at a loss.  So I told our dear friend Gary this, and he looks at me and says "Just wait a second and I think I know which one for you" disappears and returns with a bottle of Tom and Dave's Chardonnay for a little taste.  Actually it was really good, so I ordered a glass and was very happy!

The to make things more happy our food arrives.  My fish is COVERED in deep fried treats and Kara has a shank of lamb that I think Heath (my husband) would have a hard time finishing.  My fish was...good.  It tasted a lot like chicken.  The sear on it was crisp and I liked that but the flavor of the chicken fish was okay. Same with the ginger rice, I actually didn't get any flavor of ginger which was disappointing, but fine.  The fried green beans and shallot on top were of course the BEST.  Granted I am completely biased towards anything covered in batter and drop in a pot of boiling oil but these were actually really good, and when you got a bite of them with the fish and rice, it was really quite tasty.

Kara's on the other hand was a 180 from mine, it wasn't delicate, it had nothing fried and it sat a top a plate of mashed potatoes instead of rice.  It was good.  Can't go wrong with braised lamb shank.  It was however forgetable.  I have had this flavor profile before, I think I've even made it in my crockpot before.  It wasn't bad!!  I was good.  But not really good.  Or OMG thats amazing.  It was good (at least from the bite I had.) 

Then dessert, and man oh man do I like dessert.  To preface my chocolate cake decision I must inform you that earlier that afternoon I had to actively convinced myself NOT to bake a chocolate cake.  I don't really like chocolate cake.  I mean I like it, but I'm not gonna eat a whole cake, not even if its over a week or something I just do not enjoy chocolate that much.  But since I was craving it I decided I must order it.  And it was good.  It wasn't dry, it wasn't overly dark chocolate-y and it wasn't covered in a thick layer of frosting.  Nope, it was all actually pretty tasty.  But what was really tasty was when I took a bite with a little bit of the whipped cream.  I mean that whipped cream made the cake REALLY good.  So good, in fact I was tempted to ask for a little more because there just wasn't enough for the whole cake.  I restrained myself, but it really was super good.

Kara's cobbler I thought was awesome.  Granted it was covered in previously mentioned whipped cream and that could have been the reason I am partial to it, but I thought it was really good as well.  She disapprove of their choice of berries, and felt it should have been heavier in raspberry and lighter in strawberry (apparently there were big chunks of raspberry.)

All in all it was a pretty good meal.  Granted whenever I go to dinner with Kara its always fun because she is in fact one of my best friends in the entire world, but this was really fun.  I think I'll come back her with my husband and order the sweet potato Gnocchi with hazelnuts, sage and brown butter or the lobster macaroni and cheese.  They consider themselves one of the best kept secrets in LA and I would have to agree!

Over all I would have to say 4 points.  Based on food alone (not the wine, the service the atmosphere) 3.5