Grace Restaurant - Los Angeles - TravBuddy

Came here almost a year ago, but the thought still makes my mouth water. Unlike the Bay area, it seems hard to get a "gourmet" yet cheap meal in LA. You have to pay a lot, and even then there is no guarantee that the food will be good, or if it is just all hype (like many things in LA ;)

Fortunately, Grace Restaurant exceeded all my expectations. I had a delicious rabbit dish. I didn't even know what rabbit tasted like, and thought it would be tough, but it was tender, flavorful, and delicious. Also had a butternut squash soup for an appetizer and it was creamy and tasted like Fall. I almost felt like I was in Berkeley again ;)

The service was very good. I won't go into too much detail here, but they basically went above and beyond anything they had to do to make sure that a special dessert was secretly served at the end of the meal ;) I thought the service was so great that I even emailed the restaurant just to say thanks, something I have never done before. The co-owner emailed me back with her appreciation!

Setting is classy and modern, but still romantic.

the service was lovely at grace. the food, however, was mediocre at best. perhaps i am jaded. it wasn't bad, it just wasn't great.

we started off with the dungeness crab salad. normally, this was served as a part of the tasting menu. we asked if we could get it a la carte. apparently, we asked nicely because they did let us order it. the crab was fresh, good and not drenched in mayo. i think this was the best part of the meal.

i had the scallops, which was nicely seared over risotto. the risotto was a bit undercooked and not creamy enough for my taste. it was mixed in with goat cheese, which i liked. but overall, the risotto was not so good.

my friend had the berkshire pork chop. it was a huge serving. but then again, the fat cap was huge too -- looked like half of the entire thing. the meat was not as juicy or tender or flavorful as i would have liked it to be. but, at least it did not taste like leather.

again, the food was ok. but unfortunately, it was expensive for just ok food.