Laurel

Since we didn't go out to dinner on Valentine's night, which was midweek, we went this past Saturday at Laurel uptown. It was an opportunity for us to get dressed up (well, me mostly! I wore a strapless coffee colored sheath that I got for $29 clearance from Ann Taylor!) and have a relaxing dinner out with Bert. TC spent the night at my mom's and was a good sport about it. She got to play her cousins, watch TV, eat my mom's good food, etc! We had reservations for 5:30 pm and were lucky to find street parking right next to the restaurant. If not, we would have either had to walk several blocks (which would've sucked since I wore 3 inch heels) or paid for valet parking ($6!!! Yikes). Anyhew, the restaurant had a pre-theater dinner special from 5 - 6:30 for $35 that I was interested in. I was particularly eyeing the black cod entree.

The restaurant was recently bought and remodeled last year by the owner of Chive . We hadn't been to Laurel before so I couldn't compare it to its' old interior. A co-worker had given his high recommendations as well. The interior of Laurel is beautiful and chic (a black and white theme was evident throughout) and is within walking distance of Balboa Park on the corner of Laurel and 5th Ave. The dining area is several steps below ground level. When we arrived, the place was relatively empty. We were seated along a row of mini tables along a banquette. While we perused the menu and drinks list, a bowl of spiced edamame was placed on our table. These were quite good and I asked the server what the spices were. She told me the edamame had a Moroccan spice mixture which included cumin, cardamom, tumeric, and orange zest (I'm sure I forgot another ingredient she mentioned).

Here is another food blog review of Laurel, with better photos. This person had quite a bit of food (including the Torta we didn't order and the Rabbit that Bert had) I was playing with the settings on my camera and didn't have the flash on when I took the following shots below:

You could see part of Bert above. He wore a purple shirt with the new tie I bought him (purple with brown stripes - it sounds ugly but it's really not!) I liked the design you see below.

My crappy photo of the bar area:

I ordered a French Viognier by the glass. What kind of peeved me was, when I ordered it, I pronounced it, "vee-own-Yay" and the waitress corrected me - "veen-Yay". WTF!!! Biyatch! That is not the right way to pronounce it! Dumb ass.

Our appetizer was the Comice Pear and Smoked Bacon Flatbread ($14) which has gala apple, quince, bleu cheese, medjool date and balsamic drizzle and is topped off with baby lettuce. The appetizer we originally wanted was the Torta Espanol ($13) which is a souffle of Spanish sausage, Yukon gold potato, baby arugula, lemon creme fraiche and caviar. That would have taken twenty minutes to prepare, so we went for the flatbread instead. We'll get it the Torta next time!

Here's another shot of the flatbread. There were about 9 triangular pieces of flatbread with the aforementioned ingredients. I'm not much of a bleu cheese fan, but I did like this preparation. There were so many other flavors going on so I wasn't bothered by my usual dislike of bleu cheese. The bitterness of the greens was also a good counter to the sweetness of the pear and smokiness of the bacon.

We ordered a side of Shoestring Frites ($5) which were sprinkled with a parmesan herb topping and truffle oil. We didn't realize how big the bowl was going to be. We also ordered a side of Sauteed Mushrooms ($6) with shallot and fresh herbes (not pictured).

Unfortunately their pre-theatre dinner special had changed (Warning - their online menu has also changed). They no longer had the black cod choice, instead it was striped sea bass which I didn't really want. So, I ordered the Petite Filet and Kobe Beef Short Rib entree (forgot the price). Both items were on the same plate, but they are pictured separately here. Here is the Petite Filet, medium rare, served on mashed parsnips and two baby carrots. The mini onion slid off the filet as I took the photo.

The Kobe Beef Short Rib was quite tender and juicy (from the fat!!!). It lay atop Duxelles in puff pastry.

Bert had the Rabbit Three Ways ($29). From left to right, B'Stilla, Confit, and Loin. The B'Stilla was nestled on top of a mojo verde, the Confit on rainbow chard, and the loin in tea infused currant. Until that night, I have never tried rabbit. Now I can honestly say that I ate Bugs Bunny and enjoyed it. It really does taste like chicken! We actually saved some for TC to try the next day. The B'stilla had a layer of roasted red pepper with some sort of pate on it. I didn't realize it until the next day because when TC tried to eat it, she spat it out and said it tasted gross. I looked closely and it looked like a liver spread. I thought it tasted okay the night before so I ate the remaining piece (that was spitfree!).

Here is the banquette where I sat. I had a great view of the entire restaurant. Bert had a chair facing me, but there were mirrors behind the banquette so he had a good view as well.

Our dessert was the Bittersweet Chocolate Marquis which consisted of coffee ice cream with cocoa nibe tuiles (you can't see them but the tuiles are lacy cookies sticking up from the ice cream), sour cherry compote and mocha creme. The triangular chocolate was actually standing on it's thin edge and is had gold leaf at the apex. I lay it flat so could cut into it more easily. I loved all but one thing about this dessert. Every bit of it was delicious - the portion, the flavors, everything...

Except for one aspect of the presentation. I think I would have liked it better if the mocha creme wasn't smeared on the plate like a gigantic SKIDMARK! We both looked at each other and suppressed our laughter. We both felt that the chocolate could have looked a bit nicer, perhaps fanciful designs of mocha goodness courtesy of a squeeze bottle? Or a lovely pool of mocha creme instead of a big ole smear reminiscent of a your worst watery dump?

That being said, we had a very lovely time at Laurel! It's not often that we get to go out to a nice dining establashment. We would definitely go again, but will probably wait until another special occasion.