Foodie Digest

so we zoom ahead to end of June. Still to come are visits to Mercat a la planxa and Graham Elliot in Chicago. Beretta in SF. But I figured I’d write about Jar while it’s relatively fresh in my memory.

We road tripped to Los Angeles to visit a friend and buy some booze. We’ve never really been able to explore too many restaurants in LA, so when the opportunity arose I did some Chowhounding and Yelping. We wanted reservations with an hours notice or so. Jar showed up on Open Table at the right time, so we grabbed the reservation.

We walk in the door and are immediately impressed with the clubby retro steak house atmosphere. We’re a few minutes ahead of our table so we grab comfy seats at the bar. We’re presented with bowls of mixed nuts and housemade potato chips and dip. A friendly bartender answers questions about the dinner menu (and drinks) for us. We have time to devour 2 bowls of chips and get our drinks, then our table is ready.

The maitre d’ treats us warmly and carries our drinks to the table. I point out the treats us warmly part since some of us are dressed a little SF casual and sometimes that can bring out the snootiness in a well dressed restauranteur. Not here. Our table is central in the dining room and again has very comfortable chairs. On wheels. With arms. 

The menu here is very meat focused. And we’re hungry. We start with:

• Crab deviled eggs recommended to us by the bartender and our server. These were good but not better than any other deviled egg (which isn’t a bad thing, mind you).
• Pork belly and watermelon salad the pork belly here is a little tough, but the flavors mixed with watermelon are quite nice.
• Grilled calamari salad I can’t actually remember the description or what else came with this. I do know it was fine but we all missed the grilled flavor on the calamari.
• Roasted beets salad I think this one a friend panic ordered so we ended up with quite a few starters. This was flavorful but tasted like most other beet salads.
• Celery root soup this was served with a parmesan cream drizzle but my friends ordered this sans cheese. The tiny sample I had was light yet flavorful. The soup was completely polished off by the two who ordered it.

At this point I’ll mention that our service has been outstanding the whole time we are there. I enjoyed a great cab by the glass (neal family, I think). For entrees we had:

• Yankee pot roast one friend ordered this; another friend coveted it. Very rich tasting and a delightful rendition.
• Bone in dry aged filet This was one of the specials of the day. Two of us ordered this. It was a phenomenal cut of meat.
• Dry aged kansas city steak This is regularly on the menu. Was good but couldn’t compete with the bone in filet.

The steaks came with your choice of sauces; we sampled horseradish, peppercorn and tamarind. The steaks did not need it but it was nice for variety.

We went a little crazy with the sides, and had:

• french fries because they were recommended by both the bartender and server. They were good but maybe because I haven’t eaten french fries in 6 months.
• duck fried rice this was polished off by two people. I don’t eat duck so can’t really describe but it was deemed very delicious.
• Turnips braised in veal stock good, but not phenomenal
• Japanese purple yams served with creme fraiche and chives. Caramelized perfectly and quite tasty.

I’m sure I’ve missed something. Anyway, after all of this we still got 3 desserts.

So I love the atmosphere, loved the service, and really enjoyed the food. And the walk to my friend’s house afterward was exactly what I needed after dinner.

Overall thumbs: Up. I think all 4 thumbs up.

Food tastiness: Good. The steak was fantastic. The sides were good. 

Service rating: Very high. We were treated well, service was warm and friendly yet very professional.

Would definitely go back.