Koi is a favorite of the friend whom I visited, so I went with him to it on his behalf. It was located in West Hollywood and that was certainly the vibe I got from the interior. The atmosphere of the restaurant was like a Japanese garden mixed with a nightclub. There was a quiet stream and next to the bamboo-decorated patio in the outdoor section where we sat. Though close to empty, the few people there were gorgeous and I got the feeling that this was less of a place for serious dining and more or less a cool place to take people out to. I should have taken pictures of the drinks and décor because those were definitely the selling points. Some of the interesting martinis I got were Ginger Sidecar (cognac, canton ginger liqueur, sweet and sour), Wasabi Praise (vodka, sake, simple syrup, lime juice, fresh wasabi), and Berry Bliss (gin, raw agave, pomegranate juice, raspberries) Most of the dishes were small plates that we ordered like tapas.
The first dish we got was the spicy seared albacore with crispy red onions. Like many of the dishes here, they overdid the crunchy aspect. However, the thinly sliced albacore buried among the tinder was thin, moist, and delectable. It had a pleasant spice and was very light. Its lightness was a complete contrast to the fried mess around it though. I think it would have been improved if they took a salad interpretation of this. Instead, it tasted like good tuna with bad French fries.
Next, we tried the spicy rock shrimp tempura hand roll. The light doughy exterior was more like a spring roll than a hand roll though. On the inside was Koi’s signature spicy rock shrimp tempura. The sauce was orange, creamy, and very mild. It was definitely a gigantic rip-off of Nobu’s rock shrimp tempura. The sauce and texture were identical. That doesn’t mean that it was bad, just lacking in originality.
Then we tried one of their most popular dishes, the crispy rice. Though the name is incredibly generic, this dish was amazing. It was topped with a jalapeno pepper and spicy tuna that resembled a mousse in texture. The rice was crunchy and complemented the soft mousse. It was an interesting feeling, biting through the crunch of the pepper, sliding through the mousse, and then meeting resistance at the rice. After you make your way through the rice crunch through, all of the flavors come together, spreading in your mouth as the crunch continues to echo. If I ever come back to Koi, it would be for this dish.
Just because it’s a Japanese place, I had to try the sushi. We got salmon, fresh water eel, sea eel, and tuna. These weren’t very impressive. The tuna was low quality and the salmon was good but average. As far as the eel goes, I love it. I’m a big eel fan. It’s my favorite type of sushi next to the elusive and expensive oh-toro. Oh-toro is the fattiest type of tuna, which few restaurants carry. The rankings from least to most fatty are maguro, toro, chu-toro, and oh-toro. The tuna that we had tasted and looked like maguro, though I did like the slight searing on the outside. For eel, both had the generic “BBQ” sauce that they always do. The fresh water (darker one) tasted like it came out of one of those vacuum-sealed packages that are all over Japanese supermarkets. However, the sea eel was delicious. I was pleasantly surprised since most restaurants mess up here. Usually it comes overcooked and rubbery. This was cool, light, and supple. It wasn’t good enough to make up for the under-performers though. After the sushi, I got the distinct feeling that people don’t come for their nigiri.
What people do come for are their special rolls. The one we got is what they’re known for and it was incredibly tasty. Completely lacking in the arts of subtlety, the Koi Dragon Roll pounded me in the face with eel, baked crab, and shrimp tenpura. It wasn’t perfect though. The crunchy panko was drowning the dish and I had to take a bunch off. Other than that, the flavor was intense and the texture was great.
The grilled lamb chops with roasted shishito mashed potatoes and ichimi glaze came next. It was rare and tender, but the glaze was a too sweet and lacking in flavor. I love lamb and they did a good job cooking it, but the dish as a whole was uninspired and completely behind the times. If I were to give this dish a make-over, I would have used a wasabi-infused demi glace for the glaze and paired it with matsutake risotto. This dish was a rip-off.
I’m not much of a dessert person, but my friend was so intent on getting one that I conceded. We had the flourless molten chocolate volcano cake with vanilla ice cream, raspberry sauce, and fresh berries. It wasn’t anything to write home about and tasted the way you would expect it to. The only difference between it and the premade ones you can buy in the grocery store was the ice cream and powdered sugar.
As a whole, Koi is way overrated. The crispy rice was amazing and some of the drinks were really fun. However, whoever is working the bar needs to find a strainer because I got really tired of chewing the ice in my drinks. The atmosphere was cool though and supposedly a lot of celebrities go there. I could understand it as a place to get a few drinks and hang out, but the food is not worth the price. Spago was a much better value.
Luckily, I came just in time to catch the tail end of restaurant week in LA, so we hit up Spago. Spago is located in Beverly Hills, but unlike Koi, seemed to lack a regional personality. It is Wolfgang Puck’s big restaurant here and I wanted to see what the restaurant was like on home turf. I went to a Spago’s in Vegas that was awful, but I was willing to give Puck another chance and I was glad I did.
We had to wait for a while before getting a table and during the wait, the service was abysmal. They treated us like children as they kept letting parties go ahead of us. It took a lot of complaining on my part to actually get seated. Once at the table, the waitress was very nice and the service improved. Choosing not to go all out, I got the restaurant week menu with the wine pairings. It was much more expensive than New York restaurant week, but I guess that’s LA for you.
The bread that came after ordering was decent. Blaufränkisch was the first wine the came out. I wish I could remember more about it, but all I remember was it being pretty mediocre, as were the rest of the wines. I got the feeling that the restaurant was catering towards the high rollers dropping $5,000 on a bottle, which is completely understandable.
We started out with a round of oysters. They were iced kumamoto and fanny bay oysters with marinated Japanese seaweed, fresh horseradish, and ginger-sherry mignonette. These were delicious, especially the kumamotos. They were served with lemon and cocktail sauce as well. There was no sand or particulates in the oysters, which is really the only difference I can tell from good restaurant oysters and store-bought. The mignonette was good, but a bit thin, making it hard to eat with the oysters.
Someone got a salad with something in it, but I am foggy on the details. What I do remember is the ravioli that I got. Oh my god they were awesome. The ravioli were filled with some of the best short ribs I have ever had. Unlike the mousse-type fillings I am accustomed to, this had real texture. It was fatty, tender, and had the sinews-falling-apart texture of good short ribs. For the chefs, I’m sure it’s a dream. They use all the leftover short ribs for ravioli filling. The sauce was creamy yet light. It was an incredibly tasty dish and I found good use for the bread, getting every last drop of the sauce. The wine tasted much better with the ravioli.
The next wine was a Grenache and Syrah blend that was a bit hot. When paired with the food though, it mellowed out a lot and complemented well. The dish was a very tender Kurobuta pork chop. What that means is that it comes from Berkshire pigs in Japan. It’s like what Kobe beef is to cows, Kurobuta is to pigs. I got a very generous serving of this incredible meat. It made everyone else at the table jealous as they ate their lackluster halibut.
For dessert, I had a Muscat, which seems to be the trendy dessert pairing these days. It worked really well with the chocolate purse. This dish didn’t taste amazing, but it looked really cool, which is what I look for in a dessert more than anything else. It was a chocolate center cleverly encapsulated in a “purse”. I don’t know how they got the amazing texture on the purse. The top was crunchy, but the bottom that held the chocolate was soft. It was really fun to eat. The fruity sauces and ice cream were all pretty ordinary, but so is everything compared to the purse. Nancy Silverton is the famed pastry chef at work here and I can definitely see why she is so renowned.
Spago was really fun and the food was outstanding. I would definitely go back if it weren’t so far away. It more than made up for the disaster I had at the Vegas one. Wolfgang Puck has a great restaurant here, fully deserving of its two Michelin stars.
Fine dining in LA had mixed results. Koi was egregiously overpriced, but Spago was delicious and semi-affordable due to restaurant week. For how much I spent though, I would have gotten a lot more in New York, but that might just be because I know the area better. The cheap eats in LA impressed me a lot more and those are probably what I’ll remember the most. They had so much personality, while the fine dining scene resembled the bland capitalist mush that seems to follow large bankrolls. There definitely lacked originality, with the exception of Koi’s crispy rice. However, I still enjoyed myself at both places and at the end of the day, that’s really all that matters.
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