Craft Review

My wife and I recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary at Craft in Century City. We've been big Tom Colicchio fans from the beginning and celebrated our first anniversary at Grammercy Tavern. We were excited to hear that Craft was coming to LA (I had an extraordinary meal at Craft NYC a couple of years ago.) (Full Disclosure: I've since had the good fortune of working with Colicchio on a couple of corporate events where he presented Craft tasting menus.)

The Craft menu is exquisite -- there truly is something for everyone and since it changes regularly, it's easy to never duplicate a meal. We started with a few Oysters -- Chilmark from Martha's Vineyard, Saltaire from Rhode Island and Kumomoto from Washington State (which tasted and smelled like watermelon.) We decided to stick with more raw dishes for the first course and had the Japanese Hamachi & Ginger and the Wagyu Beef Tartare & Fresh Pickles. The Hamachi should not be missed. I thought the same for the tartare, though my wife is loyal to the tartare to NYC's Blue Ribbon, where she first tried it some years ago. Next up was the English Pea Ravioli & Spring Onion. A refreshingly light second course, we'd both recommend ordering from the selection of pastas. Next up was something sent out from the kitchen - Roasted Dourade & Fuji Apple. Colicchio's roasting technique is extraordinary -- always a good amount of fat (butter and oil), so that the skin side of the fish gets nice and crispy. Texture plays a big part in this dish and the gentle flavor of the dourade mixed wonderfully with the apple and some crispy bacon. They also sent out a stuffed tomato which looking back on the menu was most likely from the "Gratin" selection of the extensive side dish menu (and is called Tomato & Fiore Sardo.) This went really well with the fish.

For the main course, we had the Roasted Heritage Rack of Pork & Sorrel. The rack (we were told) comes from the side of the pig and is served on a single bone (it looked somewhere between a back rib and a chop.) There was a lovely crust on the outside and an almost caramelized bit of fat still on the bone. The temperature on the inside was medium-well and it had just the right touch of pink. We were hard-pressed to see (or taste - maybe our palates didn't know what to look for?) the sorrel, but the rack was also served with rendered bacon, which was a great addition to the dish. On the side, we couldn't pass up the Assorted Mushrooms. Craft is famous for it's roasted mushroom selection - particularly the Hen of the Woods - and we were very happy with the assortment. We enjoyed a bottle of Carneros Pinot Noir (a California wine from a vineyard located between Napa and Sonoma), which was sent over by our family and it was a great choice -- went very well with all the dishes.

The room, although larger than Craft NY and not as intimate, is still very warm and there's a great bar/lounge up front. The service was first rate -- from the hostesses and sommelier down to the servers and bus boys. The blueberry corn muffins that they sent us on our way with ensured that we were still talking about our meal at breakfast the next morning.

Our only complaint (and we'd hardly call it that) was we didn't get any bread until after our first course had been cleared. But with all this spectacular food to enjoy, who needs bread. We'd say the only draw back to being that sated was that there was no room left for dessert. Not a problem - we'll be back soon for our next culinary adventure at Craft.

treeboy in Los Angeles Area