Nine Thirty Right on time

W Hotel 930 Hilgard Ave. Westwood (310) 443-8211

 

Hotel-domiciled restaurants rarely conjure glamour and have a tough time shaking off their image as convenient eateries for transients too lazy or blasé to venture out and discover the city’s charisma.  And if you’re at the W, the challenges can multiply quite easily. 

 

The chic chain known for its uncompromising sexiness and style is bound to attract trendsetters that wouldn’t dare upset the skintight outfit by yielding to more than a tapas plate so finding one of the most exciting restaurants in a boutique hotel can become a virtual litmus test.

 

From the moment you climb up the ethereal fluorescent blue stairs, step over their projected motto of “WISH – COMMAND - WHATEVER/WHENEVER” on the lobby floor and enter the high-ceilinged, seductively lit room, you know that you’ve arrived at what is ‘the’ restaurant of the moment.  Between the modern design of the room and the ravishing creatures that hold court in it, a pact is sealed.  Beauty reigns. 

 

Here they seem to sip endlessly, the celebration getting louder as the night progresses. And who can blame them?  One taste of the Pomegranate Martini and many, many more are bound to follow.  Perfectly balanced, this concoction has notes of rose and establishes early why the pomegranate may just have been the original fruit of temptation before the ubiquitous apple took over in a mistranslation.  While even the other choices rise above the run-of-the-mill cosmos and apple martinis, the Pomegranate is good enough to warrant special mention.  It is cocktail elevated to pure art. 

 

Chef Jack Yoss is a native of Las Vegas and made his mark as a Line Cook at Neros at Cesar’s Palace, as Wolfgang Puck’s Saucier at Chinois (Las Vegas) and then as a Sous Chef at the prestigious Postrio in San Francisco.  Influenced by role models like Wolfgang Puck, Mitchel and Stephen Rosenthal, and Chef Pepin who is considered the father of American cooking, Yoss has the kind of unpretentious attitude that comes through easily in his cooking.  Nowhere is this more apparent than in his ‘Little Plates.’ 

 

Oysters on the half shell are beguilingly sweet thanks to his priceless cilantro mignonette and American caviar.  Cast iron-seared diver scallops with roasted baby cauliflower and truffle oil are a testament to his style.  Yoss isn’t trying to impress as much as he is trying to please and there is a difference because the overzealous often bungle the results whereas Yoss simply delivers.  A mixed baby Sonoma green with roasted pistachios and pistachio oil is light, sweet and tangy, and a delight even to carnivores that would much rather skip their greens.  Pan-roasted hen of the woods mushrooms are meaty and buttery, and ingeniously paired with a grilled sourdough baguette that soaks up the truffle oil gravy.  From the ‘Large Plates’ the subtle bone-in New York strip with Maytag bleu butter and cipollini onions is charred on the outside and juicy inside.  For dessert, a black forest cherry cake with crème anglaise and a tangy cherry ice cream is perfect; not too sweet, with hints of liquor, the warm cake and melting ice cream are a winning combination.

 

In a place such as this, attitude from even the busboy should be a given, but everyone is so damn nice and genuinely invested in making this a memorable experience for you, that it all seems like a conspiracy to make you stay.  Then again, why would you want to leave and go anywhere else?

 

- GD/Mark Gouvion