Vespertine ()

Celebrated my 3 Year anniversary here with my girlfriend this past friday. Overall it was an excellent experience! I highly recommend but i’ve yet to try providence, somni, Hayato and melisse. The other two and three stars in Los Angeles.
Experience:

Arrived around 8:15 (reservation at 8:30) and were told to wait in the garden where they had heated benches and blankets though it was a nice evening and not too cold out. We waited maybe 5 minutes and were brought in early where we were greeted and brought upstairs to the 3rd floor where the kitchen is, Chef Jordan Kahn wished us a happy anniversary and we were given a brief tour of the kitchen before bringing brought down to the 2nd floor, the space was super futuristic and everything seemed completely tailored to the space. The bench seat we sat it wasn’t the most comfortable but i’ve sat at much worse. The opening “snack” was a palate cleanser which admittedly forgot to take a picture of but it was an herbal like tea. We were briefed with the supplements, my GF opted for the mixed pairing and I had a headache all day so skipped the alcohol and tried their N/A vitality pairing. Though still tried a lot of her drinks. It was a mix of wines, cocktails, some mocktails/juices lined up with mine, and sakes. Felt it was one of the better pairings i’ve had with a meal and both the NA and mixed pairing seemed to work very well wish each dish they were paired with.

First dish of the night was the aguachile passion fruit scallop dish, it was visually stunning and super light and fresh. I love scallop and passion fruit and spice and it was the perfect blend of all 3.

Next was the edible garden, Visually stunning of course but again super refreshing and packed with flavor which surprised me. I believe it was snap peas with a coconut milk cream that bound the flowers to the sides it was delicious didn’t expect to be as flavorful as it was.

the Deep sea prawns served in the ice block was again visually stunning, the dish itself tasted pretty good and the prawns were amazing but the broth they poured over was a little sour and kind of masked the sweetness of the prawns which i was a little disappointed about but still good.

The only other thing we supplemented for the evening was the golden ossetra caviar for the Obsidian mirror and usually i don’t go for a caviar supplement as i don’t think it’s worth it most of the time (and honestly most supplements, i did the A5 olive beef at addison recently and of course it was amazing but i didn’t feel it was $195 better than the quail my friend had gotten, so decided to save the money and stick with the lamb instead of subbing for A5 waygu eat vespertine) but anyways the caviar was worth EVERY penny. I believe it was $85 per person but it was a healthy serving of golden ossetra on the Obsidian mirror which was a smoke mussel dish and we were both practically scraping the plate. This was probably my favorite dish of the night again not expecting it to be fearing the presentation was more cared for than the flavor but that’s not the case.

I loved the Kin Medai, felt it was super buttery but the skin slid right off and was almost too tender and the papaya blend didn’t do a lot for me on the bottom as the fish was very flavorful. Great dish but not the star for me

The quail 3 ways was another banger, The quail breast was sooo juicy and flavorful especially with the quail cream but the best bite was the leaf wrapped quail thigh it was probably my 2nd favorite bite of the night. The sour dough fry bread was also excellent and putting the quail cream and breast on the bread was a fantastic bite. Definitely top 3 savory courses for me.

Final savory course was the Lamb which was wrapped in a layer of its own fat topped with a lamb fat foam. The lamb was incredibly flavorful but the knives they gave us were incredibly dull and it made it difficult to cut especially for how small the piece was, very glad i didn’t sub the A5 waygu and the dish would’ve been a 10/10 if it was easier to cut or already pre sliced like the quail breast. The accoutrements with it were not my fav i didn’t think the Lamb needed much but it didn’t hurt it either.

The bridge between savory and sweet was the Hokkaido pumpkin dessert, it was good but the weakest dish of the night for me it kind of fell flat for how hyped it was being Chef Kahn’s favorite dish but it could’ve just not been for me.

My favorite dessert of the night was the lamb fat pancake with the Laphroaig cream and black berry jam. It was AMAZING. As straight forward as it seams yet it was so so so good.

The ice dessert was interesting and it was made from the same pine sap as one of the pairing drinks was, it was sweet and refreshing and cut the richness after the lamb pancake. I thought it was good but it wasn’t anything to rave about but great for the purpose it served bridging to the final dessert.

The final was the layered raspberry and beet dessert it was such a mixture of textures between creamy crunchy crispy and cakey too it was a different bite each time in both texture and taste and I have 0 complaints it was excellent especially as someone who doesn’t love super sweet desserts for the most part it was the perfect sweetness and tart.

Overall our experience was great, the service was excellent and I would 100% go back. There was not a single dish I didn’t like just some were far better than others. I think it’s the perfect example of a 2 star as a baseline the “worst” dishes were still of 1 star quality and the best could easily be served in 3 stars. I highly recommend and it was easily
the most visually stunning meal i’ve had. Not a food critic or reviewer just someone who likes good food and i’m bridging more into the world of ultra fine dining but out of the 20 or so michelin starred restaurants i’ve been to so far it sits comfortably in my top 5 and easily could be argued for top 3. Apologies for the less than stellar photos of the desserts the lighting was not the best.