Good Food & Service at Tasca on Third: review with pics

[lotta_cox]

Thursday Night at Tasca
Tasca
8108 W Third St
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Phone: [phone]

Weeknights Tasca offers a nice little Tapas Happy Hour. I wish I had a copy of the Happy Hour menu. All kinds of Spanish tapas, Spanish style in the sense that each one is just a couple of bites rather than the standard California practice of small plates.

Their special menu on the wall board lists soup du jour, shrimp pintxos, escargot, and duck 3 ways as a large plate. I find the prices to be very reasonable. The three of us escaped with a $158 bill, and we ordered a $65 bottle of wine.

For my Happy Hour tapa, I ordered the chicken liver mousse. With chives and a trace of truffle flavoring, this was delicious. It was about 4 bites for me, for the normal human most likely only two.

C ordered the manchego cheese with a schmear of something jammy. She told me what it is called in Spanish, and I cannot remember. But D said it tasted like cranberry sauce, sweet yet tart and fruity. She loves, adores, worships manchego and said this was far better quality than what she gets at Trader Joe's.

D ordered the bacalao, something I love. It was a very nice rendition, atop some tomato & olive oil sauce. Both D & C commented on its saltiness, primarily I think because neither one of them understood the historical context of bacalao. They got a mini-lesson with their tapas, what I know anyway from watching Anthony Bourdain and reading A Cook's Tour. Please see wikipedia for your own mini-lesson. I rarely pass on an opportunity to eat bacalao, and only did so last night because I even more rarely pass on an opportunity to eat chicken liver pate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacalhau

They beautifully decanted our $65 bottle that was so highly rec'd by one of the staff. It needed decanting. It's not a wine I would have chosen myself, but it opened up nicely and I enjoyed drinking its ass off.

To start, C ordered the soup of the day, which was a roasted red bell pepper and eggplant soup. I think serving bad soup in a restaurant is a crime, as soup is so easy and lends itself to flavor saturation. This soup did its job nicely. It tasted wonderful. Although I have to say that I didn't taste much eggplantiness. I don't think the subtle flavor of an eggplant stands a chance against the domineering red bell pepper. It did taste lovely, nevertheless.

To start, I ate the baby artichoke salad with heirloom tomatoes, arugula and a lemon vinaigrette. Truly delicious. My favorite part of the meal, or maybe a tie with the chicken live mousse. This was very lightly dressed, the artichoke was julienned for easy eating, and the arugula was plentiful. Also, the tomatoes were perfectly ripe, not too soft and not too hard.

For a main dish, C ordered the wild mushroom risotto balls. The size was nice, big enough to for a light meal but not obscenely large. They were lightly fried and sitting in a small puddle of a sour creamy sauce with chives. She said they didn't have enough zing. But I find that to be the case with risotto balls in general.

For a main (or third starter, if you will) I ate the tuna tarare. This was dressed again, lightly in truffle oil. Surprisingly, the flavor of the fish and surrounding ingredients were not overwhelmed by the truffle flavor. It was very nice. It also came with a large water glass full of taro chips, but by the time I got to the tartare I was starting to feel full.

D nommed on the steak frites. Whoever was in the kitchen cooked this far more well done than any steak house worth its own salt would do, so eater be warned. Order on the rare side. He ordered this medium. But he loves it cooked this way, so he was super pleased. And the frites. This is how an American frite should be. Larger than a true pomme frite French style. And the texture in the middle was like cake. Potato fried cake sticks. Just.wonderful.to.eat. I approve.

I will definitely be eating here again. I imagine late suppers and early dinners at Tasca. I am slightly enamored.

review with pics: http://foodshethought.blogspot.com/20...

[bulavinaka]

Great review! I think what you had with your manchego was Spanish quince paste, or dulce de membrillo. It's widely available starting in late summer/early fall and is popular in other countries that have a strong Spanish influence as well. If you've ever had alfajores, it's usually filled with dulce de leche, but you'll often find it filled with this quince paste as well, particularly in the fall...

Do you recall the wine that you had? I'm always up for a great wine, particularly from the Iberian peninsula. We will probably be dropping by here within the next month... Thanks!

[vinosnob]

Looking at the picture on the blog, the wine was an '04 Chateau Belles Graves. I've had a few '04 Bordeaux lately and they seem to be in the a good groove right now and are drinking well. $65 is about a 3x mark up, but that's typical these days.

[bulavinaka]

Thanks - didn't think of clicking on to the attached site... '04s have been good, '05s great but out of this world $$. Have you run across any at local wine bars or even shops for '05s <$75 that you liked? Thanks...

[vinosnob]

"Value" '05s (and even '06s) are hard to come by, but I did find a few at retail in the LA/SF area.

- Belgrave
- Clos du Marquis
- Marquis de Calon
- Potensac
- Dauzac
- Du Tertre
- Lafon Rochet
- Reignac

[nimo]

I just ordered a fantastic '05 Chateau La Tour Carnet for $35 plus delivery from NJ-based Wine Library.

[vinosnob]

That's another good one!

[lotta_cox]

Yes, that's exactly what it was. Thank you both for clarifying my review!

[lotta_cox]

Definitely membrillo is it. I forgot the name my Spanish speaking friend gave it, and membrillo it is.

Honestly, I can not wait to visit again. There are so many restaurants in LA that I am rarely drying to do a repeat, but such is the case this time.

[michaela]

I really like Tasca. I can walk there (which is good for a wine bar) and the food is excellent. So overall, great place.

Two complaints, though:

1 - The wine markup is really just too high. This is exactly the kind of nonsense that Parker is complaining about when he says to stop ordering wine at restaurants that overprice their bottles. We often decide to go elsewhere, deterred by the premium.

2 - The young waiter is just too precocious for me. His wine descriptions are over the top. I know he's been drinking wine for almost six months now that he's legal, but maybe he should consider the "less is more" idea when describing these bottles. My guess is he'll mature into a nice friendly waiter (although I could see him as a Wall Street banker) but for now, he needs to take it down a few notches.

[bulavinaka]

Your points are great advice in general for the general restaurant industry. With the economy hobbling along on three flat tires, people are choosing to replicate more eating experiences at home in huge numbers.

I was just at a local wine house last week, and talking with the owner, he says he is blessed that business has never been better. He's been in the business since the mid-70s and says that his shop doing better during tough times is because of what you mention in your first point, my mention about the economy, and (in my assumption) is definitely not helped by your second point.

There's this vicious downward death spiral that can occur with restaurants and their pricing in general, but particularly with their high markup items, particularly beverages in general. Restaurants feel their revenues dropping. Many feel that they have to hold fast on those high markup items to keep their bottom line intact. On the other hand, diners see that one of the easiest ways to manage the size of their tab is to substitute, reduce or eliminate certain items, usually dessert and drinks. Whether it's soda, beer, mixed drink cocktails, bottled water, or wine, diners will order less, or just opt for water if the prices are too high. People consuming even less of those high markup items scares the restaurants to make drastic moves - reducing portion sizes, cutting staff, etc. Diners see the decline in their experience and search for other places or even more so to other alternatives as mentioned above.

I just saw a news article about the status of the LA restaurant scene a few weekends ago. The reporter was reporting from the same general neighborhood that Tasca is located. Owners and workers were interviewed and were complaining about how distressed things were. Folks who used to come in a few nights a week were now coming in a few nights a month. Where diners would normally each order a couple of glasses wine or beer were now ordering one and sharing it between them. Car hops who were used to average $3-$5 tips per car were now receiving just a small fraction of their past tips. But what was really telling was the sadness in one waitress's confession that things had slowed so badly for two of the restaurants that she was working at that not only was she collecting about 40% of the tips she would normally get per table, the number of tables served was obviously way down, and that one of the restaurants that she was working at on Melrose was actually so empty on the previous number of Friday nights that they actually closed up shop at 9PM.

It's not my place to tell a restaurant how to run their business but at the same time, having a flexible business model that can at least respond to changing times has never been more critical.

[lotta_cox]

I wonder if the waiter you are talking about is the same one who rec'd the Chateau Belle Graves. Honestly, he was a little pushy, stearing us away from a California pinot and toward just about anything but. And we weren't thrilled with the wine. It was ok, but not great. My dh was a little annoyed at his over zealous endorsement and the lack of follow through in terms of the wine.