Meteora (*) Los Angeles – November 2024 (Review in Comments)

by coolintlkid

2 Comments

  1. coolintlkid

    Meteora went way beyond my expectations; I would recommend it strongly. LA is very expensive for fine dining – I would say even more so than San Francisco, where I just moved from. Especially in that context, Meteora provided great value, with 7 courses for $150. Meteora makes every decision that reinforces its South American forest theme. With stunning decor consisting of winding tree branches, hanging plants, real candlelit fire, and speakers playing forest animal sounds mixed with psychedelic house music, Meteora’s commitment to its aesthetic is real. Menus are printed on very “natural,” organic paper. They are also very good at cooking vegetables, which is huge given that I usually like carbs and starch much more. 

    The standout dishes were the scallops and bananas, grilled Job’s tears, and burnt murasaki yam. The cacao, coconut, and grains dessert was excellent as well. 

    1. (3rd picture) Amuse-bouche: papaya, kelp oil, leche de tigre from melon seed milk, chile, crispy kelp
    1. Papaya had the texture of ahi tuna. Firm and sweet. 
    2. (1st picture) Weathervane scallops, heirloom banana, horseradish creme fraîche, longaniza oil, lilly pilly, hand-collected sea salt from the Philippines
    1. The server scraped some of the sea salt and gave it to us by itself. Subtle, ashy. Very good quality ingredients. Banana and scallops connected by the tanginess and smoothness of creme fraiche
    3. Grilled Job’s tears, embered peppers, fuyu persimmon, smoked almond, blackened habanero powder, sundried lime shaved on top
    1. Best dish of the night (looking in hindsight). Smoky, hearty. Lightly salted, aerated cream. Sweet and smoky peppers and persimmon. Sour dark sauce/broth at the bottom tying it all together.
    4. Burnt Murasaki yam, rice yeast and grass-fed butter “beurre blanc,” cucumber, hazelnut, strawberry guava, smoked trout roe
    1. Sauce tastes cheesy. The sauce was salty enough; the roe is too salty. The yam, sauce, and hazelnut were an amazing combo.
    5. Striped bass, futsu squash, wild peanuts, rhubarb sambal, aerated onion broth
    6. 7-day dry aged duck (Liberty Farms duck), celtuce “mille-feuille,” nasturtium, sunflower seed cream, duck caramel (Yukon molasses, mezcal, mushrooms) 
    1. The duck is pretty rare. I liked the taste (gamey). Good amount of salt. The “caramel” and seed cream are nuanced and balanced.
    7. Pear sorbet: date toffee, tonka bean cream, rice crisp with fig leaf powder
    1. Creamy, like dairy. Comforting date paste at the bottom
    8. Wild Amazonian cacao: Andean grains (quinoa, cacao nibs), young coconut chunks in ganache, frozen cucumber powder
    1. Great dessert in terms of flavor and texture.
    9. Send-off snack: Caribbean mango and lime leaf powder
    1. Lime powder was an amazing counterpart to the mango. It added balance with its herbal flavor. Eating only the mango would’ve been one-dimensional.

    Non-food notes:

    * Excellent service. Servers explain a lot. They said if we don’t like a cocktail, we can tell them and they’ll give us another one. One server was talking to a table next to us while we were chatting among ourselves about some ingredients. That server came over afterward and started explaining the things we were curious about. Impressive!
    * Very good smelling bathroom soap. “Juniper Ridge” brand hand soap with douglas fir and berry scent

  2. Thanks for posting! I loved Vespertine so was curious on Meteora but ending up choosing other places during my LA visits but this convinced me to try to go next time!!

    And I also love good bathroom soap at fine dining places and high end hotels so that make me smile lol

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