Trois Mec from chefs Ludo Lefebvre, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo have come together to create a dining experience that we have been craving in Los Angeles. The restaurant is located in the old Raffallo’s Pizza space and ambiance is not what you are paying for here but, truly haute cuisine. Reservations on their website open every other Friday at 8:00 a.m. and the prix fixe menu with an expensive price tag is worth every penny.
After sitting down at the counter because that is where parties of two are sat, the snacks begin arriving. First, crispy buckwheat with a sparkling rose cocktail followed by mini brioche with herbs and fried baby corn with salsa verde. All the precursors were very delightful in flavor and presentation.
Our first course was a thinly sliced avocado delicately laid over salt cod cream and sushi rice with a hint of lime and fresh cilantro. This dish was creamy and mild and a great start to a fantastic meal.
Next, a dish of sliced raw beef with smokey yogurt, fermented black walnut and caramelized eggplant was amazing. This larger plate had flavors similar to BBQ with the smokiness and sweet components reminding me of cooked meat.
Potato pulp with brown butter and bonito flake with Laguiole cheese made the next dish very comforting. The flavors were so rich and delicious, just a few bites was all I needed.
Grilled Albacore in a roasted tomato broth with two kinds of seaweed and black olives made this dish the most unique of the evening and one of my favorites. The broth was earthy from the tomato and seaweed combination and not too heavy for the fish. Delightful.
Before dessert there was another option to add a Truffle Grilled Cheese with buttermilk maple campfire ice cream, so why not? The grilled cheese was crunchy on the outside with a nice stink from the cheese and the ice cream, smokey and sweet to compliment the sandwich. I asked the chef how did they prepared the ice cream — place ashes in the cream at night and strain them in the morning before creating such a concoction, fabulous!
For dessert, Mille-Feuille with vanilla pastry cream and candied raspberries. The puff pastry was baked free-form so the layers puffed up 5 inches and needed to be sliced roughly into three layers. The texture was crumbly and perfect, great touch.
Mignardises or small assorted desserts, was our final bites of the evening — a strawberry sliced in two with a dusting of herbs and a truffle square of chocolate. Both tastes were lovely.
A nice pairing of French wines were also offered for $49 per person and I highly recommend the selections that they offered. Ludo was over seeing the kitchen the evening we were there and in his culinary corrections to his staff made you understand why his food tastes like magic.
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