Waterloo & City is named after a london tube station. Co-owner and executive chef at helm is Brendan Collins who has worked at two Michelin Starred Melisse, Hollywood French brasserie Palihouse and helped open Alain Giraud's Anisette in Santa Monica. Collins is a Brit so you can expect a menu that is influenced by both English and French cuisines. The other owner and General Manager is Caroloz Tomazos who has had exceptional management experience at three Michelin Starred Per Se and Le Bernardin. With such strong resumes, there's a lot of buzz for the restaurant.
Just this week, Waterloo & City finally opened its doors. I was hoping that the obstacles they've faced was not indicative of problems to come. Thankfully, W&C was everything that I've hoped for. A refined yet casual Westside bar offering an accomplished menu, good alcohol offering and exceptional service. The restaurant took over the space of greasy spoon diner Crest House and is located in Culver City, further west from the high-restaurant-populated part of Culver City. It's actually an area that is slowly gaining a bar scene with neighboring Kogi-brick-and-mortar Alibi Room and Bigfoot West.
When I am trying out a menu for the 1st time, I like to sample as many dishes as possible. Since it was just the two of us, I felt it best that we ordered multiple smaller dishes to share in lieu of a large entree each.
Somehow this dish was not what I had expected. It was under the cured meats, terrine and pate section of the menu but somehow I thought the trotters and sweetbreads would be more prominent on the plate instead of being combined in a terrine. I was hoping for a piece of sweetbread and perhaps trotters that was breaded or braised. This tasted like regular head cheese and I couldn't really taste the sweetbreads. Perhaps I was expecting more distinct offal flavors so I was slightly disappointed.
This dish is all about indulgence and was by far the best dish of the night. The liver was rich, the quail was seasoned well and cooked perfectly. The meat wasn't dry and the skin was supple. The liver toast sat on a flavorful, creamy sauce made with tarragon, onions and balsamic. To elevate the plate another notch, the plate was topped with a fried quail egg. All the flavors worked well together and the dish was sizable enough to be shared.
I was expecting a thick, fatty piece of pork belly but instead this was more of a carpaccio. I actually preferred this as it was a departure from the normal pork belly dish. Unfortunately the pork belly was drowned in the tonnato sauce which I didn't care for. The tonnato sauce was creamy and had sliced pieces of tuna which actually looked more like anchovies. The sauce was a bit too fishy and I thought it overpowered the flavors of the pork belly. It was also kind of tart from the capers.
Some might wonder why Indian food popped up in the British-French menu but Indian food is a large part of the English cuisine that resulted from the British Raj. $12 for this large pizza and we even had a couple slices left over. Murgh makhni is an Indian dish of butter chicken. The marinade is thicker than normal curry sauce and is yogurt and tomato based. We got this light on mozzarella cheese. The pieces of chicken were tender and the makhni flavors were delicious. If you are afraid of spice, don't worry because the curry was mild. I love Indian food so I liked that they combined curry with the American staple bar food.
Waterloo & City is casual enough but yet service was like what you would expect from a fine dining establishment. It was friendly and attentive; waitresses, managers and bus boys all came by to check on us on a few occasions. Our waitress was knowledgeable and knew the ingredients that weren't listed on the menu. If she wasn't 100% certain, she checked with the kitchen and reported back. Water glasses were always full and they changed plates and utensils as they got dirty. Prices were reasonable for the quality of food and execution of dishes. And most importantly, the dishes were interesting and tasty. Waterloo & City really won my heart, and it's not only because it has a piece of London in it.
Hits: quail, foie mousse, pizza, ambiance, service
Misses: tonnato sauce,
Rating: ***1/2
Waterloo & City
12517 Washington Blvd.,
Culver City, CA
(310) 391-4222
http://www.waterlooandcity.com/
http://www.waterlooandcity.com/
3 comments:
Great review of their opening week. I'm going there on Thursday and I can't wait to try the chopped liver on toast. The pizzas look interesting too. Glad to see service was sharp despite being opening week for them.
Hmm have never seen yogurt on a pizza before! Looks interesting! I'm normally not a pub-kind of gal, but I may have to break out my inner Londoner. :)
Daniel- The indian pizza was definitely the most unique. If you like stilton, the short rib pizza looked good too.
Diana- You'll have to try the dessert. We were too full but the owner and waitresses swear by the Manchester Tart and Toffee Pudding.
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