What's better than dining at a Michelin Starred restaurant? 30% off at a Michelin Starred restaurant, thank you BlackboardEats. Valentino has been on my list for a while but it's rather pricey and it's Italian. Some how I can't bare to bring myself to drop Benjamins for an Italian meal. French on the other hand, seems quite acceptable. I was stoked when the 30% coupon appeared in my inbox a couple weeks ago.Based on what I've read online, Valentino excels in their pastas. Yes, I'm still on that pasta kick but give me another week and I might be sick of it. It's definitely a pricey, special occasion place with appetizers in the range of mid teens, pastas (as a primi, so they are not large entree portions) in the twenties and entrees in the high thirties. Don't forget their extensive and impressive wine list. They also offer a four course tasting menu for $65, with an optional wine pairing for $50. We were tempted to go this route but there were too many other things on the regular menu that we couldn't pass on.
Valentino is located in Santa Monica/Westside on a stretch of Pico Blvd. that doesn't house too many dining attractions. It's slowly building up on that front, with Upper West and Bite Bakery & Bar opening up a couple blocks away.
The bar area is called V-Vin Bar with its separate menu which includes grilled flatbreads and pastas. The place was rather packed (although with middle-aged people) which was quite surprisingly as I wasn't expected Valentino to have much of a bar scene. The dining room is a bit formal- gentlemen were in jackets. I felt a bit out of place in my jeans and flip flops, but in my defense, I had a bandaged toe, hence the flip flops. Gonna milk that excuse for as long as I can :)
We started with a bottle of white wine, a Fazi Battaglia 2008 which was fresh, citrus and perfect for our first course. At a fine dining restaurant such as Valentino, you should specify a price range if the waiter is suggesting a bottle, that is unless you have deep pockets, which we don't. We mentioned a range of ~$60 and the bottles he selected were good.
Bread basket including bread sticks and rolls.
Prosciutto e Burrata San Daniele prosciutto, aged 20 months, fresh Apulian burrata and “gnocco fritto”The prosciutto was fresh, and the burrata was mild and creamy. It was a lovely combination. You could tell the excellent quality of the ingredients unlike the pathetic, shriveled up charcuterie plate I ordered at Bottlerock last week. The fritto gnocchi was basically a hollowed pizza pocket, sans pizza. Initially I thought it was tasteless but it actually went well with the salty cured meat. A+ for sure.
We decide to order two pasta dishes to share, which were both specials of the night. To our surprise, the kitchen portioned it without us asking (and at no extra charge either).
Hand rolled pasta with veal carpaccio, arugula, aged balsamic and shaved pecorino. I was glad to see that the veal was sauteed instead of thin raw slices, which is what I associate carpaccio with. The veal was tender and well seasoned.Fettuccine and squid ink tagliatelle with Santa Barbara spot prawns, calamari, cherry tomatoes in lobster sauce. There was just the right amount of pasta and seafood, and the sauce had the right consistency and coverage on the pasta. The seafood was cooked perfectly. The calamari was tender, and the prawns were just a tad undercooked. It tasted as sweet as lobster which was amazing, especially the runny prawn brains that dripped all over the pasta. And top it off with, rich lobster sauce?!? I was in seafood heaven.
I can see why people rave about the pastas. This was our favorite of the night. The pasta itself was fresh and cooked perfectly.
Bottle of light red wine to go with our entrees. We requested a light red and our waiter brought over a bottle of Valle Reale Montepulciano.
The fish special of the day. Seafood four ways which included (from bottom right going clockwise) turbot, lobster, branzino and dover sole. I liked the lobster the best. Unfortunately some of the fish was under seasoned. Even a drizzle of sauce did not bring out the flavors of the fish.
The fish was served with a trio of sauces: tomato and butter, clarified brown butter and caper and oil.
Le Quaglie: Pan-roasted Wolfe ranch quail, fregola Sarda and pancettaI was going back and forth between this dish and the osso bucco (I just find it hard to turn down osso bucco if it's on the menu), however the latter is something that I always order so I decided to go with the bird. I thought the presentation was lovely. There were three pieces of quail which worked out perfectly as we each got one piece. I really enjoyed this dish. Some at the table complained that it was a bit overdone but I didn't think my piece was. I must have given them the bad ones :) The sauce was very flavorful. The quail came with a side of Israeli couscous with bell peppers, cauliflower and haricot vert.
La Lombata di VitelloGarlic-rubbed grilled veal chop, wild mushroom sauceThe food was good with the appetizers excelling. The pastas were absolutely delicious and something I would definitely return for. Valentino is not cheap at all so the 30% discount really helped. Some people on CH were concerned that the service would be diminished if you were using the 30% but I did not find that to be the case. The service was great with our waiter coming by promptly to fill up our wine glasses. His wine selections were also good, and fell within our budget. When the bill came, they had only discounted us for the food. We advised our waiter that the bartender had mentioned that the discount applied to both food and beverage. Apparently this wasn't the case: discount applies to F&B only if you are dining at V-Vin bar. However our waiter still applied the discount on the full bill. I thought that was a nice touch. Don't forget to tip the waiter based on the total bill before the discount. Don't rip him off! I'm glad I finally got to hit up Valentino as it's been on the list for a while. I'm glad that I walked away with a $100 expense instead of something a third higher. I'm glad I held out.
Hits: prosciutto & burrata, pastas, quail, 30% discount, service
Misses: fish under seasoned, discount rules not clear
Rating: ***1/2
Valentino
3115 Pico Blvd.,
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 829-4313
www.valentinorestaurantgroup.com/valentino
A whole chicken is simply boiled with garlic and ginger. It's that simple, but I promise this chicken will have you at hello. The chicken was absolutely scrumptious, I could have just sat there all day eating one piece after another. It's also great as leftovers. With this preparation, I'd even eat the white meat. My mom also added some ikan bilis to the plate. It's Malaysian deep fried anchovies and peanuts which add a fishiness, saltiness and crunch to the dish.
The lunch menu was pretty simple and comprised mainly of sandwiches and pastas. Prices were also reasonable at around $10 per plate.
Even though mimosas are my weekend drink of choice, I couldn't pass up on the huge glass of sangia. It was stronger than the one at Bar Pintxo two nights prior, and a great deal at $5, so good that I ended up ordering two of these. Darren ordered a Spaten.
Since I was ordering pasta, I had to get garlic bread as well. Garlic and buttery goodness on ciabatta bread. Always a good starter to pasta.
Chicken Romano sandwich with sun dried tomatoes, artichokes and melted cheese. The chicken was cooked well and the sun dried tomatoes were a nice addition.
The sandwich was served with chips which was actually a bag of kettle chips. Lame. Wish they served it with fries instead.
My pasta, what I was craving for all morning. Spaghetti with meat sauce, which the menu described as the "meatiest sauce in town". You think? It was rather lame. Firstly the sauce was runny, not thick and rich as I had hoped. Secondly there wasn't that much meat to it. I was expecting a hearty meal based on the menu description. You might think I am exaggerating but I would compare this to Lean Cuisine's pasta with meat sauce. Don't get me wrong, I like that stuff (have a couple boxes in my freezer), but this isn't what I would expect from a restaurant. I suppose I wouldn't have been disappointed if the menu hadn't talked up the sauce. A bit of a let down.
Happy hour includes sangria for $4 and stellas for $1.50. We tried the white and red wine sangrias which were refreshing but not too strong in alcoholic content. Happy hour includes 6 pintxos for $6 or select tapas for $4. Pintxos are essentially one bites while tapas are larger portions meant to be shared.
The six tapas include fresh tomato and grilled bread, huevos rellenos, chorizo and cherry tomato, Serrano crostini, crimini mushroom and mushroom puree with manchego, and manchego with tomato crostini. My favorites were the Serrano and mushroom crostinis. I like the variety of tapas and that you can have the option to choose all six or double up on a couple of your favorites.
Pork belly sandwich with tomato jam, greens, on brioche bun. This was one of the happy hour tapas for $4. Buttery, golden brioche and crispy and fatty pork belly. I enjoyed this but thought there could have been more pork belly in the sandwich.
The restaurant is located in a small strip mall. Thankfully they have a valet, $1 with validation. It's tiny inside with about ten tables. Our party of eight took over a large part of the restaurant. It was empty when I arrived at 7pm but quickly filled up.
The menu's pretty simple with about 20 items. Unfortunately they do not serve alcohol and is not BYOB even though there's a liquor store next door. Kindda sucks because a beer would go well with all the meat we would be having. A brief menu research informed us that the must-get items were the beef short ribs and grilled mackerel.
Our waiter brought over banchan which included steamed egg, bean sprouts, kimchee, chap chae and spicy anchovies. I liked that they offered brown rice/purple rice with beans, this is LA after all.
Seafood soup with enoki mushrooms, mussels, octopus and tofu.
Braised mackerel simmered in a huge bowl with kimchee, daikon and bean paste. Mackerel is usually rather fishy so you have to expect that. The fish was tender and oily, and the sauce had robust flavors and was great on rice. The only issue I had was that there were too many bones in the fish which made it a very challenging task to eat.
Marinated spicy pork. This is my favorite dish at any Korean BBQ restaurant because the pork is usually tender and a little gristly. The pork was juicy and flavorful.
Steamed beef short ribs. Thick chunks which the waitress cut up into sizable portions with a scissors. The ribs were stewed in a sweet salty sauce and fell off the bone. The ribs had some fat and tendon pieces still attached which was my favorite part. The dish was so delicious that we ordered two more bowls. If it couldn't get any better, it seemed that the latter bowls tasted much better perhaps because the meats had been simmering for much longer.
My friend is a vegetarian so she ordered a vegetarian bibimbap. It looked good but GASP, it had beef in it. We returned it and within a couple minutes, a new bowl arrived. Suspicious. The bibimbap was not what we expected. There was no rice, let alone that nice crispy bottom layer of rice which is the best part of any bibimbap. Otherwise, the variety of vegetables and fried egg on top was lovely. After my friend almost finished the bowl, she found residue of beef. She didn't kick up a big fuss but I found it quite disheartening.