The food was excellent which is what often happens when and an award winning chef uses fresh, organic ingredients. The presentation like the decor was modern elegance without any pomp. We shared a couple of Swedish dishes and a few sides for the table, sharing our food family style, fun!
There were the Swedish meatballs, whipped potatoes and lingonberry preserves.
Aquavit cured salmon gravlax, crisp salmon skin, espresso honey mustard- my photography does not do the presentation justice here.
The sides were so good; I could have made a meal of them. Green beans, toasted pine nuts, shallots, black olive salt.
Amazing crispy Vidalia onions with warm Roquefort cream on the side.
And the spaetzle.. yum!
On the far right of the cheese plate are the oven roasted grapes, a great touch! The upside down cheesecake was a great way to end the meal.Here's the thing: food and presentation together were better than the service and noise level. The server was kind, she just didn't know the menu all that well. She probably was new, like the restaurant. Oh, the noise! Conversation was difficult in the main dining room. Next time I'll try the room upstairs, the hostess said it was quieter up there.
And one more thing: there's this bench on the back wall in the main dining room. People who are seated there (like I was) sit a few inches higher than all of the chairs in the dining room making the people not sitting on the bench look, well.. kinda small. It was an odd, annoying detail, incongruent with the rest of the place.
AK Restaurant + Bar
1633 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 392-6644
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6 comments:
this place is fair at best. I went in the first two weeks and the food was just mediocre. the scallops came out cold and the service was slow. i am hoping it gets better because we need good restaruants on abbot kinney
A new restaurant typically has a lot of kinks to work out. Have you been to GJelina?
Thanks for the tip about the quieter room upstairs--I've been wanting to give this place a try and that certainly might come in handy.
Gjelina is far superior in my opinion than AK and it was from the very start. Their brunch menu is awesome as well. The only thing that sucks is it's so dang hard to get in to and the hostesses have attitude.
Hostesses with attitudes are so annoying! I've met my share of them in the past few weeks. Finally got a reso for Gjelina next weekend. Stay tuned.
I I'll try GJelina ASAP. Let's see who gets there first! Will post.
Cecily & Fred
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