The Other Critics

Gold Decodes Lukshon; Virbila Labels Petrossian a Find

Lukshon's stuffed Monterrey squid dish
Lukshon’s stuffed Monterrey squid dish Photo: Hadley Tomicki

Jonathan Gold, the one guy who can actually untangle all the disparate Asian influences coming together at Lukshon, visits Sang Yoon’s new spot, getting in a final dig at the Father’s Office service gauntlet before declaring this to be “Yoon’s most completely realized concept yet, an edgy, grown-up restaurant serving an Asian-ized, farm-centered, technique-oriented small-plates menu, very much on the path blazed by places like Animal, Lazy Ox and Red Medicine: the new taste of Los Angeles cuisine.” He welcomes it to the neighborhood, and wishes Beacon was still around to see it. [LAW]

Petrossian is a find,” writes S. Irene Virbila, as she checks in with one of her favorite breakfast haunts to see what’s cooking with new chef Giselle Wellman. The critic already loves what she does with a mere bagel and scrambled eggs, and finds her cooking “poised and direct.” She likes the burger, the duck confit salad, and prefers the sea bass and Scottish salmon to the texture of the borscht. She declares, “With a new and enthusiastic young chef, Petrossian stays on track with casually elegant French food and a taste of luxury.” Two stars are awarded. [LAT]

Need doughnuts? Mr. Gold calls L.A. “still a pretty great doughnut town.” We adore that he mentions old-school mom-and-pop Primo’s on Sawtelle, after pointing to the well-known Nickel Diner maple bacon doughnut and the much-discussed Donut Man in Glendora. But now for something different, he encourages a trip to Studio City for “mighty Portuguese malasadas at Natas Pastries.” [LAW]

Bakersfield is a bastion of Basque restaurants. J. Gold recommends you try Noriega Hotel for family-style meals and daily specials at lunch and dinner. This isn’t the fine-cooking of San Sebastian, he warns, but “the plain, long-cooked, garlicky cooking of the American Basque diaspora, a cuisine whose other capital, oddly enough, may be Winnemucca.” We usually just hit Chino. [LAW]

Los Angeles kinda nails what we’ve all been thinking. Vu’s Kyle Schutte has “ambition” and “guts,” but something isn’t right at Marina del Rey’s new Vu. They blame “a clueless waitstaff and a dining room that still smacks of continental breakfasts past,” we blame both that and the strange attempt at Southern molecular cooking. Who wouldn’t rather just go to Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch across the street? [Los Angeles]

Gold Decodes Lukshon; Virbila Labels Petrossian a Find