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Very few places are still in business after one decade, much less NINE, but Musso & Frank’s is one of the rare legends that lives on, weathering wars and trends with equal aplomb. Once you step inside, you may suddenly feel more sophisticated or worldly, but it is the old school service which has elevated your attitude. The red jackets and formal greetings are anachronisms which remind us that decorum should never die.
My friend has been coming here for decades, with “the old guys” who inhabit the booths like godfathers. The fact that I was deemed worthy to enter this sacred space with an old timer flattered me. The food was was like a time machine; it brought me back to the 60′s and like an episode of “Mad Men“, I enjoyed every minute.
My friend started off with the house salad with blue cheese dressing. You may opt for additions to your salad, but like a true old man, my friend had only the greens.
I chose the sand dabs ($23), which I never see on menus anymore. They were perfect, just as Julia Child swooned over in her first trip to France, I swooned over these delicate filets done “comme il faut” (as it should be) with capers, butter and lemon. If anyone you know does not like fish, make them taste this and convert them!
Since this is old world style dining, every entree is served separately, so I ordered braised spinach ($8) with my fish and the side was as lovely and perfectly done as my main course.
Most people who come here order the steak ($33) and they cook it exactly as ordered, meaning, rare is bloody and well is brown. Of course the old timer ordered rare, and of course it was done as ordered. Nearly every table ordered steak, so if you can’t decide what to get, I suggest you go with the odds and order the steak.
The steak fries ($5) were wonderfully crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.
As a child, I always like jello ($3.50), but I haven’t seen it on a menu since I was a child, so I had to order it here. Served with fruit, I felt as if I was 5 years old and finished every bite!
I was not the only one to finish my dessert, my friend ordered the sundae ($6.25) and ate every spoonful!
On another night I came and had the special duck a l’orange with a friend who ordered the lobster thermidor. Both dishes were so rich and decadent that the pictures came out fuzzy; I guess even cameras get thrown off balance when transported to another era!
Although some people are weary of tasting menus (yes Anthony Bourdain I am talking about you), most of us revel in being able to sample a chef’s skill in a menu designed to amuse, beguile, and seduce diners into a food nirvana.
Some friends and out of country visitors went to the Hollywood location of Katsuya on a night when an infamous celebrity (a certain tall thin blond heiress) had paparazzi swarming the place. Since we were not sought for photographs, we entered the place easily and were escorted to an ensconced booth facing the sushi bar. No one could decide what to order (besides a few bottles of a delicious Sancerre), so we each went with the tasting menu of five courses ($65).
A ceviche began the meal, with nicely dressed citrus ponzu sashimi of yellowtail, tuna, salmon and a sprinkle of jalapeno and cilantro in a tea cup sized serving dish. A nice light beginning for a very delectable journey.
The second course was actually four samples of the most famous dishes offered: crispy shrimp, lightly battered and fried with a rich creamy sauce on the side, the yellowtail with jalapeno, crispy rice with spicy tuna, and spicy albacore tuna with crispy onion. Everything was nice if not necessarily inspired. I found the crispy shrimp too rich with the sauce, but nice without it. The spicy albacore with crispy onion too salty, and the spicy albacore tuna on crispy rice was not at all spicy but tasty, but the jalapeno yellowtail was perfect.
The next dish was Kobe beef with a small slice of foie gras. I loved the foie gras, but found my beef too cooked (medium); it is a shame for such a wonderful piece of meat to be overdone, but in the tasting menu they do not ask how you want the meat portion prepared, so if you are like me and love your meat rare, be sure to tell your server before you order.
The final savory course was tuna, halibut and unagi sushi with a rice paper wrapped baked crab hand roll. It was divine, but we were all too full to completely finish this penultimate course; we tasted what we loved and left the rest to save some room for dessert.
Since there were five of us dining, we got to see that each dessert plate had a different flavor of mochi ice cream along with the cream filled profiteroles and fresh fruit we all got.
We literally had to stagger out of the restaurant (good thing the paparazzi were gone by then). Next time we will order more judiciously, picking out our favorite dishes amongst those we sampled, but we were glad to have tasted it all celebrity sighting in Hollywood included.
