Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Stupid Name, Great Restaurant

********THIS RESTAURANT IS NOW CLOSED.********

BLT Steak has nothing to do with bacon, lettuce, or tomato.
blt steak 027
But the steak part is for real.

And, yes, I know what "BLT" means here. See picture above.

The ambiance is "typical modern steakhouse." Tastefully dim, warm, and chic.
blt steak 023
Bread and chicken pâté appear on your table almost immediately.
blt steak 001
If you think free pâté is impressive, wait until you see the popovers.
blt steak 002
Oh, popover! Big as my head! Laced with Gruyère! Warm! Crusty! Yum!
blt steak 005
Perfect with butter!
blt steak 004
And we didn't even start our actual meal yet!

Mr. Monkey, Brother Monkey, and I all had the dineLA set ($44 for starter, entree, and dessert), which was a steal at BLT Steak. Normally, our dinners would've cost about $60 each.

Wild mushroom risotto and mushroom cappuccino. Perfect texture. Good flavor. That's saying a lot, as I'm not a mushroom fan. BroMo said he was pretty full just after this starter. Huge portion!
blt steak 007
Chestnut, apple, and celery soup with sage croutons. Smooth and rich. A lovely mix of savory and sweet. Loved this. Mr. Monkey let me eat most of it. Yay!
blt steak 008
BLT wedge salad with crisped bacon and bleu cheese dressing. Obviously the least impressive of the three starters, but still damn good for a simple salad.
blt steak 010
Grilled hanger steak with shallot marmalade and pommes lyonaise. Both Mr. Monkey and BroMo got this with peppercorn and red wine sauce, respectively.
blt steak 012
Thickest hanger steaks ever! Charred on the outside, juicy on the inside, delicious on the everywhere-side. The accompanying roasted garlic was fabulous. You could spread it like butter.

Pan-seared skate wing with crunchy fava bean tabbouleh. An elegant marine surprise at a steakhouse! Lightly crunchy on the surface, moist, and flaky. Fish done right. I must admit, however, that the tabbouleh did nothing for me. Bleh.
blt steak 014
Warm chocolate pudding cake with amaretto whipped cream. I had one bite. Rich, rich, rich. BroMo couldn't finish it. That's how rich. Chocoholic dream.
blt steak 018
Doughnuts with coconut cream and caramelized pineapple. Warm, airy, and not too sweet. Very good.
blt steak 016
Lemon panna cotta with grapefruit and pomegranate. My surprise favorite! I thought I'd be on Team Doughnuts for sure, but the panna cotta stole my heart. Light and tart, this was my ideal ending to the meal. Very very happy.
blt steak 020
A cute little petit four for each of us.
blt steak 022
As I was taking photos of the outside of the restaurant after our meal, we ran right into Jared Padalecki (Sam on Supernatural, Dean on Gilmore Girls). I snapped this quickly as we left.
blt steak 026
Good meal? You bet. Good service? Absolutely. Our server Mark was super. Excellent choice for dineLA. Get thee to BLT Steak!

A special bonus for my friends who like to bake -- the BLT Steak Popover Recipe:

Serves six (approximately twelve popovers)
Ingredients
4 c. milk, warmed
8 eggs
4 c. flour
1 ½ heaping tbsp. salt
2 ¼ c. grated Gruyère
1. Place the popover pan in the oven. Heat the oven and pan to 350º.
2. Gently warm the milk over low heat and set aside.
3. Whisk the eggs until frothy and slowly whisk in the milk (so as not to cook the eggs). Set the mixture aside.
4. Sift the flour with the salt. Slowly add this dry mixture to the egg mixture and gently combine until mostly smooth.
5. Remove the popover pan from the oven and spray with nonstick vegetable spray.
6. While the batter is still slightly warm, fill each popover cup three-fourths full.
7. Top each popover with approximately 2 ½ tbsps. of the grated cheese.
8. Bake at 350º for 50 minutes, rotating pan half a turn after fifteen minutes, until the popovers are golden brown.
9. Take out of oven, remove from pan, and serve immediately.
Enjoy!

27 comments:

  1. everything looks amazing. will have to try this place soon. felicia and i went to patina for lunch- the dineLA menu was alright- but we agreed that the sea bass was a mess and the hibiscus sorbet quite bad. actually, we used other descriptive words, one of which rhymes with bass... scallop appetizer was fantastic. took your advice and skipping out on the standard- we'll go with one of your recommendations instead. thanks, weezer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those popovers look to die for!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I did not know there's such thing as a popover pan. The food looked divine!! I'd really love to try out this place some time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really need to stop reading your blog in the morning, as I now have the urge to eat everything in sight. And what's in my pantry ain't cutting it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a delicious meal... I love popovers, but popovers + gruyere = heaven.

    ReplyDelete
  6. thumbs up for recipes! especially for those of us who can't actually eat at the restaurant.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I just about died at the picture of the popover. Then everything else looked delicious. And THEN you give us the recipe?! Best. Post. Ever. Now I just have to figure out what a popover pan is/if it exists in Chile and if not what I can use instead. I cannot wait.

    ReplyDelete
  8. yum! i've wanted to try this restaurant for awhile now.

    btw, i'm assuming you know where BLT comes from. silly, yes, but i also think it makes his restaurants stand out. kinda like tom colicchio and his craft restaurants.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The meal looks amazing! I'll definitely keep it on my list of LA restaurants to check out the next time we are in the area.

    ReplyDelete
  10. scrumptious!! i could go for some popovers + panna cotta for breakfast. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I was salivating throughout the entire post. I want to tell those popovers: "Get in mah belly!"

    ReplyDelete
  12. It's nice to hear a dineLA success. Sounds amazing, even for me, the picky one.

    Yay for Dean!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. 1) There are a million BLT restaurants in NYC. Did you ever eat at any of them? We almost did in December.
    2) Popovers laced with gruyere I could definitely do. They're like giant gougeres!
    3) It sounds like this meal was a million times better than your last DineLA meal!
    4)I've never been a fan of tabouleh
    5) I'm always team panna cotta.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm totally drooling. I just made a reservation for Sat night... now I just need to confirm with H. :-D

    ReplyDelete
  15. I made my resi for next week! Thank you!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow - I need to make a reservation at this place! Everything looks delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oh yum. I am definitely trying the popover recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I am in love with your dinner. Drooling.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I went there for my one year anniversary. If you ever go there again, you should get the prime rib. It's really good!

    ReplyDelete
  20. okay this place looks amazing. i definitely will have to check it out next time i'm ready to spend some money, haha.

    ReplyDelete
  21. YUM!

    I will have to try out that popover recipe soon.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hmmmm....that sure doesn't look like MY typical steakhouse *cough* Outback *cough* but it sure does look pretty! And the food is pretty impressive.

    ReplyDelete
  23. thanks to your post i'm going there tomorrow! =)

    ReplyDelete
  24. I am so glad I've never seen Outback on your blog.

    That steak looks amazing... I need to stop reading your blog at lunch, since it makes my pudding and sandwich seem kinda meh.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Another one of my FAVE restaurants in LA! I wasn't a huge fan of the Dine LA menu but boy do I EVER love their popovers, their standard filet, and the red snapper is famous as well!
    You've got great taste!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...