On The Town With Richard by R. A. Stermer
With Los Angeles moving closer to “normal” we see dinners going out and making up for “lost time.” Filling the seats in sidewalk extensions with parking meters alongside tables set under impromptu canopies adorned with strings of lights. Today’s review takes us back to Hillhurst Avenue in the Los Feliz area to a restaurant named
The Home 1760 Hillhurst Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027. This is a converted craftsman house with a built-out front courtyard of decking, bench seating and interspersed tables. Here, they have struck the perfect balance between ambiance and cuisine. This is like a good movie, a beautiful poem, effective music, touching art, etc.
This place just works. It’s like viewing into your favorite sit com or watching the Truman Show. From our first greeting at the host station to our interaction with our server, everyone is playing their part. We order the BBQ Burger, Egg Fried Rice and the All American Breakfast. The food selection here suits the setting. They’re not over-reaching just trying to get you fed, but well. The burger is as it should be, for this level of restaurant, not quite true to my request for medium rare but close enough with the distinction coming from the BBQ sauce, just enough kick to be able to avoid having to add any hot sauce and spoil the balance. To accompany I avoid the fries, sorry, and ask if they have coleslaw, not one of their offered choices but what I‘d like and they do. Thank you.
My companions order Egg Fried Rice, a favorite dish, which we’ve never seen on a menu before and The All American breakfast, because, why not? We stick with water and a hot chocolate, to go with the breakfast. The Egg Fried Rice delivers but wait! It’s orzo! not rice, mixed in with turkey sausage, sliced marcona almonds, chives and lemon and a sunny side egg on top. Well, it tastes good and will do just fine until we can get back to mothers’.
The All American is just that, with eggs, bacon or sausage and buttermilk pancakes. There are no complaints from that quarter or half, as our guest is here representing the grade school set. He does express disappointment with the Hot Chocolate, though, commenting that he thinks they used skim milk.
I would like to see them do a little something more with the coleslaw, as it checks the boxes, but could use some subtle mark of distinction. All in all, though, a good solid 8.5 out of 10. We’ll be back. $$