Birch
Arancini with Cauliflower Puree, Truffle Oil, Young Parmesan
Monkfish Tikka Masala with Basmati Rice Cracker
Rabbit Baklava with Carrot, Mustard Seed, Honey
Pork Shank with Palm Sugar, Black Garlic Hoisin, Butter Lettuce, Pickles, Sriracha, Za’atar Flatbread
Sticky Toffee Pudding with Burnt Sugar Ice Cream
Bourbon Glazed Beignets with Pear Compote, Housemade “Cool Whip”
Located just off Hollywood Boulevard, the North Cahuenga garage door blending right into its environs – and likely passed by thousands who do not even know it to be a restaurant every single day – Birch by Brendan Collins seems to have recently gotten lost in conversation thanks to ever-trendy local dining customs, though a recent Wednesday visit showed the cooking to still be amongst the best in LA.
Smallish in size from the exterior, a canapé overhanging the outdoor podium offering only minimal protection of a hostess in the glare of setting sun, it was exactly at 5:15pm that I arrived for my reservation and as the only diner present for the bulk of my meal the service could not have been more pleasant, a water bottle graciously offered for refills while Chef Collins and the GM also took time to make my acquaintance.
Born in Nottingham, but no stranger to SoCal diners thanks to acclaimed stints in kitchens including Waterloo & City, Collins describes Birch as “a combination of old-school and new-school cooking,” the decoration Nordic-minimalist without feeling IKEA while the soundtrack roams all the way from The Rolling Stones to P.Diddy.
Seating around fifty when accounting for the bar, another fifteen or so via al fresco patio in back, Collins and his kitchen staff can be seen working diligently through the windows of a glass box at the far end of the restaurant and having already created a few signatures spruced up by seasonal innovations the focus of my meal was on the former, a four course tasting served at a perfect pace for just over a hundred dollars, all-in.
No doubt benefitted by early arrival, the kitchen literally cooking for just one until seconds before dessert, the meal began with a complimentary rice ball fried crisp atop smooth cauliflower before diving into clever Monkfish Tikka Masala unskewered tableside beneath a curvaceous Basmati cracker, the orange pool of sauce fragrant but not particularly spicy and thereby not overwhelming the meaty fish’s flavor.
At this point easily one of the most recognizable dishes in the city, Collins placing a Frenched Rack atop flaky layers of phyllo layered with braised saddle and loin, the Rabbit Baklava comes through both sweet and savory without being overwhelmed by mustard seeds, the *Must Eat* Pork Shank an equally balanced dish in terms of richness cut by sugar, the skin itself as shattering as puff pastry while the meat was supple without being too fatty with nuance added by Bahn Mi styled condiments.
Citing the Chef’s British heritage as a reason to order Sticky Toffee Pudding, a personal favorite I’d have greedily gotten regardless of pedigree, the presentation of the dish was unfortunately quite tiny beneath Burnt Sugar Ice Cream in a deep pool of sauce prone to wasting, the more “American” Bourbon Glazed Beignets a far more sharable dessert with soft pillows of warm dough atop Pear Compote with whipped cream, the best bite actually using the doughnuts to sop up all the mixed caramel and melted ice cream left over from the pudding.
http://birchlosangeles.com/
