Angler Restaurant, Los Angeles, California

Located in the heart of Los Angeles is some of the best seafood I have eaten at Angler. This sea-life-focused restaurant has a menu that changes based on what is available and fresh that day. The restaurant is incredibly elegant, and the service top-notch.

The meal starts off with pickled peppers being served to every table. I highly recommend continuing with the oysters of the day, which comes with a house-made minionette and tartar sauce.

The restaurant focuses on its raw bar, but also offers cooked items that are all done on an open wood fire and a fireplace designed for this specific type of cooking. It was great to watch the chef’s cooking from the dining room into the open kitchen.

The cocktails looked great, but we decided to choose a half bottle of quality champagne to accompany the different types of seafood we were enjoying.

To start off I chose the classic caesar salad. The dressing was obviously made with real anchovies and a mound of salty parmesan cheese. It was probably the best Caesar salad I have ever had. It was definitely only enough for two though, so if you have a larger group I highly recommend ordering more than one.

 

No trip to Angler is complete without some part of the raw bar. I tried the Tai Bream Ceviche because this is what was on the menu that day. Other days there are variations of ceviche or raw items, such as the Blue Fin Tuna and Tomato Jelly. Although not seafood, the Antelope Tartare sounded unique, with yuzu, and baby iceberg.

Next came the Parker House Rolls made with Cultured Seaweed Butter. This is something you must order. It comes out hot, is buttery, and the cultured butter is the perfect amount of tart to balance out the salty and sweet bread.

Sirved Must-try options at Angler:

Angler Reserve Caviar: If you like caviar, and are in the mood to spoil yourself, the Angler Caviar course is one of a kind. Complete with banana pancakes (something I have never seen in a caviar course before), it will set you back $88/oz, but it is worth every penny

Antelope Tartare Yuzu & Baby Iceberg: For a day where you would like to try something unique, the Antelope tartare is a great option. Similar to the taste of steak tartar or lamb tartar, the yuzu nicely balances out the flavour profile of the game meat.

Caesar salad: Comes with a mound of parmesan cheese, incredible homemade dressing, and bits of toasted croutons.

Anything from the “live tanks”: This seafood is incredibly fresh, and you really can’t go wrong with any of these choices.

Parker House Rolls: Since most of the dishes do not include starch, it’s nice to break up the meal with this bread and the cultured seaweed butter.

BBQ Beets: Whether you are a vegetarian or simply like root vegetables, these beets complete with embered tomato and walnut, are nothing like any other beets you’ve tried before.

At $40/pound, the box crab was a bit pricy but completely worth it. Our crab came out just under 2lbs, and it was sweet, fresh, and juicy. Other live offerings of the day included spot prawns and whole lobster.

Although I didn’t try the main fish and meat courses, I can only imagine they were good. For example, the whole sea bream with fennel and citrus, as well as the whole pastured chicken roasted in the special wood oven, both looked wonderful.

Most of the sides are traditional vegetables, such as potatoes, beets, broccolini, and baby artichokes, but done in a completely unique method. The Angler potatoes are a specialty item on the menu, cut into wedges, and then finely sliced, almost to the edge, then fried. It comes with a cheese sauce that I could literally drink. The cheese comes from Sonoma and is both creamy and salty in the perfect amount.

During the entire meal, start to finish, I felt catered to and got optimal service. The food is inventive, and there is a reason why they not only have 1 Michelin star but also won “best new restaurant of 2019 in Los Angeles”. I will definitely be back and hope to experience their San Francisco location as well.  Explore Angler’s restaurant menu in Los Angeles, California here.