A large communal table dominates one side of the dining room, with a dozen or so smaller tables occupying the remaining area. The entire restaurant is sparsely decorated and the acoustics make for a loud room, so be prepared to raise your conversational voice a little if you come on a busy night.
My friends brought a few bottles of wine for the table, including a fantastic 2007 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon which was quite possibly one of the best red wines I've ever enjoyed. The Prisoner, a blended wine that's somewhat hard to find, is certainly no Two-buck Chuck and deserves high praise. Corkage here is only $15 although don't expect the sommelier service you'd find at Providence.
We glance over the one-page menu and I take notice to the wide variety of different cultures represented in the dishes, from pork ribs to matzoh balls to naan; there's even whole bone-on pork loin for $47 which would server 6-8 people. Our server stops by to take our order and we proceed to order a bevy of different plates, starting with this incredible fried broccoli.
Welsh rarebit, fried egg. I remember having Welsh rarebit when I was in London many years ago, and this rendition brought back pleasant memories of this savory dish. Quite simply, Welsh rarebit is toast with a Worcestershire-style sauce and melted cheese. Chef Hall raises the ante with a big fried egg on top; think of this as an English version of the Singaporean kaya toast. I’m not sure if my friends were as crazy about this as I was, but I loved it.
Carolina pulled pork sandwich, celery slaw. Delicious and tender shreds of pork were piled high in between a soft bun with a tangy celery slaw. It was, as you might expect, very messy to eat but was nonetheless a tasty experience, despite the thick layer of sauce coating my fingers. The slaw itself was delicious and bright with tangy-ness that helped cut into the richness of the pork.
Burger with bacon, cheddar, fried egg. I’ve read about The Gorbals’ burger in other reviews and about how good it is, and I can say for certain that it was indeed one of the best burgers I’ve had, and I can’t begin to tell you how many burgers I’ve tried. The bacon was crispy, the beef beefy, the bun pillowy, the cheddar sharp, and the egg fried to golden perfection. Everything in this plate worked in harmony to make for a one hell of a fantastic burger. Chef Hall has real winner here. This and the broccoli are worth the trip from the west side.
Marrow with mushrooms, malt vinegar. With this dish you might start to see some similarities to the menu at Animal, and that’s not a bad thing :). Marrow has a wonderful meaty and buttery taste to it, with a texture that’s somewhat similar to jelly--a very savory jelly. The vinegar was strong and nearly overpowered the fatty marrow, but the two flavors worked out just fine, especially when eaten with the hearty toasted bread. Not to be overlooked were the delicious, earthy mushrooms. I made sure to scoop them all from the plate.
Bacon wrapped matzoh balls, horseradish mayonnaise. Bacon and matzoh? I know what you’re thinking, that those two shouldn't belong together, but yet they are as chef Hall is clearly showing his take on an Israeli and American fusion dish. I enjoyed the bacon (who wouldn’t?) and the matzoh on their own, but the combination of the two didn’t work for me in terms of texure or taste. The bacon simply overpowered the mild matzoh, and the ball itself could not hold its shape when you took a bite and it fell to a mess after the first taste. I’ll admit I’m a horrifically messy eater, but I’ll blame the dish this time and not the eater :).
Grilled octopus, green peppers, crispy beans. The octopus was cooked nicely, not too firm and not too soft, but the taste was a bit underwhelming. I think the issue was with the seasoning because the other components--the peppers and the beans--were also mild in taste. This was probably our “lightest” dish, and seeing that all other dishes were quite heavy, this turned out be a nice break in our service.
Pork spare ribs, brown sugar, chipotle. Here we have another American-themed dish and it was an excellent one at that. The meat was juicy, fall-off-the-bone tender, and flavored nicely with the sugar and chipotle sauce. I did my best to fork-and-knife the meat away from the bone, but I eventually gave in to caveman tactics. Thankfully I had plenty of extra napkins on hand, especially since we had a few no-shows for our group dinner.
Twice fried chicken. This certainly looks good but it was probably my least favorite dish of the night. The breading was very thick and too sweet in my opinion. When I finally broke through the outer crust of fried breading, I was treated with just a few decent pieces of chicken meat. I enjoyed what little meat there was, but the breading was simply too thick and too overwhelming in taste. I think we all liked the mashed potatoes and I found myself pairing it with the sweet breading for a savory-sweet mouthful of flavor. Did I just make my own dish?
Sticky toffee pudding, nutella buttermilk ice cream, maldon salt. For dessert we ordered the only dessert offering, this sticky toffee pudding. The pudding itself was very sweet and very rich, but just a tad dry in the center--if this were cooked a little less longer then it would haven perfect and probably on par with the heavenly toffee cake at Westside Tavern. The ice cream was delicious and I’d love to see that offered on its own.And with that toffee pudding we ended our dinner. I noticed only two servers were tending the entire dining room and so it took quite a while to resolve the check. Our service otherwise was good; the dishes came out in a nice progression at about two to three at a time, with ten to fifteen between each serving. The lively dining room was mostly full from when we sat down to when we left, and the smallish bar was packed the entire time. I’m guessing The Gorbals was busier than usual on this night due to the monthly Art Walk taking place in downtown, so it would probably less hectic on a regular night.
Overall I immensely enjoyed our night out at The Gorbals, and while there were some hits (especially the burger) and misses (the fried chicken), this place is worth the trip to downtown. I’m still thinking about that burger and that amazing fried broccoli and I’m definitely making a return visit soon.
501 South Spring St.
Los Angeles CA, 90013
pity about the fried chicken. you are right, the breading does look thick. interesting that they used malt vinegar with marrow but if it worked, then its all good
ReplyDeleteYep, the marrow was good even with the malt vinegar, but not as good as the one at Animal. The fried chicken had potential until you realized it was mostly breading on the outside :(.
ReplyDeleteThe pork spareribs look awesome! Sucks about the fried chicken :(
ReplyDeletei think i may be in the rare minority, but i actually enjoyed the twice fried chicken - the meat was tender and juicy and the crust/breading crispy and i actually liked the sweetness of the breading.
ReplyDeleteAND i actually didn't like the broccoli. the texture was interesting, but the taste was very sharp, sour and a bit pungent. i much prefer a raw broccoli.
my favorites were the pork belly sandie and the burger. burger was the bomb!
interesting food.. i think the broccoli looks delicious. =)
ReplyDelete