Nook

I discovered Nook when we moved to the West LA area about 5 years ago and since then it has been a go-to restaurant for whenever we want to dine out and don't feel like driving beyond Bundy drive or the 405 freeway. It's literally just a few blocks from our house and even when we've been careless with not making reservations, the wait times have usually been under 30 minutes. More importantly, the food and service here have been excellent and even on par with some of the 1-star Michelin restaurants I've visited over the past year. I would even say that some of my all-time favorite dishes have come from Nook; more on that later.

Last Friday my cousin-in-law and his girlfriend were visiting from Toronto and we decided to treat them to a fabulous dinner at Nook to show them what our favorite neighborhood bistro has to offer. We arrived a little past our 6pm reservation and headed straight to the large booth in back of the dining room. Nook is usually quite busy on any given night and it's not exactly a sprawling bistro as there are maybe 6-8 tables, a long communal table, and a bar with a few stools. Our server checks with us to take our drink and food orders and then we proceed with our dinner.



They were out of the Farmhouse Ale from Ommegang Hennepin--my favorite brewery--so I went with something similar, this La Fin Du Monde. 9% ABV. Yum. This was such a smooth and drinkable beer that I hardly noticed the higher alcohol content. The beer list is impressive for a small restaurant, and even more impressive is the small but smartly designed wine list with offerings from Italy, Spain, South America, and of course northern California. The markup on some bottles is the lowest I've ever seen in a restaurant. Case in point, a 2007 Fritz Pinot Noir on the wine list goes for $38, while the same bottle from the Fritz winery is $30. Good luck finding another restaurant in LA with such a small markup.



Instead of the usual bread and butter service you'd find at just about any other restaurant, Nook serves complimentary boiled peanuts before your meal. Served unseasoned, they're delicious despite being messy to crack and eat. Add salt if you must but I enjoyed the pure flavor of the peanuts with their earthy taste and slightly mushy texture. But just as with bread, one has to be careful not too fill up on these; good food awaits!



Crab cakes with macque choux and Tobasco vinaigrette. Nook's crab cakes are something that I've ordered during previous visits and I've always enjoyed them to the last bite. Delicious and perfectly seasoned and cooked with a meaty interior and crispy, fried exterior. They're fried just the right amount to hold them together while still allowing the fresh crab meat to softly fall out after a few cuts. A spicy Tabasco vinaigrette adds some heat while the macque choux--a southern dish of corn, bell peppers, and tomatoes--was so tasty that it could have easily stood on its own.


Kurobuta Pork Belly with tomatillo, black-eyed peas and shitake. It seems like pork belly is everywhere these days but I know that Nook has had this on the menu for quite a while. If you check the Yelp reviews then you'll see that this dish has become a favorite of the Nook faithful, and after taking just one bite, it was easy to see why. It's savory, smokey, fatty. It's everything a 2" thick cut of bacon should be. A pool of tomatillo sauce was brimming with intense flavors and nicely complemented the rich pork belly. I could have ordered a bowl of the sauce if it were offered.


Burger with Sterling Silver beef. Nook's burger is outfitted with Gruyere cheese, red wine-onion jam and baby arugula and sits between grilled rustic bread as opposed to a typical hamburger bun. I've had this burger several times and the meat has always been cooked perfectly to showcase its rich and beefy flavor, but tonight it was well below Nook's standards. The meat just wasn't that flavorful and the texture was rubbery--it's as if the chef worked the beef too much when forming the patty. It was also slightly overcooked, though I don't think less time on the grill or pan would have helped. Everything else about the burger was good, however, especially the hearty read, and both the fries and the home-made pickle were excellent as always.



Here's some obligatory burger porn for you. As I mentioned, this is normally an incredible burger but tonight it wasn't quite up to Nook's usual standard.



Spicy Gulf shrimp with Falls Mill Stone ground grits and linguisa sausage. Plump, giant shrimp were swimming in a delicious broth with long slivers of very spicy linguisa sausage. The heat really intensified with each bite and by the end of the dish my mouth was nearly on fire. The shrimp were cooked perfectly and tasted very fresh. Creamy grits added a nice texture as well as helped to cool down the dish.



For dessert we settled on this Key lime pie with blueberry compote and whip cream. We've ordered this before and here we are ordering it again. The lime filling is smooth, rich, and subtle in lime flavor--it paired perfectly with the sweet berry compote. A magnificent crust completes the package. I've had many Key lime pie desserts at other restaurants and this one is by far my favorite. This dessert is so simple and yet so good; there's no foam, no gelee, no deconstruction. It's just a damn good tasting dessert.

Despite the burger letdown which was a first for us, I enjoyed the other dishes, especially the shrimp with grits and the wonderful Key lime pie. The service was prompt and polite and our dishes came out rather quickly. I've lost count of how many times I've dined at Nook and I think I've now tried about 90% of the menu. The menu hasn't changed drastically since my first visit, although for some reason they stopped serving the dreamy braised short rib a few years ago. I'm not sure why, but they really need to resurrect that dish as it was one of my favorite meals from any restaurant.

Nook accepts walk-ins but I strongly suggest you make a reservation to avoid any long waits. With the reasonable prices, the fantastic wine and beer offerings, and the solid service, Nook earns a high recommendation from me.




Afterward we drove our visiting guests to the 3rd-Street Promenade and the Santa Monica Pier. I hadn't been there in a long time and I forgot just how unbelievable packed this place is on a warm Friday night.



Nook
11628 Santa Monica Blvd. #9
Los Angeles, CA 90025