LudoBites 5.0 at Gram and Papas

So last week I finally got to attend LudoBites 5.0 after securing my reservation over a month ago. These reservations were extremely hard to come by, but I somehow managed to snag not one but two reservations, which is astonishing because I know that so many people tried and failed. I'm guessing many of you are fully aware of this LudoBites madness, but for the 2 or 3 of you that don't, LudoBites is a pop-up restaurant helmed by chef Ludo Lefebvre who was once the execute chef at L 'Orangerie and Bastide. I've been to LudoBites 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 and they've all been great experiences, each with their own unique menu preparations and settings. So how does this fifth iteration turn out? Let's have a look.



The menu for tonight. It changes slightly every week, even daily. I was really looking forward to the cheese cupcake with chicken liver and ham mousse, but they stopped serving it a day or two before our dinner :(.



Poached egg, potato mousseline, chorizo condiment. I was looking forward to this dish ever since I saw it on KevinEats' review, and it did not let me down. The silky eggs had a texture almost like creamy grits. Chunks of chorizo lined the bottom of the bowl and added a powerful smokiness to the taste. I couldn't get enough of this and would have gladly eaten another serving.



Chef Ludo working the open kitchen. He came by later to chat with us, as he did with just about every other table throughout the night.



Santa Barbara prawn, biegnet, cinnamon beurre blanc, shrimp powder sugar. The prawns were meaty and flavorful, and the biegnets were perfectly cooked--pillow soft on the inside with a crisp outer shell. I ate them separately and scooped the shrimp powder over both for an added seafood flavor. The sweet cinnamon sauce was slightly distracting, so a little less of this would have been better.



Hot foie gras, dynamite, raw tuna, lychee, crackers. No trip to LudoBites is without an order of foie gras something. Here, soft foie gras is served with a spicy "dynamite" sauce and bite-size pieces of raw tuna. The combination of spicy, cool, and creamy textures was certainly a neat experience. I wasn't sure what to do with what I can only describe as a cracker slush" (upper left), so I ate it solo and quite liked it.



Heirloom tomato salad, mozzarella ice cream, basil crumble. I can't say I've ever had mozzarella ice cream, that is until now. The ice cream was quite good and reminiscent of a creamy burrata; it paired nicely with chunks of the heirloom tomatoes, with the basil crumble adding some nice crunch. Before we could finish scooping all the salad with the provided bread, our server took away this dish :(. Fortunately, though, another was brought out to us :).



Confit pork belly, raw choucroute Thai style, mustard ice cream. The pork belly is buried under the colorful choucroute and it was magnificent. It cut like a brioche that had been soaking in heavy cream for days--I've never pork belly this tender or flavorful. The tangy choucroute helped cut into the richness of the pork. And I can't say I've ever had mustard ice cream, so this was a first. It was actually milder than I expected with just a hint of spiciness.



Marinated steak, pickled vegetables, grilled baby corn, crispy bacon. Our favorite dish of the night--how can you go wrong with steak AND bacon in the same dish!? The steak was marinated in what tasted like a Korean-BBQ-inspired sauce and grilled to a nice medium rare done-ness. It's buried under pickled vegetables and charred baby corn.



Sundae pistachio ice cream, bing cherries, hot chocolate sauce, salted pistachio. There were three desserts on the menu (in addition to a cheese plate) so we naturally ordered all three, starting with this pistachio ice cream sundae. As much as I enjoyed the pistachio ice cream, I enjoyed the bing cherries even more. The tartness from the cherries was delicious against the creamy pistachio and sweet whipped cream.



My scoop of the pistachio ice cream. You can see the bing cherries hiding in the ice cream. Yum.


Chocolate cake, spicy olive oil. This looks like your typical chocolate cake, though without any sugary frosting to distract from the cake itself. Adding the jalapeno infused olive oil, however, really took this dessert to a sophisticated level. The spicy oil certainly added some heat to the cake while also adding moistness, thus creating a sweet and spicy mingling of flavors and textures. This was my favorite of the three desserts; I found myself dunking the cake into the oil


Caramel souffle, blanco grapefruit, fleur de sel ice cream. Everybody was ordering this and for good reason, I mean look at this thing! It's a leaning tower of souffle just begging to be poked. The caramel flavor was light but very delicious. I liked the pairing with the grapefruit as the grapefruit added some interesting bitterness.


As with previous visits to LudoBites pop-ups, the food was excellent and inventive with the overall experience being a very fun and satisfying one. Our dinner was quite long as the service ran a bit slower than during previous visits, but that didn't detract from our wonderful night. I'm not sure where the next LudoBites will take place, but you can be assured that I'll be there with my appetite and my camera.



LudoBites 5.0 at Gram and Papas
227 E 9th St
Los Angeles CA, 90015