Majordomo
Likely the last restaurant adventure on this L.A trip was to Majordomo—a David Chang restaurant. With all the cooking shows I’ve watched, I was excited to go here and excited to be able to book a reservation a month ago.
Earlier today, in trying to track down a dress code—there really isn’t one except maybe “don’t look slovenly” but they still let me in and anyways—I came across a review of Majordomo by Jonathan Gold. The review was lukewarm and my expectations were tempered.
The dishes are “family style,” designed for sharing. Between the two of us, we ended up ordering six dishes. It was a little much but we really wanted an opportunity to try as many dishes as possible. Once again, if you can go with a group of four, I think that’d be ideal.
The place gets quite loud when it’s full and trying to hear people across a larger table can get quite difficult. At about 80dB, it was already difficult to hear other across our table of two without yelling at each other. (The woman to one side of us wants this $400 sweater but would never use it but her bff said she could totally use it in New York. One guy at the table to the opposite side never really liked fish until he went to Tokyo and bought some fish from the market it cut it himself. Anyway.)
The food!
We had the uni to start which came in a wonderful sauce with some tofu. A nice bit of spice and found it paired very well with the Paloma that I ordered at the start.
That was quickly followed by the spicy lamb. Easily my favourite of the evening with the mint, the peppers, and that delicious bread.
Up next was the Benton’s reserve ham. Sliced thinly like a good prosciutto and sizeable enough for two to three people, easily. It was a bit plain, though, with just the bing (a style of flatbread).
At this point, the dishes came out more slowly. Something more tapas style would’ve made it easier to mix and match foods to try new combinations.
Up next was heirloom tomatoes with fruit, sesame, and basil. I feel like the fruit made the whole dish taste muted.
The sausage-stuffed peppers that followed were hot and oily, fresh out of the deep fryer. At the narrow end, the pepper seemed a bit flavourless. The middle was better but the end suddenly got quite spicy, which came as a bit of a surprise after the rather mild start.
Lastly, we had the skirt steak with picked onion rings. The steak was cooked perfectly with a wonderful flavour. The onion rings were a bit of a surprise. I was left with a bit of cognitive dissonance with every bite that left me unsure of whether this was the right mix of flavours.
In the end, I was left with mixed feelings, just like Mr. Gold. I’d go back to try some of the other dishes, to find the right mix for the perfect meal.
Verdict: I wouldn’t go out of my way for it but worth trying at least once with a group of friends.
| Experience: | ★☆☆ |
| Value: | ★★☆ |
| Food: | ★☆☆ |
| Drinks: | ★★☆ |
| Service: | ★★☆ |