SOLA was a small place, about 8 tables, featuring Victor Garvey’s California cooking.  It has one Michelin star and opened in 2019.   Bench seating backs up to plants and windows on the long wall of the restaurant.  A couple small tables are opposite next to some wine cabinets and the end has an arced banquet.  Large round tables are covered with white cloths and brown leather placemats with the starched napkin held in plaster hands.  Music was in the background.  They offer one tasting with optional wine pairings (two levels).   We ordered our own wine but the wine list is very small and oddly chosen and the wine glasses quite clunky.  The wine and cocktails are all badly over-priced and the Old Fashioned we started with was very sweet.  Staff were all friendly but the vibe seemed odd to me.  Nothing was bad but nothing was outstanding either.

Set-up

 

Food

The tasting starts with small bites, first being a late season gazpacho with cucumber, miso and Picual olive oil from Spain.  A Bloody Mary glaze and vinaigrette with XO added to this faux salad.  It was light and well-flavored.

 

Devilled egg “since Day 1” was with smoked sturgeon, vinegar and gochujang.  The filling was a shellfish mousse topped with toasted pumpkin seeds.  It was not really an egg but it tasted a lot like a deviled egg, only lighter and smoother.

 

(Left) Sardine tart with Marcona almonds and Muscat grape had a very crisp shell with lightly flavored pieces of sardines on grapes.  It was nice.           (Right) Potato Vodka cured salmon “roulade” was with wasabi, sweet potato and onion escabeche. Lots of crispy onions added a fun crunch to this bite.

 

“Vic’s oyster” was on a bed of wild spinach, Kristal caviar and beurre blanc.  It was a tempura-like coating with great crispiness and a light oyster that was perfect with the sauce.

 

Sashimi of the day were 2 Amberjack loins from the South Atlantic with roasted baby leek, avocado sorbet, shimeji (mushroom) and vinaigrette.

 

Langoustine “Nabemono” was flambee’d in whiskey and then presented with wild mushroom and ginger dashi.  They were cooked on hot rocks at the table with an alcohol flame.  They were lovely and the dashi broth with the quail egg and mushrooms was a tasty combination.

 

5J Iberico “Royale” was mixed with sunchoke, black truffle and quince in a custard.  The pork cheeks were topped with sliced truffles at the table but had little flavor.  This dish was fine but I expected more depth of flavor in it than it had.

 

Mieral duck with shades of crimson had been aged 21 days.  It was stuffed with boudin and rice and plated with beets and kale.  Some buckthorn jus and pepper made a sauce that was good with the nicely grilled rare meat.  They left the skin quite crispy too.

 

Signature of SO/LA chocolate cake was “a la minute’ with praline, caviar and creme fraiche – made at the table.  Some ingredients are put into a frying pan and then covered for a few seconds and then voila, two perfectly formed small cakes are revealed when the lid is removed.  For someone who can’t figure out magic tricks this one was easy to spot.  A bit of showmanship that came off silly to me.  The small iced cakes were cool inside.  The end result was fine and a topping of caviar on chocolate turns out to be good.

 

Mignardises included a passion fruit gel with yuzu, which was okay.  The lemon curd tartlet with meringue was much better.