Smoke.Oil.Salt is another one of those many tapas shareable places that has been popping up all over Los Angeles. Unlike the other restaurants I’ve been to in the past few months, this is Spanish style featuring some traditional spanish dishes. It was surprisingly good.
This is #23 of 52 of my 2014 LA food expedition.
Note for 2022 migration: this is an old post from my other defunct blog. This restaurant unfortunately is now closed.
Ambiance
Parking is not too much of a pain. I simply parked in the adjacent neighborhoods and walked a few blocks. The restaurant itself is very loud and somewhat smokey. Fortunately, they sat my party at the bar, so the noise was behind us. I walked in with no reservations, and I had to wait about 30 minutes. So it might be a good idea to make a reservation beforehand because it gets crowded very fast even on weekdays unless you come after 9 PM. The bar seats are the best in the house because you can see the cook grill all types of things and can plan for what you want to order.
Food
Braves Trencades. Fried potatoes, serrano ham, chorizo, and fried egg. This was really good. The potatoes were very crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The ham and chorizo added the salt, and the fried egg was a nice topper. This is pretty much similar to a breakfast potato skillet with different proteins than normal.
“Yellowtail”. Unfortunately because the menu changes daily, I didn’t realize they did not have this appetizer on their website. It was basically a whole grilled baby yellowtail with some type of red sauce poured on top of it. They cut the fish directly in half, so you can even eat the head if you’d wanted to. I am not sure what type of sauce it was. It was somewhat smokey with some peppery essences to it. The yellowtail was very tender. They also stripped most of the bones off, so you could easily not have to worry about the bones. All in all, this dish was decent for me, although I probably wouldn’t order this again.
Xulles De Corder. Farm-raised lamb chops, wood-fire onions, and aioli. Surprisingly, I was not a fan of this. The lamb I felt was undercooked, and it was rather chewy with a lot of tendons in it. Perhaps if the cook had left the lamb chop on the grill for a few more minutes, it might have been better. But overall the actual quality of the meat was less than desired.
Guatlles A La Brassa I LLentilles. Wood-fire grilled quail, black lentils, chickpeas, and goat cheese. Contrary to the lamb chops, this was actually really good. the quail was nice and tender. The chick peas and lentils tasted great on top of the bread along with the goat cheese.
Crema Catalana AMB Compota Citrica. Catalan custard, mandarin compote, and smokey ice cream. I had a little of this, and it was pretty good. Basically, it was a creme brulee but with a different type of custard.
“Chocolate”. Like the yellowtail, this was not on the website’s menu. It was basically chocolate fudge chunks with some spice. It was pretty good, but part of me wished I had gotten the cheesecake with the fruit compote instead.
Final Verdict
In the end, the food was pretty good overall. I give it the benefit of the doubt, since it hasn’t been opened for very long, that some of the food may not have been cooked the best, but I can definitely see it’s potential. Oh by the way, one thing that looked stunning was the whole grilled sea bass, which was well over 12 inches long. It’s definitely on my to-get list next time I come here.
Revisions
- Nov 19, 2022 - Migrated post from other blog.
- Jun 11, 2014 - Initial revision.