We were back in LA! I get excited to come here but then after about a few weeks I am itching to get back to Europe, mainly because the food standard is lower in this part of the world. We can have this argument back and forth all day, but the food quality and the way people cook in restaurants overall is unhealthy in America. Portion sizes are larger than average, everything just FEELS like its going to clog your arteries and leave you unable to breathe. Eating out in LA permanently rather than cooking your own food is not sustainable, I just would not do it. Dante saved our trip to be honest. It became our regular dinner place because it was one of the only restaurants that was acceptable and quite consistent near us. (LA is a big place)
I am going to delve in a little bit firstly to The Maybourne Hotel, this is where Dante is on the top floor, and it has a beautiful view of the Hollywood Hills. Breakfast room service in the hotel, was a good standard. Their Huevos rancheros was excellent, the pancakes and pastries were great, well made. The ruby grapefruit was stand-out. It was also consistent, and this standard was kept over a lengthy period.
Lunch at Dante was consistent as well, it houses their own pizza oven outside on the deck and the whole menu is simple but effective. You cannot really go wrong, it is safe. The pizza is freshly made, I had jet lag for days when I arrived, and I had the opportunity to try a few of them out whilst lounging outside in the sun. The Diavola was one of the best, (sopressata spicy, mozzarella, tomato, hot honey parsley). Very tasty. Dishes such as the calamari and salad were all proficient too. A let down at the poolside was the seared fish sandwich, do not bother ordering anything like this. The fish was encased in two thick stodgy chunks of bread toasted, with a little red cabbage slaw, Birds Eye chilli, lime cilantro and mayo. To be honest I do not remember seeing much of the other ingredients and the fish wasn’t nicely seared. The bread was all that this was. The chips were ok though! I was expecting a well thought out seared fish sandwich that was delicious on good bread. This seemed too advanced for the kitchen to make well.
Now here comes another disappointment- Room service dinner was a completely different ball game. We tried it a couple of times, but we did not order it again for the rest of the stay. Completely low-level cookery, it did not taste fresh or good. The most acceptable item was the chips (Sorry fries). Towards the end of the trip, we started to ask Dante to send us their food to our room especially when we were too tired to go outside.
Dinner at Dante we found was good for the pasta dishes, they did this well, so we had this every time we visited. After long days, we needed assurance and ordering pasta here was always ok. The restaurant service was good with always some warm and friendly smiles and eating with this view of the hills elevated the experience.
If I am judging on the hotel food and standard alone it is nowhere near up there with the likes of its big brother (The Connaught London, being part of the same group). But if we find ourselves in the area we will pop in at Dante if we need somewhere to eat.
