Two days after Christmas we skedaddled out to the west coast to see the kids before they tired of their toys. (Fun Food Show Note: Daniel the Gourmet Cellist was on our flight. Good thing I didn’t ask him to sub for me.)
I specifically requested that we just stay home and play, so I don’t have much to report on food. Tom and I did stay at the Langham in Pasadena, one of our favorite hotels there and one of my favorites anywhere. Despite a screaming need for renovation, I still love everything else about it, even with an obvious COVID stain.
For a place so large, there is a surprising dearth of restaurants. Besides the Royce Steakhouse, there is a pool bar with a large menu, and an all-day restaurant called The Terrace. We have breakfast there every day, and sometimes lunch, but The Terrace doesn’t seem like a place to go for dinner, and I don’t even know why.
The first night we arrived I was anxious to sleep because early flights make for bad sleep. For this trip, I literally didn’t sleep at all. We made a brief stop in the bar for a drink and maybe a little bite. In the past, we have had a lot of nice times there. It is a handsome room with a fireplace and a lovely large outdoor patio with a view of the Horseshoe Garden and mountains.
But what I loved most about it is the generous serving of my favorite bar snack ever - warm roasted mixed nuts salted just so, with a light film of oil. I love these nuts so much, I have actually stopped in on past visits to get some before going to my room.
On this visit, not only had the nuts been replaced by a pile of puffed nothing, but the menu had been gutted. And there was no one to ask about these changes. Servers seemed as rare as menu items. If you didn’t like raw seafood here you were out of luck. There was a charcuterie board offered besides tuna tartare and ceviche, but the burger was gone. We went for housemade potato chips and onion dip. I had doubts about the chips, but the onion dip wowed me. It was luscious and decadent. And too generous a portion for the chips served. We got more.
That was dinner.
We awoke the next morning looking forward to breakfast, a ritual that we both enjoy immensely every time we are there. We sit by the pool and I relish an elegant and simple breakfast of two eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and sourdough toast. I used to get more adventuresome things here, but Huevos Rancheros changed, and the corned beef hash disappeared. The American breakfast is always my favorite anyway. I also used to get chocolate scones here sometimes, but those were purged with COVID. Tom got brioche French Toast, an elegant plate of thick French Toast dusted with powdered sugar and arranged artfully with an orchid blossom as garnish. This came with blueberry compote and citrus-infused clotted cream. I was surprised by the goodness of this whipped cream. Citrus and dairy are an unlikely combination, but this was superb, as was the compote. A great version of this popular dish.
The second night we went to the Royce Steakhouse, a place we have loved for years. This was the most pretentious place I have ever been to before it became the Steakhouse, and I don’t say that as a diss. Pretentious as in gorgeous perfection, not snooty arrogance. They didn’t have to be arrogant.
Those otherworldly standards were relaxed a bit for the steakhouse because they didn’t need to be maintained. A steakhouse is its own thing. Here was incredible service, a great menu, and one of the best bread baskets I’ve encountered. That last one may sound a little silly but the crafting of perfect gougeres is not a small thing.
But alas, the stain of COVID is here too. The place was packed, the service was great, but the food just somehow seemed…less wonderful. I didn’t even feel the need to annoy our server by requesting refills on the breadbasket, though the gougeres were as good as ever.
We went for a steak/frites thing. The steak was not in any way extraordinary, but the fries were. There was the option of duck fat and garlic, but we went with truffled fries instead. These were fine, but the creamed spinach was the standout. Here it is called Power Greens and features baby artichokes as well as spinach. This was very different from the usual creamed spinach expected in steakhouses. Less, creamy, and more light, the vegetables took center stage. It had a sharp artichoke flavor, making a statement that I loved.
For a starter, we went for the macaroni and cheese which we had gotten before to see how different it was. None of the salads appealed to me, so we split an order of this. It was rich but not especially memorable and was decorated with a tiny pile of microgreens.
The next day was Rose parade fun. I wish we could say we got to sample the beignets from the NOLA ex-pats at Beignet Box or the seafood lunch promised to volunteers working on the Louisiana float at the Rose Parade Float Barn, but we went a day early. So no food, but this was good, because we got to see the hub of activity before it became too intense. Already we had to watch for trucks coming and going with flower deliveries, conveyors removing piles of thorny stems, and an army of people busily applying bits of flowers and seeds and rice on strollers and alligators and dragons.
With or without food, it was a fascinating peek into what it takes to bring these beautiful gigantic floral arrangements to life.
We went back to the house where we ate take-out from Din Tai Fung, the Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant. Somehow it seemed incongruous to be eating such lofty food out of paper containers, but it was still wonderful.
We left the next day to the biggest food disappointment of all... Delta Airlines appears to have banished Cheez-Its from in-flight service and from the Delta Club! Unforgivable.
