Mizuna tries so hard to be an upscale gourmet establishment and yet falls short on serving great food.
The service in an expensive restaurant should be top notch and aside from the guy refilling my water glass, it really wasn't. The hostess offered me a black napkin and never brought me one. Our overbearing server insisted on explaining every single dish to us, even bragging that their menu changed year round so they had no specials. ORLY? You don't have the same menu year round? What a novel concept, I'll have to take that tip with me back to LA and let the chefs in on this hot new trend. The sommelier was all right but the $65 bottle of wine we ordered had a damaged cork so they substituted a $72 bottle without mentioning the price difference. Granted, not a huge price difference, but it felt dishonest not to mention it at all until we saw the bill.
Also, they might just have been short staffed or something but both the hostess and the sommelier were serving food, carrying plate after plate out to tables...
And what lackluster food it was. This is what we ordered:
Pan Roasted Foie Gras $24
Brioche, quince, and currants
Stringy foie, hard as hell quince, and way too much brioche for the amount of foie, which was around 3 ounces.
Wild Mushroom Bisque $15
Truffled chicken liver mousse, red onion jam, brioche crouton
This soup could have been good if it was served warm but it wasn't. It was cold and thick, the consistency of condensed canned Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup out of the can, the kind you need to add water or milk to. Which was unfortunate, because the flavor was pretty decent and the accompanying chicken liver mousse not bad at all. But still, cold soup is a bad start to a meal. No bueno!
Lobster Mac & Cheese $21
The only item on the menu to be offered year round, the lobster macaroni and cheese is serviceable and I'm sure most people would like it a lot. Good? Sure. Exciting? No.
Shrimp & Grits $37
Prawns en croute, cauliflower grits, bacon vinaigrette
This was a strange preparation. You don't usually see shrimp and grits with the shrimp en croute, i.e. wrapped in pastry. I guess it's a twist on the standard? It was fairly well received by the diner.
Duo of Beef $39
Braised short rib, New York strip, pommes macaire, creamed spinach
Awful, awful dry short rib. I did not finish this. It barely tasted braised at all and I needed to saw it up with my knife; so much for fork tender! The New York strip was cooked well at medium but not that flavorful. The potatoes and spinach were just ok.
Colorado Lamb $49
Braised shank cassoulet, chop, roasted garlic sausage
If you call something a cassoulet you set expectations of a cassoulet and this "cassoulet" was basically beans and bread crumbs with a few slices of sausage sitting on top. Utterly dry, it was flavorless unless you got a pocket with some liquid and also had a bite of sausage. The lamb chop was legitimately tasty but for $49 it kind of sucks to only get one measly chop and get the rest of the lamb in the aforementioned "cassoulet" and whatever sausage form. Get rid of the cassoulet and sausage and just offer 3-4 chops already.
Date Sticky Toffee Pudding $10
Banana ice cream, banana tuile, vanilla wafer crumbs
No complaints here. I will give credit where it's due: The toffee pudding was pretty good!
Ultimately, if you're going to spend $350+ on a meal, it should be really fucking good, and honestly the food at Mizuna was just ok, with a few low points, and a good dessert. I don't think it deserves more than 2 stars for the price point, no matter how hard it thinks it tries.
We ate at Fruition the next night and for over $100 less, our meal was fantastic. Go there instead! read more