Neighborhood Exotic
Tangier offers an ambitious kitchen and fine service
By Richard Foss
The name Tangier evokes images from old travel posters, a crossroads city of twisting alleys, exotic cuisine, and Oriental mystery. I’ve been there on a day trip and found it to have all of those, plus chaotic traffic and the hardest bargaining souvenir merchants in the Mediterranean region. Offhand, it doesn’t have much in common with the orderly and quiet neighborhood near the Griffith Observatory where the club and restaurant called Tangier is located.
This place was once appropriately named, since they used to serve North African food, but these days there’s no tagine to be seen or couscous on the loose. The décor still has echoes of those days, with some pretty inlay work in the bar area. The main dining room has a different kind of style; it’s a dramatic space with soft but strikingly pretty lighting. I had heard recommendations as a place to eat before shows, so decided to investigate.
A friend and I arrived early on a weekday evening and found the whole restaurant vacant, not too surprising since the club traffic doesn’t rev up until the later hours. We relaxed in the peaceful space to consider the menu, finally deciding on an order of crab spring rolls ($10), a Tangier salad ($8), and an Asian pear and endive salad ($9) for appetizers. The crab rolls started the meal on a high note – rather than vegetable rolls with a hint of crab that we’ve had elsewhere, these had seafood and spices minced together for a pleasant texture, and were served with a zippy mix of garlic mayonnaise and Indonesian pepper sauce. It was well above the standard of club food in L.A., and showed some thought and ambition. So did the signature salad, which had a well-considered mix of spinach leaves, raisins, feta cheese, candied walnuts, and tomato in a balsamic vinaigrette. The kitchen went a bit too far with our other salad, though – we found that Asian pear and endive both go well with Roquefort, but not each other, and especially not in the presence of a lemon vinaigrette and pomegranate reduction. There were all the ingredients of a very good salad here, plus a few that just didn’t belong. Our server Brian noticed that we weren’t eating the salad and removed it from our bill, a gesture we appreciated.
The wine list had some offerings by the bottle that would have been interesting with the crab rolls and Tangier salad, but the by-the-glass list is mostly dull. We chose a bottle of Laetitia Central Coast Pinot Noir that was only slightly high at $40, and a good compromise with all our selections. There are many good bottles offered here, so somebody cares about good wine, but it’s not filtering down to the glass list.
For main courses we picked a mushroom pasta ($16) and a pepper steak ($26). Of the two, the pasta was a standout, the sauce rich with shallots, thyme, truffle oil, and what tasted like a hint of brandy. The four kinds of mushrooms each had distinct flavors, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. The steak was less satisfying because the pepper sauce was too timid and used sparingly. It was a well-grilled and tender piece of meat, but I had ordered a pepper steak because I like the combination of meat and robust sauce. The garlic spinach that came with it was very nice, but the mashed potatoes with mustard were timid – we could hardly taste any hint of spice.
We had no complaints about the dessert sampler ($15), three portions of any of the selections from the menu. We picked fallen chocolate cake, pot au chocolat, and bread pudding, and polished off all three. None were over-sweet, and though this was a soft bread pudding rather than the crisp version I prefer, we enjoyed all of them. Our server said they were made in-house, and if so there is a talented baker on staff.
By the time we left, the room was filling with the pre-show crowd, quietness and low music dispelled by happy chatter. While not everything was perfect, the ambition of the kitchen is evident and the standard of service is high. It is not the exotic and chaotic Tangier I remember from my travels, but it’s a solid dining spot by the same name that deserves a look.
Tangier, 2138 Hillhurst Ave., Los Feliz. Open daily, dinner only. Full bar, valet parking; (323) 666-8666.
Published: 02/20/2008
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