When you visit Los Angeles it is a must to visit everyone’s least favorite but somehow intriguing Top Chef contestant Marcel. He’s full of something and will probably be wary of your presence outside his home, but don’t let that deter you. He makes excellent foam.
Psych! This review is of Ilan Hall’s restaurant The Gorbals. I love Top Chef. For those of you not in the know, Ilan Hall beat Marcel Vigneron in the season two finale of Top Chef. It was an epic battle. And by epic, I mean sort of hilarious.
Singer-Songwriter extraordinaire Valerie Broussard is here in LA yet again (because she’s playing the House of Blues TONIGHT, say whaaaa) and has been in love with Ilan since season two of Top Chef so I had to take her. I should also mention that I am currently in an extreme Top Chef re-watch of every season from 1 to now and I’m half way through. I’m completely obsessed and decided, I really need to take advantage of my Los Angeles/Southern California local and visit the restaurants of my favourite contestants who are out here (because there are a lot of em!). The Gorbals is also the filming location of the Esquire network show Knife Fight, which is an insanely macho, ridiculous and most importantly fun cooking competition. It’s like Chopped on acid with a crowd as the chefs drink their way through the thing. If you’re a fan of Top Chef and Anthony Bourdain, you’ll love Knife Fight.
After winning Top Chef Ilan settled here in Los Angeles, to open his restaurant The Gorbals (named for the Glasgow neighborhood) in DTLA in the old Alexandria hotel building on 5th and Spring. It’s the sort of place that I first heard about not because of Top Chef, but because he wrapped bacon around matzoh balls. The Jew in me yelled out sacrilege! But then the food lover in me yelled out, why that’s just crazy enough to work! Sadly that wasn’t on the menu on this occasion, but something weirder was: Duck Confit Latke surrounded by apple hoisin sauce and sour cream.
Yes Ilan and his team have found a way to combine Chinese and Jewish food which really leads me to question why this hasn’t happened sooner. It’s fabulous and super appropriate for Christmas time. I need this recipe. If I can make this latke it’ll be better than last year during thanksgivakkuh when I made a cranberry apple sauce that was reduced with a lot of Manischewitz wine for latkes. Please Ilan, post this wonderment online! We also ordered a brilliant Banh Mi Poutine, Mussels in a fabulous Thai green curry-esque sauce and to cut all this rich food, a bowl of really lovely cauliflower. Everything is on point. The food was really excellent.
There wasn't an awful lot of light so enjoy Valerie's excellent candle holding skills.
I can't even describe accurately how excellent the Banh Mi Poutine was. Just look at that.
I let the bread just soak in that amazing curry sauce forever. So decadent.
The Gorbals reminded me a lot of another DTLA establishment, Baco Mercat, currently my favorite restaurant in Los Angeles. The approach of both spaces is similar and this makes sense as they opened at similar times and really reflect what is happening in the LA food scene right now. But where Baco Mercat is leaning towards Latin, Middle Eastern and North African flavours, The Gorbals leans more Asian and with a slightly Jewish edge in its approach. But I will give the Gorbals one up on Baco Mercat; it’s much more playful and fun. Not only in its approach to food, but in general. For instance the wine list instead of describing the wine in the traditional sense, says things like, “Tastes like Babaganoush in a Glass” and “The French Drink this as they scoff at American Sitcoms”. It has a sense of humour and we really enjoyed that. From what I’ve seen on Top Chef and Knife Fight, Ilan’s personality was in every aspect of the space. It was really a great representation of the man who my friend fell in love with on a crazy TV show and more importantly, a really great and interesting meal.
A really bad picture of the wine list. Enjoy the witticisms.
