#raphael's

[thebuppiediaries]

[joanna-siaterli]

Vandalizing Raphael’s paintings (2)

[joanna-siaterli]

Vandalizing Raphael’s paintings (1)

[philotechnical]

r a p h a e l ' s

for my 19th birthday last august, my mom and i went to have dinner at raphael's in studio city.

the exterior of the restaurant was quaint and eccentric with a homey feeling, but this restaurant was hecka hard to find and was located on a really random street and only allowed valet parking. boo.

here and there, people ask me why i always crop or blur out my family members' faces in my photos on facebook and tumblr. well, the answer is: they simply don't want to be shown. so i guess you'll have to stick with my ugly face in pictures for most of my (fine dining, or just 'nicer' in general) restaurant reviews.

we started off with a frisee and arugala salad made up of poached, caramelized apples, hazelnut ricotta cheese, and cider gastrique ($10) pretty good. the cheese got tiring and overwhelming after a while, though. the apples were addicting. the cider gastrique was interesting!

for my main entree, i ordered the filet of beef grilled with caramelized mushroom puree, polenta, sauce bearnaise ($32). the beef was seared decently, the sauce was amazing, and the polenta with the shitake mushrooms and green beans were average.

my mom, on the other hand, ordered the evening special. i think it was seared sea bass with grilled asparagus and a potato pancake with creme fraiche. this dish was great, but to be honest, the sea bass tasted more like trout than sea bass. my mom and i doubted the fish for quite a while but ate it anyway. i enjoyed it, but my mom didn't care for the dish. (around $28)

to finish off our dinner, my mom and i order the trio of creme brulees: vanilla bean, white chocolate rasberry, and green tea. trust me, i've tried a lot of creme brulees in my life and this was just average. i thought each dessert was too rich and the white chocolate rasberry was too sweet. the presentation was cute though.

they gave us the receipt like a message in a bottle! how cute. to sum it all up, raphael's was decent, but i probably won't be going back anytime in the future, unless i have no other choice. the food was good, but the service was bad and our waiter rarely checked up on us. and the atmosphere was lacking of some sort... so i didn't really enjoy the restaurant itself. i made my reservation on opentable.com and noted that the dinner was for my birthday but unlike patina, who went out of their way to make me a special dessert, raphael's didn't do anything. they didn't even say happy birthday. oh well!

maybe round two (if there ever will be one) will be a better dining experience...