Ortolan Restaurant

Secret message just for me in the bathroom, so I took a photo just for you.

For Lyle's Birthday he requested a treat of going to the restaurant Ortolan. We stumbled across it just before Christmas while shopping down Third Street in Los Angeles. They were on tehefloor fixing chairs and we were looking in through the window. One of the owners came out the door and asked if we'd like to look inside. Of Course we would! We looked over the menu and knew we'd back. We also saw the pricing and knew we'd be back for a special occasion, not just on a Tuesday. As we left the restaurant, Lyle turned to me and said, "that co-owner is an actress. Who is she? And since I know everything I answered, "Six of 9 from Star Trek, Jeri Ryan." Which totally got Lyle excited because he watched that show.

We started off the evening with a visit from the champagne cart. How fabulous is that? A cart of champagne traveling about the globe offering ot bring me pleasure!

Our beloved server, Leila, made the night a smashing success.
I'm sure the champagne helped as well.

We opted for tehe Chef's tasting menu and before our meal the chef sent out an "amuse bouche" of soup. Potato Leek with mushroom foam on top or cream of mushroom soup with mushroom foam on top. In a test tube with a straw. My "bouche" was very amused. (Bouche is French for mouth)

Macaron of Foie Gras Confit with Quince Gelée. WOW. Whoever thought of placing foie gras between macaroons is a genius. I totally want this again. Right now.

Winter Vegetables in Five Ways, Consommee, Coulis, Carpaccio, Emulsion and Parfait. Yeah all that was done to vegetables. Fascinating textures.

Egg and Caviar Cooked in Hot Ash. Inside there is a soft boiled egg with vanilla whipped cream and cavier. It was an amazing taste combination of whipped cream sweet with cavier salt and egg savory. It just kept my mouth guessing!

The next course was Langoustine Ravioli in a chicken consumme wiht a piece of green cabbage. True to form, I was so hungry and the food was so good, I forgot to take a photo.

Roast Scallop with Ricotta Ravioli with a Fig and blood orange reduction. I am not a scallop fan. But everything else had been so good I tasted it. It wasn't bad. But it was still a scallop. I gave the other half of the scallop to Lyle. I did eat all the other stuff on my plate myself.

Steamed Turbot with calamari on a bed of white beans with a black truffle chip. I hate calamari no matter what you do to it. I loved the truffle chip.

Roast Venison Medallion with Chestnut served with a quince chip, pumpkin cubes and a cranberry sauce. Unbelivable. So tasty. So amazing. After that came the Cheese Plate of an herbed goat cheese with olive oil that I also forgot to take picture of.

A pre-dessert cleansing of the pallette with a grapefruit sorbet, and now on to the desserts! Check out the presentation of this:

Panna Cotta with a strawberry cavier.

It looked so perfect I had to take a photo of it after I had some to show that it really wasn't cavier.
Pear & Chocolate. This was three desserts featuring chocolate and pears. One was a sandwich of a biscuit covered in chocolate filled with a chocolate ganache then topped with a solid chocolate square that looked like a Lego piece. On the right side is a paper thin chocolate wrap filled with pear foam and in the front a giant chocolate turd (my description) of the richest chocolate ice cream. I had mine and Lyle's because he claimed he was getting full.

Of course then came his birthday candle dessert that was little petit fours. We managed to squeeze in a just a couple more of those as well.

I do have to mention the one disappointment in the evening was that Aretha Franklin did not come over to sing Happy Birthday to Lyle. Oh yeah, she was there as well.