Loving LudoBites 8.0

If you're anyone who's anyone in LA who loves food, you make an appearance at LudoBites, Chef Ludo Lefebvre's pop-up restaurant that made its way to the Westside in version 8.0, and nestled in at Lemon Moon. We feasted on sinful pairings of bold flavors a novice wouldn't ever think to pair together.

Burgundy gougère – Baked savory pastry dough mixed with cheese. Yes, please.

Chicken Tandoori Crackling – Essentially chicken pate on fried chicken skin. You’d think being a good Jewish girl that I could live off pate, but I never acquired a keen taste for it so I had a difficult time eating it. But the fried chicken skin was like crack. Give me more!

Lobster Salad, Yuzu, Honey – To call this a salad is an understatement, and misleading. Unless the greens were liquefied, this was not much of a typical “salad,” but more of a refreshing bite of sweet, sensational heaven! The yuzu paired seductively with the honey and I could taste each flavor layered on top of each other and finished off with a thick piece of lobster. Yum.

Sweet Shrimp, Miso Cream, Beans, Smoked Salmon – Meh.

Uni Crème Brulee, Coffee – While not an uni fan (quite frankly, it freaks me out), we had to order this as all the reviews and blog posts raved about this dish. As I saw the gentleman at the table behind us stick his finger into the bowl and lick the remaining uni off his finger, I took my first bite, and had a hard time getting it down. Call me unrefined, whatever. Not an uni fan, not a fan of this dish. And neither were my friends.

Big eye tuna, Tahitian vanilla, Somen and 7 flavor vinaigrette – One of my favorites. The flavors were so bold and clean and authentic with the kiss of vanilla at the end.

Veal, black olive tapenade crust, orange caramelized endive, clementine beurre blanc – The only thing I didn’t like about this dish was that I had to share it with my friends. Incredibly deep flavors that introduced themselves in a linear fashion as each ingredient touched my mouth. Cooked to perfection and perfectly flavored.

Lemon meringue, poppy seed crumble, extra virgin olive oil – We couldn’t decide which dessert to order and were leaning towards the brown butter almond cake as none of us were meringue fans. We took a poll of the waitstaff and all, without any hesitation, said “meringue” when asked which dessert to order. Meringue it was for us. When it arrived, I became giddy like a five year old. Just the presentation was enough to send this foodie into pure foodie bliss. Deconstructed and sophisticated. And then I tasted it. Hummena, hummena, I do declare, LudoBites waitstaff do not steer a girl wrong! The fresh lemon paired with upscale marshmallow fluff tasting goodness was heavenly. This meringue has ruined all other meringues that will ever cross my path.

LudoBites.