Gold Dig #24

A.O.C. is one of Suzanne Goin’s restaurants to regularly make Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list (Lucques is another, which I haven’t made it to yet, but it’s on my list to make it to their Sunday Supper!). A.O.C. has a beautiful courtyard patio with big doors into the restaurant and bar, vines creeping up the surrounding walls, and lovely sunlight streaming in. Even in January it was comfortable sitting out there… ahhh winter in southern California!

The Dish

A.O.C. does small plates with lots of fresh seasonal produce. Many dishes are cooked in the wood oven. They have a handful of big platters which are meant to be shared by a group.

Two Cheese & Charcuterie Plate

We got the Two Cheese & Charcuterie Plate with a cow cheese and a sheep cheese. This plate was ridiculously sparse. No – we didn’t eat a thing before taking this picture. For size reference, the “large” piece of cheese is about the size of half my finger. The flavors were fine, but you can easily find better.

Spanish Fried Chicken

This fried chicken, on the other hand, was incredible. The outside is crispy, and drizzled with chili-cumin butter that had nice spice. The chicken went great with the romesco aioli, and I found myself wishing I had other things to dip in the aioli too.

Farmer’s Lunch

The Farmer’s Lunch consisted of winter vegetables, muhammara (pepper dip), chickpea puree, burrata, and grilled toast. The veggies had a great roasted flavor, especially the broccolini. I actually preferred them without the two dips. And burrata on grilled toast is never bad. Tasty all in all, but not mind-blowingly interesting.

Flaked Albacore Salad

This salad was super light and fresh. The albacore had nice char. There was just a sprinkling of the lemongrass sambal dressing, and the raw bok choy and mizuna made the dish very crisp and green.

Honey Panna Cotta

The Honey Panna Cotta came with blueberry compote and pear sorbet. My favorite thing on this plate was actually the pear sorbet, which was cold and refreshing with a perfectly pear flavor. I love panna cotta, so was sadly not so impressed with this one. It was almost bland, with no detectable honey flavor, and denser than I like my panna cotta. The blueberry compote was good, but completely overpowered the panna cotta.

Butterscotch Pot de Creme

Luckily I liked everything about the Butterscotch Pot de Creme. It was smooth and rich, with a touch of fleur de sel to cut the sweetness. And good thing it came with two salted cashew cookies, or my lunch-mate and I might have had a fight!