Gold Dig #65

Rosaline is the only Peruvian restaurant on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list at the time of this writing. Located in the prime eating area of West Hollywood, the front room has a bar and somewhat of an open kitchen where you can watch the magic happen. The back room is a wonderfully cozy space filled with hanging plants that give an indoor/outdoor feel.

The Dish

Rosaline serves contemporary Peruvian food – dish names you might recognize, but with a modern twist and elevated presentation. I like Peruvian food for its mix of Spanish and Asian influences. The food at Rosaline plays up the Spanish side.

Pisco Sour

The pisco sour is a classic cocktail of Peru, so I figured I should get one. Rosaline’s is made with Quebranta pisco, citrus, egg white, Peruvian bitters, and a cinnamon dusting. I liked the tartness smoothed out by the egg white.

Causita Crocante

The causita crocante are crispy balls of potatoes and salted cod, topped with pickled radish and wasabi Dijon mustard sauce. The potato balls had great outer crispness, though the flavor of Porto’s potato balls are equally as good in my opinion. What made this dish was the sauce, which I wanted more of.

Corazon Anticucho

The corazon anticucho is beef heart skewers topped with rustic rocoto pepper, feta cheese, and walnut sauce. This was tender, but not as flavorful as I’d hoped for. The flavor seemed to be mostly from the sauce, but not in the meat itself.

Solterito

The solterito is a salad of lima beans, avocado, blistered Cabernet tomatoes, pickled onions, feta, botija olive, and choclo corn. We got this dish because we thought it would be good to have some veg in our meal, but surprisingly it turned out to be my favorite. Every element had great flavor and a different texture, and they all complemented each other nicely and came together really well with the light but bright dressing.

Pescado Parrillero

The pescado parrillero is grilled branzino, charcoal quick dried, with black mint aji sauce. This dish was all about the sauce for me. The fish was just a vehicle to get more of it into my face. I was wiping up every last drop of that sauce, and barely managed to restrain myself from just picking up the plate and licking it.

Coffee Flan // Custard

The coffee flan is topped with pisco, banana creme fraiche cream, chocolate sauce, candied hazelnuts, and banana chips. I wouldn’t necessarily have thought that banana and coffee would be a good pairing, but I really enjoyed the layers of flavors. Though the flan was more dense and not as creamy as I would have liked.

Chancay con Leche // Peruvian Cake

The chancay con leche is a goat’s milk cake, served with maracuya guava frozen yogurt, torched meringue, and harry’s berries strawberries. The cake was moist, the frozen yogurt’s tang and toasty meringue flavor nicely complementing it, and the strawberries were fresh and sweet.