The Finest Dishes Eaten By Eater Los Angeles Meals Writers This Week

Milk and honey at Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura in Beverly Hills

Milk and honey at Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura in Beverly Hills. Cathy Chaplin

While I generally try to keep Dead Week as non-committal as possible, the opportunity to close out 2022 in grand fashion with dinner at Gucci Osteria proved too enticing to resist. While lunchtime features an a la carte menu, dinner is a prix fixe affair with three different menus to choose from. One of the highlights from my final fancy feast of last year was a luscious milk- and honey-inspired dessert crafted by pastry chef Tamara Rigo. Honey sourced from the Santa Monica farmers market was drizzled tableside, catching the structure’s honeycombed ridges and rich custard base, and providing a sweet ending to a very lovely meal (and year). 347 North Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. —Cathy Chaplin

Yucca fries at Mirate in Los Feliz

Yucca fries at Mirate in Los Feliz. Sierra Prescott

Of all the spectacular dishes to come out of chef Joshua Gil’s kitchen in Los Feliz, I was a bit surprised by a standout that’s usually relegated to a side dish: yucca. Mírate’s menu is a casual shift from Mírame — his sister restaurant in Beverly Hills — and there’s a lot to take in. Start by exploring the stunning, multi-level, slightly outdoor restaurant, then move on to the menu that spans from kanpachi aguachile to Steak tlayudas or lamb barbacoa flautas. When choosing a drink, there are two separate bars with entirely different options: one with a curated mezcal collection, and another with rare gins, rums, and agave-based spirits. Former Gracias Madre barman Max Reis concocted an incredible take on a margarita called el guero with tequila, aguachile, nopales granita, and coconut. Once done taking everything in, order the guero and the fried yucca, which can be made with or without the chorizo. This root vegetable is difficult to master (it’s often served oily, overly crunchy, or undercooked) but Gil’s have a gorgeous consistency and are even more flavorful with a sprinkling of cheese and a few aromatics that provide some heat. 1712 North Vermont Avenue, Los Feliz, CA, 90027.—Mona Holmes

Macau Pork Chop Bun at Pearl River Deli in Chinatown

Macau Pork Chop Bun at Pearl River Deli in Chinatown. Farley Elliot

It’s not every day that a sandwich arrives at your table with a pork bone hanging out one end. The bone-in sandwich look isn’t entirely new, even these days — try sorting through the endless beef rib sandwich photos that pop up on social media — but it’s still a bit of a mind-bender at first. At Chinatown’s Pearl River Deli, bending time and space to its will is basically the ethos of the entire restaurant. There are familiar-looking black and white sandwich cookies in the desert case that feel grocery store basic but are actually called L’Aureos, because they’re made by hand by baker Laura Hoang (aka @Largwa). The chow fun feels like a mall staple, but here it’s springier and impossibly delicious. And that bone-in Macau pork chop bun? It’s large but not impossibly so, with a substantial yet airy bun and just the right amount of crust on the chop itself. Leaving the bone in is actually part of the beauty of this sandwich, allowing diners to enjoy every inch of bun-sauce-pork, with room to nibble on the rounded edges at the end. Maybe the bone is there, really, as a nod to the fact that this sandwich is basically impossible to put down because it’s so good. Hold on, the bone says, because this one is going to wow you. 935 Mei Ling Way, Los Angeles, CA 90012. —Farley Elliott

Potato mille-feuille at Petrossian at Tiffany’s in Costa Mesa

Potato mille-feuille at Petrossian in Costa Mesa. Matthew Kang

I’ll say yes to a thousand layers of anything, especially a thinly-fried cube of potato topped with a solid daub of caviar. The lunch situation at Petrossian, set inside the Tiffany store at South Coast Plaza, could be the ultimate ladies-who-lunch venue in Orange County (with prices to match). This tiny but mighty bite of crispy potato has just the mildest smear of creme fraiche to help cut through the dozens of layers of the elegant fried tuber. Of course, the salty, briny pops of umami from the caviar on top amplify the feeling of luxury. Even in a place like this, with Petrossian caviar on virtually every dish, the humble potato steals the show. And it sure tastes better than a mound of sterling silver. 3333 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA. —Matthew Kang

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