Laurel Grill is the crowd-pleasing, sophisticated spot Culver needed - Review - Los Angeles - The Infatuation
"Laurel Grill looks like someone crossed the DNA of a Hillstone restaurant with the soft, gold lighting of a luxury spa. And threw in a grand piano for good measure. We mean all this as a compliment, of course. In a once-quiet dining neighborhood that’s now home to an over-the-top tasting menu, high-end omakase, and historic bakery revival, Laurel Grill adds something else: an impressively gorgeous "neighborhood grill" that’s useful for just about any occasion. Downtown Culver has been waiting for a restaurant like Laurel Grill since The Wizard of Oz cast was hanging out at The Culver Hotel. It's a sleek, streamlined spot where picky studio execs, couples on double dates, and families wrangling a celebratory dinner can gather in a cushy booth to catch up over steaks, caesar salads, and fancy-but-not-too-fancy fries. Unlike its sceney Weho sibling Laurel Hardware, where the bar is consistently packed with people pretending to not recognize someone they matched with on Raya, things move slower at Laurel Grill. You’re here to eat, ask the server to take a few group photos, listen to someone tickle the ivories, then sip an Old Fashioned by the fire pits on the patio. photo credit: Jessie Clapp photo credit: Jessie Clapp photo credit: Jessie Clapp photo credit: Jessie Clapp photo credit: Jessie Clapp The menu is filled with familiar dishes you’d find at any upmarket American concept (*ahem*), but focus on the ones that come straight from the kitchen’s roaring hearth, like the gooey mozzarella bread, the seared ribeye that’s seasoned just right, and baby back ribs that fall off the bone but are charred enough to have some bite. You won’t find many surprises here (except maybe a gimmicky $22 wagyu hot dog), but Laurel Grill is a great suggestion to throw into your group chat of friends who order a burger at every restaurant but still want a nice dinner. Food Rundown photo credit: Jessie Clapp Hot Bread From Our Wood Fired Oven Start with this bread. Made from deliciously chewy pizza dough, these gussied-up hot pockets are loaded with molten mozzarella that results in an impressive cheese pull. photo credit: Jessie Clapp King Salmon Ceviche The smack of citrus in this ceviche makes it a refreshing starter, and the fresh tortilla chips that it’s served with are thick, crunchy, and glistening with the right amount of oil. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Asian Chicken Salad You might be tempted to order the classic caesar, but we like this salad even better. Each bite from the mountain of shredded cabbage, carrots, and peppers has a satisfying crunch, and the chunks of rotisserie chicken give it a smoky depth you wouldn’t expect in a salad. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Handmade Pastas The pastas here are a mixed bag. The vodka pasta brings a solid kick of spice, but the sauce is goopy, and the noodles are slightly overcooked. And you really have to love lemon to have more than a few bites of the intensely sour lemon pasta. photo credit: Jessie Clapp All-American Wagyu Hot Dog This $22 hot dog is good, but can you tell the sausage is wagyu? Not really. It’s a fun, cheeky order, but we’re not convinced they succeed at making the hot dog feel high-end. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Pepperoni Pizza This personal-sized pizza—which arrives steaming hot from the wood oven—features a nicely blistered, puffy crust and massive pepperoni. But the calabrian chili honey could use more heat, and the pool of oil that collects in the middle has us leaning toward the hot bread instead. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Prime 12 Oz Ribeye Everything we want from a steak, with black garlic butter on the side. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Baby Back Ribs We’d come back just for these hearth-cooked ribs. The meat falls off the bone with the slightest effort, but the charred bits remind you there was smoke and fire involved. And the tangy BBQ sauce makes them worth the mess. Banana Creme Pie Not the best banana creme pie we’ve had, but certainly not the worst. It’s more cream than banana, and the crust takes a few aggressive fork stabs to break apart." - Cathy Park
