Jane D.
Yelp
TLDR: The service and ambiance were great; food and cocktails good, but not exceptional by fine dining standards. Saint and Second does excel as a crowd pleaser: a safe and likable choice that's perfect when you don't intimately know all of your guest's culinary preferences. There is something for just about everyone.
We had a lovely dinner with friends, which included:
- Meze Plate ($14; baba ghanoush, muhammara,Turkish honey-sweetened labne, and roasted garlic flatbread) -- the baba ghanoush was pretty good, but the muhammara and labne were both quite sweet for our tastes. Our server very generously offered us more flatbread when our table burned through what had come with the plate.
- Yellowfin Aguachile ($22; cucumber, watermelon radish, pickled shallots, finger lime, taro root chips) -- my favorite dish by far, made with good, fresh fish, though with less liquid than I expect in an aguachile (this was more like ceviche?), with an odd (to me) addition of something creamy. There wasn't enough of the creamy matter to be truly objectionable to someone who typically abhors cream with seafood.
- Stonefruit and Burrata Salad ($17; watermelon radish, watercress,
Marcona almonds, mint, sea salt, champagne vinaigrette) -- very attractively plated and a well conceived combination of flavors and textures -- but there was far too little fruit and vegetable matter compared to the portion of burrata for this to be fairly called a salad. It was more like burrata with garnishes.
- Pan-Roasted Branzino ($40; fennel soubise, marinated baby
tomatoes, shaved fennel salad, fines herbes) -- The vegetable accompaniments were the highlight for me with lovely, flavorful fennel soubise and fennel salad. The fish was fair, a wee bit fishy -- but I am admittedly spoiled by my favorite Greek restaurant, which serves fish that tastes like it just jumped out of the water. The bigger ding was that the fish was heavily oversalted even for my very pro-sodium palate, though it was nicely pan fried with crisp skin.
- Roasted Mary's Chicken ($36; spring vegetable ratatouille, basil + English pea purée, caper chicken jus) -- The ratatouille was truly excellent, made with pan roasted veggies, Chez Panisse style. Jus was poured onto the plate table-side, which is a fun / gimmicky / classy touch. Pea puree was pleasantly, mildly sweet and everything played nicely with the moist chicken. A very good dish.
- Corn Cavatelli ($32; housemade pasta, sweet corn, truffle pâté, roasted maitake mushrooms, black pepper ricotta; + crispy prosciutto add $6) -- the primary consumer enjoyed, but found it too cheesy for his personal tastes, like an "adult mac 'n' cheese," he described it.
- Pan-Seared Salmon ($37; charred Bok choy, pink grapefruit, radish, coconut dashi, smoked trout roe, forbidden black rice) -- Coconut dashi is poured table-side. I didn't try this dish, either. The primary consumer said she enjoyed the charred bok choy, but also found her fish oversalted.
- Children's Grilled Cheese -- Thick cut, buttery bread came nicely griddled with generous amounts of, I think, cheddar cheese melted inside. A side of fries was beautifully fried, not overly greasy.
- Children's Cheeseburger -- The patty was thick, well done, and generously portioned. It came with more of those excellent fries.
- Coconut Panna Cotta -- ($14; dragon fruit, mango, coconut chiffon,
toasted almonds, passion fruit sorbet) -- a pretty and elegant dessert.
- The yuzu mule ($17) we tried was tasty, but quite wimpy. I couldn't really detect any alcohol.
If I were still in my intrepid youth playing a NYT food reviewer on Yelp, able to eat anywhere I like with just a single +1 to please, at any hour of the day we please, I'd give this place three stars. It would be forgettable for serious foodies eating their way through the LA Times best of CA list, for instance. But for those with a group, especially a group with children, this place is a real winner. I'm quite impressed with their brief, but high quality, generously portioned, and well priced children's menu. I do, however, wish there'd been an option to add a basic vegetable side as salads on the main menu were a bit too advanced for my barbarians -- though strangely, they didn't cry about the lack of vegetable matter.
Next time, we're saving room for that strawberry shortcake bar (which I suspect is an Instagram darling) and more cocktails. They have an entire leather bound bar book and seem serious about their beverage program!