The American in the French Kitchen

Comments (0) By Michelle Huneven Wednesday, Oct 2 2002

Lunch is served Wednesday through Friday, and it‘s a quiet affair. The a $40 tasting menu is a good introduction to Citrin’s method and, if you have a meal anything like mine, you‘ll be sold. An heirloom-tomato salad not only looked like a plate of jewels, but also, even so late in the season, featured perfectly ripe tomatoes of impeccable sweetness served with burrata -- an extremely fresh mozzarella bursting with a fluffy, creamier center. More prim, but also charming, was poached asparagus with a “roasted shallot emulsification” -- a light-as-air mayonnaise-like substance. Pan-roasted striped bass had an Asianlemongrass edge, while the roast chicken had ideally crisped skin and the best wine-spiked jus perfect for sopping up with the accompanying French fries.

Pastry chef T’ai Chopping makes several memorable desserts: Vanilla-scented crepes are smooth as skin, eggy and buttery; her eye-catching fig amandine croustillant, a long skinny wedge of fig-studded short pastry, is not too sweet, great with coffee. And the apple tart is a thin disk of pastry with apple slices that taste as if they‘ve been slow-fried in butter until angelically crisp.

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Melisse

1104 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Category: Restaurant > French

Region: Santa Monica

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In the end, it all adds up, plate by plate, element by element, to a complete, pleasurable and singularly French experience.

1104 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 395-0881. Open for lunch Wednesday--Friday, noon--2 p.m., and dinner seven nights. Entrees $27--$38. Full bar. Valet parking. Major credit cards.