Private Parties

Office Christmas Party

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Clementine

1751 Ensley Ave.
Westwood, CA 90024

Category: Restaurant > California

Region: West L.A.

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More About

• Annie Miler
• Suzanne Goin
• Mark Peel
• Eating Out
• Food and Cooking

Cinch.Like so many of the restaurants designed by Dodd Mitchell, Cinch looks like the archvillain’s lair from a Sean Connery–era James Bond movie, sleek luxury fitted into a nuclear-hardened concrete bunker: dark woods, flickering candlelight, booming music and burnished chinoiserie seemingly concealing a darker, edgier function. A room for private parties can hold up to 150. The proto-Japanese cooking may be a perfect fit for the vaguely sinister architecture: things like fried oysters wrapped in shiso leaves; raw salmon subsumed into spring rolls; raw Kobe beef flavored with rosemary, shiso and olives — everything fashionable enough to function as a lifestyle signifier as well as an -appetizer or entrée. 1519 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 395-4139. Dinner Sun.–Thurs. 6–10 p.m., Fri.–Sat. 6–11 p.m. (bar food available one hour before and one hour after dinner). Full bar. Valet parking. All major credit cards. Entrées $12.50–$28.50. French-Japanese. JG $$

Ciudad.A vibrant downtown after-work hangout, Ciudad has both a patio area and a back room. The design of Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken’s downtown restaurant is bold — those yellow chairs, those retro drinking glasses, those seed-encrusted, vertical-standing crackers! The menu is a Pan-American pastiche, complete with Old World footnotes. 445 S. Figueroa St., downtown, (213) 486-5171. Lunch Mon.–Fri. 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. Dinner Sun.–Tues. 5–8:45 p.m., Wed.–Thurs. 5–9:45 p.m., Fri.–Sat. 5–10 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, D, MC, V. Entrées $17–$28. Pan-Latino. MH $$

vermont.Elegant, understated and yet festive atmosphere is well suited for office parties. Anchoring the ever-new hip commercial corridor of Vermont Avenue north of Sunset, vermont (always lowercase) is like a stalwart, reliable friend. The owners often wander through the dining room, with its palmettos and pillars and gentle lighting, and they always like to chat. You may not be bowled over by anything you eat, but you’ll be back. Plus, the stylish bar is one of the neighborhood’s few upscale spots for cocktails. 1714 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz, (323) 661-6163. Lunch Mon.–Fri. 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. -Dinner 5:30–10:30 p.m. (until 11:30 p.m. Fri.–Sat.). Full bar. Parking in rear. AE, MC, V. Entrées $13–$18. California. MH $

Large Birthday
(Eight People and Up)

Cobras & Matadors.Despite its name, this is, finally, a good tapas restaurant — and who knew how convivial a series of shared small plates with walloping flavors could be? Crimson walls, a hearthlike wood-fired oven and swinging jambons create a hip, Barcelona-style coziness. The seating at the newer Hollywood Boulevard venue is ideal for big parties. 7615 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 932-6178. Dinner Sun.–Thurs. 6–11 p.m., Fri.–Sat. 6 p.m.–mid. BYOB. Also at 4655 Hollywood Blvd., (323) 669-3922. Valet parking. MC, V. Tapas $3–$15. Spanish. MH $

Mandaloun.It is hard not to be a little awestruck by the Lebanese restaurant Mandaloun. Because while the local Middle Eastern restaurant scene is no stranger to grandeur, there has never been anything like this place, a gilded gastrodome of massive -kebabs, pita made to order, and outdoor terraces devoted to the baking of Lebanese flatbreads and the smoking of apple-flavored tobacco. And it’s all tucked away on the second floor of a com-plex that from the outside looks better suited to a parking structure. 141 S. Maryland Blvd., Glendale, (818) 507-1900. Lunch and dinner Sun.–Thurs. 11:30 a.m.–10 p.m., Fri.–Sat. 11:30 a.m.–11:30 p.m. Full bar. Street parking. AE, D, MC, V. Entrées $12.95–$22. Lebanese. JG $

Palm Thai.Fun atmosphere, moderate prices and large tables accommodate a crowd. Palm Thai may be the most famous Thai supper club in Hollywood — with Thai tour buses often parked out front. The food is first-rate. Bar snacks include crisp-skinned Thai sour sausages served with fried peanuts and raw cabbage and beef jerky, fried to a tooth-wrenching chaw. There is a proper papaya salad, the unripe fruit shredded into crunchy slaw, with taut chile heat, sweet-tart citrus dressing and the briny sting of salt-preserved raw crab. And Palm Thai prepares the best version in town of suea rong hai, northeastern-style barbecued beef. 5273 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 462-5073. Lunch and dinner seven days 11 a.m.–mid. (until 1:30 a.m. Fri.–Sat.). Beer and wine. Lot parking. MC, V. Dinner for two, food only, $18–$40. Thai. JG $

Intimate Birthday
(Two to Four People)

Firefly Bistro.Monique King’s Firefly Bistro — which she runs with husband and co-chef, Paul Rosenbluh — is a comfortable restaurant, the kind of neighborhood place you drop into a couple of times a month because you like the idea of cornmeal-fried anchovies in your caesar salad, or of a paella that tastes more like an uptown version of -jambalaya. Asian touches pop up now and again, and a few Mexican things, and quite a few folky flavors from Spain. 1009 El Centro St., South Pasadena, (626) 441-2443. Lunch Tues.–Fri. 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m., Sat.–Sun. 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Dinner Tues.–Thurs. and Sun. 5:30–9:30 p.m., Fri.–Sat. 5:30–10 p.m. Closed Mon. Beer and wine. Street parking. AE, D, MC, V. Dinner entrées $14.50–$26.50. American fusion. JG $$