Goldie's Review: Thomas Lim's New Mid-City Restaurant Delights

Service is friendly but can at times oscillate between the zealous over-recommending and selling of certain dishes and then, in the same evening, complete abandonment for long stretches. You'll get the speech when you arrive about small plates for sharing, and wonder at the bottom third of the menu, which certainly is not priced in the small-plates range. You'd be right to wonder — many of these dishes are priced as entrees, and not cheap ones at that, but still basically sized for sharing. The $28 chicken comes in juicy strips with a couple of chanterelles hidden beneath them, topped with large sprigs of purslane, which is both pleasingly vegetal and oddly viscous once chewed. Black bass with crispy scales showcases a fun trick wherein the fish scales are made to stick straight up and have been crisped to the shattering point. Three small hunks of fish come over a white onion puree; the whole thing is pretty, although slightly one-note — and quite expensive at $26. Goldie's is the type of place better suited to those who don't really look at prices or think much about the difference between a $15 plate and a $30 one.

Lim's aesthetic, particularly his way with vegetables, is hugely original. Ingredients are hardly ever employed for the textural and flavor purposes you've come to expect. They're often turned on their head — a cucumber as smoky warm base rather than snappy, cooling salad component: milk as a crunchy garnish. Very little of what you order at Goldie's comes to the table as you might expect it, and in this era of everyone-serves-the-same-goddamn-beet-salad, that is refreshing indeed.

Paired with the great cocktails and the lovely setting, Goldie's can be an awfully fun place to celebrate being in a sunny city with amazing produce, to sit among the beautiful people and let this food — for better and worse — surprise you.

PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

A forkful of beef tartare at Goldie's

Location Info

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Goldie's Restaurant

8422 W. 3rd St.
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Category: Restaurant > Brunch

Region: Melrose/ Beverly/ Fairfax

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More About

• Thomas Lim
• Anne Fishbein
• Sydney (Australia)
• Eating Out
• Food and Cooking

Reach the writer at brodell@laweekly.com.

GOLDIE'S | Two stars | 8422 Third St. | (323) 677-2470 | goldiesla.com | Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; Mon.-Sat., 6-11 p.m.; Sun., 6-10 p.m.; brunch Sat.-Sun., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. | Small/medium plates $10-$36 | Full bar | Street and valet parking

See more of Anne Fishbein's photos of Goldie's.