Red Medicine, whose co-owner unmasked and ejected the L.A. Times restaurant critic in his establishment's earliest weeks, is still more discussed in gossip columns than it is in food circles, and a lot of people who couldn't pick Wolfgang Puck out of a police lineup have strongly held opinions about the place. But Red Medicine deserves to be known for unusual cocktails, for its list of obscure high-acid wines that go perfectly with the sweetish, herbacious cuisine, and for its food: Jordan Kahn's cooking, which seems to channel the gestural pastoralism of Copenhagen's Rene Redzepi through the flavors of Vietnamese cuisine, is probably the most modern in Los Angeles at the moment. And if you pick your way through the menu, and ignore what the dishes happen to be called, you will find that most of them are stunning. When you order the chaud-froid, a sort of proto-rillettes, you are served not a quivering pinky-gray blob but a tiny, cast-iron cocotte filled with an arrangement of frilly mustard leaves and wood sorrel flowers that looks like the prettiest four square inches of the forest floor. If you try the cured amberjack, filets of the mackerel relative come rolled into tiny turbans in a bowl glazed with tart, chilled broth scented with pine, surrounded by baby root vegetables, tops sliced off and hairy tails in the air, which look like a garden out of Dr. Seuss. Kahn's compositions of roots and legumes have a precedent, of course: the famous gargouillou of French chef Michel Bras, a ballet of vegetables, fruits, nuts, mushrooms and herbs laid sparingly on a plate, often with crumbly chef-made “soil,” which expresses the season and the locale with surgical precision. It is the keystone of narrative cuisine. 8400 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. (323) 651-5500, redmedicinela.com. Dinner, Tues.-Sat., 6-11 p.m.; bar and bar menu nightly until 2 a.m. Full bar. Adjacent lot parking. All major CC. Modern Vietnamese.

99 Essential L.A. Restaurants 2011:

Jonathan Gold's Introduction
Anne Fishbein's Photos
The Google Map

The List:

A-Frame
Akasha
Alcazar
Angeli Caffe
Angelini Osteria
Animal
Antojitos Carmen
Attari
Babita
Bludso's
Border Grill
Bottega Louie
Bulgarini Gelato
Cacao
Campanile
Casa Bianca
Chang's Garden
Chego
Chichén Itzá
Chung King
Church & State
Ciro's
Comme Ça
Cut
Dae Bok
Din Tai Fung
Drago Centro
El Huarache Azteca
El Parian
Elvirita's
Euro Pane Bakery
Eva
Fab Hot Dogs
Father's Office
Fig
Gjelina
Golden Deli
Golden State
Good Girl Dinette
The Gorbals
Guelaguetza
Guisados
Huckleberry
Hungry Cat
Ink.
Jar
Jitlada
Kiriko
Kobawoo
La Casita Mexicana
Langer's
Larkin's
Lazy Ox Canteen
Le Comptoir
Little Dom's
Lou
Lucques
LudoBites
Lukshon
Mantee
Marouch
Mayura
Meals by Genet
Mélisse
Mezze
Mo-Chica
Mother Dough
Mozza
Musso & Frank Grill
Nem Nuong Khanh Hoa
Newport Tan Cang Seafood Restaurant
The Nickel
Night + Market
Oinkster
101 Noodle Express
Palate Food + Wine
Park's Barbecue
Picca
Playa
Pollos a la Brasa
Providence
Ray's
Red Medicine
Rivera
Rustic Canyon
Salt's Cure
Sapp Coffee Shop
Sea Harbour
Son of a Gun
Sotto
Spago
Spice Table
Street
Tacos Baja Ensenada
Tasting Kitchen
Terroni
Tsujita L.A.
Vincenti
Waterloo & City

 

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