Culinary Musings: Blair’s
Blair’s
2903 Rowena Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90039-2003
(323) 660-1882
On the menu:
Truffle Macaroni and Cheese Side Dish – $7
Tartar Appetizer – $10
Linguini with clams, chorizo and English Peas – $17
Dark lighting makes eating here feel more like nap time because we were trying very hard to stay awake and it was only 7:30 PM. Seth Green and someone from the Wonder Years was sitting behind us, but no one noticed but my older sister. Slowly, as we were finishing up our Mac, the restaurant got very crowded and noisy that I just wanted to live. (live, damn you! — ed) Small spaces with lots of seats make for lots of voices bouncing against the wall and a high decibel noise level. We found out from reading some reviews to avoid table #7 due to a problem with the air conditioner leaking on that table.
Now on to the good stuff: the food. We ordered one side order of Truffle Mac n Cheese each, which was enough food for a meal for each of us. I wanted the tartare or is it tartar? Because I read it was awesome on Chowhound. And for some reason we were we also added on a Linguini with Clams, Chorizo, and English Peas dish because we were letting our hungry stomachs order for us. I figured out I DO NOT like truffles because they are mushrooms and have a very strong scent and a harsh flavor. I did enjoy the fresh pasta they made for both their macaroni and linguini; especially cool was the square pasta that looked like wide linguini on four sides. It was softer and fresher than any pasta I have had lately; it makes me want to start making my own pasta. The linguini looked more like flat angel hair and I thought it was tasty but did not like the chorizo in the dish.
Overall, I probably won’t return to Blair’s, I heard someone say it was the best restaurant in Silver Lake and that makes me not want to try anywhere new in that part of town.
Give Silverlake another chance, Mair. Eastside boho mac and cheese sightings are a rarity. You have to seek them out. Like truffles.
argh, i’m mair the pirate now. why is there always a typo or ten? ryan, as my editor, you should let me re-edit. but i guess you do not because it’s funnier. man, my friends who weren’t born in the states call me a fob bc i write live instead of leave and it instead of eat once a long time ago sophomore year in college. i guess that is what happens when i write in the wee hours of the night after coming home from drinking and partying. argh.
Where are these alleged typos, truffle-hater. Nevermind. I’ll find ‘em and update.
just one typo, “the restaurant got very crowded and noisy that I just wanted to live. (live, damn you! — ed)” i wanted to say LEAVE. whatever. it’s set in stone now. -mair the typo queen.
omg omg omg. i stepped away from my room and i started singing “i just wanna live…” like good charlotte… omg shoot me now for knowing that. that’s just sad. i’m going to eat some ice cream now with some instant shell to drown my sorrows.
omg, Blair’s mac and cheese is tasty to almost a religous level. and so is their free range chicken, and tartare, they can help you see god. the eastside has many great places to eat, but if you want somewhere thats quiter you may want to try downtown or beverly hills.
Mair,
Have you tried the mac & cheese at Pete’s Cafe downtown yet? 4th and Main… I don’t really like it because it has 3 or 4 kinds of cheese I don’t really like and they add 2 spices I don’t think work with Mac & Cheese… I think they’re Basil & Lavendar. I don’t mean to diss it because so many people rant and rave about how good it is. You may very well love it. I love the Mac & Cheese at O-Bar. mmmmm. Good to know about Blair’s… Dusty’s is so-so as well, I’ve heard.
Hmph!
OH, i’m not drinking and I spelled Lavender wrong. Jeez…. send me to phonics jail immediately.
I will not be correcting comment typos people.
Silver Lake is suffering from a bad case of mediocre food. From lame baked goods in bakeries to cheeeball interiors (like the empty picture frame collection on the walls of Blair.) After a recent trip to SF, Portland, etc., I realized how mediocre (if not questionable) the food offerings in Silver Lake are. It’s time to really step it up. Gone are the days when Silver Lake was really fun…but to have average food as well?
hey shane. my sister loves blair’s mac n cheese and thinks it’s one of the best she has ever had. i still prefer violet because the gruyere is nice and creamy and it has some ham as well as a nice baked crusty crumby layer on top. but right now, as mac n cheese mair, i’m trying to find the best mac n cheese in la and violet kicked blair’s butt. i have not tried pete’s yet, but being that i can’t even have lavender in my dark chocolate, i’m not looking forward to it jeannette. but going into situations with a pessimistic or negative mindset might just be a good thing in case the food is good. yeah, i can name only a few places in la that i would bring visitors too but the list would be endless in SF and in NY.
We received a report of some disorderly conduct in this comments thread. Let’s keep it grammatical in here, folks– no more OMGs or “lavendars.” Have a correctly punctuated night.
Just do what I do and take visitors on tours of city’s endless variety of sleazy taquerias.
Silverlake still has some great eateries: I quite like Dusty’s, The Kitchen is fantastic, Yuca’s is legendary, and the unnamed Vietnamese place in the stripmall right by silversun is awesome.
Mair, the tomato soup at Pete’s is TDF so split an order of Mac n Cheese (it may not even be Lavender, so try it yourself and see wtf it is) and get the soup too.
On Silverlake….Cliff’s Edge has great food, I just can never figure out when it’s open or why it’s closed on random nights. Other than that…yeah, pickins are slim.
I wouldn’t call the food at the Kitchen “fantastic” but at least it’s one of the few offerings past 10 pm. SL restauranteurs seem to also be really unimaginative when it comes to their interiors, so not only is the food forgettable, but the dining experience is forgettable. (Cafe Stella and the Soy Cafe are two of the exceptions.) Before the last wave of “ethnic cleansing” of the neighborhood, at least you could get good tacos at the truck that parked where the horrible Eat Well is now. Blair’s mac and cheese is good (I had it recently) along with their vegetable side dishes, but overall, the food scene in SL is bland beyond belief.
Your taste aside (Blair’s might suck, Silver Lake totally sucks, truffles do not suck) you need a little bit of a biology refresher course…
Truffles are tubers, and they are within the fungi fam. They are not mushrooms.
It’s kinda like squares and rectangles, remember that whole thing?
However, judging by the number of fucking truffle mac and cheese dishes in this town’s frou-frou eateries, truffle are the next silver lake.
-e
Yeah…fantastic was a slight overstatement in terms of The Kitchen. But they’re nice people there, and they have good mashed potatoes.
mmmmmmm, wasabi mashed and fried chicken breast or flank steak and veggies. The kitchen is damn tasty home food. You can’t expect 5 stars cause you’re not gonna get it. Plus your kcrw fringe benefits card knocks off quite a bit.
when i reheated the truffled mac & cheese it smelled even stronger
gah. truffled mac n cheese has leapt o’er jaws.
Edendale Grill or Cafe Stella are the best restaurants in Silverlake, anything else is just uncivilized…
ah…… one less spoiled twinky-something in my hood. yes, Silverlake does suck. so stay away. we have enough people (and their dogs) over here.
I’m always a little amused by people who are so critical of the creativity of others and yet can’t even muster up the energy to learn to spell the things they want to criticize…did you want to “live” or “leave”? We Silverlakers will keep Blair’s, and you can go back to your side of town with the other bad spellers.