Verse Restaurant: Where Live Jazz Sets the Tone for Dinner
Verse
18-time Grammy-winning music mixing engineer Manny Marroquin has his hands andears full with Verse restaurant next to his well known Larrabee Studios. Verse supplies a combination of arguably the two largest factors that create quality entertainment: extravagant food on your table and live music by your side. Chef Oscar Torres talks about the philosophy behind his cooking. He describes the restaurant as embodying “Angeleno Cuisine” (based off of Los Angeles cuisine) that “brings together the best flavors from around the world” and “treat[s] guests to a fully immersive environment that blends perfect acoustics.” This cuisine provides Verse’s food with a variety of flavors, cultures, and stylistic approaches.
Sound & Ambience
Perhaps it’s the discreet entrance that you’ll find on 4212 Lankershim Boulevard that makes you feel like you “know a spot,” or the fact that this restaurant has “designer level” sweet rolls and butter. This restaurant stays pretty busy, though it depends on the night. Sometimes celebrities decide to come over after their recording sessions and spontaneously perform a song on stage!
Stepping inside, you will be welcomed into a crowded room, and you’ll notice that the noises aren’t the usual unbearable restaurant sounds. With twenty-five microphones and fifty-two sound speakers that bounce off the thirty-two sound panels, the live music is amazing.
Hokkaido Milk Buns
Food
Besides their extensive and unique libations menu, a variety of flavors, techniques, and cultures makes the menu at Verse special. With starters including a version of crudo, salads, and of course the famous (and must get) Hokkaido Milk Buns, you won't be left searching for any flavors on the table.
The Hokkaido Milk Buns are topped with sesame seeds and served with whipped honey butter on the side. These are essentially the perfect sweet and soft bun.
Apple Salad
The Apple Salad served with thinly sliced apples, grapes, and what seemed to have been beets and carrots, were marinated in a sweet vinegar dressing; nothing was bad, but there are other salads and other places I'd go to get them rather than here.
As for the raw starters, the Aged Yellowtail Crudo was my personal favorite. The Big Eyed Tuna tostada and the Ora King Salmon were amazing but not my number one pick. The yellowtail crudo provided a complexity of flavors that melted perfectly with the fish. With a sweet and sour yuzu combination of the fresno peppers and persimmons, the dish was perfectly balanced.
The Tuna Tostada was enhanced with the crispy shallots, which is not out of the ordinary for a tuna dish. The salmon dish was great and served with a Cucumber Aguachile Shirodashi that is best described as a gingery lemon sauce, which I enjoyed; however, the fact that it was served next to a (quite random in my opinion) caramelized brulee japanese yam left me confused and not fully satisfied.
With a few unique approaches to pasta, I decided on the Lobster Tagliatelle. This was a fresh squid ink tagliatelle paired with lobster meat and calabrian chile. The sauce itself interestingly had a tomato base, which was light enough to not interfere with the seafood theme of the dish. There was a sort of egg white foam served on top which had no impact on the taste and texture; overall, the dish was flavorful and filling.
As for the mains, the variety of meats and fish provides a meat eater with their dream main course menu. With half of my family (myself included) being pescatarian and the other half being meat eaters, I got the Dry Aged Branzino, while others had the 30-Day-Aged Tomahawk. The Branzino was good and was paired with an Oaxacan Mole that gave it a fiery and tangy flavor.
The sides at Verse were a must, as many of the mains were just meat and fish. I got the Roasted Corn with burnt husk aioli, coriander powder, and cheese. (The waiter warns you that it appears grey because of the cheese, and suggests you mix the dish.) Overall, it was good. The Roasted Potatoes came with truffle nora, grana padano, and Chives. They added a perfect ratio of truffle and cheese, which was well suited to the other dishes.
Some might say the more important part of dinner is dessert. I ordered the Olive Oil Cake and the Chocolate and Caramel Tuile. They were both light and palatable after a large meal, and my personal favorite was the Chocolate and Caramel Tuile, paired with miso ice cream and brown butter, which complemented the flavors perfectly.
Overall, the food was adequate; however, the main attraction to this restaurant was clearly the ambience, and anyone who visits for that will be satisfied. I would recommend coming here if you like meat or want a light, late-night bite of Los Angeles’ Angeleno Cuisine.