Places To Eat In Los Angeles: The Tasting Kitchen, Abbot Kinney

Okay, so while Toast is now down as my favourite lunch spot in Los Angeles, I have recently discovered my absoute favourite brunch spot in LA in the form of The Tasting Kitchen at the end of Venice’s Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Practically every website that lists the best places to eat brunch in Los Angeles lists The Tasting Kitchen, and from the moment you step inside and see the decor, and the waiting staff carrying everyone delicious looking and smelling orders to their tables, pretty quickly you understand why.

DSC_0476
tastingkitchen1
DSC_0489
tasting2
DSC_0551

The bar is a big feature in the restaurant  and they have so many cocktails and mixes you won’t find anywhere else. While The Tasting Kitchen is open all day, and for evening service, I could tell lots of people went there for the cocktails to accompany their brunch. I think if anyone ever asks me for the best place to go for a liquid breakfast in LA, I’ll be sending them to Abbot Kinney Boulevard for a tipple!

DSC_0494
DSC_0509

I went for what, after looking around the room as people came and went seemed to be the most popular cocktail on the brunch cocktail menu; the Petite Mary, which is essentially a martini made with vodka and celery juice with a wedge of lime on the side and the rim of the class coated with celery salt. And do you know what, it was absolutely divine; just the right balance between salty and sour.

DSC_0536

For her breakfast, my dining partner went for the fruit and yogurt granola (the pomegranate seeds scattered looked like tiny jewels adorning her dish), while I went for something a bit more brunch, and a bit more American themed. When I like to go out for brunch, I like to go all out and make if count as breakfast and lunch, after all! (Really, in my head that is just an excuse to indulge!)

DSC_0546

This is ‘Egg In A Basket’; a totally delicious jumbo piece of some of the most delicious sweet French Toast I’ve ever had, topped off with bacon and syrup, and with a hole in the middle containing a perfectly cooked runny egg. I spent so long looking over to see what people at other tables, and also sitting at the communal table with us were ordering, that it was between the Egg In A Basket, the savoury ‘Fried Clucks’ waffle (a amazing looking and smelling classic American ginat waffle served with pieces of fried chicken) and the Tomato Braised Egg with Polenta, and while I am going back for both, I;m so glad I went with the Toast!

DSC_0560

While there are a few other places on Abbot Kinney I would like to try for both brunch and lunch, there is no way that I’m not going back to The Tasting Kitchen for at least another couple of meals. If you’re looking to treat yourself to a delicious and indulgent brunch one weekend; this is where I would recommend. The Tasting Kitchen can be found at 1633 Abbot Kinney Boulevard. 

Discussion