Restaurant Review: The Glendon Bar and Kitchen

The Glendon Bar & Kitchen
1071 Glendon Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90024
www.theglendonla.com

On the quiet residential stretch of Glendon Ave, one restaurant remains open on a late Saturday night. Cocktails and tall wine glasses were being passed around, while everyone was happily chatting away. The restaurant's dim lighting and candles makes it a perfect place to bring a date to drink and eat. After 10 o'clock, the restaurant becomes a bar and lounge with its bar and cocktail menu.

Even though the interior decor creates an upscale environment, Executive Chef Nick Jacobs has prepared quite a diverse American menu that has its high and low ends in quality and price. The appetizers range from $6-$12. For starters my friends and I ordered the Cajun calamari and slider duo. These dishes left a negative first impression of the Glendon. The calamari was over-breaded and overcooked, and the spicy red pepper aioli did not have a hint of smoky spiciness. The sliders had its ups and downs with the base of the burger being soggy from the onions, but aside from that, the horseradish aioli tied the under seasoned beef patty together pretty well.
(Sliders)
The Glendon also offers 14 inch thin crust pizzas, which I found to offset the mediocre appetizers. The first to come out was the Glendon, which consists of bacon, mushrooms, caramelized onions, and mozzarella cheese. To my surprise, this was no ordinary pizza. The pizza was extremely crispy and flaky like a puff pastry and the toppings and sauce create an interesting combination. On the other hand, the South pizza was a disappointment. It was like eating a slice of a tortilla salad, where the beans and greens offset the taste of the BBQ chicken.
(Coffee Crusted Seared Ahi Tuna)
As for the dinner entree ($12-32), I ordered the coffee crusted seared Ahi with a spinach artichoke puree, which is apparently one of the chef's specialty dishes according to the waitress. This interesting dish had the potential of being amazing , but I found the tuna to be bland with subtle coffee flavor that got overpowered by the puree, which was quite acidic.
(Delicious cobbler)
Lastly, dessert ($8) was the final item of tonight's dinner. So far, most of the dishes were only mediocre and did not leave a wow effect for its price. My friend ordered an apple currant cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream. This was probably the best thing of the night. The cobbler tasted fresh out of the oven and had the perfect sweetness level. The hint of rose flavoring sets the dessert apart from ordinary apple cobblers you find at other restaurants and cafes. The pastry chef is Renee Faris seen on TLC's Cake Boss. No wonder the dessert was delicious.

Because the restaurant opened a month ago, I would have to be quite forgiving and return again in the near future to allow the wait staff and kitchen to get the hang of things. Hopefully the on my next visit, the menu has changed or the quality of the dishes have improved.

I'll give it an overall 3.0/5.0.

Some of the photos courtesy of my friend Jeannie.