Man, after a long work week, it felt so good to get out! We didn’t have any plans and our usual M.O. is to just wing it. I think I have food commitment issues. I don’t want to tie myself down to a certain genre of food. What if I don’t feel like it when the reservation time comes around? What if I want something else instead?! I can’t be tied down. 👯♀️
So, without any reservations, my boyfriend and I went down to Love & Salt in Manhattan Beach. This place has been on my bookmark list for forever! Unfortunately, we’re trying it right after the original chef Michael Fiorelli just left the restaurant. But…spoiler alert, I’m happy to say the new chef Chris Feldmeier is stellar.
The place was jam packed but we had our fingers crossed that we might be able to snag a walk in. The hostess squashed that dream real quick. But, not one to take no for an answer, I pointed at the bar and asked if we could just snag the 2 seats I saw there. Originally, we thought my sister would 3rd wheel it and join us. So the hostess was all, “but there’s only 2 seats and not 3”. I was like, “totally fine. Well just take the 2 seats”. Knowing my sister, I knew it was 50/50 whether or not she would actually join us. And if she did by some chance make it, I figured someone would probably get up before she arrived.
Both the boyfriend and I were STARVING! We convinced ourselves we’d just order a couple snacks while we waited on her. I quickly got the Love & Salt house red wine while he got a primativo red. His was delicious while mine was just “meh”. They had a Nero d’avalo on their wines by the glass list as well which I hadn’t noticed or I would’ve gotten that hands down. Luckily, it’s never too late to order another glass! Well…unless it’s after last call in which case well then, you’re S.O.L.
Besides delicious wine, another thing they have that I WISH other restaurants would follow suit on is sparkling water on tap!
For the snacks, we got the meatballs served with burrata and grilled ciabatta and the freshly made English muffins served with salted butter.
The meatballs would’ve been whatever because they’re just meatballs…executed well…but still, just meatballs…EXCEPT that they were served with the most perfectly buttered, grilled bread and silky, creamy burrata ever. I might have also eaten the tomato sauce as if it were a soup and then sopped the remaining droplets up with the English muffins. I was a straight up savage.
Speaking of English muffins, it was almost biscuit like in how flakey buttery it was but it had the chew of an English muffin. These aren’t the boring, flat discs you’re used to from the grocery store. These were thick and fluffy and so chewy delicious.
Right about then, my sister let me know she was just going to shame eat at home with a dominoes pizza instead. So, we commenced with the rest of our order!
Next up was the lamb tongue panini. It was done almost pastrami style and served with rye bread. The rye was a perfect complement to the gamey-ness of the lamb. FYI – by the way, these are MINI, tiny paninis. You can tell when comparing it to the size of my hands. I am a normal, height challenged Asian female with appropriately proportioned hands. That is to say my hands are pretty small. The sandwich makes my hands look huge.
Of course, Love & Salt being an Italian restaurant, we HAD to get a pasta dish. We went with the tonnarelli done as carbonara. Tonnarelli, for those of you who don’t know is kind of like a cross between linguine and spaghetti. It’s thick and when done right and al dente, it’s so nicely chewy. Now, I have a salty palate…but even I thought this dish was a little overly salted. My boyfriend found it somewhat inedibly so. Fast forward to the end of the night though and our bartender accidentally cleared away our leftover pasta. I still would’ve eaten it even if it were super salty…especially drunk. I inquired if she had wrapped it up for us to go and she very apologetically said she didn’t know we had wanted to take it home. I mean, I guessed it was for the best? At least I wouldn’t be all bloated from the salt intake. But she felt really bad and insisted on having them make us another one to go. We definitely had a lot left since my boyfriend basically couldn’t take the saltiness. The redo of the dish was perfect – aggressively seasoned still but not overly salted.
Ok, so, I know we’ve already gotten a lot of dishes for 2 people but you know, we need content for the blog! So, sacrificing our bodies for the good of the internet, we carried on ordering. Next came the roasted chicken and cauliflower. Don’t worry, we only ordered HALF a chicken. I think our restraint was commendable. Lemme just say that I never order chicken. It’s usually boring and dry and just bland. This chicken really lived up to the restaurant’s moniker. It was salty but not overly so, juicy, well seasoned, deliciously roasted.
The cauliflower we got was served with Calabrian chilies and a yogurt sauce, both of which played nicely against the savoriness of the chicken. It really helped to provide some acidity and cut through all of that richness. The one thing I wish though was that the cauliflower was cooked to a more tender doneness. It was almost too raw-like for my preference. I barely eat veggies but when I do, I want them to be almost unrecognizable so that my brain won’t be automatically turned off by the healthiness of it all. Yes, like a child.
And finally, we ended the night with their donuts filled with Nutella and lemon curd. Normally, I’m disappointed by trendy donut desserts. Usually, the ratio of filling to dough is simply not there. This was not the case here. The donut to filling ratio was easily 50/50. The sugar crystals provided some nice texture against the thick and creamy fillings. But to be honest, you could probably give me a jar of Nutella like actually served in the jar and I would most likely give my compliments to the pastry chef. So, needless to say, this dessert checked all my boxes. The lemon curd was also fantastic – tart and not too sweet. If my night had ended here, it would’ve been perfect!
…but of course, we still have to cover the check. This is probably the one place where I have a little issue…You see where they point out the “Suggested Tip”? I actually tipped 21% of the total or 23% of the subtotal.
Now, according to proper etiquette, you’re supposed to tip on the subtotal and never the total. Their system has a glitch which I hope isn’t intentional…basically, their system is calculating the suggested tip based on the total as well as the “comped” food item which if you’ll recall was the server making up for throwing away our leftover pasta. Once again, I have to point out that when you’re drunk, happy and full…or frankly, just drunk in general, math is probably not your strong suit. I do math for a living and once I’m in that state, I can barely do simple addition. So I generally find it super helpful when they provide the “suggested tip”. But this just goes to show you, that you should always just do the math yourself. At the end of the day, it would have been a difference of $7 if my intention were to tip only 18%. So, it’s not going to ruin my impression of the meal or the service. I do hope, though, that Love & Salt sees this and fixes their system so that other drunk people don’t feel taken advantage of.
