Sona Restaurant
Average user Rating: 94
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Experience culinary balance created by Chef/Owner David Myers in his understated and elegant restaurant on La Cienega. Seasonally inspired offerings of the highest caliber punctuate the eclectic menu. Whereas Comme Ça, also owned by Myer's, offers bistro fare with a more casual atmosphere, Sona offers a fine dining experience.
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93
Sona (Los Angeles, CA) [3]
5/14/2010
As we all know, Sona finally announced that it's closing. May 15 is the final night of service (the last two evenings, though, are reserved for private events), and given Sona's storied spot in the LA culinary landscape, as well as my own personal history with the place, I felt obliged to give Sona and company one last hurrah. After all, we may never see the restaurant ever again.
1: Dungeness Crab | with Mint-English Pea, Rice Tuile
Thankfully, the flavors of this soup were as bold as its verdant veneer. I loved how the intrinsic character of the crab was so beautifully showcased in this dish, and how the tangy, vegetal curry provided just the perfect complement to the crustacean's sweet, subtly briny flesh. After I was done with the crab, I made sure to sop up the remainder of the liquid with my ciabatta!
2: Rice Wine Marinated Shima Aji | with Cucumber-Shiso Maki, Ponzu Sabayon
We have here a tremendous little bite. The attack was all cucumber, but then I really got to enjoy the fantastically fatty, fishy flavor of the shima aji, tempered in part by the overarching richness of ponzu and earthy tang of sesame. Very good.
3: Crispy Soft Shell Crab | with Lime Pickle, Pak Choy, Pumpkin Seed
I'm generally not a huge fan of soft shell crab, so it wasn't surprising that I found this example quite salty when eaten alone; it was a bit overwhelming actually. The various greens--bok choy, rapini, purslane, ramps--thus, were absolutely key in offsetting the considerably gravity of the decapod, and I really appreciated the nuttiness provided by the pumpkin seeds.
4: Slow Cooked Arctic Char | with Spring Garlic Purée, Fiddlehead Ferns, Sake Marinated Salmon Egg
Here, I immediately noted and appreciated the char's rare, almost sashimi-like consistency, which really emphasized the fish's fatty, oily essence. To this, we add the countering effects of fern, garlic, and cress, making for a well-balanced dish tinged by the light brine of salmon roe.
5: Seared Foie Gras | with Buckwheat Grains, Razor Clam, Mitsuba
I'm not in love with the sweet stuff, so I really appreciated this superb deviation from the typical seared foie gras accompaniment of an overly saccharine "apricot compote," or the like. I found the liver suitably soft, creamy almost, with a subtle foie flavor that slowly rose in intensity. The buckwheat worked wonders in countervailing the heft of the foie gras, while the mitsuba made for a somewhat bitter finish. I would've liked to have tasted a bit more from the razor clams though. Overall, very nice for a seared preparation!
6: Whole Roasted Black Chicken | with Piquillo Pepper Purée, Fried Chicken, Stuffing
This was actually my first time having black, or silkie bantam, chicken; hopefully it won't be my last. Myers first came out to show off the bird before returning it to the kitchen for plating (I believe the thigh was served). I found the chicken immensely flavorful; eating it with the sweet-spicy piquillo purée was simply phenomenal, one of the best preparations of chicken I've ever had, in fact. The Thai basil, licorice root, cipollini, and radish all provided further counterpoints to the bird, and the stuffing added even more depth to the dish. My favorite item of the night.
7: Veal Loin & Veal Cheek | with Green Curry Potato Pavé, Preserved Papaya Purée
I began with the roasted loin, served with Nantes carrots and cumin. I loved its tremendously tender consistency and monumental savor, and how it played so nicely with the vegetal tang of the carrot. The braised preparation, on the other hand, required no chewing, and was imbued with strong, dark, slightly sugary notes, deftly offset by the accompanying greens. Meanwhile, the potato pavé was a marvelous achievement in its own right, with a perfectly crisp texture bolstered by a wonderful herbal flair. This was simply a superb accomplishment, given my historical disrelish toward veal.
8: 5 Cheese Course | Cave Aged Marisa, Le Gariotin, Camembert De Normandie, Beaufort, Stichelton
9: Fennel Sphere | with Cucumber Apple Juice, Lime, Licorice Root
This spherification-esque globule burst instantly upon mastication, coating my tongue with loads of herbal, medicinal liquid, tinged with just a hint of fruity sweetness. Très cool.
10: Mint Cloud | with Yogurt, Basil Seed
Here was a chalky, fluffy cuboid infused with the essence of mint, very delicate on its own but rightfully enhanced by the application of yogurt and basil. A light prick to the palate.
11: Kalamansi | with Ginger Ice Cream, Red Shiso
There was a great interplay here between the astringency of the ginger ice cream and sour calamondin. What was really interesting though, was that I detected an intriguing, almost savory component, possibly from the shiso, that I really liked.
12: Alpine Strawberry | with Celery Meringue, Candied Rhubarb, Parmesan Ice Cream
This almost seemed like something Adrian Vasquez would come up with (not a bad thing, mind you). The Parmesan wasn't really a factor for me, but the sugary strawberry and rhubarb were superb complements to the vegetal smack of celery. Quite nice.
13: Raspberry Capsule | with Licor 43, Freeze Dried Raspberry, Shiso Ice Cream
The pleasant sugariness of the raspberry in this dessert led to a surprisingly intense booziness from the liqueur, which had a warm, fruity relish to it. The shiso, meanwhile, made itself very known on the finish.
14: Black Sesame Crème | with Caramel Popcorn, Black Sesame Praline, Passion Fruit
Here was my favorite dessert of the night. Tasting it, I immediately recalled the essence of Chinese tangyuan! This sesame-dominated attack then transitioned to the sweet-savory sapor of the caramel corn and popcorn ice cream, while the passion fruit sorbet provided a perfectly jarring contrast. Excellent.
15: Xocopili | with Beet, Raspberry
Xocopili refers to a type of chocolate created by famed producer Valrhona. It's actually a spiced chocolate, which meant that this dessert demonstrated a fascinating pepperiness that I quite enjoyed. At the same time, the Xocopili was balanced by the sweetness of the sticky beet "sponge," as well as the raspberry espuma
16: Orizaba Chocolate | with Jasmine Foam, Matcha Ice Cream, Matcha and White Chocolate Tuile
For our final dessert, we find another Valrhona chocolate, this time the Orizaba milk chocolate. This was a noticeably sweeter chocolate than the Xocopili, and so the use of tea, with its marked astringency, formed a fabulous foil here. Lovely.
First off, the food: very good, actually. In fact, this was one of the strongest meals I've had in LA, and based off the quality of the cuisine alone, I see no reason for Sona to shutter.
Of course, though, it's never just about the food, is it? We still have the issue of Myers' severely tarnished reputation. Maybe then, the shutter is for the better, to give the Chef time to recover, to recuperate, and to give naysayers time to forgive and forget. From the looks of things, Myers' role in running his restaurants has been diminishing for years now. If all the allegations are true, my guess is that, to regain any modicum of respect in this town, he'll need to really get back in the kitchen, actually turning out great food like what we had tonight (and hopefully gaining a little humility in the process), and focus on providing leadership and guidance to his staff, not pondering the next addition to his gastronomic fiefdom. I have no doubt that Myers can cook, and cook damn well, when and if he puts his mind to it. I really hope for my sake, for the City's sake, that he can pull it together, reopen Sona, and recapture some of the lost glory, magic, and goodwill that's been lost over the years.
Sona, you'll be missed.
Full review with photos: http://www.kevineats.com/20 10/05/sona-los-angeles-ca-3 .html
Recommended Dishes
Dungeness Crab with Mint-English Pea, Rice Tuile, Rice Wine Marinated Shima Aji with Cucumber-Shiso Maki, Ponzu Sabayon, Whole Roasted Black Chicken with Piquillo Pepper Purée, Fried Chicken, Stuffing, Veal Loin & Veal Cheek with Green Curry Potato Pavé, Preserved Papaya Purée, Black Sesame Crème with Caramel Popcorn, Black Sesame Praline, Passion Fruit, Orizaba Chocolate with Jasmine Foam, Matcha Ice Cream, Matcha and White Chocolate Tuile
93
7/15/2009
Chef David Myers opened Sona in 2002 after training under culinary luminaries Charlie Trotter, Gérard Boyer, Daniel Boulud, and Joachim Splichal. Housed in an austere, Zen-like space, Sona focuses on delivering fine food and service. With Chef Meyers extending his brand across various other venues around town (comme Ça, Boule, Pizzeria Ortica), it’s Chef de Cuisine Kuniko Yagi who’s in charge of churning out Sona’s seasonal and creative cuisine day to day.
Read more from their blog
Recommended Dishes
Duck agnolotti, lobster risotto, chocolate beignets
96
11/8/2008
So I finally decided to give Sona a try since overall I've heard positive reviews about it. It was hard getting a reservation through OpenTable although when I arrived the restaurant was practically empty. Kind of sad, but at least his Comme Ca is doing well (they did have more tables filling up as the night went on, although still wasn't packed).
Photos from this meal are here: http://gourmetpigs.blogspot .com/2008/08/sonas-little-p leasures.html
The place is well decorated with a sleek, minimal style.
We started with an amuse bouche: a shot glass of watermelon "gazpacho". The shot was chilled and was actually sweet, almost as sweet as pure watermelon juice.
They had 4-5 different types of bread, including an interesting Earl Grey one which I tried.
One of the great things about Sona is that when you order their Chef's tasting menu, they will try and serve each person a different dish - but along the same line - giving you even more opportunities to try out different dishes!!! (This was one of the reasons I can't remember all that I ate - there were so many different ones!)
The chef de cuisine was Japanese and so they have been serving a lot of Japanese-influenced dishes. Tonight, also, we started with a couple of sashimi dishes.
One of them was a kanpachi (i wuv my kanpachi):
The pieces were nice and fresh and I really enjoyed the sauce and garnish.
The other fish was I think, albacore? I can't really remember anymore, it's been a while.
Then we had the veal sweetbreads and lobster ravioli (!!!!)
How much goodness can you fit in one dish? I haven't had that many sweetbreads in my life, but this was the best one I've had so far. The lobster ravioli and its broth was pretty light and managed to cut the richness of the sweetbread very well.
The roasted corn soup was also a great dish:
It was served with a braised pork belly. The pork belly was just a wee bit dry, but overall good, and the corn soup itself was amazing.
We then moved on to the fish dishes. One was the seabass.
The sauce for this dish was great, but as far as the fish itself goes, I've had better seabass. This one was a little overcooked/ a little dry.
The other was a halibut. Now, this was delicate and delicious.
It was cooked just right, flakey and juicy. I believe it was served with english pea puree.
Then came the meat dishes. This one I believe was Venison.
Cooked perfectly medium rare, it was a very tender piece of meat.
One of us got the roasted squab, which was delectable!
I liked this better than the venison, personally.
Then they proudly presented the Seared Wagyu Beef
It was definitely delicious and well-prepared, but I'm not sure if I'm that big on it ... it was very fatty - you can see the marbling! I somehow felt like I was eating fat (yes, I'll devour foie gras any day), so it was a bit weird ... although again, it was delicious.
A mint-cucumber granita was served as a palate cleanser. I always love these granitas as they are always so refreshing, and mint is a love of mine :)
We were offered a cheese platter, which I accepted (they charged extra for it though, which I wasn't aware of before :( ... Providence didn't charge!)
Again, couldn't really remember ... there was goat cheese for one ...
The three cheeses were served with: 1) balsamic vinegar, 2)hazelnuts and 3) sea salt caramel (yum!)
Now, on to the desserts: I don't really remember what this dessert was - I think there was some passionfruit in it.
Anyway, it wasn't anything memorable.
Next was some sort of panna cotta with coffee gelee. This dish was really small. The gelee and panna cotta were ti~ny, not even bite sized.
It's hard to say how this was, the little bites barely allowed for any taste, especially since Panna cottas themselves aren't exactly bursting with flavor.
My favorite dessert that night was the Chocolate Beignet:
Melted dark chocolate inside a rich chocolate dough with a crispy outer layer. This was also served with ice cream
All in all it was a wonderful, leisurely meal. On the whole everything was well done with quite a few of very memorable dishes. Everything was very beautifully presented of course. Compared to Providence, the dishes are less innovative, but on the upside it provides a certain 'comfort level' for both chef and customer ... (the salt and pepper ice cream from my last Providence visit for example I found ... strange). Anyway, I really enjoyed my meal and will definitely be back another time. Maybe rotate with Providence now? Or Ortolan?.
96
Tandem Tasting at Sona
8/26/2008
I heard a lot of mixed reviews and poor comparisons against Providence. My friends and I went this past weekend for a birthday and I was quite impressed.
We had the 9 course tandem tasting with wine pairings and we ordered a Kobe beef entree to share for the table. The tandem tasting is a wonderful idea, with two distinct dishes for each course. Assuming an even number of diners, that means half will get one and half will get the other giving you quite a few items to try between you.
The meal started with a little hiccup, my martini got knocked onto my shirt at the start of the meal. The wait staff promptly got me some towels and club soda and offered a chefs coat to replace my soaked shirt. It was a touch embarrassing, but the chef's coat was a nice little souvenir.
The men's bathroom had some interesting reading: congratulatory letters from other chefs like Daniel Boulud, and Charlie Trotter. I suspect the women's restroom had different letters but something stopped me from verifying my hunch.
For a detailed review of the courses with pictures: http://tangbro1.blogspot.co m/2008/08/sona-06092007.html
Recommended Dishes
Kobe Beef from Kagoshima, Pickled Young Ginger, Celery Shiso Salad
Duck, Beet Cloud, Roasted Beets, Arugala, Honey Vinegar Reduction
Roasted Squab, White Asparagus Wrapped with Bread, Blood Orange Marmalade
100
Fantastic Food!
6/26/2008
Sona is one of the best restaurants in LA. But it's much more like a great SF restaurant as opposed to an LA restaurant -- let me explain. For me, if I was to compare LA restaurants to wine, LA would be a Cal Cab or Australian Shiraz, whereas SF would be like a Burgundy or good Pinot.
Sona is like a solid Premier Cru French Burgundy, maybe a Gevry-Chambertin. Good structure, velvety, complex, but harder to appreciate. Try the tasting menu. Complexity and the playfulness of different tastes and textures dominate. It's a combination of heavy and light, salt and citrus, etc.
But it also happens to be a serious restaurant. Don't come here looking for a lively atmosphere. It's modern, it's appropriate, and a little dark and quite.
The service was very professional, and the people there know their food. If it's a special occasion and I really want to make sure to eat well, this is where I'd go.
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93
Culinary gem with wine to match
3/21/2008
Chef/Owner David Myers opended Sona, his first restaurant in 2002 located on La Cienega blvd. Seasonally inspired offerings of the highest quality come together in his French inspired eclectic menu.
Recommended Dishes
Tasting menu
100
7/6/2009
85
6/18/2009
93
2/17/2009
96
12/23/2008
100
10/7/2008
96
10/5/2008
100
9/30/2008
93
8/28/2008
96
8/18/2008
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