Ludo Bites at Royal/T
Average user Rating: 94
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[CLOSED] See also Ludo Bites 4.0 at Gram and Papa's
December 2009 brings the return of Chef Ludo Lefebvre and his LudoBites concept. This time Ludo teams up with LA's first and only cosplay cafe, Royal/T, bringing together two of Ludo's passions, food and art. "LudoBites & Royal/T Get in Bed Together" is an exclusive 13-day dining and art experience that will be presented in conjunction with Curator Jane Glassman's exhibit "In Bed Together."
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93
LudoBites @ Royal T
3/17/2010
Everything was delicious and tasty, but not mind-blowing... I think I was expecting absolutely fabulous and ridiculously amazing food.
My friend and I ordered the following to share:
1. tuna sashimi, sushi ice cream, soy sauce gelee - This dish was creative and very good. All the flavors, when eaten together, just played off each other and worked really well.
2. foie gras beignet - Who doesn't love foie gras? I didn't really like the breading of the beignet. There was too much of it and not enough foie!
3. sauteed squid, kimchi chorizo oil - The squid was delicious and flavors were definitely asian and it reminded me of my mom and home - which is a good thing.
4. confit pork belly, burnt eggplant puree, coconut thai chili emulsion - The pork belly was so fatty and delicious, but the burnt eggplant was just too "burnt tasting" for me. Even when I ate all the components together, the "burnt" taste was too overwhelming.
5. seared duck breast, carrots - I love duck and I love carrots... So this dish, for me, was delicious!
6. fourme d'ambert torte, red pear - I love cheese, so this was a winner. The red pear was a very, very nice touch.
All in all, the space is great, but I think I expected a bit more from the food... especially since his last installment at breadbar was soo amazing. The dishes came out pretty fast once we put our order in and service was spot on. I loved the fact that Chef Ludo was going around and talking/joking around with the patrons (He saw me taking pictures of the food and told me "no pictures" with a serious face.. which quickly turned into a smile and a wink!).
100
1/30/2010
What was perhaps the piece de resistance (sp?) was the foie gras beignet. Yes, foie gras in a beignet. Do you think we would let Ludo go without putting a foie gras dish on the menu? I think not. The foie was succulent and tender and slightly salty, playing a perfect match to the subtly sweet beignet exteior. The Yellow Celery Root Remoulade looked reminiscent of mac n cheese, but was just wonderful.
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96
1/3/2010
So where in the world has Ludo Lefebvre been since his last LudoBites installment which closed this past August 2009? Well, if you've been following closely via the now "preferred method of communication" between bloggers, chefs and the overall food community, you'd know that he took a well deserved vacation.
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93
12/29/2009
LudoBites 3.0 was no sequel. It was a reboot.
Come knowing that and you’d leave happy. But come expecting a sequel to LudoBites 2.0 at Breadbar and you might as well have gone to watch JJ Abrams’ Star Trek reboot expecting to see William Shatner.
All the familiar dishes from LudoBites 2.0 were gone, replaced by a completely new line up. Oxtail polenta? Gone. Foie gras croque monsieur? Gone. Ludo Fried Chicken? Well, that one made a comeback in a different form.
Kinda like Leonard Nimoy as Spock.
In fact, don’t even come expecting to see Kirk in the captain’s chair. LudoBites 3.0 left the confines of Europe to explore Asia and Mexico. Kimchi, udon, dashi, miso and mole took center stage, befitting the pop-up restaurant’s move to Royal/T, a Japanese cosplay cafe. It’s as if Sulu had taken over the bridge and reprogrammed all the food replicators.
But that, really, is the mission statement of LudoBites. It allows Chef Ludo Lefebvre to create and explore cuisines without the normal constraints of running a restaurant. To seek out new tastes and new cultures. To boldly go where no man has gone… okay, perhaps I’m taking this metaphor too far.
On to the food. In the words of Chef Ludo’s famous countryman, Jean-Luc Picard, “Make it so!”
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Recommended Dishes
Hanger steak & mole, Veal udon, Foie gras beignet, Fourme d'Ambert tourte
93
12/25/2009
I've been consumed with reading "Never Eat Alone" lately. It's an amazing book that breaks down how to form, maintain and develop new connections—which can be applied to business and personal life. Granted, some tips provided are elementary, but Ferrazzi gives many more that are great and really hits it out of the ball park with his personal story and case studies.
Excited to apply Ferrazzi's wisdom to my life, I decided to test out his rule of reading up on inspiring professionals before meeting them. The first opportunity happened to be Ludo Bites. Unable to visit its earlier incarnation at Breadbread, I had to live vicariously through other blog reviews so I had a good idea about the concept as well as Chef Ludo, but just to be safe, I made good use of google. Armed with my newly found information, my friends and I went made our way to Royal/T.
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Recommended Dishes
LFC, Celery Root Soup, Foie Gras Beignet
96
12/21/2009
As much as I enjoyed the opening ceremonies, I was more excited to come to Royal-T a week or so later to graze with Angela, Diana of DianaTakesaBite, Lauren of HarbKnockLife and Sarah of TheDeliciousLife.
We started off with carmelized peanuts with curry. This was the best damn crackerjack I've ever had. If they sold this in Bombay, it would be perfect to eat at cricket matches and bollywood movies. Diana and I went to town on this.
Bread soup, poached egg, gruyere marshmallow. You know how they say beer is "liquid bread"? Well, this was the real thing. I loved the marshmallow. This was Angela's favorite dish of the night and it was deeply savory and mysterious like gravy's lighter cousin. The egg pretty much melted in your mouth.
Our raw scallop, brown butter, pineapple friend from opening night was refreshing and again, sweet and sour like a tropical vacation.
We ordered two and sometimes three of every dish which Diana and I ended up eating by ourselves practically as Sarah was off socializing, Lauren had gone vegan and Angela was a light eater. It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it.
Diana and I loved the udon. We scraped every bit of the miso sauce into the wonderfully mushroomy broth and slurped up the noodles with large hunks of shredded veal meal. Veal is generally offensive to my mouth because the scary texture and the terror of eating a child essentially. Here, though, the veal was tender but not terrifying. In fact, it was pretty damn tasty.
Monterey squid, chorizo oil and kimchee puree was delicious. It was just spicy enough and the blackened sheet of eggplant challenged the notion of the place of burnt food on a plate. A must try.
Foie gras beinet. We all took a bite of this fun round friend. We all liked him very much. He was creamy and crisp and nourishing.
Confit pork belly with mustard and frisee. I loved the way this dish looked. Doesn't it look like an underwater reef or some such? It could even be like an illustration of a complex part of a cell like a golgi apparatus. Don't you recall the golgi apparatus? It was so pretty and mauve. Do you remember? Do you also remember how your heart would beat when you had to dissect the earthworm and you'd put on your rubber gloves with a sense of the surgeon's responsibility? And then how you'd take a kim wipe and clean the beakers and the microscope slides and then you'd put away the bunsen burner, and you'd think, science is a trip.
This dish was a trip and a half. So delicious and you know I'm not even a pork belly lover but this was probably my favorite dish of the night.
Striped bass, garden vegetables, yuzu aoili. Again, Diana and I were all over this. I think Lauren ate some veggies. It was a clean fresh dish.
Hanger steak, escargot, baby corn and olive mole. Another favorite. So delicious, perfectly cooked and the mole was marvelous. As was the fat ass baby corn. This is not the baby corn of your chinese stir fry. Like one of those 20 lb infants, it was fatter than its peers and came with green hair. We loved him so we ate him up with a knife and fork.
Pistachio rice milk, lemon pound cake. I'm not sure if these two things went together but each was nice on its own. I love pistachio anything and this was deeply madly pistachio. The pound cake was delish. "Nobody does it like Ludo Lee."
I don't recall eating this dish. It's quite likely I did not given that I ate either Lauren or Sarah's portion all night and was pretty full at the end of the evening. How full was I? If poked my tummy with a knitting needle, your needle would bend.
The second time I went to have LudoBites at Royal-T, we were driving when we saw Santa Claus on a flatbed truck being carted around by a business advertising themselves. It's the most wonderful time of the year.
We started off with tuna sashimi, sushi rice cream and soy sauce gelee. I loved the rice cream but I also loved the gelee. Like salty bits of jello, they'd go really well with all kinds of asian foods like soba noodles or a bowl of cold rice splashed in a bit of green tea.
Once again, the beefey shroomy brothey udon was a big hit with my taste receptors.
The teriyaki cod was amazing. So moist, perfectly seasoned and classically satisfying. One of favorite of this night.
The pork belly, eggplant puree and plaintain was another favorite. Crisp seared fat never tasted so good.
We were most fortunate to procure LFC and the French colonel's secret recipe was a taste explosion in my mouth. Before the chicken came to the table, I told my friend this was the best fried chicken he'd ever have. Kind of like an astronaut might tell a civilian passenger to brace themselves at take off, I felt some kind of warning was called for. But the civilian actually threw down a challenge asking, "better than Honey's Kettle?" I made one of those whistling noises between my lips meaning I am so offended, my ancestors just farted in their graves.
So, what happened after my friend became acquainted with Ludo's chicken? I asked him, "better than Honey's Kettle?" And he said, "pretty good." That's how you know someone lost their throw down. Even a year ago, I might have said "face" while dragging my fingers down my face to signify my victory but I just sat with folded hands letting the internal glee flood every pore of my body. Dignity. It's nice.
Guacamole, exotic fruits, ice cream. I'd rather have the ice cream with the exotic fruits. The guacamole was like a party crasher but interesting. Who would ever think to use guac in a dessert?
Krissy led me to the kitchen so I could see the internal workings of the engine room. Sous chef Austin was there with Chef Ludo. It was hot and lots of energy was bouncing off the walls. I said something very profound like "it's hot in here" and scurried out to let the chefs cheffify their stuff.
I just loved my second meal at LudoBites, perhaps even more than my first because I felt each dish was stronger and even more delicious. It was sad that I wouldn't be coming back but I felt with the evening starting off with Santa, progressing with delicious food and ending with Chef Ludo advising us of his plans to cook a testicle-less rooster for Krissy's family at Christmas, I had had a great time and it wouldn't do to be greedy...
Until, that is, Will of Fooddigger.com, invited me to join him and some friends for an all Bruin dinner table at LudoBites. At that point, I became Gordon "greed is good" Gekko. Do you recall that scene where Gordon is walking on the beach with a proto cell phone and the phone is seriously the size of a VHS tape? Hilarious.
We had the sushi again. We loved it again.
Celery root soup. It was soothing and creamy with a truffley accent.
I loved the carmelized endive with grapefruit. The bitterness of the endive which was mellowed and the bitter acidity of the citrus went really well together. Who would have thought?
Lardo. This was a huge hit with the gang. I couldn't eat it. I know. It's "the best song sung in the key of pig" according to Mario Batali but pure pig fat is a ditty that I can't get myself to hum along to. TheDelicious absolutely loved it though as did Will and my new 1/8 Chinese 1/4 Trinidad and 1/8 something or other friend who is going to learn how to cook ox tail soup from his mom and then challenge TheDelicious' korean ox tail soup. Stay tuned.
You know I love me my fish and this was again perfection!
Will told me that he had never had an over or undercooked piece of fish or meat from Chef Ludo with the reason being that Chef Ludo had been taught to cook through the precise control of time. In other words, he never touches a piece of food to test how well cooked it is. Not one piece of fish or steak or whatever gets tapped or prodded with a probing questioning finger. Cr
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96
12/15/2009
Just when you think it couldn't get any better... the Confit Pork Belly with Pickles, Mustard Tartine, Frisée came out. I guess they didn't have the pork belly the night before and boy did they miss out! Luckily we were able to try this. You would never think that anything can beat foie gras for me but this was the definite winner of the night! ^_^ The pork belly had just the right balance of meat and fat. There was a delightful crispy bite to the meat area. **drool drool** I really enjoyed the chewy bread with a hard bite on the crust. It worked wonderfully with the mustard grains and pork belly. I love the texture of mustard grains. They remind me of perfectly cooked tiny tapioca pearls. The fatty flavor of the pork belly, which is a good thing IMHO, was wonderfully balanced out by the sauce's flavors, the bread, and the frisée. I wish I could have this everyday! It has inspired me to try some new techniques and flavors with the pork belly I have at home.
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Recommended Dishes
Confit Pork Belly, Veal Udon, Hanger Steak
93
can't beat the foie gras donut
12/8/2009
went there on opening night and treated to another amazingly creative meal - been to all 3 bites incarnations and this one wasn't any different - consistently fresh, innovative cuisine and a gracious, gregarious hostess in Krissy to match... go there if you can get in...
Recommended Dishes
scallops, foie gras beignet, squid with chorizo oil and kimchee puree
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93
12/5/2009
Recommended Dishes
Squid w/Chorizo oil, kimchi puree, and red onions, Marinated hanger steak w/crunchy escargot, baby corn, bok choy and black olive mole
96
12/5/2009
Recommended Dishes
Squid
93
12/5/2009
Ludo Lefebvre is back at it yet again, this time going with the Japanese feel of his new venue Royal-T, an Akihabara fangled art space and--gorgeous maid served--cafe located in the center of the continuously restaurant booming epicenter of Culver City.
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Recommended Dishes
Scallop w/ Brown Butter, Bread Soup, Wild Striped Bass, Marinated Hanger Steak w/ Black Olive Mole
93
12/4/2009
9 Reasons Why We Love Ludo.
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Recommended Dishes
Squid w kimchi puree, veal udon, fourme d'ambert tourte, scallops w brown butter, foie gras beignet
93
12/3/2009
Ah....has it only been three months when Ludo Lefebvre swept both the women AND men in Los Angeles off their feet with his ingenious and unique portrayal of his French cooking techniques at Ludobites Breadbar? Well, luckily for both you and me, Chef Ludo has returned, and this time at the Japanese cosplay cafe Royal/T in Culver City. The Ludobites at Royal/T event will occur for 13 days beginning on December 2nd, but luckily for me, I was able to try out new menu before its open to the general public, courtesy of FoodDigger!
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Recommended Dishes
Marinated hanger steak w/crunchy escargot, baby corn, bok choy and black olive mole, Scallops with brown butter!
93
12/2/2009
He’s baaaack! And dare I say, even better than before. After a three-month hiatus, Chef Ludo Lefebvre has returned with the third installment of Ludo Bites, his highly-anticipated guerrilla-style pop-up restaurant. This time around, Ludo has teamed up with Culver City’s Royal/T—the city’s first Japanese-style cosplay café.
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Recommended Dishes
scallops, brown butter, pineapple, “black powder” , Japanese udon with veal, kombu dashi (kelp stock), enoki mushrooms, sesame seed miso /, hangar steak, crunchy escargots, baby corn, bok choy, black olive mole
96
12/2/2009
Ludo is back and this time at Royal/T in Culver City. Ludo has opted to present us with all new dishes this time around. There will be no repeats of the dishes served at BreadBar. Additionally, not only are the dishes different from those at BreadBar, the flavors and inspiration are different as well. This time, in honor of Royal/T, Ludo has incorporated some wonderful Asian and Latin flavors mixed in with this famous French cuisine.
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Recommended Dishes
whatever looks the best that night!
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