This year Suzanne Goin (Lucques, A.O.C., Tavern) was awarded “Most Outstanding Chef” by the James Beard Foundation. “Most Outstanding Chef” and “Most Outstanding Restaurant” is akin to the Academy Awards’ Best Director and Best Picture awards.
My cousins invited my family to join them for a weekend brunch. I was delighted that they chose A.O.C. A couple of years ago, my cousins invited us to dinner for our first time at A.O.C. and it was quite a memorable experience.
A.O.C. has an shielded patio which makes dining alfresco quite enjoyable. The noise level was quite manageable which allowed all nine of us to carry on a conversation. A few small trees added to the feeling of dining outdoors.
A thick slice of brioche bread topped with melted gruyère, prosciutto, frisée and a fried egg was the item that I ordered. Named the A.O.C. Brioche, I enjoyed the combination of frisée, prosciutto and fried egg.
Fried chicken and waffles is a natural item to order. It is a combination of salty and sweet, crispy and sometimes crunchy. A.O.C.’s fried chicken contained cumin in the batter and I detected a slight sweetness to it. Combined with a cornmeal waffle, that’s probably what I should have ordered.
Duck confit hash was served shredded duck with roasted potatoes, wild mushrooms and two poached eggs. The duck was tender and delicious, but I thought that this dish would be better with hash browns instead of roasted potatoes.
My wife ordered the Hanger Steak & Eggs. It was served with roasted baby bell peppers, potatoes & salsa verde. My wife indicated that the steak was very tender since it had been marinated and sliced thinly on the diagonal. The roasted peppers were extremely sweet.
My daughter’s dish probably garnered the most “oohs and aaahs”. It was a beautiful vanilla bean french toast topped with mixed berry compote, crème fraîche whip and served with marcona butter.
I think we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. Everything was simply delicious. My only complaint was that there was a bit too much starch on most of the plates. Brioche was the predominant bread and it was dense and thickly sliced. The duck confit hash had a large number of medium sized roasted potatoes.
I look forward to my next brunch adventure.
- 8700 W 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90048; (310) 859-9859
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