Re-creating southwestern France in West Hollywood

last updated 8 January 2015

When I first saw the menu at RH, the new restaurant at the Andaz West Hollywood, I sneered and decided to pass, said S. Irene Virbila in the Los Angeles Times. One reason hotel restaurants seldom attract a local following is that they are rarely compelling. But a few months ago, chef Sébastien Archambault “rewrote his menu to reflect his roots in Périgord,” in southwestern France. Now the city’s newest hip hangout offers “some of the best contemporary French food I’ve had in L.A.”

Archambault, who earned a Michelin star during his tenure as executive chef at Le Pirate on Corsica, seems intent on transforming a pretty good restaurant into a great one. The dreamy kitchen is open on three sides, and the glass-fronted refrigerated room displays gorgeous California produce in stainless-steel baskets. Then, of course, there’s the food, some of it “insanely delicious.”

The bar menu includes “rich, rustic terrines”—one of pork and foie gras, another of pork and duck. The duck confit is “crisp on the surface, moist and dark-fleshed underneath.” The fries, triple-fried in duck fat, were so good that our party ordered two servings, and might have eaten a third “if we hadn’t come to our senses.” Best of all, the menu is, at least by hotel standards, bargain-priced. That should leave plenty of funds to “finish off with a very expensive glass of 1973 Armagnac or walnut liqueur.”

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