The Hungry Cat
1535 Vine St., Hollywood

We visited The Hungry Cat on Saturday night @ 9:30pm
Dish we will try to cook – Pan Roasted Halibut $27

Restaurant Visit
If you’re looking for an evening of upscale dining and a movie, The Hungry Cat may be just the place. The restaurant is located down an alley (if you didn’t know it was there, you would never find it) just off Vine and the Arclight theatre is only a short walk away. In fact, dinner and a movie is exactly what we did. After the show, we left our car in the parking structure and walked to the restaurant. We had called earlier in the day to see if we needed a reservation and were told it wouldn’t be a problem. So we were a little surprised to arrive at 9pm and hear there was a 30-45 minute wait just to sit at the bar. Learn from our mistake and definitely make a reservation in advance.

We would describe The Hungry Cat as a “Hollywood scene”; definitely trendy with the crowd skewing 30s to 40s. The restaurant is not overly large, but it does have a nice outdoor seating area. There is a very modern feel, clean lines and minimal color. We sat at the bar, so our view was pretty much of the bartender making drinks the entire night, which was actually very entertaining.

The menu is not too elaborate, as they are known for simple but fresh seafood. Three fourths of the food consists of in the shell options and 3 seafood platters – ranging from $12 to $155. Since only one of us eats mussels and clams, and we wanted to choose a dish that involved cooking for our blog, we spent a good deal of time deciding what to order. We went with the citrus salad (treviso, dates, candied pecans and goat cheese), steamed Alaskan king crab leg (grain mustard butter and toast) and the pan roasted halibut (fava bean puree, morels, fingerling potatoes, asparagus and an olive relish).

Arriving first was the citrus salad which, we split is as an appetizer. The salad was fresh and we enjoyed the combination of tart citrus and creamy goat cheese, but thought the red onion was a bit jarring with the other flavors. We then had a somewhat long wait for our two main courses to arrive. A king crab leg is always a welcomed treat and we were pleased the grain mustard wasn’t too overbearing in the butter. The 2 slices of toast almost out shown the crab leg. We’re not sure if they bake it fresh in house, but it was both soft and hearty and did a wonderful job scooping up the butter from the bottom of the bowl!

The pan roasted halibut dish itself is simple enough: halibut with salt and pepper, roasted potatoes, sauteed asparagus, pureed fava beans, chopped olive relish, and sauteed morels. But what we really liked was how the simplicity let the quality of the ingredients shine. While there is a lot going on with the plate, each individual component is done with care and without overpowering the seasoning. The dish was expensive, but the high standard for the freshest seasonal ingredients plus the high cost of some of the products (such as the morels and halibut) make it somewhat understandable. The biggest complaint would be the portion. The flavors left you wanting more, which is good, but in the end you’re only left wanting more because you’re still hungry. All in all the dish is worth it if you have the money to spend and if you’re willing to get a starter or something from their raw bar along side the dish.

Since the restaurant was packed, they obviously have a lot of happy customers, but we wouldn’t say they are high on our list for a second trip. We suggest going for appetizers and drinks but not necessarily for an entire meal. And for one last odd observation, maybe it was because we sat near the kitchen, but there was a strong smell of cumin for most of the night. At first we thought this was part of the halibut dish but finally discovered we weren’t tasting it, simply smelling it in the air.

We should point out, however, that the cocktails are made with fresh squeezed fruit, which they juice directly at the bar. And the owners are also behind other LA hotspots – AOC and Lucques.

Shopping
(prices reflect the cost of the package, not the portion we used.)

Whole Foods
Fresh Olives, pitted .19 lb $1.90
Fingerling Potatoes, .75 lb $2.99
Morel Mushrooms, .02 lb $.80
Parsley $1.49
Dijon Mustard $1.99
Pearl Onions $2.99
Garlic $.70

Santa Monica Seafood
Halibut, .8 lb $16.09

Santa Monica Farmers Market
Fava Beans

Recipe
Below is our take on pan roasted halibut dish.
Makes 2 servings.

Potatoes-

1/4 lb white fingerling potatoes, unpeeled
6 red pearl onions, peeled with tops cut
2 TBSP olive oil (plus more to oil baking dish)
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash and scrub potatoes. Cut potatoes in quarters lengthwise. Oil a baking dish. Arrange the potatoes and onions on the baking dish, coat with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for about 40 minutes, or until tender, turning the dish at the halfway point. Mix in parsley and bake an additional 4 minutes.

Fava Bean Puree-

1 cup peeled fava beans
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Bring a salted, medium pot of water to a boil. Add fava beans, reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until beans are tender. Drain the beans, reserve liquid. Using an immersion or upright blender, or food processor, puree the beans, garlic, olive oil, mustard and salt and pepper until smooth. If puree is too thick, blend in reserved liquid a little at a time until desired consistency.

Asparagus-

4 baby asparagus stems
1 tsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Wash asparagus. Trim off rough bottoms. Cut asparagus into 1” pieces. Heat a skillet on medium high. Add olive oil. Next add asparagus and cook for about 5 minutes, or until cooked, yet crisp. Lightly season with salt and pepper.

Olive Relish-

1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped
1/4 cup brown onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

Directions
Mix ingredients in a small bowl and allow to marinate.

Morels-

1/4 cup whole morel mushrooms
2 TBSP unsalted butter
Sea salt or fleur de sel to taste

Directions
Quickly soak morels in water to draw out grit. Remove from water and pat dry. Next, heat a skillet on medium-high. Add butter. Once melted, add morels and cook until they release liquid, about 3-5 minutes. Lightly sprinkle with sea salt or fleur de del.

Halibut-

2 6oz halibut fillets
1 TBSP olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle both sides of each fillet with salt and pepper. On the stove, heat an oven safe skillet on high. Add the oil to the skillet (if skillet begins to smoke, remove from heat for a few seconds then return). Place the fillets on the skillet presentation-side down. Cook for 2 minutes. Flip fillets and place in oven for 3 1/2 minutes.

Plating-
On the center of a plate, place a serving of the fava bean puree. Top with asparagus, then potatoes and morels. Place halibut on top of other components. Garnish halibut with olive relish.

Rating – We give our dish 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Any dish that allows us to buy fish from Santa Monica Seafood scores high on our list. We also had a fun time discovering the world of fava beans and realizing that the inside of the hulls are actually furry! The main tip we can give is to not over-season the dish with salt. The olives give the majority of the saltiness. While some of the ingredients have delicate flavors, season each component just enough to wake them up. We ranked ourselves high this week because of how straightforward the dish was. The only part we might have treated with a little more attention was the fish. While the flavors were there, you can definitely tell from the pictures that professionally trained chefs didn’t handle our halibut. However, we think as long as you’re willing to take the time to make many different components, you can very simply cook this dish with ease.

How would you rate our recipe? We look forward to hearing feedback from you guys on whether you think we got close or if we missed the mark, what would you add to make the dish better. Have any of you visited The Hungry Cat before and just love it? Feel free to email us if you have any questions on the cooking instructions and don’t forget to vote for next week’s restaurant!

Tags: arclight, halibut, hungry cat, Seafood

This entry was posted on Monday, March 29th, 2010 at 9:33 pm and is filed under Seafood. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.