Jun 2009

XIV – Los Angeles (West Hollywood)

While I should associate Michael Mina‘s XIV with fine dining and stylish design, I’ll forever remember it as the place where Heidi received the boot from SBE due to Spencer‘s shenanigans. Michael Mina is pretty famous as far as chefs go, but compared to Hills-dwellin’ famewhores, he is merely a civilian with a restaurant empire.

The Astronomer and I met up with some cool cats, namely Tony C., B-side, Aseem, Cousin Phil, and his squeeze Tannia, to scope out XIV’s happy hour specials. 6ix on Sunset, which features $6 cocktails, a $6 Terrace menu, and $6 valet, takes place on XIV’s Terrace 6 to 8 PM, Tuesday through Saturday.

We came to play on a Friday night.

As I made my way to the Terrace, I was greeted by a smiley B-side carrying a dish of XIV’s famous truffle butter popcorn ($6). Before I could reach in for a taste, he informed me that Brody Jenner was paces away watching the Laker game with his “bros” Frankie and Sleazy-T. I instantly forgot about the popcorn and made my way to the bar to gawk at reality television stars. I couldn’t believe my luck! The Hills—they’re really alive!

It was quite fitting that B-side alerted me to the D-listers in our presence because he’s the one who famously coined the moniker Speidi—no joke! He also writes hilarious Hills recaps each week on his blog. This scenario was so perfect on so many different levels.

By the time I rejoined my happy hour posse, the popcorn had grown stale. According to B-side, it was quite good when fresh.

After a few bites of cold popcorn, I moved onto the cocktail portion of happy hour. I started off with a mojito, then stole some gulps of The Astronomer’s Shelter (Krol Vodka, elderflower, white cranberry), and eventually finished off with a Bramble (gin, lemon juice, creme de mures, and muddled blackberries). In under two hours, I managed to get nice and blitzed. Our entire happy hour posse deemed the $6 cocktails a damn good deal.

My favorite small bites of the evening were the Tartare Poppers ($6), which consisted of Hamachi and Ahi perched upon a fried rice cake. The poppers were excellent au naturale and didn’t require any of the ponzu that was served alongside. At two bucks a pop(per), they weren’t exactly a steal, but hey, it’s happy hour in West Hollywood! I didn’t feel the least bit gypped.

I was really looking forward to trying the lobster corndogs because I love classic American fare given a glamorous makeover. I was hoping for hunks of actual lobster inside the corndog, but the filling had the same consistency as a regular hotdog. In keeping with the extra-fancy theme, the corndogs were served with a spicy whole grain mustard. Size-wise, each hot dog on a stick provided 2.5 bites of fun.

The duck fat fries ($6) arrived with three different seasonings and three different sauces. The seasonings included pepper, paprika, and rosemary, while the sauces consisted of barbecue, buttermilk ranch, and ketchup. I’m more of an onion ring kind of girl, so The Astronomer and the posse polished these off.

We also placed an order for Kobe beef sliders, but the only place they appeared was on our tab at the end of the night.

It must be noted that the Terrace was totally slammed the evening we visited. Friday night, plus Lakers playoffs, equals huge crowds. As a result, the service was terrible. It took a lot of ordering and reordering to receive our food and drinks, and even then, we failed to receive a handful of items. With that being said, I had a grand ‘ol time at XIV. After all, happy hour is about good company.

As Tony C., The Astronomer, and I waited for valet at the end of the evening, we spied yet another celebrity. This time it was Ian Ziering—Steve Sanders from original 90210. It turns out that XIV is the hangout of choice for teen heartthrobs past and present.

XIV by Michael Mina
8117 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90046
Phone: 323-656-1414

XIV on Urbanspoon

XIV in Los Angeles

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18 thoughts on “XIV – Los Angeles (West Hollywood)

  1. I would go just for the D-list sightings. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    You know who actually has tasty lobster corndogs? The Edison downtown! Yes, it’s a bar, but those things are good!

  2. I havent liked any tartar at all, i think basically, i cannot stand the raw meat or fish! I used to work in a fine dining in Sheraton and they have an amazing (base on the comments of the diners :p) tuna tartar with mizuna lettuce. However, it was not my cup of tea!

  3. Pingback: XIV - Los Angeles (West Hollywood) | gasโ€ขtronโ€ขoโ€ขmy | Latest Buzz
  4. Steve – I knew someone would call me out on that one ๐Ÿ˜‰ Gypsies and I go waaay back. When I lived in Italy, they were always trying to steal my loot. I think they tried to pickpocket me like five times! XIV was straightforward with their thievery.

  5. Thank you for giving B-Side his props for coining Speidi….I hate it when other people (especially those Canadian people on MTV) think they invented it. We B-Side readers know the truth, and we won’t stay quiet about it. Ha ha.

  6. Nice Hills sighting! I saw Brent Bolthouse outside of SBE once. He’s surprising really short. And tiny. Like REALLY tiny. Maybe because he’s subsisting on tuna tartare poppers and nonexistant kobe beef burgers?

  7. It’s a sad day in history when I’m the PC police. I just wanted to be a nudge and call someone out. Tell those Gypsies to lay off your wallet. By the way, if Mina has ever shown his face at XIV, I’d be shocked. He must be licensing his name now, a la George Foreman and Don Trump.

  8. wow massive food porn post…that bramble looks delicious. i love happy hour! and what exactly does elderflower taste like?

  9. Oh god. Now I have to worry about lobster corndogs. Since Austin is at least a year behind in the “fancy-tiny-cute-food” category, I’m sure that they’ll be flooding our local scene in the near future. Definitely interested in the tartare poppers though. Sounds like a fun party idea. -Logan

  10. Ooooh! Everything looks amazing! Can’t believe the lobster corn dogs would be a disappointment! I used to like Brody for always keeping it real for everyone, but he lost all respect ever since his one night stand w/ Audrina. Boooo!

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