Canelé, Atwater Village - great. They have a long open kitchen that is remarkable in that all the chefs look up and smile at you when you walk in, and not cheesy, mass factory smiles, but pleasant natural smiles AND it is even more remarkable in that all the chefs are focused and calm - no yelling, no visible madness, just cooking and enjoying.
We ate: farmers market salad (lush lettuce but a little lackluster as we had to have components removed due to an onion-family 'aversion' at the table :). I should also mention that they serve the most fabulous dark crusty bread that would make the French proud. For our mains: boeuf bourguignon with buttered noodles - more like what I think of as a beef short rib dish but with a nice hearty wine-y quality, roast chicken with socca (a speciality of southern France, socca is a chickpea crepe/cake, having had no former experience with socca, this was great with a nice crunch and Mediterranean flavors), French feta and harrissa, annnndddd I got a delightful arctic char with herbed couscous, baby beets, avocado and a sort of raita (yogurt, dill, & cucumber).
Dessert: we were feeling gluttonous so we got two: buena chica cheesecake, which was a generous sized individual cheesecake that tasted very traditional but not overly sweet, and fresh mulberries with creme fraiche ice cream and two gloriously buttery cookies. I am not one to order dessert out really because I have very base desires when it comes to desserts (ie oreos and costco apple pie) but the cheesecake was quite good. I felt compelled to order the mulberries because I love them and you hardly ever see them on menus because they are so fragile and don't last long at all once picked, these mulberries were nice but a little tart and had lost a little of their luster from bush to plate, but still it was fun. Canelé, I look forward to visiting you again.
Here is a little article from a Bon Appetit blogger who got to work for a day in the kitchen at Canelé and he has a picture of himself with the chef/owner Corina Weibel, who was one of the pleasant smiling faces I saw when I walked in - take a peek.
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