L’Orangerie Fine All Around Decor/Service/Dining in L.A. – September 10th, 2003
L’Orangerie offers the Total Experience in Exquisite Food, Service, Atmosphere, and Decor.
L’Orangerie 903 North La Cienega Los Angeles 90069 Reservations: 310-652-9770. Approximately one hundred dollars per person.
Some restaurants boast a decor to die for; some restaurants create an ambience bar none; some guarantee the finest food you’ll ever eat outside of Paris; some promise the most attentive service extant. My experience has shown me that very few can offer all these things in one place…that is, until I found L’Orangerie on La Cienega. This may well be the Taj Mahal of restaurant elegance, ambience, exquisite food, completely enveloped with service par excellence.
Gerard Ferry is the affable creator and owner of this twenty-six year old landmark restaurant. He escorted us to our table in the main dining room – a beautifully decorated room, painted in white, gleaming with the many candles adorning the tables and sconces on the walls. Your eye is immediately taken by the glorious, truly magnificent fresh floral display, residing in its perch in the middle of the dining room. It’s a towering offering of white lillies, carnations, roses and assorted other flowers and it adds to the wealth of all that awaits you.
And all that awaits you is good: a staff eager to please, gracious without being cloying; water glass filled, bread and butter served, drink order taken, and the request to present the menu. It’s a very large menu, printed in French and translated fully. Mr. Ferry began his first L’Orangerie in Paris before deciding to come to Los Angeles. And he brought with him one Christophe Eme as head chef. Together, they create authentic dishes native to France. The palate is whetted; our selection is for the Menu Royal – a tasting of eight glorious dishes in reduced portions to provide an overview of L’Orangerie’s excellent offerings; actually ten considering the forspice of a teacup of vichyssoise – ("amuse bouch") and a variety of petits fours to complete the orgy.
In between are such delicacies as Ferry’s signature dish of egg in the shell with Petrossian caviar sevruga, a coddled egg in its own shell that is unbelievably delicous as it melts its way from your mouth into your stomach. A terrine of foie gras with spiced pear and apple chutney comes with its own crisply toasted french bread. It’s smooth texture, blended with the pear/apple aroma , gives you the feeling that you’re dining at King Louie’s court. A Maine lobster miniature bouillabaise, surrounded by baby calamari, a sweet clam, zucchini-stuffed ravioli and crab claw is perfection in a pot. A portion of roasted John Dory, decorated and prepared beautifully, followed by roasted baby squab, equally presented in its own glorious arrangement, help create a dining experience equal to none. Space prohibits the full extent of the ooh’s and ahh’s inherent in all the preceeding courses, as well as the marinated Hamachi, the fresh array of cheeses, and our most enjoyable desserts. Suffice it to say that this is truly your restaurant for all seasons. The menu changes about four times a year but this current menu Royal is well worth the visit, for it will be changed in early October.
This is an expensive restaurant. But this is also an exceptional restaurant where fine dining is de rigeur. It’s a marvelous place to celebrate a special occasion, ask her to be your wife, or remember to give yourself a big treat because you deserve it. You will love the food, appreciate the pampering, have a visual orgasm and savor every single minute being cared for in this glowing environment. It’s time, my friend, it’s time!