Narcissa

Summary

I’m introducing a new category for restaurants that have gardens. This one has an interesting one. I didn’t find it particularly that great, but it seems to be an attraction for others. This is tucked near or in the Standard Hotel, I don’t quite remember. In the summer, the indoor seats are mostly vacant, so definitely ask for a seat near the window if you decide to sit inside.

The cocktails were Bringing Back Barb and Malibu Mistress. The (rhu)barb drink was made of vodka, pamplemousse, rhubarb, lemon, and yuzu. I generally like all those flavors together, but I felt this drink was kind of a miss. I think maybe the vodka didn’t pair well, or maybe it was the wrong vodka brand. The mistress was not good either. It had pisco, rum, pandan, coconut, and lime. Again, all those ingredients sound like they would be complementary, but the drink came out extremely strong and not subtle at all.

The dinner menu seemed to be pretty limited, so we opted for only a few courses.

The ceviche with miner’s lettuce, cilantro, and lemongrass was pretty good although a bit small for the price it charged. For best bang for the buck ceviche, I feel it’s going to be hard to take down Mario’s in LA.

The grilled octopus came with cranberry beans, escarole, and candied meyer lemon zest. Again for the price, it was alright. It did feel like the octopus sat for a little longer since the food came mildly cold. All in all, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. There was a little char on it, but it lost its crunch due it sitting at the pass.

In my opinion, the crackling porchetta, with savoy cabbage, broccolini salsa, and satsuma, was what saved the night. The porchetta was basically like a super thick slab of bacon. Now imagine the edge of the bacon being super crispy like a chicharron. It had a good texture to it, and I wished they gave us more. The sauce itself was interesting. It was sweet with a little sour to it, and in some ways there was too much of it. I felt they could’ve given less of the sauce, and it would’ve been more enjoyable.

The one complaint I had was there were several vacant tables in the patio for a few hours. Granted, they said people had those tables reserved. Those people didn’t show up until towards the end of our dinner as we were paying our bill. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, but the whole restaurant was pretty dead at prime time 7 PM on a Saturday until later in the evening.

Service otherwise was prompt, but I felt the price was a little on the higher side for what we got.

Final Verdict

The food itself is really mediocre at best, but the crackling porchetta was actually pretty decent. If you’re looking for a good outdoorsy dinner area to eat, you should try to make reservations here as oppose to trying for a walk-in on the weekend.

Yelp Jabs

For starters, you must pay for their bread basket - it only comes with two rolls and one of them is “nori” so tasted like fish (disgusting).

This person opted to pay for the bread basket even though it clearly advertised on the menu what was in the bread basket.

We were looking for some July 4th plans and happened to stumble on Narcissa’s crab boil special for the holiday–with two of our party of four with Baltimore roots, we thought it’d be perfect, and that $35 per person was a slammin’ deal for the amount of food we’d get

This restaurant is located in a hip and trendy Standard Hotel. I would be hesitant to expect much about any of the restaurants at these places. Often more than not, they are constantly overrated.

If you are looking for a truly healthy brunch experience, then come here and order the egg white mcmuffin

Or you can stay at home and make it for a fraction of the cost.