Next Level

After eating out as often as I have for these nearly forty years, I am not surprised very often. Lately I am sometimes pleasantly surprised, and I gotta say I love that. One of my favorite surprises is when food presented to me is next level. I recently had an experience in Los Angeles where everything on the table for our large party was next level, including the service

The place is called Great White, and it is in Studio City on a sort of service road off Ventura, the main drag, just two doors down from my favorite Joan’s on Third. Great White is part of a small local chain with outposts around Los Angeles and in Manhattan Beach. When we walked into Great White, I thought it was a handsome place like so many others, but in looking at the food, I was ready for something ordinary. Fine. Like all the others.

Breakfast food did not look appealing, but our lunch was fantastic. What was most interesting on the tables I saw was the bread, and I asked for a bread service of their rustic sourdough. We also got a hamburger, a pizza, a fried chicken sandwich, a chicken skewer plate, a chopped salad, and a Panzanella Salad, as well as a bowl of buttered noodles for the kids.

The bread service and pizza came first, along with two salads, the burger, and the chicken sandwich. The kitchen was quick.

The sourdough was toasted perfectly, sliced thick and crusty on the outside. The special fancy Amish butter melted on it right away.

I was thrilled with the sight of my Panzanella Salad. It had big chunks of tomatoes with huge leaves of basil and other torn herbs, in a perky light vinaigrette. Housemade croutons from this marvelous sourdough were of course part of this mix.

I shared that, and I got some chopped salad, which was full of everything. There were chopped spiced pecans, avocado, aged goat cheese, fruit, and mixed greens with a champagne vinaigrette.

The skewers came with an interesting shaved fennel salad with Middle Eastern flavors. I preferred my Panzanella to the others, but they were all good.

The skewers came with rice pilaf. This was my least favorite thing on the table. It had subtle but unmistakable flavors of the Middle East. Another downside was that the chicken was dark meat. It was still a very good version of this type of platter, but I preferred everything else on the table

The pizza looked Neapolitan with its buffalo mozzarella, but the crust was more NY-style. Its recipient was thrilled with the pizza, and I would have shared it had the mozzarella been basic American whole milk.

Great White had great chicken tenders, which are now only available on a chicken sandwich. This chicken sandwich was huge, with an enormous chicken breast slab sticking out past the bun's perimeter on all sides. What was most interesting about this chicken was the batter, which had elements of Tempura but was not Tempura. It reminded me of a wet batter like Willie Mae’s, but it was lighter and incomparably better than that. It didn’t stay on the chicken too well, but the bare breast allowed me to admire its quality. Very nice. This came with the ubiquitous ordinary fries. But they were nice ordinary fries.

The hamburger in front of the kid next to me was one of the best hamburgers in recent memory. Yes, it was a smash burger of two patties, but it had a fantastic flavor, a great bun, cheese oozing from the patty, nice pickles, and just good everything. I loved this burger. I was glad the neighbor child was not hungry. We traded a sourdough slice for a piece of burger, a move not authorized by the parents.

The buttered noodles were ordered as a backup item, and they landed before me. These looked like fresh Strotzzapretti noodles in a light cream sauce. They were rejected, and I tried them. Too bad I was full, but I saved them for later. They were perfect. Not al dente but not just butter. There was a hint of cheese, qualifying this for mac’n’cheese. Dead on arrival.

I enjoyed these noodles later.

When I go to a restaurant expecting the meal to be like all the others and then everything you try is next level, it is actually thrilling for me. It reminds me that everything is not the same. I will definitely be back to have some more of this fare. Delish.