La Toque
Ken Frank's rosti potato with creme fraiche and half an ounce of Regiis Ova ossetra, a dish he has been making since 1980. Wednesday to Sunday, from 5:30.
Why go
Frank founded La Toque in 1979 and still owns and runs the kitchen.1 The rosti potato is the dish to understand him by, and he wrote the note on it himself: This dish traces its origin back to 1980 at the original La Toque on Sunset Boulevard, inspired by the potatoes my French girlfriend's Mom would make us for lunch nearly every Saturday.
1 He describes what lands: Hot crispy potato on the outside, tender on the inside, cool creme fraiche, a generous spoonful of caviar on top.
1 The kitchen and the sommeliers taste together daily and build the pairings from that.2 There are three ways in nightly: six courses, six vegetable courses, or a la carte.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the rosti potato with the ossetra. Frank calls it
simply my favorite way to eat caviar.
1 - Order: the Chef's Vegetable Tasting if you do not eat meat. Six courses, same format, not an afterthought.1
- Order: the All Black Truffle menu when truffles are in.1
- Avoid: Monday and Tuesday. The room is dark and opens at 5:30 the rest of the week.1
Good to know
- Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, open at 5:30pm.1
- Booking: through Tock, $40 deposit a head, parties up to eight. Groups of 9 to 240 go through the restaurant.2
- Accolades: the restaurant prints a Wine Spectator Grand Award dated 2022 and a Michelin star dated 2021 on its own booking page. Neither was confirmed at the awarding body, and no current guide page for La Toque could be found.2
- Hygiene: not established. No inspection instrument for this county is on file here.
Verdict
should-visit — Ken Frank has been cooking under this name since 1979 and the rosti potato is the dish that carries the whole story: crisp outside, soft inside, cold creme fraiche, half an ounce of Regiis Ova ossetra on top, and he traces it to his girlfriend's mother's Saturday lunches in France by way of the first La Toque on Sunset Boulevard in 1980. A chef who will tell you that, and then mention he once sold it with wild Caspian beluga for twenty dollars, is worth the evening. There is a full six-course vegetable tasting too, which is rare at this level. Both accolades on the door are the restaurant's own account and the live guide page could not be found, so the rung rests on the cooking and the wine programme rather than on a badge.