What You See is What You Eat.

Sunday night.  The place was full of people, as usual, but since the bar was clearing up, we were able to snag some seats within 5 minutes.  Here is the lesson of the day, kiddies: Always Eat At The Bar.  The Hungry Cat recently expanded to include more seating and a raw food bar.  Prior to this, unless you sat at the bar, the restaurant was, honestly, a bit of a hassle.  There was a big crowd at night, always.  The seats and tables were crowded next to each other, as if they purposely huddled to seek communal comfort from the people crowds.  Post-expansion, the crowd has thinned out and you get some air. A little more legroom, a little more food, a lot more happy diners.

Here is the second lesson of the day: Always Get A Cocktail Here, Always.  The only place I will spend more than $10 on a drink is this place.  The cocktails are fantastic.  Fantastic.  Where else are you going to see the bartender take a slice of avocado, muddle it up with some hard spirits, and then give it to you like it is normal to muddle whole slices of fruit and put it in a drink?  Yes, you can say “San Diego”, but I tell you, I’ve tried, and though it is more humble, it just isn’t the same.  Just isn’t.  Anyway, back to LA.  Every season comes new Hungry Cat cocktails with different fruits from the farmer’s market — from farm to bar, that should be their new slogan.  I forget the name of this avocado creation, but it was absolutely delicious. Enough alcohol so you can taste it, not enough to overwhelm the spirited amalgamation. $13.  We also ordered the basil mojito, which was great – very strong – but not as great.

Food.  This was harder.  The menu changes up every few months to reflect which sea animals can be Fed Ex’ed overnight to the restaurant.  In our case, we passed on ordering anything from the raw bar – me, because I don’t like it, and my girlfriend, because she was too cheap and thought she could do much, much better at 99 Ranch.  Fair enough.  She ended up ordering the most expensive thing on the menu, and I quote: “alaskan halibut with chantrelle mushrooms, crab pierogi, celery root and crab sauce” ($28).  I decided to go with, and I quote: “local swordfish with farro tabouli, grilled eggplant and pomegranate seeds” ($24).  We also ordered an enormous plate of fries ($5) to eat while we waited, because their fries are skinny, crisp, tossed in salt and herbs and spices, resulting in some damned good fries.  Damned good.  These are worth $5 easily.  Unless you order it separately, I think the only thing the fries complement is the Pug Burger, which I have heard many, many good things about – and saw a few people order – that is one very tall burger – I mean, you need to deconstruct it with a knife and fork – but I have never ordered it.  I figure if I want a damned good burger, I’ll go to Father’s Office.  

The fries:

The alaskan halibut — sorry no picture, I forgot to take it before it was devoured. Trust me on this though: It was great.  Halibut is a common fish, and a common fish to overcook, which, unlike salmon, causes all the juices to dry off and drain the halibut of its flavor.  This is based on personal experience. I cannot cook this fish, I don’t know why.  Anyway, the alaskan halibut here was flaky, smooth, sweet, juices juicing the fish, delicious.  Also, there was a crab pierogi, which essentially was a crab cake!  The girlfriend pointed out that maybe this justifies the high price (last I remember, the most expensive item on the menu used to be about $25).  I don’t know about that, but the crab cake was still really great, and an unexpected nice slightly salty complement to the halibut.  Who knew?  Overall, still thought its value should have been pinned at $25, max.  As it is, this one was approaching the $30 range, which scares me a little.

The local swordfish (probably Fed Ex’ed 1-day ground from San Pedro):

Honestly, I didn’t expect this to be that good, but there was nothing else on the menu that really jumped at me.  Swordfish is a fishy fish, and I am not partial to fishy fish.  But, here, it was definitely fishy, but not in the negative way that results when I cook fishy fish – it smelled delicious, it tasted delicious.  The farro tabouli was a really good starch to absorb some of that fishiness, without losing its own buttery flavor.  I should figure out how to use farro more.  I should figure out what farro actually looks like.  The pomegranate seeds were a clean, crisp, sweet touch that also served to take the zing of fishiness out of the swordfish. The people next to us also tried some and agreed that it was great.  $24 might be exactly the most of what I would have paid for this.  Around $20 would be much better.

Finally, because it is her birthday, we had dessert.  Hey, dessert that is Not Bread Pudding!!  Finally!!  How long have I waited for The Hungry Cat to realize that not everyone loves bread pudding, even if it is chocolate??  Forever.  To compensate, we get this:

Marinated nectarines on top of a cornmeal biscuit, topped with lemon basil cream (or creme fraiche, can’t remember – either way, it tasted like room temperature ice cream) ($9 – the bread pudding is $8, I think.  As I explain after this parenthetical, this one is worth the extra buck.).  I am a lover of chocolate, but since coming to this fair city that insists upon seasonal offerings, I have become a huge fan of ripe, seasonal fruit that brings us full circle to the seasonal cocktails.  Also, chocolate after a big seafood meal is not always agreeable with the tummy.  This is a fairly simple dessert, light, good to round out a meal o’ fish.  We insisted to our fellow bar-tenders that they also order this for dessert, over the bread pudding, and they did so, and were expressly the better for it.

Overall?  Everything was so tasty, it makes me want to go back there right now.  At the same time, again, I can’t emphasize enough that I really think the entrees here are worth maybe $3-5 less than what they charge.  This makes a huge difference when you can go from $28 to $23-25 (the halibut) or from $24 to about $20 (the swordfish).  I’ve had people come here who say that they really loved the food, but also thought it was way too expensive for what it was, and they were quite (rightly so) dismayed about it.  The Hungry Cat benefits immensely from being one of the very few inventive seafood restaurants in this city, from having very talented chefs and cooks, and from being able to pull off a subdued scene of Hollywood douchebags and foodies who are willing to pay. I’m willing to pay, but I also accept that I am consciously overpaying.  As in life, acceptance here is the key.  In any case, remember Lesson 2: Always Get the Cocktail, Always.  This, and the fries, really are worth it.

The Hungry Cat
1535 North Vine (right behind Cafe W a s)
Hollywood, CA
(323) 462-2155
Mon – Sa 12-12; raw bar 12-1am; drinks till 2am
Su 11-12am; raw bar 11-11; drinks till midnight