Tar & Roses

Location:

Santa Monica, CA 90401

Link(s):

• http://www.tarandroses.com
• https://plus.google.com/111450703528593772100/about

Visit Information:

Once on November 2012.

Impression:

Good vibe. We were seated at the half-open courtyard where we could see people passing though the tiled glass wall. The menu had some interesting ingredient choices especially for meat options.

Picture(s):

Popped Corn / crisp bacon / brown sugar / chili

I have tried bacon popped corn before and the addition of brown sugar and chili made this even better. It was salty, sweet, and mildly spicy - dangerously good as I could just keep snacking it.

Crispy Pig Ears / saffron aioli / lemon

Another good snack. It had a nice texture of being crispy on the outside and meaty in the inside. Be warned that it was a bit jellylike inside. I happened to like pig ears, but my spouse who doesn't usually care for them because of their texture also liked this dish.

Oxtail dumpling / san bai su / sriracha /green onion

Does it surprise you that I also like oxtail? My favorite is oxtail soup. This was good and obviously Asian influenced. I don't know if the oxtail really made a big difference, but it was really tender.

Bone Marrow / onion marmalade / sea salt / sourdough

This is really the restaurant for me. Now that foie gras is illegal in California (sigh), I'll have to make do with bone marrow for my yummy fat. I used to only find bone marrow in ossobuco, but nowadays it has branched out to other dishes. The sourdough and marmalade helped to temper the fattiness of the yummy marrow.

Squid Ink Tagliatelle and Octopus / blistered tomato / breadcrumb

The octopus was nicely cooked. I think the ink added seafood taste to the tagliatelle, but I might be reaching. I also liked the blistered tomatoes as it made them sweeter.

Strawberry Ricotta Crostata / honeycomb ice cream

Nice sweet pastry dessert. Pastry makes everything better and who doesn't like honey ice cream?

Arborio Rice Pudding / brown butter pear / candied walnuts

If you like rice pudding, you'll like this. My spouse did. I am not really into rice pudding, but I liked the pears.