Located on the second floor of the small retail center Brentwood Gardens in Brentwood, Bottlefish’s expansive space includes a bar area, a raw bar, walls of glass that look out on San Vicente Blvd, and an open kitchen that lets you see the chefs at work. The clean and crisp modern decor is elegant and sophisticated, yet comfortable.
The seafood centric kitchen is helmed by Executive Chef Ohad Yosef who grew up in Israel and went on to gain extensive experience with Pan Asian cuisine. Visiting the restaurant for dinner, we were impressed by the distinctive touches he adds to dishes commonly found in seafood restaurants.
From the Small Plates section, the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake was indeed jumbo, with chunks of crab you could actually bite into, pre-empting my favorite peeve with crab cakes – that the crabmeat got lost in the roux. The distinctive creole mustard sauce served with it definitely added a kick to the cake.
The grilled octopus was grilled to the right texture: chewy, not mushy. It came with a chickpea puree plated with a 12 year balsamic vinegar, whose richness and depth would have worked equally well with vanilla ice cream. We gave it full respect due to age, not leaving a drop of waste.
The sauteed branzino was closest to the whole fish by which my friend measures seafood restaurants. The skin was crisp on the headless fish, while the lightly curried lentils and cucumber labneh served with it added a complexity to the dish that worked well with the mildness of the branzino.
The whole grilled lobster from the seasonal specials menu went beyond how it is customarily served – grilled with a side of drawn butter. Here, it came stuffed with a jumbo lump crab cake as well as a tomato and paprika based dipping sauce.
The twists continued onto the dessert. The brownie in the Spiced brownie & toffee sundae was made with almond flour and infused with a touch of cinnamon and cayenne. Don’t let the cayenne scare you, it’s barely noticeable, just enough to give it some oomph. It came with vanilla and salted caramel ice cream from Santa Monica based Sweet Rose Creamery topped with fresh whipped cream and crumbled toffee.
Chef Ohad’s twists to these otherwise common seafood restaurant dishes clearly belie his Middle Eastern and Pan Asian culinary background. Check the chickpea puree served with the octopus, and the lentil – cucumber labneh combo served with the whole fish – both Middle Eastern, with the latter also standard Indian comfort food. Also check the addition of cinnamon and cayenne to the brownie.