Los Angeles: Angler - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Restaurant Review

Los Angeles: Angler

by Alissa Bica • July 5, 2023

John Sofio designed the lounge at the forefront of the space with Chef Chung’s open-hearth kitchen center stage in the dining room. (Photo: Jakob Layman)

Tucked into the ground floor of the Beverly Center, Angler exceeds any pre-conceived notions of dining in a shopping mall. Saison Hospitality reopened the restaurant in February 2023, adding an entrance on La Cienega and a newly designed lounge by John Sofio. Culinary Director Chef Paul Chung created the menu with Chef Brian Limoges.

For a special treat, top the seaweed rice with cured egg yolk and trout roe with caviar. (Photo: Jakob Layman)

Chef Chung’s open-hearth kitchen revolves around fire and smoke; everything is seasoned by smoke from the wood-burning oven—from the embered oysters with toasted chili butter to the roasted caramel poured over the soft-serve sundae. The menu reflects Chung’s Korean heritage in dishes like seaweed rice with cured egg yolk and trout roe. It also reflects the multi-cultural tapestry of Los Angeles—the vermillion with smoked bone vinegar and puffed rice, Chung’s take on ceviche, is a standout.

Saison Hospitality Wine Director Mark Bright and Bar Manager Yanni Pediaditis have created a playful bar menu—the Catch & Release arrives in a fish-shaped goblet sitting in a treasure chest which, when opened, releases guava vapor into the tiki-style rum cocktail. The wine list offers ample selections to support the cuisine. By-the-glass, Château Bela’s Riesling from Slovenia has the racy acidity to cut through the vermillion’s sweet and spicy bone-marrow broth. Or try a half-bottle of Latour-Giraud 2016 Clos des Chênes 1er Cru with the eggplant and smoked masala.

8500 Beverly Boulevard Suite 117, Los Angeles, CA 90048

(424)332-4082

Seafood

@anglerlosangeles

Alissa Bica

Based in Los Angeles, California, Alissa Bica is the Associate Editor and Spirits Critic at Wine & Spirits. She is also a sommelier at 71 Above and co-runs the home wine tasting company, Côte Brune and Blonde. In any rare moments of free time, she writes about obscure grape varieties in the blog Off the Beaten Wine Path.

This story appears in the print issue of Summer 2023.
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TAGS Angler Los Angeles Restaurant Review

David Paradela
Associate Editor

David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.

Corey Warren
Tastings Editor

Corey Warren moved to New York in 2015—fifteen years too late to join The Strokes—after earning a degree at Cornell in Comparative Literature. He started polishing glasses at Betony and threw himself into the restaurant world. Later, while a captain at Aquavit, he began working part time in the Wine & Spirits tasting department. Now, in addition to running tastings, he serves as critic for the wines of the Loire, Southern France, Argentina and South Africa. Corey likes almost anything bubbly, from Miller High Life, the Champagne of beers, to Champagne, the Champagne of Champagne, but he’ll drink anything once, and loves finding unique wines.

Tara Q. Thomas
Editor at Large

Since Tara Q. Thomas joined Wine & Spirits in 1997, she’s traveled the wine world from Argentina to Australia. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, with more than 20 years of experience in the food and wine world, Tara puts her culinary knowledge to use as W&S’s resident food critic, and is the critic for the wines of Austria, Germany, Eastern Europe, Argentina, and the Mediterranean. She’s particularly enthusiastic about the wines of Greece, where she once lived and cooked. Outside of W&S, Tara has authored two books, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wine Basics and The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Wine; contributed to the Oxford Companion to Cheese as well as Oxford’s forthcoming volume on spirits; and writes a wine column for Culture: The Word on Cheese.

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Editor and Publisher of Wine & Spirits since 1986, Joshua Greene began drinking wine with meals during a summer in Galicia, Spain, at the age of 13. In later years, he worked in wine shops in western Massachusetts and served as wine captain at Wheatleigh, a small inn in Lenox. After graduating from Princeton University in 1981, Greene pursued a career in magazines, focusing on the management of special-interest publications. His work with Wine & Spirits began on a consulting basis, eventually leading to his purchase of the magazine in 1989.

Greene has traveled extensively in the wine regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and all the major wine regions of the United States. In addition to his duties as editor and publisher, Greene serves as the critic for Napa Valley, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Portugal, Rioja, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He also writes feature stories and commentary for each issue of the magazine.

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Patricio Tapia
Senior Correspondent

After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley; TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine, The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.