First Look: BLT Steak

First Look: BLT Steak

Photo Credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times

By S. Irene Virbila

March 27, 2008

FROM the number of restaurateurs racing to open steakhouses in L.A., you'd think our fair city had been ID'd as the most beef-loving in all the land. Not that we lack homegrown steak parlors. We've got Boa, Dakota in the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, the Lodge in Beverly Hills and old-timers like Taylor's and Monty's.

Yet here, following Wolfgang Puck's Cut, comes New York steak maven and French-trained chef Laurent Tourondel eager to introduce Angelenos to the pleasures of the upscale, updated, up-everything steakhouse. After taking his BLT (Bistro Laurent Tourondel) Steak beyond Manhattan to Washington, D.C.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Dallas; and White Plains, N.Y., Tourondel launched his first West Coast location a couple of weeks ago in the old Le Dome space on Sunset Boulevard. After an extensive makeover, the onetime local music industry hang has now gone spare and modern, the room opened up into one big space with back-to-back rows of caramel leather banquettes and ebony tables. There's a bar along the wall and a board chalked with seasonal specials from chef de cuisine Noah Rosen.

The one-page menu seems typical of the new generation of steakhouses -- a raw bar, eclectic appetizers, steaks (of course) and Kobe beef and inventive sauces and sides. But Tourondel has some unexpected touches. The amuse is a small French canning jar of earthy chicken liver pâté. Then come his signature -- and huge -- popovers fresh out of the oven, the Gruyère still bubbling. Wait! Slow down. You've got other stuff coming -- and lots of it: Crab cake with remoulade and a terrific spicy coleslaw, kampachi sashimi with kumquat confit and wisps of artichoke, a field green salad piled high and tossed in a punchy mustard dressing. And that's just for starters.

The BLT cut is a bone-in double sirloin for two at $82, which is enough for three to share. Hanger steak goes for a mere $24. And the obligatory Kobe beef can soar to $92 for an American Wagyu rib-eye. Sides like hen of the woods mushrooms, creamy spinach or an extremely rich potato au gratin, though, may make more of an impression than the beef. And somehow there's room for dessert, as in very American cinnamon doughnuts with coffee ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Keep in mind that the old Dome crowd dominates earlier in the evening, and those too young to have even heard of the Sunset Boulevard icon move in later in the evening, so reserve accordingly.

BLT STEAK
WHERE: 8720 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood.

WHEN: Open for dinner 5:30 to 11 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 5:30 to 11:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 5 to 10 p.m. Sun.

PRICE: Raw bar, $8 to $115; appetizers and salads, $11 to $29; steaks and chops, $26 to $45; Kobe beef, $55 to $92.

INFO: (310) 360-1950; www.bltsteak.com