Dinner at SteingartenLA

The Bro and I recently (and belatedly) celebrated his birthday at a new restaurant on the Westside near his office.

SteingartenLA, at 10543 W. Pico Boulevard, just opened a few weeks ago and has had some pretty decent buzz.  They also have an extremely interesting menu that includes sausages made from rabbit, alligator, elk and bison, along with more conventional Polish, Bratwurst, chicken, duck and lamb selections, plus tons of beers.  The Bro and I are wine people, but he's getting into beers and wanted to try the place out.  Our awesome waitress Natalia was very knowledgeable about their beer selection and was able to make recommedations that we both enjoyed.  I asked for something that didn't have a really hardcore "beer taste" to it and ended up with Los Abbey Devotion and The Bro had Dogfish Head Aprihop.  We both finished our beers, so that's two thumbs up, even from a non-beer person like me.

I decided to take a walk on the wild side and try the elk sausage.  I figured as long as I was at a place with such exotic (to me) dishes it would be a shame not to try one.  The sausages are served on a bun with a selection of toppings (I chose caramelized onions).  It was good, although if I didn't know it was elk I would have thought it was a more common meat.

Yes, there is an elk sausage buried under all those caramelized onions.

For me the real highlight was the side of sweet potato fries.  They were absolutely delicious and I'm already working on my own version of them that doesn't involve deep frying.

MADE. OF. YUM.

The Bro played it safe with the Chef's Choice Burger with parmesan fries.  It's a good-sized burger and he polished it off, along with most of the fries.

Fuzzy Crackberry photos are fuzzy.

SteingartenLA just opened this month and it looked like they're a welcome addition to the neighborhood; the place was packed.  It's a place we will definitely return to, as well as a new place for The Bro to meet with clients.  Natalia mentioned that they'd had a couple rough nights early on when they were short-staffed, and it's not a place you go for a quick dinner, but the service was good and like I mentioned before, very helpful to a beer novice like me.

Total for dinner (and beers!) for two was about $45 before the tip.

Welcome to the neighborhood! (No, I don't know why their sign says "Hendricks").

SteingartenLA links/reviews: on Facebook - Eater LA - L.A. Times - The Craft Beer Chronicles on This is Brand X