Thursday, March 31, 2011

A Fig by the Beach

I love fresh figs; my friends who have fig trees always give me their excess bounty. I've been hearing about Fig for years but for one reason or another (usually having to do with traffic / parking at the beach), I never got to taste the food here until today. The timing worked out perfectly as I missed the Farmer's Market morning traffic and got there in the afternoon to watch a movie at the Laemmle down the street. The movie was great (the documentary "I Am") and the movie let out just in time for me to walk the two blocks to the Fig for their Happy Hour from 5-6pm when EVERYTHING on their menu is 50% off.


The hostess asked for my name (Fig is in the Miramar so some diners are hotel guests) and seated me with a nice view of the small pool. Service was excellent, from the waitress to the bus boys, never intrusive but always prepared to meet any need, whether it be for clarification on a menu item or a refill of water. The warm delicious bread came in a bag with a small tin of arugula butter that was absolutely addictive; I ate the entire bag of bread during the course of my meal.


The menu* offers many choices from chicken and prosciutto croquettes ($13), duck rillettes ($10), cheese flights ($18), mussels ($19), brussel sprouts with bacon & vinegar ($11), vegetable curry ($18), short rib and pancetta meatloaf ($26), or what caught my eye, the pork schnitzel ($27), made with Niman Ranch Pork, Pickled Cabbage, Walnuts, and Brown Butter.

It was beautiful and as tasty as it looked, with the tart pickled cabbage adding a nice freshness to the nearly grease less fried pork. The addition of golden raisins and walnuts to the cabbage was an interesting touch; at first I was hesitant to taste all the ingredients together, but once I did I appreciated the combination of the crunch of the walnuts, sweetness of the raisins, tartness of the pickled cabbage, and richness of the fried pork. I tasted the Trockenbeerenauslese brown butter, but it was entirely too heavy and rich for me, so I was very grateful they served it on the side. I loved this dish so much that I finished it along with my glass of French Merlot ($14) in less than half an hour!


I had absolutely no room for dessert, but that just means I will be coming back with friends for a second visit; after all if one fig is good, two is better!


*Menu prices I list do NOT reflect the 50% off happy hour price :)

FIG Restaurant on Urbanspoon

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