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I wouldn’t say that The Nook Bistro is hyped, it’s more like there is a constant murmur surrounding it. I suspect that this is because people know that it’s good, know that it’s small and are torn between sharing a great find and keeping it all for themselves.

The Nook has been mentioned here before and BoLA recently wrote up her experience, so I’m not breaking any news here.

A couple Fridays ago we are bouncing through dining options, neither one of us terribly hungry, but looking for some good food. I throw out The Nook and both of our eyes light up, “I have been wanting to try that place forever”. My wife calls around 6:00 or so and finds out that the reservations are booked, but that we can walk in. We are warned that it could be a long wait.

We decide to chance it and head over, hoping to be early enough to beat the rush. We drive up and the miniature parking lot is already packed. I drop off my wife and luck my way into a spot on the other side of the lot. I walk into the Nook, expecting to hear that we have a long wait ahead and see my wife already sitting at the communal table.

“Are you ok with sitting at the communal table?” she asks. “As long as I can be part of the community.” I answer.

There are many benefits to sitting at a communal table. You sacrifice elbow room and some privacy, but you might gain a couple new friends, and most importantly get a close up look at other dishes and opinions prior to placing your order.

The menu is relatively small, but every dish looks like a winner. I cycle through a few choices and solicit some opinions from the community. To my right, the mussels look delicious, the short rib looks hearty and the chicken paillard is tempting. I go out on a limb and order the albacore, but my wife is swayed by the look of the paillard.

We split a sweet potato salad, which I don’t see on the online menu, but I do highly recommend. The salad is fairly basic, but is topped with cooked sweet potatoes which are chilled and placed on top of the greens. Beyond the outstanding flavor combination, the dish is a great starter to get our stomachs in gear.

The Nook is also somewhat famous for their boiled peanuts. I heard many good things about this nibbler, but diving into them, I wasn’t too moved. The peanuts were in shell, slightly soft and some of them were mushy. Not bad, but not something I would rave about.

Our main dishes come out shortly after we finish the last little bits of our salad. This is one of the times when we notice that the service at the Nook is very good. They are efficient and also polite, unobtrusively delivering and clearing our plates.

My albacore is seared and is a plump cut of fish. There is a dusting of fennel and lemon on the albacore, but the real star is the citrus saffron aioli. Surprisingly, I don’t think I have had the saffron citrus combo before. Surprised because it is such a perfect combo. The albacore is seared and cuts with a fork. As is required at the communal table, both sets of neighbors lean in, look closely at my dish and ask how it is. “It’s really good” is about all I can get out between bites. The one bit of discomfort is that I almost feel obligated to offer them a bite. I don’t offer though.

The chicken paillard is a thinly pounded chicken breast served atop garlic mashed potatoes and instead of the rapini, my wife has asked for the spinach. Again, the meat is cooked perfect and moist. The flavors all mesh together in the way bistro dishes should. My recollection is fuzzy, but I believe that between the both of us, we finished the whole dish.

By this time, my neighbor to the left is half way through his pork chop. Unsolicited, he leans over and informs me this is the “best f’ing pork chop” he has ever had. I nod my head and tell him that it does look good. We both pause as he has his awkward moment of trying to figure out if he should offer me a bite. He doesn’t offer.

Even though we came in not starving, we are so happy with everything we have had so far, that we know we have to order some dessert.

We split the key lime pie, a creamy rendition with light whipped cream and blueberry compote on top. It is the optimal ending to this amazing meal. The only hiccup is that they charge $5 for a cup of tea!

So there you have it. Nook lives up to its buzz, and I hope that they find more room to expand so that it is easier to enjoy their food, service and ambiance. On the other hand, perhaps it’s best that The Nook is a nook, it adds to the overall homey experience.

The Nook Bistro
11628 Santa Monica Blvd #9
Los Angeles, CA 90025

By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.