Alta Adams — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Very quaint with a modren lux vibe; from crafted cocktails to signature dishes, this immediately becomes a destination to experience.

Identifying with a cozy community, this place projects a new version of L.A., one that screams gentrification at it's best (no matter how you may or may not feel about it). Welcoming a stream of regulars and newbies, Alta provides a solid place for people to mingle, sip, and dine. The music is curated with definite sounds of the 90s through early 2000s, an infusion of hip-hop and r&b. This certainly keeps you engaged with your visit, while maintaining a steady foot tap or bobbing of your head.

The menu welcomes, what can be considered, a concentrated mix of core signature dishes; these dishes project nothing short of comfort and seemingly found memories of what some may consider southern soul or just flat out home. Needless to say, you'll find something familiar in each item. If not, you'll completely be in for a treat.

My selections for early dinner where: the Mac and Cheese, fried chicken, cornbread, and cheese grits with shrimps.

Beginning with the Mac and Cheese; I'd say this was a valiant effort with hopes of something a tad different. (Not great, but a solid dish, 6.5 out of 10)

Fried chicken; this was my favorite with the assistance of their house made hot sauce. Chicken was a bit burnt (probably the first batch to go down for the start of their evening). Beyond that, another solid choice. (Would try again, 7 out of 10)

Cornbread was a great compliment to the meal; a good spin on this item, adding honey and corn to give it a boost in savoury sweet goodness. (I had two, 8.5 out of 10)

Cheese grits and shrimp; this was a pretty good dish, not amazing, but definitely worthy of a consistent order. Flavor was on par, could use a side of their house made hot sauce; but that's just me. (Worty of a crowd favorite, 8.5 out of 10)

Wrapping up the meal I went with their version of an Old Fashion; not overly impressed, but I'm a die-hard fan of them, so I'd be tough to please. My second choice was a lime cucumber spicy drink (please forgive, I cannot remember the name) this was by far the best one for me out of the two. I'd give their version of the Old Fashion a 6.5 and the lime cucumber spicy drink a 9.5.

Cost wise, for the area, I'd say they are missing the mark... overpriced for average portions of food, while drinks are within the norm of what you'd expect anywhere in L.A.

All in all, my experience was great in combination with my server. No complaints and certainly nothing bad that would detour me from another visit, well, perhaps those prices (but completely worthy of another venture).

Overall, Alta provides a good to great place to enjoy some southern classics. Food was good along with service, music, and drinks. (Que up the drum roll please,...

Let me start by saying this is my first review in a few years since covid. Also if you make a reservations and don't show up your credit card will be charged $75. (this will make sense in the review).

Came here with 2 friends and they made reservations for lunch on the patio but with rain we had to sit inside. OK. Once inside my friend asked the host if we could sit at a booth and was told they were reserved. This is where it went from left. The 2nd dining room was partially empty and the main room with the bar and the booths, one booth was taken and three were empty when we got there and we were seated at the window. (This was approximately 1:15 in the afternoon on a Saturday). When we left two booths were taken and two were still empty but we couldn't sit at a booth. When I inquired to the guy walking around if he was the manager he said and I quote "something like that". He told me that this was black owned, black operated and it been in business for 3 years. (I really wanted to like this place.) was impressed, a business to stay around past two years is good, 3 years is excellent including covid. But the customer service other than the wait staff could have been a much better. He could not explain why we couldn't get a booth other than it would put people out that made a reservations for indoors, although they didn't show up by the way, by the time we finished our meal. We were placed at the window. The waiter came around enough to check on us.

I had the braised beef. I was told it was a three day process, might want to add a few more days to it although good not great. Glad for Apple bbq sauce. My friends had the fish and collard greens said it wasn't season that well but was good. They had some leftover sauce from the fried Black Eyed Peas fritters didn't get a picture of that. Portion size is good. After we finish eating my buddy decided to go and talk to management about a booth and why we couldn't get one since they were open when we got there and by the time we were leaving open. When we got there so nobody sat there the whole time we were there about 45 minutes. Apparently the female manager was apologetic but the male manager or as he referred to himself as something like that was argumentative and said, what should he make those people wait. (didn't show up while we were there by the way.) Be that as it may the dining room was practically empty as well. Maybe not enough help? That being said the meal was okay.

Apparently the food is California inspired soul food or something like that. The customer service from the management staff could be alot better. (but what do I know if it ain't broke.... ?) The wait staff was awesome so I did tip. Didn't want to take it out on them. Doubt I'll be back but I...

Great ambiance, great food, great crowd, great wine list... but the service was sorely disappointing.

We (a party of 2) ordered our meal and 25 minutes passed by, then 30 then 35 then 40. The waiter apologized and assured us he'd check on the food. After 50 minutes, we were starving and felt like it was reasonable that at least a complimentary appetizer or drink could have been offered to us for the extended delay, but no such offer was made. We asked the waiter if he had anything at all for us to snack on while we waited and he offered to bring us cornbread, so we accepted. Finally, after a full hour, the food arrived, but one of the sides was wrong (collard greens instead of fries) so we asked for the proper side dish we ordered.

When it came time to pay, we noticed the cornbread was on our bill. We asked for it to be removed since we had waited an hour for our food and the cornbread was what was offered when we asked for something to snack on. The waiter was extremely reluctant to remove it and eventually said he'd "ask" to see if he could comp it. He returned with a new bill sans cornbread, but then we noticed we were being charged for the collard greens we had not ordered. We asked for these to be removed too, and now he REALLY resisted our efforts to have that charge removed, even though we 100% did NOT order them, did not want them, and had said as much when we asked for our fries. It was VERY uncomfortable and awkward but we were not ready to pay for a dish we did not order. Finally, he took off the charge but the fact we had to debate our waiter for this reasonable accommodation left an extraordinarily poor impression.

You would figure that at $60 a head (with sides and some wine and tip) a place like Alta would do their best to remedy the situation when you are waiting 60 minutes for food, and to not turn around and try to charge you for things you did not order.

I hate to leave a subpar review since I REALLY wanted to like this place. And once again, the food was amazing - the perfectly cut brisket and cheesy grits were tasty and the house-made sauces were complex and incredible. The candied yams were cooked to perfection.

Because I'm optimistically choosing to believe they were just having an off night, I may someday decide to return, though I'm not in a rush to do so. Until then, they'll get 2 stars.

Come armed with a reservation on weekend nights. Challenging street parking but valet...