Hippo — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I really wanted to like Hippo, I really did. I debated on whether to give two or three stars to this place. You see, I found it to be a profoundly disappointing and underwhelming experience, but I also concluded that this was partially due to the enormous expectations that I had for this place and its numerous recommendations and stellar reviews that it had received. That being said, I simply felt it was an average restaurant in the upscale trendy dining category, and the only 'wow' factors were things that detracted from the experience for me.

Hippo is a solid, upscale restaurant. It has your (now) typical trendiness that is required of a trendy, upscale LA restaurant - the dimly lit interior, wooden floors, industrial ceiling, communal bar counters and thick, oaky looking tables. There's the pizza, the pasta, some "creative" takes on salad, and of course the bar! Everything that a millennial could possibly want! Except that in all the ways that it tries to go beyond this typical sort of trendy appeal, it simply fell flat for me.

The wait was incredibly long, which is understandable, since it's a very popular dining destination and we didn't have a reservation. Once seated, it was hard to see even see the menu in the dimly lit interior. But alas, the trendiness!

As for the food, I ordered the "butternut squash cappellacci". Let me just say that it...did not impress. For a pasta that cost over $20, I was left feeling as if I had not only not eaten anything, but also that what I had eaten was some poorly made meal that a child had put together for you and you ate it out of the kindness of your heart. Allow me to explain: the pasta was small, and terrible. There were maybe three, four pieces of pasta, doused in some hideous looking, blackish-ooze looking sort of sauce. My boyfriend remarked that it had the appearance of diarrhea! As for the taste, the butternut squash gave it a horridly sweet taste that clashed with that ugly aforementioned sauce and pasta. It was an all around disgusting dish, with hardly any actual pasta, and left me profoundly disappointed. I then turned to my wax bean salad to fill me up, having been left still famished and hungry by my "entree" Cappellacci that was really more of a pile of diarrhea pasta strips. The wax bean salad was even worse. It had a strange, incredibly unappealing taste to it, one that I could only describe as both tangy AND bitter at the same time. It burned my mouth and left it with a strange aftertaste and was a very unpleasant experience all around. After these two very displeasing and disappointing dishes, we went home and prepared some homemade pasta of our own to actually fill ourselves up with, having left this place still feeling completely famished, and which tasted a million times better than the overrated, strangely tasting dishes that Hippo had to offer. The creatively-named fruity cocktail that I ordered was lovely, however. So points for that, I suppose!

An overhyped, typically styled upscale trendy LA restaurant with dishes where the actual taste is secondhand to how gimmicky and flashy you can make it. I left with a burning sensation in my mouth from the wax beans, the remaining after taste of the horribly sweet Cappellacci pasta, a still empty stomach, and a strong feeling that I won't be coming back to this place any time soon.

I recommend you...

This is a Saturday evening review; perhaps conditions are different at other times. The restaurant consists of an inside and outside seating area. At 8 pm, the inside area was full and, owing to a lack of sound baffling decor, was just insanely loud. Three of us sat outside, where the acoustics were somewhat better. Our waitress was wonderfully cordial. We ordered a salad, bread, an appetizer, and entrees. In chic Southern California restaurants, bread has appeared on the menu as an item, which is to say that it is no longer free. The salad -- delicious, if dressed with a lot of dill -- came right away, as did the bread. As this salad was being split among three diners, I requested a second salad, which now arrived 15 minutes later. Thirty minutes after that, I asked the waitress to check on our still-missing entrees. Ten minutes later, a third salad (a kitchen error) was delivered. Our entrees came one hour after the salad, by which time, from waiting with bread and salad, I could not eat the entree, save for picking a few pieces. It was sea bass surrounded by a extremely complex ensemble of spices and vegetables - and dill - such that the sea bass flavor was compromised. It was also almost important to actually see the fish within this melange. Sea bass should never be hidden or upstaged on any plate.

As for the poor waitress with 9 tables, our compassion, but this also prevented her from seeing to our table timing, such that we felt it necessary to remind her to check about our delayed dinner.

The verdict is doubtlessly obvious: extremely loud and extremely slow in a way that no flavor, regardless how delicious, could justify. Any restaurant kitchen that takes one hour after salad to deliver main courses is not adequately managed. Finally, the restaurant is rather expensive - why force the patrons to type a code into a keypad in order to unlock the restroom doors? It's not ah gas station, folks.

No valet parking in this busy neighborhood; you'll have to walk a block or two to reach...

This evening was my third visit to Hippo. This one was important because I was alone. For a woman (a senior) to go to a hip restaurant alone on a Friday evening was a real test of the professionalism of the establishment and the staff. First off I pulled right into their parking lot, found a spot and parked myself. No pesky valet asking for $10 to park your car in the restaurant's very own lot as so many restaurants do. From the moment I walked in I was greeted with warmth and friendliness. I said I was here for the Happy Hour and was seated in the bar area and made to feel welcome by other customers. My order was taken promptly and one of the owners came by to introduce himself. Every staff person who walked by said hello and asked if I needed anything whether they were my waitperson or not. Since I'm not an experienced cocktail drinker I was offered help in deciding what I should order. The drink was delicious and since we sort of made it up I can't tell you the name, only that it had tequila and ciociaro in it. My chicken burger and fries were also good with very subtle flavors that added spice but no heat...just the way I like it.

All in all it was a lovely experience. I was treated with respect, and light hearted humor by everyone from the staff to other customers. It takes a very sophisticated and sharp staff to make a woman alone feel comfortable and welcomed. I will come back to Hippo often, both at Happy Hour and beyond. By the way the dinner menu is designed to be shared but to tell you the truth I love the Sweet corn Cappellacci so much that I refuse to share it with anyone!

Do yourself a big favor and get over to Hippo in Highland Park, alone or...