La Boucherie — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Food - 3 * - The small plates were mostly good, so I give it 4, but the steak is a 3 at best. We ordered the Saumon, Foie Gras, Dungeness crab salad, and French onion soup. The saumon with caviar, as well as the dungeness crab salad, was delicious and fresh! Perhaps the Plateau de Fruits de Mer would have been the best option from the menu given the freshness of the seafood appetizers. The Foie Gras was excellent too with the berry puff pastry, although I would say it's hard to go wrong as long as you buy top quality Foie and sear well. Our waiter boasts that the french onion soup is cooked for 3 days before serving, so I had to give it a try. It ended up being the most disappointing french onion soup I've ever had in my life. It was overly sweet (is it supposed to be sweet? A first for me), and had a small slice of gruyere that was mediocre in flavor and wasn't even baked long enough for a nice burnt on top.

We ordered the 60 day dry aged ribeye and duck fat fries, which was highly recommended by the waiter and some of my friends. The ribeye was okay. Not bad, not great. It was served in a warm plate, not hot like other high end steakhouses. We ordered medium rare, but it was overcooked along a good portion of the outer parts. Only about 50% of the steak was truly medium rare (the photo might deceive you). You'd think the 60 day age should give it immense flavor, but it was disappointing. In fact, the dry age ribeye at Fleming's and the (non-age) ribeye at Ruth Chris taste far far better, and at nearly half the price! For a restaurant claimed to offer "premium world class steaks" that charge $95 for a 12oz ribeye, they did not live up to expectations. The duck fat fries was also a let down. Firstly, it was served warm, not hot out of the fryer. I had a couple fries that had a hint of duck fat flavor, but the rest tasted just like regular potatoes with no duck flavor at all. It didn't even taste like fries because it wasn't really crispy on the outside. The potatoes were also dry on the inside. You get better fries at other steak houses or even fast food restaurants than this place!

Service - 2* - Our waiter was a nice gentleman at the very beginning, but it went downhill after that. Maybe because we didn't order alcohol? I'm not sure. We asked for water with some lemon, and ended up asking for lemons 3 times. We ended up asking his assistant waiter 2 times and finally got our lemons. We asked if they have any cocktail non-alcoholic drinks, and he said they didn't have any, but they can mix something up. So we asked to make something like a strawberry daiquiri. He said it should be no problem. After a good 15 mins, we asked him again, and he said it's no problem and should be coming right up. Asked second time, still waiting. 45mins later, we asked the 3rd time, and he forgot. We told him to just cancel it. After an hour into dining, we were still waiting for our soup. Other parties who arrived later than us already finished their main entrees. Was it a kitchen delay or service delay? All I know is that the soup was not worth waiting an hour for. If it was cooked for 3 days, do you really need to cook longer to serve it? I would think it's readily available and the cheese should only take 5-10 mins to cook/baked to perfection.

Ambience - 2* - The view is definitely beautiful and probably one of the main reasons why people want to dine here, especially considering there aren't a lot of restaurants with a skyscraper view in LA. However, downtown LA is not the most impressive to view compare to many other cities in the world, so don't have high hopes. If you are looking for a quiet evening, you won't find it here unless you booked a private chef's table. The main dining hall is very loud, and you could hear almost everyone's conversations around you.

I would definitely not come back again, nor would I recommend this place to anyone. For the price we paid, we could have afford a much more elegant 8-10 course tasting from a high-end...

The restaurant is located on 71st floor of the Intercontinental Hotel. It is part of the Wilshire Grand Center and is the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. As one can expect, the views are phenomenal. There is valet parking at the hotel. We made reservations ahead of time and arrived a few minutes early. Our table was already ready and we were seated quickly.

The ambiance and decor are elegant, while still being comfortable. It was fun to see the conversation chairs in the bar area. They are vintage 3 seat chairs which were used in the past for a couple and their chaperone.

Our server was excellent and was very familiar with the menu and answered our questions. The menus are backlit. It's pretty awesome. Eliminates people shining their phone flashlights everywhere for a less cringe experience.

Started with lobster bisque because it was a cold and rainy day. Very nice bisque that arrives with a skewer of lobster. If I had to find a fault, a touch under seasoned.

For mains we split the 32oz Australian Wagyu Tomahawk and added on the A5 Wagyu Striploin. The quality and flavor of the steaks was stellar. On par with Wolfgang's Cut. A5 Wagyu Striploin came out perfect. 32oz Tomahawk was slightly above medium rare, but the meat is so tender it didn't worry us. It's a thick cut so likely just residual heat cooking. The steaks arrived with two salts and two mustards. Pink salt, lava salt, a yellow horseradish mustard, and a purple grape mustard. All were excellent. This was the first time I have ever eaten steak with mustard. It is good.

Older reviews mention a steak guy, a mustard guy, and maybe even a steak knife guy. None of that was offered and might no longer be available. Perhaps it ended due to the pandemic? We didn't ask.

Garlic-roasted seasonal forest mushrooms and a roasted vegetable medley were enjoyed for sides. Both were excellent.

We also tried three sauces. Three-pepper cognac, Au Poivre, and Bernaise. Au Poivre was my favorite, bernaise for my wife. While all were good, we kept gravitating back to the mustards and salts. We would likely cut back on sauces for the next meal.

No dessert due to being completely stuffed.

Yes, it is an expensive meal, but the quality of food and the level of service you receive...

This establishment is as truly a letdown from start to finish. 😢

I decided that this would be the restaurant, I would invite family & friends to for my birthday dinner. I tried for 3 days straight to get in touch with someone, to book a private table at “The Duke”. No one got back to me although they said they would. Red flag #1!

When I received a text that our table was ready, they still made us wait 20-30minutes because they mentioned they were waiting for another party to get up from a table.

They asked us if we’d like sparkling water or still, and I said both. What they didn't mention is that the still water was 20$. So they kept coming to the table opening bottles of this expensive water just to fill our glasses. I thought this was very dishonest and shady. I've never in my life been to a restaurant that charged 20 dollars a bottle for water and didn't let us know. It wasn't even on the menu.

The ribeye was extremely disappointing and ultimately was the last straw for me. This 90$ ribeye showed up on the table looking like a filet. It was so extremely tough, that I could hardly cut through it. It was just a giant ball of muscle!!!! I appreciate the manager trying to make the best out of the situation by offering for me to switch my steak out for the filet. Which was only a bit better, lacked flavor and it was still not cooked medium-rare.

The worst thing about this place is it took so long to get our food!! Waited almost 1hr & 19 minutes to get our food because they said they wanted to bring out appetizers first. Why wouldn't they ask us if that was what we wanted? I have no idea!

The alarm went off for 4 minutes while we were dining in at this place & it went off earlier while I was at the lobby bar.

This place is all for the atmosphere due to the view of the city but you’re better off going somewhere on ground level that’s actually a real steakhouse!

I’ll never turn 25 again, I really hate I spent my birthday(Apr 8th) here at this restaurant....