Melody — Restaurant in Los Angeles

What a find! Everything from the food, the funky furniture and vintage flatware, the drinks, and the attentive and kind staff makes this place one of the most pleasantly unexpected must-try places in LA. First, the food. The restaurant has an intriguing concept - they rotate different chefs to create small batches of top notch food. The food menu was short (only about 8 items or so), but absolutely everything on it sounded appealing. We ordered two pasta dishes (this chef specialized in handmade pasta!). The first was a wild mushroom filled pasta with a light, buttery sauce and the second was a hearty ragu with delicious cavatelli pasta (think elongated seashell shaped pasta with a nice aldente chew). Each ingredient really played a noticeable role in each of the dishes, and the quality of everything really stood out as we slowly savored every bite, scraping every last bit of sauce onto our forks when we finished. We finished with dessert, two mini muffins of a soft and dense butter cake paired with an incredible sea salt gelato (and I could have eaten a vat of that gelato alone). The portions are on the smaller side, but the dishes were satisfying and are well priced for the attention to detail we saw in each plate. Onto the drinks. There is a sizeable wine menu as well as beer, cider, and cocktail options ('dranks'). Since we arrived during happy hour, we opted for the cocktails. The server was gracious and gave us detailed descriptions of each of the cocktail option, which was much appreciated. We ended up with a cocktail that was a cross between a sangria and a paloma as well as a slightly heavier but delicious negroni-like drink. The restaurant basically is the lower story of a converted home with a huge patio completely encircled by tall hedges. The homey feel of the furniture and the space allowed us to really relax and enjoy the beautiful early fall evening. The music was well curated and soft enough to allow conversation. Oh, and there's plenty of street parking in this part of silver lake (and free parking in the back apparently), which is a huge selling point, too. One more worthwhile mention. The owner visited every table while we were there, making everyone feel at home. He spent at least ten minutes chatting with us and getting to know us, which never really seems to happen in LA. I really appreciated the personal touch, and I'll think about my visit to this restaurant for a long time to come. Thank you for a...

I'm going to give Melody Wine Bar the full five stars because the vibe was great, the staff was awesome and any food I ordered from their venue totally hit the spot (cheese plate -- heavy but great for soaking up alcohol, and the oysters were great too). But the Kinkan x Melody Collab was a bizarre experience. Never have I ever had a sukiyaki that was not hot, and I'd say colder than lukewarm. It wasn't fridge cold but more like someone forgot that LA is having a cold snap and left the dish on the patio cold. And then I bit into a tofu and it was cold. Like you wouldn't describe it as room temp, but cold. So I mentioned this to my waiter because maybe it's a mistake and I also mention that the dish wasn't hot. So they were going to ask the kitchen. So I waited and my dish got more cold and then the chef or someone I presume to be the chef came by and I explained that the dish wasn't hot and the tofu was cold and she said something very fast that she's get me something and then disappeared. She came back with more cold tofu. But again like not on purpose cold tofu but more like someone forgot that there's a cold snap. And I say this because there were two tofu in the original dish and she brought out two more tofu. The second tofu piece in the dish was warm (not hot), but the original one I bit into was cold. And same for the pieces she brought out - the pieces were different temperature. And by now my whole dish was cold. And I was telling this to the bartender that my dish has gone cold and I haven't ever had a sukiyaki dish cold but it was delicious. The flavors were great. The egg yolk that came as a dipping sauce was delicious (but also cold). The bartender even volunteered to ask only to tell me that this was the temperature they serve at. I honestly find this to be bizarre. I totally welcome a new experience but I don't think sukiyaki is ever meant to be served cooler than lukewarm and that the pieces, namely the tofu, come in different temperatures. I've been anticipating having Kinkan food for awhile and though there are other dishes I'd like to try, this experience has given me pause. I want to say this is an outlier experience but...

I walked in today expecting a really good experience but when I sat down, the owner asked me how I felt and I said OK and he said oh well should I be telling everyone "happy ice day?" Which is very insensitive, considering the course of how everything's going in LA with ice raids. After this, I ordered a Apperal spritz. It was barely anything and I asked for him to fill it up a little bit more because it was mainly ice and he said it was fine and it was measured. I was like OK whatever I guess. after that, my friend got there and she literally just was asking him what kind of wine she should get and he was really upset and getting very mad over just her requesting some things to try. We ended up buying a bottle of wine. We went to sit down and he told us we can't sit in the more lit areas with the sun sunlight it was sunset. He sat us in an area that was very uncomfortable so we decided to kinda just go to the spot that was open. He came over with an aggressive tone and then told us that we are in his house and we had to do what he says. We ended up leaving. After that, he charged my card and $92 without even asking me the total bill was about $70. I went to go get my bottle of wine that he had Teqen back and he told me that I'm charged no matter what. This is a terrible place with a clearly unwell man running it. Please do...