So we finally had the opportunity for dinner at the highly lauded but wildly polarizing Vespertine in Los Angeles. It was a special event sponsored by Marriott, so the tasting menu was slightly abridged and the regular introduction to dinner on the upper terrace was done slightly differently than normal. But we also had an opportunity to meet and speak with Chef Kahn.

We loved it. The food, the wine pairings, the service, the ambience, the building, the music, the views, the pacing. Everything was superb.

Considering how supposedly “weird” this restaurant is, we found it not nearly that weird. Having dined only a few weeks ago at Atelier Crenn in San Francisco and several years ago at Alinea (Kahn used to work there), Vespertine was not nearly as avant garde as some had pronounced. Yet the creations were majestically beautiful, always unique, with combinations and new flavor assortments like I’d never had before. The critique that the food is too much like art was subjourned by its complexity and almost ubiquitous deliciousness—that more than a few times crept up on you, almost surprising you pleasantly after a first bite or two that left you curious. The food was most definitely surprising. A few dishes were presented in dishware that precluded us from really seeing what we were eating, and that for us was the only “weird” part of our dinner, actually.

We’d also read that service could be heartless and cold, but we experienced nothing of the sort. Service was a bit formal by LA standards, but the servers smiled, were friendly and knowledgeable. And they certainly wanted to see us enjoy our meal. We kidded around with a few of them, and they responded in kind.

We’d return in in a heartbeat.