Kat's 9 Lives

Friday night we decided to dine at this hip/modern restaurant inside the Omni hotel in downtown LA. Word to the wise, you can find street parking pretty easily versus paying for valet. I really liked how they made their name to look like the Eiffel Tower, this design was displayed throughout the restaurant. Definitely a very clean and modern look to the restaurant, but it could be a romantic setting as there were little lights decked out on the trees outside the windows.

They started off with an amuse-bouche. It was a nicely crusted tuna with fruit salsa on top. The crust had a nice kick to it. The presentation was very nice as well.
As always, if I see foie gras prepared in a nice way I will order off the menu. P.S. this really does make my meals a lot more expensive, but hey I am enjoying life and I LOVE seared foie gras. Right off the bat I ordered their Foie Gras prepared three ways (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow) and then I decided to order the Toro Sashimi served with Pineapple & Yuzu Geleé. Of course I had to ask what the three ways were. Yesterday was seared foie gras atop truffled eggs, today was done in a foie gras butter, and tomorrow was a foie gras croquette accompanied with flavored orange slivers. I don't think I would order this again. Although I think they did a wonderful job in the concept, but the flavor fell short. The seared foie gras was delicious but the eggs below were a little runny and underflavored for my taste. I especially didn't like the middle foie gras butter, I had thought it would be terrine style but it was just like a cream/butter and it was oddly sweet and infused with some kind of weird fruity flavor. The croquette was good but nothing special. I think the problem was that you could not taste the foie gras flavor at all in today and tomorrow.
The Toro sashimi was only mediocre. Since I am an avid sushi goer, I can tell you the quality of the fish was only so-so and the cut is pretty small for the price. At first I couldn't tell where the geleé was because they usually come in cubes at other restaurants but it was the entire lower layer and both flavors in one. I was hoping for a stronger yuzu flavor but it was just a little bland, nothing special. I definitely wouldn't recommend anyone to order this because you can get much better quality elsewhere with the same kind of twist, but I had to try it for myself to know.
Their 3-course prefix is almost the exact same as their 4-course prefix of $60, which is not bad because the course you are losing is a salad course. I would never order the prefix for $60, you would be better off ordering from the regular menu. One thing I really liked was that they give you truffle butter with your bread, and you can never go wrong with free truffle!

The first course was Potato & Winter Truffle Soup, which was very flavorful and aromatic. They actually gave a pretty generous shaving of truffle.
Second course was the Cornish Hen Roulade with Foie Gras & Parsnip Puree. I really couldn't find the foie gras. Overall, the food was cooked nicely and flavorful but nothing outstanding that would make this dish memorable. The puree was sweeter than I thought it would be. I kind of wished I ordered the bouillabaisse instead.
There was no other choice for dessert except the Berry Cobbler with Chimay Ice Cream. The crust on the cobbler was fantastic, but personally I hate cooked fruit and I didn't like it. My friends seem to like it, they ate the entire thing. The only thing I enjoyed was the crust and then I gave the rest to them. All in all I probably would not come back.

Noé at the Omni