MILK - lunch review - September 16, 2009

I was able to duck out for lunch at MILK today. It had been a while since I'd been there, and I wanted to drop by before this weekend.

I'd also been trying for some time now to be able to go on a Wednesday, because I know that one of their Wednesday specials is an ahi tuna salad, and it sounded really good, and I've really been wanting to try it.

The shared parking area between MILK and the nearby Mexican restaurant seemed to be under construction so is currently unavailable, but luckily, there were a few empty metered spots on Beverly Blvd., so I parked at one of those. They are one-hour parking spaces only, so keep that in mind if you plan to stay a bit longer.

I ordered the ahi tuna salad and a large iced tea and found an empty table. Dave, the executive pastry chef, was talking to someone at the next table, so I had a chance to say hi to him, but we were only able to have a short conversation since he was busy and I didn't want to take up his time.

My iced tea was brought to me, and then the salad was brought to me a little while later. Wow, that salad looked amazing! Officially, it's chile crusted ahi tuna with hummus, romaine lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, pita chips, mint and lemon, at a price of $12.






The four slices of fish were very good quality tuna. The chile really served as flavoring rather than being spicy, and I would have actually liked if there was a bit of a kick to the flavoring - not too much - because it would have been tempered by the cold salad anyway. I really liked having the hummus around the edges. The flavoring of that with the crisp lettuce and lemon juice was *really* good, and the hummus makes the dish more than "just" a salad. The heirloom tomatoes were cut into nice chunks, and there was just a bit of cucumber - not overwhelming to the salad as a whole. The pita chips were seasoned and broken up, adding a bit more flavor overall and a bit more texture to the salad.

Can you tell how much I enjoyed this salad? It was the perfect lunch, especially on a hot day like today - the salad was filling but also refreshing.

I'm really glad I had a chance to try the salad, but when Dave asked how I liked it, and I told him how much I enjoyed it, he said it would probably only be on the menu for another month or so because they like to keep their daily specials seasonal.


I had noticed earlier that they had a few interesting flavors for dessert today. The peanut butter ice cream and the pineapple sorbet both sounded intriguing, but what really caught my attention was the mojito sorbet. After my salad, I asked for a taste of that to see how I liked it. Wow, it was good. I decided to have a scoop of that to enjoy on my drive back to work. The girl at the counter asked if I wanted it in a cup or cone, and I said that I thought it might be weird in a cone with the added sugar and asked what she thought. She said she agreed with regard to the hard sugar cone, but she thought the cake cone (what I've always called a "soft cone") would be ok, so I said ok to that.






When I tried the mojito sorbet, I happened to be talking to Bret, executive chef and owner of MILK, and I told him how much I enjoyed it. He said that he had to be careful how much rum he put in it because rum doesn't freeze, so if he puts too much, the sorbet won't set. I was surprised that there was actually rum in it! We also joked that he had to be careful how much rum he put in because you wouldn't want people to be unexpectedly tipsy from having that sorbet!


The mojito sorbet was very tart, which I really enjoyed, but it did also not hold together as much as normal sorbet, and I had to be careful not to let it drip while I was eating it. (The picture above was taken after I'd already had some of the sorbet, making sure that there were no rivulets of sorbet that were going to drip off.) The cone was useful for holding the sorbet, but when I got down to it, it was kind of weird to have the tastes mixed together.


I had wanted to visit MILK this week because Bret had mentioned some time ago that MILK had been asked to provide the desserts for Entertainment Tonight's post-Emmy party this Sunday night, so they were very busy preparing for all of that. The party starts late, as you'd expect, so they're going to have a very late night, but I envy all the party-goers who will be able to enjoy MILK's dessert delicacies on Sunday night, but I know that those who aren't yet fans of MILK will surely become fans after Sunday night.