Catch You Later Ketchup!

The Dolce Group’s newest addition to its arsenal of restaurants is Ketchup. Following in the bright lights of Geisha House, Bella Cucina and Dolce, one would only assume the best for this condiment-based eatery. Did it live up to the hype? Find out after the jump…

Wikipedia defines a gimmick as “a unique or quirky special feature that makes something “stand out” from its contemporaries. However, the special feature is typically thought to be of little relevance or use. Thus, a gimmick is a special feature for the sake of having a special feature.” This ideal is the foundation of Ketchup. The decor is sleek, modern and clean with accents of red—red splashes on the wall, juicy red tomatoes in clear boxes, red balls hanging from the ceiling, red splotches on the waiters’ crisp white shirts. It’s cute and sets up a funky, fun place to relax with friends.

There’s also a nice bar area set completely off from the restaurant overlooking the Sunset Strip. Having the bar separated from the actual dining area creates the illusion of two totally different places in one building, so if you want to stray away from the diners, you can. It’s another good idea on the part of the restaurant’s designers. But at the end of the day, a restaurant is about the food. And that’s where Ketchup falls off the mark.

We started out the meal with a couple of drinks. A cocktail waitress rolls around the restaurant with a cart topped off with liquors and mixers, so you can sample before you order. Definitely a good idea. The Summer Lovin’ is one of the most popular, and it was pretty sweet and tasty. It’s a vodka based martini of sorts topped off with a bit of champagne. It’s a drink we would recommend, along with the Chocolate Hooville. It sounds weird, but the vodka, amaretto and YooHoo concoction is actually good.

Along with the drinks, we sampled the pretzel bread and skinny breadsticks served with a sundried tomato butter and a spicy, horseradish-flavored mustard. The pretzel bread must’ve been left over from the previous day because it was rubbery rather than chewy and too salty. The breadsticks were palatable (how can you mess up a breadstick?), and the condiments were really good, although the mustard is not for those who can’t handle a little fire in their nostrils.

For the table, we ordered a variety of different things. Our waiter (a really friendly guy who started his conversation with a high-fructose-corn-syrup-thick Southern/British accent) recommended a few things which we ordered: the Kobe burger sliders, the mini chicken tacos, the 3 some fries and the barbeque pork ribs. If the waiter specifically raves about something, it should be pretty good. Well out of those many plates, only one thing for sure was good: the 3 some fries. The sliders were tiny, dry pieces of meat on even drier three cheese mini buns. Perhaps the we should’ve been given a little ketchup or something to smooth the ride down our throats, but maybe they didn’t want to be too generous.

Along with the burgers, we split the chicken tacos. At least the description of this plate was correct because they were quite mini. So small in fact, that they were bite-sized. The chicken was dry, and the shell was chewy. A very poor mix, and an uninteresting taste. Next were the ribs, which were fine. Nothing really bad about them, but nothing really special. They were served with the restaurant’s signature macaroni and cheese with dungeness crab and white truffles. As a spoonful of mac ‘n cheese made its way to the plate, there was an order that hit the nose. It wasn’t the pleasing smell of a lovely side dish. Rather it was the unappetizing scent of a body part—a body part that spends most of its time inside a shoe. It may be assumed that perhaps the combination of truffles and crab provided this scent, but that combination along with various others have appeared with pasta and cheese before, and never has there been such a malodorous fragrance. The smell was so strong in fact that the speciality mac ‘n cheese did not make it past the plate.

The best thing we had from the entire meal was, again, the 3 some fries. Three huge bowls come piled high with garlic parmesean fries, sweet potato fries and fire fries sprinkled heavily with cayenne pepper. When we say that these may be some of the best fries we’ve had in a long time, it’s not a lie. Not only do you get a little bit of everything, but the plate is served with five varieties of ketchups: mango, ranch, maple, chipotle and regular. Pair the sweet potato with the maple or dip the garlic parmesean potatoes in the ranch. It’s definitely good eats.

For dessert, we split the the apple pie with ice cream and the Key Lime tart. The pie was good, but it was cold. The tart was good but very, very tart. It has a great custard consistency though, which is a bit smoother than the normal density of a typical pie. If you can handle that tingle in your tastebuds, then give it a try.

Ketchup is a great concept. The design is oh so trendy and Hollywood, plus it is the newest creation in the Dolce Group’s otherwise popular and worthy line of eateries. The foundation of this place, though, is rocky. Without good food, you can only last so long in this town. There’s a new spot on every block, and there’s only so long before you can maintain a certain level of tomfoolery. Go for their Happy Hour (which they call the Sunset Hour) and try the various cocktails and 3 some fries of course. Those are two things the place can keep coming. Everything else can go back to the kitchen!

Ketchup
8590 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
P: 310-289-8590
Website

Leave a Reply