Church & State Restaurant Review

1850 Industrial St. (Mateo St.) Send to Phone

213-405-1434 | Make Restaurant Reservations | Menu

Price

The kitchen intelligently applies fine dining techniques to bistro fare to make this restaurant one of the best French bistros in town, really worth the visit to this part of downtown.

Church & State Restaurant is one of our 2012 | Top 10 LA Bistro Restaurants |

Go behind the scenes of Church & State! Watch our exclusive interview with chef Jeremy Berlin on GAYOT.com's YouTube Channel.

Cuisine

Open

Lunch Mon.-Fri., Dinner nightly

Features

Full bar
Reservations suggested
Parking lot
Casual

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Dining room at Church & State, Los Angeles, CA

We must admit that owner Yassmin Sarmadi has successfully positioned her French bistro, Church & State, on the city of Angels' culinary map. Despite the fact that the restaurant is located far away downtown, diners have been making the trip there since its opening in 2008. Sarmadi kept the original brick floor of the former loading dock of the Nabisco factory, with its 1920s look. It has been complemented by a large mirror in the back, a bar as you enter, an open kitchen on the opposite side, and strings of lights hanging across the ceiling. Chef Jeremy Berlin is in charge of the lengthy menu, exclusively composed of French bistro dishes---it is even written in French. Even though Berlin is not French, he executes them with a certain savoir-faire. Start with soupe Ã l'oignon gratinÃ©e, steak tartare, roasted bone marrow or braised octopus. Add the salade niÃ§oise made with seared yellowfin tuna or the tarts (we like the one made with caramelized onions, roasted butternut squash, goat cheese, arugula and balsamic reduction). The charcuterie is all house-made and includes potted veal breast rillettes topped with apricot and long pepper jam, served with pickled vegetables. Fish calls for a bouillabaisse or the sautÃ©ed Scottish salmon with caramelized fennel, cucumber and citrus fennel salad. If you are looking for a good cassoulet de Toulouse, youâ€™ll find it here. Lighter dishes are the lamb sirloin on saffron Israeli couscous or the braised veal breast with celery root purÃ©e. Cheeses are presented on a nice wood board and are from France to maintain the French flair. Finish with the chocolate coffee custard or the tarte Tatin. The short wine list is composed only with selections from France. You may also ask for a house cocktail, made with fresh-squeezed fruits.

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User Ratings & Reviews for Church & State

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Reviews 1 - 2 of 2 1

Just Go by gourmand on 02/06/2010

Considering its location it is a challenge for most but take our advise and go. You have an amazing chef with Walter.Food is exactly the way it shoud be and they have cool seasonal cocktails. Friendly staff, overall a warm and fuzzy experince. Can't wait to go back.

An excellent meal with terrific service by Deb on 06/25/2009

Picking up a friend who was staying at a Bunker Hill area hotel, I was happy to realize we were near Church & State and could easily try this interesting sounding establishment that caught my attention in this Gayot review. We arrived around 8 p.m. to find a full dining room and a couple of people ahead of us. It's not often I see that at such an hour on a week night in Los Angeles. And even if you live downtown, this is not exactly on anyone's way home. It was exciting to see. I always get excited about a meal when it's clear that the person helping me with my order genuinely loves the food he/she is recommended, and clearly has genuine recommendations. It was immediately evident that the man we were speaking with had great respect for the food he was serving. As our first appetizer, our eyes went to the Pots de Macon, where we had a hard time choosing from the five options. We selected Terrine de Foie Gras-Foie Gras topped with a port-wine gelee, served with brioche. Finishing the brioche didn't mean I'd let our server take away that cute little jar. Not while there was still a smooth-tasting Foie Gras to be savored. Our second appetizer choice was the Tarte Flamee-Caramelized onions and Gruyere cheese melted over perfect thin, crisp dough and topped with small chunks of bacon. It had caught the attention of both of us when we first glanced at the menu so as our waiter was suggesting that the thin-crust pizza was well-loved there, I'd been thinking, no, we want this tarte. Soon I realized he was referring to the tartes, so once more we were going with our waiter's suggestion. We were both very happy that we’d tried it. To me it was perfection. It was difficult to pass up the Bouillabaisse as my main dish, but the Beef Short Rib Bordelaise was calling my name as well. This main dish was a fine boneless strip of melt-in-your mouth meat (about 1" wide, 2-3" tall and about 6" long), served in a light red wine sauce with swiss chard and wild mushrooms. My cut was perfect. I can not imagine a way for the melding of these fine ingredients and the way it was cooked to be any better. Although dessert was an insane idea after such a large and perfectly tasty meal, we did not resist. Each item looked tasty, but I opted for Pod de Creme us Chocolat with caramel, hazelnut and fleur de sel. I'm a chocolate mousse/chocolate pudding/chocolate cream pie kind of gal. This was my first time having a caramelized chocolate before. Needless to say, I loved it. This was a very nice blend and a perfect end to a meal that was perfect every step of the way. I am very happy I tried Church & State. I was very well-guided by this Gayot review. To comment about the surroundings, I was actually there to meet and speak with my dinner companion for the first time. Upon entering the dining room I wondered if it would be too loud. We chose a small table along the wall at the end, and had no problem talking.

Reviews 1 - 2 of 2 1

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