No sign at the entrance…just a LITTLE DOOR.
After The Little Door, a French Mediterranean restaurant, was recommended to me several times, I decided to work it in with a friend who was visiting from out of town. 9:30 reservations were the best I could do on a Friday night, but I went for it anyway. We arrived at the 3rd Street location in West Hollywood and realized there was no sign anywhere, but an actual “little” wooden door that you walk through to enter the restaurant.
Very dark and mysterious.
As we made our way through several large clouds of cigarette smoke and entered the establishment, we were immersed into a charming hidden world and Euro-esque chaos of a lively, busy, tree-lined sidewalk café. Picture dark, crowded, loud and exotic. I giggled to myself as I watched a patron enable the flashlight on her iPhone in order to see her menu!
Vibrant energy abounds at The Little Door in West Hollywood.
We chatted up a few random patrons in the garden courtyard while passing the time during our 30 minute wait to be seated. Apparently this is a place to see and be seen! We were given a very nice table with a little extra personal space and our waiter was just delightful. After getting our cocktails and looking at the menu it was now well after 10pm and to be honest, that’s pretty late to be eating dinner in my opinion. I ordered the celery soup and it was okay but REALLY heavy on the cream and the wild arugula salad with roasted butternut squash, cucumber, pomegranate, feta cheese and walnuts which was absolutely divine and large enough to eat half and take the other half home! My friend started with the mussels which he gobbled down frantically and the grilled prime rib eye steak with potato and leek gratin, haricot vert and baby carrots, which he said was “okay” but a litle tough.
Our (almost too) late night meal. Nice dirty table cloth. Damn, we are slobs.
I would rate The Little Door very high marks for the atmosphere and vibe (after all it IS quite the “scene”), but I wasn’t convinced it would make my overall “favorite” list.
Very Euro feel.
Finding Sally 