Blasé about Blair's? No way.

Tales of an LA Addict had the same risotto I did, but remembered her camera.

"It's good--for Silver Lake."

Many a review I've read of Blair's expresses a similar sentiment, and I think it says a lot about Los Angeles. Primarily, that people here are whiny and spoiled. Okay, it's late, and I'm being harsh, but lordy folks, this restaurant would be the tops in many towns across our fair country. Also, reading this statement you'd think Silver Lake was a restaurant desert, without many fine establishments to feed you nightly. In my book, Blair's is an excellent neighborhood restaurant and if folks west of the 405 don't feel it's worth "driving across town for" as one Chowhounder put it, that just means more room for me.

J and I went Saturday night before hitting the Eagle Rock Music Festival (highly recommended, fyi). We shared our favorite butter lettuce salad with pistachio camembert terrine to start, and they thoughtfully plated this light dish seperately for us for no extra cost. I'm a big fan of Blair's risottos--always richly flavored and pleasantly, loosely starchy, not sticky and gut-bomb-esque. It took me 2 seconds to decide on the fall-flavored risotto with butternut squash, collard greens and bacon, and only about 4 seconds to devour it. J ordered the linguine with housemade sausage, a hefty portion. We split the apple and cranberry bread pudding for dessert--tasty, but not as good as the donuts we had last time. I was expecting fresh cranberries but instead they were dried, and it wasn't as sticky and gooey as I was hoping.

The menu usually includes a few pastas, some slow-cooked, interesting meat dishes, and a fish or two. I've sampled the house soups before, and have always found them satisfying, though nearly meals-in-themselves. A well-chosen wine and beer list rounds out the meal, as does a basket of crusty, warm bread and the altogether too rare softened butter. We've never had a reservation, though Saturday night we had to sit at a table in the bar, our preferred method anyway. If you want to be better safe than sorry though, I'd make a reservation on the weekends. It's on the higher moderate end pricewise--our shared salad, two entrees (on the low end of the scale), one glass of wine, one beer, one dessert and 2 coffees was $75.

Blair's
2903 Rowena Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90039
323.660.1882