A recent night out at the Lazy Ox found a restaurant with a hip atmosphere, but
service problems. (photo courtesy Creative Commons/shawnshahani)

Let me start by saying that I almost always advise people looking for restaurant recommendations to steer clear of Tapas joints. Sure, they're trendy and hip and the food is often tasty and inventive, but I always seem to find that you're paying far too much for what you're getting.

The Lazy Ox Canteen in downtown, skirting the edge of Little Tokyo, is not a tapas joint - rather, it's a small-plate-focused tavern. Semantics, I say - with a couple of qualifiers. I'm always willing to spend my money on good food, in fact its my pleasure to do so, but I felt a little bamboozled after my dinner at the Lazy Ox.

We went on a Tuesday night. The place was busy but not crowded, buzzing but not roaring, and the air was alive with energy without being oppressively frenetic. I'm not sure if the  restaurant was understaffed that night or what, exactly, was going on but my dinner date and I waited for 10 full minutes without so much as being greeted by our server. When he finally appeared I ordered a Triple Belgian Style beer (with an alcohol content of 9.5%) and my guest asked for a taste of one of the wines by the glass. Our server tried to convince my friend that it was going to be difficult to get a taste because there was only one bartender but hesitantly agreed, rushed of, and left my friend feeling bad for asking.

Ten minutes later he appeared with the taste and no beer for me. When he finally did bring our drinks (she ordered an 11.5% Canadian beer) they arrived as mere 8 oz pours in stemless wine glasses. Ahem...what? Didn't I just see another server walking by with a full-sized regular beer glass?

First of all, I was disappointed with the size of the pour for the price ($9.50 and $10.50 respectively) even after he explained that all of their imported (read: higher alcoholic content) beers were served in the smaller glasses. Also, I wanted desperately to point out to our server that these kinds of glasses are meant specifically for red wine, which is ok to serve at room temperature and even slightly warmed by the heat from your hands holding the glass. Even beers that are enjoyable served at room temperature (which many European beers are) are not enjoyable warm.

Fine. Onto the food. The friend who joined me that night was a Vegan and ordered accordingly: the cauliflower soup with curry and sliced red grapes, and the pickled beet salad. I, a devoted carnivore, ordered the brick-roasted mussels with a house-made sriracha and crispy quail with buttermilk dressing. After our server informed us that everything would be brought to us as it was ready so that we could share, we quickly asked if, instead, he could bring one of her plates and one of mine out together as we would not be sharing because she was a Vegan. Our request was ignored and my friend got both of her plates at once and I was left waiting for mine.

However, once the food came out, our hot tempers were partially cooled. The cauliflower soup was rich, silky, and nicely laced with a sweet curry flavor. There were thick, juicy red grapes sliced into the soup that, while a nice textural element, were ultimately extraneous. The beet salad was good - the dressing was nicely balanced and slightly creamy, but the tangerine slices adorning the pile of greens, bejeweled with little morsels of pickled beets, were mostly flavorless and lacked the acid they must have been intended to bring to the dish.

My mussels arrived first and they were absolutely fabulous. The French feta that had been crumbled over the whole dish gave a nice creamy and tangy note to the otherwise very spicy sriracha broth that was divine. The sweetness of the mussels balanced the almost sour notes of the sriracha broth, and the feta brought everything together into perfect spicy harmony. The toast points graciously given to soak up the broth were definitely appreciated. However, I wanted more! For $16, ten mussels does not a dish make.

Next, the crispy quail came beautifully battered and fried over a bed of greens dressed with a sinfully rich buttermilk dressing, set off beautifully by little cubes of celery and paper-thin slices of radish. Suffice it to say I was literally sucking meat off of those tiny little quail bones. It was delicious...but again - I needed more!

So I ordered one more plate: the lamb cheeks over semolina with pickled onions. In case you've never had cheeks before - go try them right now. They're exactly what you'd expect: soft, meaty, and suffused with fat. The semolina was the perfect starch to soak up the juices and was studded with bits of chives that gave a nice, clean oniony flavor to play against the sweet, pickled slices on top.

All in all the food was good. It was inventive, creative, and executed extremely well technically - especially considering just how many plates they turn out of the kitchen. The atmosphere was fun and energizing, but allowed for a feeling of relaxation. The service was not as stellar as I'd been led to believe by the LA Times review, and I felt that we were duped into steep prices for small pours of good beers. I'm not sure if any of the dishes left me absolutely craving them later but they were thoroughly enjoyable in the moment. However, I will say that I would have enjoyed them more if I felt like I was getting at least a fair bang for my buck.