Dinner and a show - typical Friday night?

I copied this review from Yelp.  I wanted to post links in the review but felt the Yelp folks might not approve of links.  The band was terrific and I talked to a lot of technical people and guitarists through the evening about guitar amplifiers so I felt providing links was anything other than contra-indicated.

The Yelp review:

A group of us ate here on Friday night before a show at the House of Blues.

The restaurant is in a hotel which brought back a few memories from my past.  The hotel used to be the Hyatt Hotel that was a bit of rock history in the past.  

The name of the restaurant, RH came from the nickname for the Hyatt in the past; riot house.  Remember when The Who tossed the room TVs out the window onto Sunset?  I digress....

As far as prices go, I am not sure of the Yelp $ $$ $$$ $$$$ breakdown but things seemed on the high side.  Then again, on the Sunset Strip most everything is either on the high side or more expensive than some similar items in other parts of Los Angeles.  

Dinner and show tickets were compensation for my work: 

As they say in the commercials ....

1.  Amp attention; Tune up, bias adjustment. (just part of the service)

2.  Level for the show: Level and EQ adjust on FOH console (just part of the service)

3. Advice (priceless).  

The most time was spent on advice talking about  two amps from my friends over at 65 Amps; Empire and Producer.  The talk continued throughout dinner. 

Bottom line ... dinner and the show was no charge for my friend and I.  There was additional compensation which will end up being spent on my boys over their winter break from school.

Folks that know me are probably not too surprised as my digression. Should I get back to my thoughts on the restaurant?

The staff was attentive and the service at our table was very good.

I was taking some photos and said they may be sent to facebook, twitter and yelp.  Yelp was a magic word.  One free glass of wine with each entree if you mention Yelp.  Just a heads up for my friends.  In our own case my friend and I were served more than one free glass.

There were two types of foie gras on the menu.  One was a terrine and the other was seared. We did not get either but perhaps another time.  I just mention it because it was on the menu and I love the stuff.

The seared was $27 for three ounces which Kerri thought was fair in this area.  The terrine was $18 on the menu.

6 oysters, $22.  Seemed a little steep but then again, we are on Sunset.  They were good and were fresh.  Our group consumed $88 worth of oysters.

I am not a fan of mussels but there were two orders for our group.  They looked great and smelled great.  Cooked in white wine.  Perhaps I will copy one of the shots off Yelp of this dish as my shots are dark and fuzzy from my cellphone.  I might even post this on my L.A. Blog as I do post a lot of things there.

Kerri had a beet and romaine salad that she said was very good.  Normally I do not concern myself with price and prefer to order what looks good not what fits a budget.  Still, $12 for a salad seemed a bit pricey.  I suppose when others are picking up the bill I look at prices as a courtesy and consideration.  The work I performed was second nature and I was already being compensated with the comped show and my usual seating at either the monitor console or FOH console.  The second part of my compensation was in my ability to introduce the band to my thinking on them using the right tool for the job, the right amp for the job and the compensation for my advice here is putting folks on a better path to practice their craft.  

Outstanding bread.  Five stars!  Might not seem that important to some folks but it shows attention to detail and care on such a wonderful staple.

Roasted chicken and lobster.  Yes, one combination item.  Excellent.  A few people ordered this item and were quite happy.

The mushroom risotto was excellent.  The roasted vegetables were also stir fried and served with wild rice.  Also excellent.

New York steak, ordered ultra rare.  Served properly, was tender and flavorful.

The seared halibut was quite good.  I had a taste from another in our group.

Dinner prices were quite reasonable compared to some of the appetizer items.  Perhaps those oysters came from a very exotic place?

Side orders are $7 each.  There is a nice selection and the ones we had were quite good.

In the end it was a great evening.

http://www.hyatt.com/gallery/rhlaxss2009/index.html (the restaurant)
http://www.direngrey.co.jp/english/top.html (the band)
http://www.65amps.com (the talk)