Dining Guide

LaVenture

It paid to have a dinner reservation for our last visit, because art lovers had descended on the restaurant and adjoining hotel and bookstore. New executive chef Andrew Miller has added some new, and quite pricy, steaks to the menu, amid other changes. While the bartender kept up a seemingly nonstop rattle of cocktail shaking, we settled into a starter of crispy shrimp. Goodness, that pink pile was grand, the crustaceans topped with a creamy, spicy-sweet garlic aioli. Was the new guy flexing his seasoning chops? Dinner proceeded. Alas, the al pastor—sliced pork loin with a lime-achiote blackened exterior—proved to be chewy and dry; the accompanying “creamy corn polenta” was made with whole corn kernels and so was also a little chewy. So confident is the kitchen regarding seasoning that there’s no salt shaker on the table. Fortunately, a margarita glass supplied the much-needed correction.