Scratch Bar

I don’t understand how people can use the success from others to try and get their restaurant to work. This is no longer scratch bar and the original chef Philip lee Does not work there. I’m surprised you are still allowed to use this name and say it’s your own restaurant and concept.

This place is not the same, high caliber cooking of the original Scratch Bar in Beverly Hills.
Please go to Scratch Bar and Kitchen in Encino for the cooking of the original chef, Chef Phillip Lee Frankland, who is on Bravo’s Top Chef this season.
They definitely need to rename this new concept and this copy cat trying to capitalize on the reputation of the original Scratch Bar name.
The original Scratch Bar concept and chef is now located in Encino everyone — you must go try the affordable tasting menu! My favorite restaurant in LA right now.
Try Chef Phillip Lee Frankland’s amazing tasting menu as everything is made from scratch including their cheese —

I ordered a bottle of wine, chopped tuna, lamb shank and pork chop! The tuna appetizer was delicious and has the right amount of truffle oil. The lamb shank was soft and tender ($ 29). The pork chop was flavorful but it was on the smaller size ($ 25). This restaurant is affordable given the fact that it is located in Beverly Hills. The down side is that they don’t have a full bar (just wines and beers only.) I recommended the full menu instead of the tasting menu.

Went here a few years ago before the closing, never got to write a review.
No longer a big Unilocaler, but this place demands a great review.
Scratch Bar changed my relationship with food and restaurants. The entire experience is just that, an experience. From presentation to textures and flavors, everything was spot on. Rarely do you go to a place and are almost instructed on how to eat your dish. It’s an interactive experience that you just cannot miss out on.
Save up a little and go all the fuck out here. Trust me, it’s worth it.

Loved it all… enjoyed every dish — don’t trust bad reviews here and just GO THERE ! give it a try !
So this is what we had — we bought the 6 course meal … or maybe it was 8… but it was Chef’s choice so we didn’t really know what we’re going to get.
The 1^st dish was this amazing pop corn… and I usually hate pop corm but this master piece was far from the crappy cinemas pop corn… it was truffle flavor and soft like a marshmallow… just amazing.
We had all kind of dishes — small amount but very interesting and very well done — some sea food, some veggies, and a main course meat (steak pieces cooked for perfection)…
And one amazing desert…
A lot of dishes — not a lot of food… and that’s exactly how I like it !
You enjoy every bite… every dish was complicated and you can see a lot of work went into it… and though the amount was small — it was an EXPLOSION of taste in my mouth…
Service was great — Wine selection was great — and the food was just very special and incredibly tasty…
I don’t think I ever gave 5 stars to any place but just know I’ve been there TWICE since — as I thought maybe 1^st time was a fluke… but both times were just amazing.
I will go again…
Now, if you just want to EAT and get FULL — that’s not the place for you…
But if you’re on a date and want to slowly enjoy amazing dishes — impress your date with something she never had before — I PROMISE you — this is the place… NO dish I ate here was something I ate before… and I eat in restaurants every night… I know FOOD.
GO & ENJOY !
A bit pricey but worth it… I’m going once a month :)

To preface: It’s date night, we ubered 20 miles/​40 minutes into BH, we are foodies who love trying new restaurants, but we are also trying to eat pretty healthy and we don’t cheat often right now.
I bought a LivingSocial deal that included a 6 course tasting menu for 2, plus a «glass of wine or cocktail» for each of us. I called 3 times (different times of day and different days) the week before I wanted to dine to make a reservation and I left messages each time. I did receive a confirmation call a day or two later, but I was surprised no one answered the phone, even during dinner/​pre-​dinner hours.
We arrived a few minutes before our 8pm reservation on Saturday night and walked in towards the host area. The restaurant was probably half full, and the patio was closed. There was one bartender and one server visible, but neither said anything to us at first. We stood there for a minute or two and then we were approached and said we had a reservation. The server came back a moment later and said she didn’t have a table for 2 (didn’t I make a reservation?) but that she could seat us at the end of a long table with another couple (much older) already seated at the other end.
We were seated and she asked if we wanted water to start, we said yes. F I F T E E N M I N U T E S L A T E R. After weaving and bobbing, and lots of sighing and frustration, I finally make eye contact with the bartender, he comes over, and we tell him we have the LS deal and we’d like to order. I order a glass of wine and my date asks for a cocktail menu, only to be told they don’t serve cocktails. So… the name of your restaurant includes the word BAR and my LS deal says we can have a cocktail… but you don’t have any. He gets a beer instead and the bartender says to hold onto my LS voucher until the end. He come back five minutes later with our wine and beer, and we remind him we’d like water. He brings water and (weirdly) half fills my tiny jelly jar glass. CA drought restrictions?
By this point, I am taking notes on the service on my phone, my very hungry boyfriend is very frustrated, and I am starting to wonder if the incessant bell ringing from the kitchen will ever end. We check the tasting menu and the first course is a caprese salad. Shouldn’t take long, right? We also see that a complimentary bread board is mentioned on the menu, but maybe not for the tasting menu? It’s not clear. We also noticed that there’s a 18% service charge added to every bill (!!!) — maybe everyone just gave up when they instituted that rule.
By the time 37 minutes with no food rolls around — we decide to leave. We left cash for our drinks and my generous boyfriend even TIPPED on their terrible service, and we stood up and left. On the way out, we told the bartender why we were leaving, and how upset we were, and he didn’t apologize or even seem concerned. He just said ok.
We never had a bite of food here, so I can’t comment on it — however all the dishes we saw coming out of the kitchen were TINY. So, maybe we didn’t miss out on much. Another note: we are the type of diners who like to supplement our tasting menu with choices from the regular menu. However, 99% of the items on the regular menu were IN the tasting menu. The only thing I could add was ceviche. Not very original, and seems like a lost opportunity.
We left and went next door to Matsuhisa, where they sat us within 5 minutes and we had a fantastic meal with attentive service. Also, I got my money back for that LivingSocial deal.
I’ve never felt so marginalized and invisible in a restaurant before. I would heartily try to convince you not to eat here.

Horrible service, horrible food and our reservations were for 6pm — we left at 8:45pm — the wait between courses was ridiculous. The food 5 thumbs down!
Although we had Living Social coupons, the bill was still ridiculous with only one beer on the tab! They actually had us SHARE A LITTLE SOUP DISH WITH ONE SPOON! They were serving venison in place of the meat we were supposed to have but we refused.
This place will not be open long, good luck to them.

We made reservations for this restaurant for October 9^th and everything was ok until an hour before our reservation. We received a phone call from the restaurant to let us know that they had an equipment failure and that the restaurant would be closed for the night. We tried to re-​schedule the reservation but we were told that «they would get back to us». We found out the next day that the restaurant was closed because they were moving to a different location. What type of customer service is that? Why would they lie to us?
My husband and I were celebrating our 10^th year wedding anniversary on the 9^th. What a horrible memory and experience to have from a restaurant we were so looking forward to try.
To the scratch bar management team, please be careful who you put on the phone to represent your restaurant. We are very disappointed that we were turned down with lie.
How are you going to have loyal customers if you can’t even tell the truth about the reason why you’re closed.
This was a very disappointing experience. I hope nobody else went through the same.
I expect to hear back from someone in the management level to clear things up.
The new location that is opening in Encino is very close to us. It would be a shame to lose a potential loyal customer if you ask me.

I reallllllly wanted to like this place. It’s down the street from me and I had high hopes for it. I purchased a TravelZoo voucher which was $ 50 and it gave me $ 100 to spend on food and drink for at least 4 people for dinner. I called and made reservations for 8pm on a Saturday, and I was really excited for it. We parked in a valet lot next door for $ 6.50 (I think there was also a parking garage on the other side of the restaurant).
I was shocked when we walked in to realize the place was EMPTY. There was literally only one table besides ours in the restaurant, and I think two tables outside on the patio (which looked cute). I figured it was because it was still early, but when we left around 9:30pm it was even MORE empty, and with zero people at the bar on a Saturday night (they don’t have a full liquor license; just beer and wine). My husband is convinced it won’t last till Christmas.
The décor is nice, the music choice was a little strange for the look of the place and wasn’t the type of music I’d expect for a wine bar. The waitress was nice, but didn’t seem to have the best knowledge of the menu or helpful suggestions. A couple of the items we ordered came out on slabs, which were nice but the servers were unable to get leverage/​pick them up when clearing the table so we had to.
Despite not having liquor, the bar made tasty cocktails with sake (because I think that may be classified as a wine). We ordered a couple of appetizers which weren’t really enough for our table of 4 because the portion size on both was pretty small for the price tags. We had one beef and one shrimp appetizer and I felt both were good, but too small a portion for the price and neither had a «wow» factor. My husband and I both got flatbread pizzas, and my parents both got the duck entrée. The menu was very limited and there were not a ton of choices, which was disappointing and is another reason my husband doesn’t think it will last. We all agreed the food was good, but not great, and the quality didn’t seem to match the prices. I was very glad we had the voucher and weren’t paying full price.
It honestly wasn’t a bad spot, and I think it could be vastly improved simply by offering a full bar and expanding their menu to include more selections as well as enhance the quality/​portions to make the food worthy of the price. I think this would help to draw more customers and earn repeat business. There are tons of places in this area and I didn’t feel Scratch Bar was competitive enough with their neighbors. Based on this experience, I probably would try another spot and not return here.

I’ve been wanting to dine here for a while, especially after I had such a great time at the sister restaurant. However, this one isn’t as good and frankly, I was very sad and surprised. Most likely it is because the head chef isn’t working here anymore (he said so himself) so I can only imagine how good it would be if he still was here;(
I went during DineLA in July. I made reservations online and the guy that called to reconfirm told me the menu online was different than the one they were offering and offered to email the menu to me. Great customer service!
I arrived early and was seated immediately. We had some cocktails which were good. However, the food was a let-​down. It wasn’t bad per se, but I experienced such a great flavors at the sister restaurant that it raised my expectations so this is why it was such a let-​down. My favorite was a duck but parts of that were a bit overdone. Everything else was okay. Our server was new so that didn’t help matters any. Super nice guy but obviously didn’t know the menu well. The guy at the front was great but I think he checked in with us a bit too much. I will note the restaurant was pretty empty – only four tables while we were there.
I can’t recommend because of my disappointment but I won’t vehemently oppose someone wanting to go. I just tell them my story and most end up not going. It’s not bad but because of the let down, I won’t rush to return.
Valet or street parking available.

Please, please wait till Philip Franklin Lee returns to come here! The website says the restaurant is closed. I wish I had known that before I came again, no comparison to when I came when Philip was there, no comparison at all!

This is one of my new FAVORITE restaurants in Los Angeles. Chef Evaldo Garcia is the Willy Wonka of culinary artistry. I highly suggest you try the full range of unique menu items, including the molecular shooters and cookie and ice cream dessert.
I made a reservation at Scratch Bar for my girlfriend’s birthday dinner and we were pleasantly surprised. I had the fish and she had a flatbread. Hands down, the best of either dish we’d ever tried.
If you are looking for an experience, and not just a fancy meal, make a reservation ASAP.

Unilocalers! Please give this restaurant your consideration and attention. While it is true there have been ongoing changes with the owner (s)/chef and the menu has changed, the food is delicious and worthy of giving the new incarnation of Scratch Bar a chance. Most noteworthy are the appetizers – all were wonderfully delicious. We had the Rack of Lamb, which was cooked to perfection. Our server couldn’t have been nicer or more attentive. All in all, a great dining experience. I’d hate to see a great restaurant not survive because people aren’t willing to let go of a former way of doing things. In this case, if we had allowed our former Scratch Bar experience prevent us from eating here simply because the menu isn’t the same, we’d have missed out on a wonderful experience. I’m so glad we gave this gem a chance and we’ll be back… happily!

I’ll get straight to the problem with this restaurant. The food is fine and the service quite good but the concept will take it down. I will not likely be back to this restaurant not because of the quality of the food or lack of creativity in the dishes; it’s because this is an «experience» restaurant — there is not much to eat (super tiny portions) and once you have had the experience, then it’s time to move on.
If the food design has some elements of Bazaar up the street, it does not have the other elements that makes bazaar a success — world class reputation, preparation and delivery so it’s stuck in a rough spot. I think this spot could be re-​made into a successful «neighborhood bistro» like Nook Bistro (always packed) or an everyday go-​to spot such as Honor Bar (also always packed).

So confused … it says closed but I was there Friday night and it was definitely open. We made reservations but there was no one and I do mean NO one in the place. Maybe one other group. I hate dining in places where there is no one else.
First, if you are going to call yourself a bar — have bar like drinks including vodka. There is nothing other than beer, wine and sake (which yes, they can make cocktails but they are unispired).
The tasting menu is $ 65 and the portions are beyond tiny!!! I was so hungry when I left. And we wanted to try the mussels but they ‘decided not to do those that night’. WTF?
Overall, our waiter was very good and attentive but the food was uninteresting, small and unsatisfying. Another pretentious wanna-​be LA place.
Oh, the chocolate chip cookie w/​ice-​cream was good. Silver lining.

Went here for a quick solo bite, and ended up trying a lot of different bites of deliciousness.
I’d been here anywhere from 5 to 10 times before with my husband and various other friends and groups, or just the two of us. I loved it then, and I love it now.
They have a new chef and the menu is absolutely as tasty as before, if not more! Some of the things I tried were the California avocado and fresh farm tomato shooter, which is their take on gazpacho (so good), the Sashi Hamachi which has lots of different flavors to it (and includes both regular caviar, salmon caviar and little bits of citrus), their flat bread (amazing and light) which I don’t see on the menu, and the hot chocolate chip cookie which may be the best I’ve ever had in my life.
The service was wonderful too, the stuff for so attentive and friendly. I highly recommend this place. Go now!

The question is how could my experience have been so much worse than its 4-​star Unilocal rating? I get sometimes restaurants have off nights, but wow this night fell far from the tree then.
The dinela menu seemed good and it’s a restaurant I’ve noticed while driving through Beverly Hills, so we thought why not take the opportunity to try it. We had an 8:30PM reservation on Saturday. I’m just going to jump to why this is a 2 star review.
#1 OMG, the kitchen bell. Where I was seated, I can see directly into a part of the kitchen. I’m not sure if it’s meant to be like that or they haven’t had time to put a door up. But, every time dishes were ready to be taken out to the diners, someone int he kitchen would ring a bell like DING DING DING DING. Not once each time, but like 5 – 6 times. Almost because they felt the servers weren’t getting to the kitchen fast enough? It was super annoying and gave me a massive headache. I felt like I was at a diner for breakfast, but unfortunately I wasn’t.
#2 The Music. The ambiance is dim lighting, wine-​bar feel. Dark wood tables, leather seats. Nice right? I listened to Katy Perry’s Fireworks, One Direction, that song from Grey’s Anatomy. Basically a pandora of KISS FM. I’m not saying I don’t like this type of music, but it just didn’t fit and it was loud. A great or even good or decent dining experience includes the ambiance, and theirs was confused. Big time.
#3 Automatic 18% Gratuity. We saw it on the menu when we were sat for dinela. It wasn’t mentioned on the dinela online menu though nor in the previous reviews for dinela, so maybe they just implemented it? We were okay with it as it was during the first 5 min of sitting down and we were optimistic. However, as the meal progressed, I became resentful. Our server, although a nice person, was inexperienced. A nice person doesn’t always make a good server. She wasn’t attentive, didn’t come explain to us why our first dish took 20 min to appear at our table or that it took 10 – 15 min to get the second glass of wine we ordered especially when I saw it sitting at the bar for the duration and she was just slow doing other things. There were only 7 tables in the whole restaurant and it was definitely not packed. We were also not asked if we wanted to order coffee or tea with our dessert. But we also didn’t even get a regular menu to look at, so I have no idea what other food they serve besides the dinela menu. Maybe they don’t offer coffee or tea.
#4 The food was mediocre. Out of the 10 dishes we tried, we only liked 2. The tuna tartare and the beef carpaccio. Everything else was just okay. Nothing awesome. And there was a bone in my branzino. I almost swallowed it. Plus that Nutella Tart, not sure why people have raved about it. It was quite boring and flat. Kind of soggy too.
Basically I left feeling bummed that we wasted a night out and our money at this place.

I’ve previously been Scratch Bar twice, and absolutely loved it. Thought I had finally found one of my top restaurant recommendations in LA, and was stoked to see it take part in DineLA. I made my reservation through Open Table, and attempted to book a 6:30pm reservation for Saturday evening, however; after waiting a few minutes, the 6:15, 6:30, and 6:45 reservation options had disappeared, leaving us with 6:00 or 9:00. We settled on 6:00, and figured it was going to be packed. We arrived at 6:05, and there were only two other parties seated. By the end of our ridiculously long meal at 9:00pm, we had never even seen the place more than half full. So much for even attempting to make a reservation, we could have just walked in at our desired time.
Now, let’s move onto the meal. I’ll start by stating that yes, our meal for 3 people took 3 hours. There was an extremely long wait time between each course, with a 25 min wait between course 5 and dessert. That is pretty absurd, considering the restaurant was only half full. Also, we asked for room temperature water, not ice water and were charged $ 1 extra. That’s pretty ridiculous as well.
In the past, I’ve loved dining at Scratch Bar due the presentation. The waiter would explain the food upon arrival, and the food itself was uniquely presented. This time around, we got none of that. The food was not nearly as special, filling, or tasteful as last time. I recall getting steak served on a sizzling rock and uni shooters, not bland steak and overcooked duck legs. To top it off, both desserts– the panna cotta and crumb cake were terrible. We definitely ended the meal disappointed.
To top it all off, there is an 18% gratuity standard, regardless on the size of the party. I really dislike this feature, as it gives the waiters/​waitresses less incentive to give good service. I thought our waiter was ok– he didn’t necessarily give bad service, but didn’t appear to be in the best mood. He likely knew he was getting the 18% tip and figured he didn’t really need to try.
In conclusion, I think management/​ownership of the restaurant has changed. It used to be packed and lively on the weekends, and never serve an unappealing dish. Not quite sure what happened in the past few months, but I know I won’t be back.