Restaurant Find: Cassia LA
Cassia, a modern French brasserie-style restaurant serving up Southeast-Asian food has been meticulously designed from what was once the Santa Monica Telephone building, a 1937 Art Deco landmark. This may sound like a bizarre mishmash for some, but it’s a concept that’s taking LA’s west side by storm. The brainchild of two of LA’s most beloved culinary couples – Bryant Ng and wife Kim Luu-Ng, working alongside Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan (the team behind Santa Monica’s reputed Rustic Canyon Wine Bar & Seasonal Kitchen) shows LA how to serve up quality cuisine, style, ambience at an impressive scale, all without a hitch.
Inside, the energy is piercing, bustling with contagious levels of excitement. And this is certainly no surprise judging by the food coming out of their kitchen, which is bound to evoke enthusiastic dinner conversation. “This looks fabulous!” “It tastes even better than it looks!” are just some of the claims you’re likely to hear around your table.
Exotic menu items like Vietnamese Sunbathing Prawns, Kaya Toast and Lava Flow Piña Colada will entice diners who come in a flock to share in the many delicious flavors on offer. But the piece-de-resistance is the Wood Grill’s communal table where a party of one (or two!) may catch Chef’s Ng highly impressive live orchestration of the kitchen amidst the antique steel hood and vintage iron birdcages acquired by the Chef himself during travels through Vietnam.
We give a rather enthusiastic round of applause to Cassia, Santa Monica’s darling Southeast-Asian brasserie.
Cassia LA
1314 7th St, Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 393-6699
Photo: John Linden
Fried Cauliflower, Laksa & Kaya Toast, Photo: Rick Poon
Photo: John Linden
Pina Colada, Photo: Rick Poon
Photo: Rick Poon
Clay Oven Bread with Young Soybean, Photo: Rick Poon
 Neeza is a Malaysian based in LA via Amsterdam, Paris and Brussels. Obsessed with food, interior design and travel, Neeza will be covering the most eye-pleasing restaurants in LA and beyond. She dreams to have her own restaurant/hotel concept on a deserted island one day and is currently looking for said island. |
(Feature Image:Â Courtesy of Cassia LA by Rick Poon)
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