Goldie's Serves Up High Fashion And Higher Cuisine

When the owner of Sunset Strip's Eveleigh–home to the most visually stunning patio in town–announced a new restaurant on 3rd Street, there was little doubt his new project would look the part.

Unsurprisingly, Goldie's is a design triumph, a stylish eco-cabin in the full bloom of spring. An outdoor patio wall is covered in vibrant flowering succulents. In the rear, firewood is stacked neatly to the rafters, fuel for the brick hearth inside the kitchen.

You may be delighted that the cooking of chef Thomas Lim, an Australian import who previously worked at Sydney's most avant-garde restaurant, fits neatly with Southern California's aesthetic: wood-fired, produce-intensive and starkly modern.

We were charmed by the charred baby leeks ($14) draped over a pool of Taleggio fondue, decorated with crispy onions and pickled mustards seeds. The kale-topped steak tartare ($14), dotted with bits of caramelized apple, was as discombobulating as it was delicious.

Fatty slices of pork collar ($24), grilled medium-rare, come with a velvety sauce of de-starched potato purée, a nifty gastronomic trick that felt strikingly natural.

A celebrity sighting might be a near-given at Goldie's, but this charmingly magnetic restaurant is proof that catering to L.A.'s chic crowd no longer entails dumbing down culinary ambition.