Dining at the Gorbals

Before my Hot Bartender Crawl last Friday, some of us had dinner at the Gorbals. It was perfect since I had a Blackboard Eats code and we seriously contemplated getting the whole pig’s head for $45. The five of us would have ate well but it did take 45 minutes to cook and we didn’t have that much time.

Instead we ordered almost everything else on the menu and every dish was great. I was waiting for this moment. The Gorbals has been hit or miss with me but I had faith which is why I kept going back.

We arrived just as happy hour was wrapping up so some of us partook of their half priced beer and wine (cocktails unfortunately were not discounted).

We started off with some light appetizers including the latkes which the Gorbals sent out as a complimentary dish, the bacon-wrapped matzoh balls (a must for this restaurant), a cucumber salad and something new for me– the grilled chicken hearts.

We talked about what sort of offal we’d eat. I am not a particularly picky eater but there are some things I don’t enjoy. I haven’t had hearts before and decided this was the night to try them. The texture was firm and they were tasty little bites. I liked the pickled veggies the hearts came with.

When the Gorbals first opened, the two most talked about items were the bacon-wrapped matzoh balls which I happily ate and the chicken skin BLT known as the Gribenes. I don’t enjoy skin and didn’t eat this dish. But it was for a friend who will reach over and pluck my discarded chicken skin. This sandwich overjoyed her.

We had to get the mussels as several of us are seafood-obsessed. These were on the smaller side. I didn’t really taste the squid ink butter but the broth was very rich.

Once I spotted beef tongue (lengua!) I had to have it. This was my second favorite dish of the night. I had read on twitter the night before someone loving the double-fried chicken with grilled watermelon. My group thought it was okay. The fried stuff (which I of course discarded) was a bit limp.

I have found more and more people are serving rare pork. This means a juicier cut and quite nice with the mashed turnips.

The Welsh rarebit and burgers were actually ordered when we came back AFTER the Hot Bartender Crawl. That’s right, we loved the Gorbals so much, we ate there twice in one night! Good thing we also had another BBE code.

You ever have one of those moments you don’t know what it is but you had to order it anyway? The banh mi poutine sounded so neat, we had to see what’s up. Turns out it’s poutine topped with all the fixings you’d find in a banh mi. So slow-roasted pork, pickled veggies, jalepenos. It was really wonderful and we considered ordering another dish our second round at Gorbals a few hours later.

One of these days though, I’m determined to have dessert at the Gorbals. I never leave room for dessert here!

The Gorbals

501 S Spring St

Los Angeles, CA 90013-2310

(213) 488-3408