LAReview
Included In
When you walk into Disneyland, it’s like stepping into a different world - one where the rules of reality don’t apply. It’s the same feeling we get walking into The Tam O’Shanter, the otherworldly Scottish pub in Atwater Village. Not only does Los Angeles feel a million miles away, the 21st century does, too. A visit to the Tam is like slipping down the rabbit hole and ending up in some sort of Scotch-soaked fairytale.
Located across from a Costco on a busy corner of Los Feliz Blvd., from the outside, the Tam feels like it’s been frozen in time since it opened in 1922 (Walt Disney was a regular, which means it was sort of Disneyland before there was a Disneyland). That feeling doesn’t really change inside, either. There are wrought-iron chandeliers, fireplaces in every room, about five miles of carpet, a glassed-in wall of hard-to-find Scotches, and a dizzying maze of dining rooms that makes it virtually impossible to find the bathrooms after you’ve been led to your table.
A place like this could just get by on backstory alone, so you might expect the menu to be an afterthought. And you’d be half-right. The food here is what we imagine Robert Louis Stevenson would eat in an Edinburgh pub - Scotch rarebit, Toad In The Hole, and four kinds of prime rib all appear on the menu. And those dishes are surprising good - and not in the way a turkey leg at Disneyland is good just because you were starving when you got off Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
The Scotch rarebit, a funky, creamy cheddar sauce, is so rich you expect it to tell you it just bought a house in the Palisades. The Toad In The Hole - a semi-stew of sautéed filet mignon, mushrooms, onions, and gravy - comes on a light, airy Yorkshire pudding, which is a good vehicle for soaking up the spare gravy. You’ll also notice a whole section of prime rib on the menu, not unlike what you’d see at Lawry’s (the two restaurants are corporate cousins). The main difference between the four options is the size, but the Tam Cut is what you’ll see on most tables. It’s a roughly inch-thick slab of prime rib, served on the bone, with meat so tender it melts onto your fork like you’re cutting into pie. We think it’s big enough to split two ways, but that’s your call.
That’s not say any of the food (maybe excluding the rarebit) is perfect, even the things we like. We’ve had some poorly carved cuts of prime rib, too thick in places and too thin in others, and there are always some chewy bits of filet in the Toad In The Hole. But honestly, we don’t expect perfection at a place with a novel-length Scotch list, servers wearing tartan, and a note at the top of the cocktail list instructing you to ask for a “Glasgow Kiss” (which is not a fun cocktail involving Drambuie, but rather, a euphemism for a head-butt to the face). The food is secondary to the experience, and in that regard, a meal at the Tam is unlike anything else in LA. They don’t play by the same rules as a modern restaurant, and that’s a good thing. We can see why Walt liked it here so much.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Scotch Rarebit
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Twice-Baked Potato
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Toad In The Hole
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Tam O’Shanter Cut Prime Rib
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Roast Beef Sandwich
photo credit: Jakob Layman