LAReview
Birdie G’s
Included In
Holidays are triggering for a lot of people. You’re surrounded by distant relatives, answering the same invasive questions as last year, and debating how soon is too soon to start drinking in your childhood bedroom. But for all the social anxiety and awkward conversations that occur, a holiday can always be saved by one thing - a great meal. Dishes you only see once a year, spread across a giant table... it’s not just about eating good food, it’s about embracing a sentimentality that sets this meal apart from all the others throughout the year.
That’s exactly the effect a meal at Birdie G’s will have on you. With tremendous comfort food that manages to be both familiar and interesting, this Santa Monica spot has built a restaurant experience that’s intrinsically nostalgic and also completely new.
Located on an industrial stretch near Bergamot Station, Birdie G’s looks more like an Arts District mega-restaurant than a comfort food spot in the middle of inland Santa Monica. There are exposed rafters, cement brick walls, and a massive, leafy indoor/outdoor patio. If that all sounds familiar to you, it’s because - as nice as it is - the space doesn’t look much different from other upscale restaurants these days. Luckily, once you examine the menu, you’ll realize you won’t be grinding through another over-priced, run-of-the-mill meal tonight. Birdie G’s serves comfort food, but it’s comfort food we’ve never seen inside an LA restaurant before.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
This isn’t to say Birdie G’s leans on obscure ingredients or elaborate plating to make their most familiar dishes seem interesting. In fact, it’s the opposite. Whether it’s twice-baked yams, house-made matzo with cultured butter, or a sweet and spicy cornbread, Birdie G’s is unrelenting in creating an experience that feels like an elevated version of childhood. Maybe you grew up eating some of these things, maybe you didn’t - that’s not the point. Everything that hits the table at Birdie G’s is so unique that even dishes you’ve never had before will invoke some form of personal nostalgia.
Birdie G’s menu covers a lot of ground, but at the end of the day, a marathon holiday meal without leftovers is a meal we want nothing to do with. You’ll order perfectly roasted chicken in a tropical sauce, sweet noodle kugel that could pass for dessert, and a flour-battered mushroom dish that ranks among our favorites in the city. At $49, you might initially pass on the lamb “a la salass,” but don’t. The lamb itself is perfectly-cooked and rubbed in a secret house blend of Persian spices that gives it an herbaceous kick that balances nicely with the crispy rice underneath. Will you have room for the striped pass in lobster bisque or the malted chocolate layer cake? Probably not, but you’ll order them anyway, because at this point, you just want the meal to keep going.
When the time does come to pack up and leave, you’ll probably have forgotten you were inside a restaurant and not at some extended family gathering. That’s a tremendous feeling to have, particularly because no great aunt asked you why you can’t keep a significant other.