Spanish & Italian cuisine come together to form a beautiful harmony at Margot, Culver City's new trending restaurant hotspot. I had the pleasure of eating there Saturday night with my good friend Alexis. We parked on the first floor valet, which is complimentary for all Margot patrons (but be sure to tip!). The first impression beyond the valet is a chic black-and-white patterned elevator which elegantly opens on both sides to ferry people up to the rooftop restaurant. Upon arrival, you walk into a bohemian haven decked out with chandeliers and impressive fiddle-leaf figs. The host stand will help you to your table, and they also validate parking there on your way out, so no need to ask your waiter for this. I chuckled to myself as we were walked to our table because everybody here likes to stare at new patrons (probs to celeb-check). Upon realizing we weren't famous, their heads went back down to their plates. When you reserve a table at Margot, you are given the option to reserve for the dining area or the patio. I opted for the dining area as it has been cold in LA as of late, but the patio does have space heaters if you'd prefer to be outside. The main area is actually enclosed in a greenhouse-like structure, with windows all the way up and above. This allows for beautiful golden light to stream in during the evenings and why I selected a 6:15pm reservation to enjoy the sunbeams.
One of the biggest draws of Margot for me was the cocktails. They are both gorgeous AND extremely delicous! We went for two of their most popular concoctions, the strawberry spritz & grapefruit G&T. Both were absolutely divine. The spritz so much so that I opted to get one for myself after I finished my G&T. While I wish I could review a larger selection of the food offerings, we kept it simple and ordered two pastas to share between us. We had the capellini with truffles and the bombolotti. The capellini fresh pasta was incredibly scrumptious along with the delicious truffles. This was my favorite out of the two dishes as the more tomato-y bombolotti was a little too acidic for my taste. I could eat that capellini every night if it wasn't for the fact I'm about to hop back on to a low-carb diet!
I will segway here to the greatest disappointment of the night. The RAVED-about Margot dessert I had been drooling to try was unfortunately just taken off the menu. The fresh, authentic Spanish churros are no longer available to order, and when the waiter told me and explained why I was devastated. Apparently the reason for this is that because their restaurant is so popular but small, people would order the churros at the end of their meal (which take up to 20 minutes to make) and then spend another 20-30 minutes or so at the table eating and talking, backing up other reservations. Now you can decide what you'd like to make of that explanation but I wasn't... impressed. Even though the cocktails and pastas were pretty divine, I feel that I may not return to Margot until the return of the churros. We instead opted for the waiter's recommendation, which was for the flourless chocolate cake, which was pretty tasty. Churros would have been pretty special though, so let's hope they'll make a comeback.
Something else pretty interesting about this spot is the bathroom situation. It is open into the restaurant, albeit around a corner, and comprises of a bunch of unisex stalls. It definitely surprised me upon walking over there, but I actually found I liked the setup! The sinks are all these beautiful basins on stone and the whole area has been designed with style and attention-to-detail. The stalls are also all wooden doors that extend all the way up and down, with no gaps, which I like. Definitely don't miss out on the Margot bathroom experience while you are there.
Overall, Margot was a wonderful experience, only tainted by the disappointment of the lack of churros. Whether you want to go up just for cocktails or stay for a full meal, I'd still highly recommend this restaurant and it is definitely a spot to tick off the LA Bucketlist! Thank you for reading friends, and have a wonderful week.
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