I went to Venice yesterday to get lunch at Gjusta. It was a longish ride from Koreatown, I keep forgetting how huge LA is. As a side note Uber/Lyft are a lot more expensive right now. I didn’t have the foresight to make a reservation so wasn’t able to get a table at the patio (there was a really long wait). However, you have the option of getting take-out and eating it on the benches outside the patio, so I did that. There are multiple counters inside with pastries, bread, smoked fish, salads, pizza, cured meats, etc. The ordering system was a little unclear - there was a number dispenser but it didn’t look like it was being used - I found that you just had to kind of find someone to take your order after awhile.
I was feeling more fish than meat today so I got the
5oz Fish Plate
You can choose up to 3 different fish options for the plate. There is also a 10oz option where you can choose up to 5 different fish. 5oz was plenty for one person. I chose three types of salmon - the herbed gravlax, the hot smoked salmon belly (h/t to @Chowseeker1999’s report), and the lox. I believe the lox is cold smoked and the gravlax is cured but not smoked.
A little bit later I received a pizza box with all the fish nicely laid out inside along with some ripe tomato slices, lightly pickled cucumbers and radish, a lot of thinly sliced red onion, capers, lemon, and a bit of labneh (strained yogurt) topped with olive oil. And three slices of bread. Really good fish! The gravlax and and lox had a really nice silky texture. Salt level was just right too, not too salty. The hot smoked salmon belly was fantastic. I think they heated it up a bit. It was cooked to just the right doneness, tender and almost falling apart, and glistening with fat. I made little open faced sandwiches by spreading some of the labneh on a slice of bread and adding some of the veg and fish. The bread was really good too. I think I got slices of the sourdough loaf and also one sourdough loaf that was covered with sesame seeds. The crumb was moist and tender. A bit like a Tartine country loaf.
Also had a slice of carrot cake that was pretty good. Moist with a good amount of nuts and raisins and had a hit of ginger flavor in it.
