Father's Office, Santa Monica, CA

So this is going to be one of my more embarrassing entries for the blog to date. One fine afternoon after work, Dianne, Jason, Melissa and I decided to go to Father's Office for a fine dinner. I had heard about this place from some of my other friends and that it was definitely worth a visit. The restaurant definitely gets packed and it's understandable because the food is top notch.

As for the embarrassing note, I will save that for later.

Sweet Potato Fries



Basket of Sweet Potato Frites "A La Cart" roasted garlic, cabrales, blue cheese aioli.

Judgment: We actually had 2 kinds of fries and I will address the regular potato fries as a separate judgment because the 2 fries were definitely very different. The Sweet Potato fries were fried to a delicious orange crispness which complimented well with the Blue Cheese Aioli.

French Fries



Basket of Frites "A La Cart" garlic parsley aioli

Judgment: Your typical basket of french fries with a nice garlic aioli dipping sauce to accompany it. The fries were crispy as they were shoe-string thin. Personally, I like my fries to have a more potato feel to them and less of the potato chip feeling. Although I did enjoy the Aioli.

The Office Burger



The Office Burger (Dry Aged Beef) caramelized onion, applewood bacon compote, gruyere, matag blue cheese and arugula.

Judgment: There's a reason the chefs tell you to leave if you ask for ketchup, and that's because the burger itself is prepared in a delicious fashion already. The caramelized onions add a hint of sweetness to the burger that I didn't expect and the assembly is just perfect. The oversized roll encompasses the burger well that instead of the oils and flavors dripping out like other massive burgers, there is some bread to soak it up rather than having it land in the basket.

Conclusion: There's a reason why this place became more famous for their burgers than their beers, although their beer collection is quite extensive. To be honest, I did have a beer that night, and I can't remember the name of it, so I'll have to leave it out of the review for now. I do wish to make another trip to Father's Office again and probably try one of their other entrees to see how they stack up to the burger.

This place gets an A-Rank

Epilogue: SO the embarrassing moment I experienced. We met up at Dianne's house to carpool out to Santa Monica, and prior to that, I had stopped at the ATM to get money. We hopped into Jason's car and were on our way. I was greeted by a doorman checking for ID and I realized I had left my wallet in my car, back in Orange County. Fail. The doorman was nice enough to let me in, after asking my friend a series of questions about me to verify my identity and age.