Cabra LA Review – Stephanie Izard’s 2nd DTLA Restaurant!)
With such a fabulous experience at Stephanie Izard’s Girl & the Goat, my friends and I were extremely excited when we heard she was opening another restaurant in Downtown LA. The restaurant is Cabra and it’s located at the Hoxton Hotel. Parking was a pain (we weren’t lucky enough to get free parking), but the space itself was rather nice. Long story short, we’d skip Cabra next time and keep going back to Girl & the Goat.
Menu – cute goat!
The menu style and very familiar between restaurants in both design/layout and plate styles. Interior was very nice since Cabra LA is on the rooftop, and it’s all indoors. It was a bit windy and cold when we went, but food, drinks, and company can fix that somehow. Anyways, more talk and photos below for my Cabra review.
Drinks – Cheers!
The Girl & the Goat drinks were really elegant and delicious, and the ones here at Cabra are as well. We tried the following drinks –
- Chicha no Nada – this is their mocktail/non-alcoholic cocktail that contains purple corn, cinnamon, apple, and soda. $11, add $6 if you want them to add pisco. The purple corn in a beverage sounded really interested, which prompted a friend to order that one. Pretty good was the consensus.
- Pisco Sour – My drink! I asked for a recommendation and they recommended the pisco sour, which contains pisco, lime, and egg white. $18. This was pretty and it tasted good, but rather a standard fancy cocktail.
- Pisco Fever – frozen drink with pisco, mango, and aji panca. $16. The friend that order this one was smart! So good. I’d definitely get this one on a hot day. The slight spice and mango is such a great combination.
Let’s Order and Eat
Just as Girl & the Goat, these are small-ish plates to share and food comes out whenever. We ordered our food and it came out pretty quickly. That part was amazing since we didn’t have to wait too long to get some food in us. The downside is that no explanation was given to what we ordered or how we should be enjoying the food, so we just winged it.
Empanadas
Beef Empanadas – with huacatay mayo. $16. Two empanadas, so each of us tried half of one. Pretty good, but.a lot of crust. I wasn’t a fan of the sauce, but it was OK ( a bit dry) on its own. Not quite worth $16 for these lil things.
Chicken Empanadas – with pecan chimi. $15. Just like the beef ones above, these were also 2 small empanadas and we each had half of one. Most of us liked this one more than the beef one, but the sauce didn’t have too much flavor so we ended up using nearly all of it.
Dessert Time!
Girl & the Goat desserts were hits and misses, and it seems to be this way for Cabra as well. Not much intrigued us, but we felt we had to try at least one dessert, and we agreed on the mango mountain swirl.
Smaller Dessert Offerings, but Similar to G&TG
Few desserts to choose from, less than what G&TG has to offer. Plenty-ish after dinner drinks, including coffee/tea. That’s pretty nice.
Overview/Final Words
Great brunch atmosphere (in comparison to dinner), but food was just alright. We all didn’t have that “We must go back!” Mentality after our meal as we did with Girl & the Goat. After introducing Girl & the Goat to friends, and since they are local LA folks, they’ve been going fairly often. So jealous. I’ll get a chance to try the liver mousse from them soon.
