fig restaurant

march 30, 2011 in happy hour , restaurants , santa monica i love fresh figs; my friends who have fig trees always give me their excess bounty. i've been hearing about fig for years but for one reason or another (usually having to do with traffic / parking at the beach), i never got to taste the food here until today. the timing worked out perfectly as i missed the farmer's market morning traffic and got there in the afternoon to watch a movie at the laemmle down the street. the movie was great (the documentary "i am" ) and the movie let out just in time for me to walk the two blocks to the fig for their happy hour from 5-6pm when everything on their menu is 50% off. the hostess asked for my name (fig is in the miramar so some diners are hotel guests) and seated me with aniceview of the small pool. service was excellent, from the waitress to the bus boys, never intrusive but always prepared to meet any need, whether it be for clarification on a menu item or a refill of water. the warm

what to order --- the breakfast room has a veryniceview towards the garden and the swimming pool. on sundays mornings, you will see a lot of people, reading their newspapers and enjoying fresh and sustainable dishes. i ordered the house-smoked salmon with caper berries, lettuce, tomatoes, and fromage blanc. i decided to try the whole wheat bagel (but the flavor is a little overpowering, so it might be better with the plain bagel). the amount of salmon was so small that it was difficult to taste it. the hairloom tomato slices were super sweet and amazingly delicious. the capers are too much, for this size of plate, maybe two-three berries are enough. overall, it is a very elegant breakfast. i ordered coffee and enjoyed its warmth.

the cocktail was pretty well balanced (albeit a bit too much scotch for my taste, but i don't think most would complaint about that) they honey did anicejob at smoothing the punch from the scotch, along with the lemon to add a touch of freshness and acidity and surprisingly the tarragon added aniceherbaceous finish.