Taking advantage of living downtown, my wife and I decided to celebrate a special occasion (a birthday) by ""walking"" to J restaurant for dinner on a Friday night. We had reservations for 8 p.m. After a nice stroll from our loft, we arrived to find this great place. We were greated very warmly and shown to our booth. The atmosphere is great, nice furnishings and very romantic. I will say that this it is a very large restaurant according to LA standards. The service was great, attentive but not bothersome. The wine and drink choices were abundant. The wine list is sufficeint, but as I say in all my review of restaurants, ease up on the corkage fee, allow patrons to at least bring their own bottle of wine. The food was outstanding and portions large (important to me since I am a big guy (athletic build) and like to eat), since sharing is our thing. We had the calamari and ceasar salad which were both very good. The hot bread and butter is a nice touch. We had the roasted pork and mashed potatoes which could have only been improved upon if they would have served it on a warmed plate. But for the quantity and quality, it was delicious and more than enough for the two of us. We were there for about an hour and half, very leisurely dinner and then took a tour of the place. The lounge upstairs is nice, the outside atrium/patio area (similar to that of the Golden Gopher) was nice, especially with the window and the plasma screen TV nicely aligned was cool. This would be a nice place for an after dinner drink. I know that there are some unhappy folks with the lounge staff, but for a nice dinner, close to home for us, it was a great evening and would definetly return. We are looking forward to this summer and hopefuly some happy hours on the back patio.
more