Industriel in Downtown: Cool Honey Bears Decor, Poor Food

I loved the look and feel of the space at Industriel in downtown LA but was disappointed at the food. It calls itself an "Urban French Provencal Restaurant with Locally-Sourced Farm Fresh Cuisine." Whatever that means. What matters is that it didn't deliver.

The mussels above look so promising, right? They were horrible, bordering on inedible. If a restaurant is doing seafood, it needs to be serious about sourcing fresh seafood. It could be fresh but it's maybe not the best quality. Not only were the mussels poor quality, but the seasoning was also bland. This was the worst dish.

The champagne, grapefruit juice and rosemary sprig cocktail sounded more interesting than it tasted. I could hardly taste the rosemary flavor and wished it had more of it. But hard to go wrong with champagne and citrus.

The pumpkin soup was probably one of the best things we had that evening but I've had better pumpkin soup.

I must admit I was outraged at having to pay for bread, especially after we got the order because it was below average. I'm sorry but I'll take the complimentary bread from Bouchon or Waterloo & City (review pending) any day. 

The shredded kale appetizer wasn't anything special either.

I was looking forward to the gnocchi that was all the rage on message boards but alas, the gnocchi was overcooked and lacked flavor. I liked that they seared the gnocchi so the edges were crispy but all that effort was lost when I bit into the mushy morsels of gnocchi. I also felt like it didn't jive with the rest of the elements on the plate.

The roasted cornish hen served atop arugula on a bed of polenta held some promise but again, no mind-blowing experience to be had here. It wasn't bad but a heavy sauce that reminded me of frozen food (or airplane food) was drizzled all over the bird and that didn't seem like a good thing. 

We had strawberry shortcake for dessert and this was probably the second best although that may not be saying much. The accompanying sorbets were good and refreshing. 

I loved the decor using those bear bottles of honey but the service was insufferably ingratiating. It's one thing to be friendly and helpful. It's quite another to be hanging around our table and oversharing. Our server was highly annoying in that regard and although it comes from a good place, she needs to back off or will turn off a lot of customers away. 

Not sure if I want to return, especially with so many new, tastier joints popping up in the area including the Parish and hotspot Bestia (review pending).