Public School 310: Overrated and Disastrous, Avoid at all Costs

I always have different levels of expectations before trying a new place and with Public School 310 in Culver City, I was skeptical. It seemed gimmicky (I mean, look at those notepad-themed coasters). My suspicions were fully and painfully confirmed, and then some.

Let's start with the bacon cheddar tots we started with. They sounded so promising but they were totally overcooked to a very dark brown and not even crispy at that. They were dripping grease. The Sriracha ketchup it came with barely had any kick. Bland and disastrous. Horrible execution.

The Hunstman burger was also bland. The patty was unremarkable and didn't have much flavor. It was cooked decently to a medium rare but when I tasted something off, I realized it was the inside of the bun that had been toasted to a layer of black. Unacceptable. The balsamic onions were overpowering and didn't add anything to the burger. It was highly disappointing. The fries weren't even that hot, or crispy, for that matter.

My companion had the Salmon-Pastrami Ruben that came with a gribiche slaw that seems to be rage these days. When we asked what gribiche was, our server kept saying it was a type of slaw without explaining what the slaw consisted of, which reflects poorly on the servers' knowledge on the dishes. It wasn't at all helpful to say that, since we could glean that from reading the menu.

Despite the extremely mediocre, no, below average food, the place was packed, which can only mean one thing -- HYPE. It was definitely a scene and gimmicky, complete with nostalgic notebook covers being used as menu covers. Because it was crowded, the servers constantly wanted to clear our table. I guess it's better than Santa Monica Seafood Company that told our party there's a 1.5 hour limit to sit at a cafe table -- the nerves. That may be reason enough to boycott that place for a while.

In any case, I'm not going to bother returning. It also confirms my feeling about the main Culver City strip being a wasteland in terms of good food. You'd have to trek to Waterloo & City to get half-way decent grub.