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&Dine Cassia 1314 Seventh St.


Santa Monica, CA 90401 (310) 393-6699 cassiala.com


PERFECT PALATE


Hours of Operation: Sun - Thurs: 5:00PM - 10:00PM Fri - Sat: 5:00PM - 11:00PM


CASSIA Cassia is a spot that sneaks up on you slowly — the space is so big and


flashy, its feel so of-the-moment, it would be easy to down a few well-made cocktails and order a couple of dishes from the long, slightly overwhelming menu and think, “Nice place, good flavors” — yet never notice that this isn’t just another delightful but familiar Asian-ish hot spot. But on second and third visit, the exceptional quality of chef Bryant Ng’s cooking will amaze your palate. Every single dish that hits the table elicits a reaction of “Damn, this is good!”


Cassia is the project of Ng (formerly of the much-missed Spice Table), his wife, Kim Ng, and husband-and-wife duo Zoe Nathan and Josh Loeb of Rustic Canyon/Huckleberry fame.


Ng has brought some of the sensibility that made Spice Table such a favorite, but the context is slightly different: Here, he’s riffing on the interplay between


French and Vietnamese cuisines, both the influences that are born of the historical French occupation of Vietnam and crossovers born of Ng’s imagination.


And so, you can order a chilled seafood platter in various sizes, but rather than the tower of chilled crustacean bits that’s customary, you get a sampling of Ng’s cooked and raw cold seafood creations: a bowl of large prawns bathed in an aromatic Vietnamese hot sauce; smoked salmon dip topped with fresh salmon roe and served with grilled country bread; hunks of raw scallop in chile oil with tiny bits of ham and corn and gobs of fresh herbs.


Other French/Vietnamese crossovers here, such as the pho-influenced Photography: Rick Poon & Anne Fishbein EXCLUSIVE COLLECTIONS GALLERIES


pot-au-feu, are not only striking in their cleverness but also in just how well they sum up the aim of this restaurant: an elegant ode to what both Europe and Asia have taught us about deliciousness.


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