I went to Catch LA and lived to tell the tale
In the beginning of June, a friend suggested a few of us go out to an especially fancy dinner to celebrate our graduation. We decided it would be a good “last hoorah” before life got ahead of us and our time stopped being our own. A lot of places got thrown around: Perch, Nobu, Urasawa, among others.
If you can’t tell, we were going for places at which you would find LA’s finest, most obnoxious customers. In keeping with this theme, we finally landed on Catch. In our four years of living in LA, none of us had ever been, and it seemed only right as true Angelenos to make the trek to the Catch roof and see for ourselves if all the rumors were true.
I immediately took to OpenTable and found that the earliest reservation I could get us was June 28th. The fact that the reservation was made basically a month in advance (not by choice) was enough to get eyerolls and sarcastic comments from my soon-to-be dinner guests.
The reservation was far enough away that we all pretty much forgot about it. Then suddenly it was June 27th and I got an email from OpenTable asking me to confirm our table.
Between graduation and moving, I didn’t have time to be anxious about our dinner plans. Suddenly, all of my anxieties rushed to the surface: What if someone doesn’t follow dress code and we get turned away? What if the waiters give us attitude? What if everything is too expensive and we become that annoying table that only orders two things? There was a lot of potential for embarrassment, and our dignities were at stake! I felt incredibly unprepared.
On the big night, in an effort to relieve some of this anxiety that only I seemed to be feeling, we all put on our best outfits, studied the menu, and obviously pregamed. In situations like this, liquid courage was our best friend.
Accidentally fashionably late due to Uber error, we were quickly and kindly brought upstairs by the hostesses outside. This already put me at ease, as my deep dive of Yelp reviews had warned me of the sass these hostesses often possess. Thankfully, we experienced none of that.
We made it to the roof after a surprisingly quick elevator ride, and obviously the first thing we saw was the floral archway that leads you to the bar. It was beautiful, but in all honesty, the amount of Instagram photos I’d seen in the past four years with this in the background made it a little underwhelming. I knew it was something my mom would love, though, so we made sure to snap at least one photo before leaving after our meal.
Aside from the flower arrangements, which were basically being used exclusively as a built-in photo studio, the next thing I noticed was that the roof was absolutely packed. I couldn't help but remember that it was a Monday night. The bar had people both seated and standing all around it, and each table seemed to be being utilized to its maximum capacity. As I was staring at the crowd, I wondered if everyone else here was also following up on a reservation they’d made a month in advance, or if there was some secret booking service my party of four didn’t have enough collective Instagram followers to be given access to.
While I didn’t feel incredibly out of place, I did feel like the youngest in the establishment. I was shocked that it was a common birthday dinner or date night destination for many UCLA students, as there was definitely a prominent richer-than-you adult crowd. I think that was partially due to it being a weeknight, but as I was looking around I knew I would never want to see what the crowd looked like on a weekend.
We were brought to our table after a less-than-five-minute wait, and immediately all caved and ordered twenty dollar cocktails. I personally got the Lush Lemonade, which was pretty much an apple lemonade with vodka and a hint of vanilla that I thought would be overpowering but was actually very subtle and balancing. I don’t know if it was worth the twenty dollars, but it was still very good.
That sentiment could sum up the entire dinner. I don’t know if it was worth the price, but it was good. I would lower the price of pretty much everything we ordered by at least five dollars. But hey, maybe I’m cheap.
Naturally, I took the liberty of ordering for the table. We decided beforehand that the most economically smart way to attack this dinner would be to share a bunch of dishes. That way, we could try as much as possible and get a better holistic idea of the restaurant. Because, while we were going there for a good time, we really just wanted to know if all the hype was worth it.
We shared two sushi rolls, three “Catch Classics”, and one side. The two sushi rolls came out first: the Hellfire Roll and the Catch Roll. According to the menu, the Hellfire Roll was spicy tuna two-ways, with pear and balsamic, and the Catch Roll included crab, salmon, and miso-honey. Spicy tuna is my go-to sushi order, so I was most excited for the Hellfire Roll. I was in the bathroom, so I unfortunately missed the iconic sushi-torch of the Catch Roll (which is confusing, because you’d think the Hellfire roll would get finished with a blow torch, right?), but my boyfriend kindly took a photo so I could see what it was all about after the fact.
I first tasted the ginger, as I’ve found the quality of ginger to be a good measure of the quality of sushi. The ginger, simply put, was phenomenal. Fresh, zesty, and with the right amount of crispness. It was a great palate cleanser between rolls, and thing to snack on while waiting for our next dish.
I tried the Catch Roll first, and in hindsight I wish I first tried the Hellfire Roll. The Hellfire Roll was bland and lacking in comparison to the Catch Roll’s punching flavor. If anything, the Catch Roll outdid the Hellfire Roll in terms of spiciness, which is disappointing for anything spicy tuna. The Catch Roll was so much spicier than the Hellfire Roll that up until writing this I thought the the rolls were switched and that the Hellfire Roll didn’t actually disappoint me the way it did! If I were to go back, the Catch Roll would definitely be reordered (I have to see the torching with my own two eyes), but I’d probably try something else in place of the Hellfire Roll. The one thing I will say, though, is that I do think five pieces of sushi for $23 per roll is kind of a ripoff. I can go to any sushi bar in LA and get at least eight pieces for nearly half that price, so while it felt like a must-get at this dinner, it was a bit lacking in substance.
The next dish that came was the Crispy Shrimp, which included a spicy mayo and fish roe. In all honesty, it felt like a glorified Bang Bang Shrimp situation, but I didn’t even care. It was fresh, crunchy, and spicy, but in a way that made you want to take another bite the second you swallowed your previous one. It was one of the bigger portions we received, and for that we were grateful, but it was still something I could’ve cleared by myself and still been hungry for more.
Soon after demolishing the shrimp, the Grilled Spanish Octopus was put in front of us. I take after my dad in that whenever I see grilled octopus on a menu, I must order it. I love seeing different renditions of it, and Catch’s did impress me. It was served with crispy potatoes and a garlic aioli. The potatoes still had their crunch, but were soft from being drenched in the savory aioli, and the octopus wasn’t chewy, which is always a risk. It also still had some charred grill flavor on it which I loved. The cilantro served on top added a nice bit of freshness to the whole plate. I still don’t know how everyone I was with felt about it, but as an octopus-lover this might have been my favorite dish from the night. Somewhat more reasonably priced at $25, with a decently large portion put in front of us, I would have been happy with that being my main meal.
As we were finishing up the octopus, the Crunchy Rice Cakes came out. These were like crispy rice taken to a whole new level. They included tuna tartare and wasabi fish roe. The flavor was very unique and intriguing as it was somewhat sweet and I couldn’t quite place it, and I loved the crunch of the rice cakes combined with the soft tuna topping. These were rather small, and as we were rationed to one rice cake each, it is definitely something I would have wanted more of.
The last thing to come out was the Parmesan-Truffle Fries. It was strange that these were served last, as I feel it would’ve made more sense to bring them out with the shrimp so we could continue to munch between the rest of our meal, but the waiter said they bring everything out as-ready, so it was just unlucky that the fries were ready last. As dairy is not my friend, I only had a few parm-less bites, but they were solid. Your classic truffle fries, and a great way to soak up all our previous seafood eats. I honestly would have been concerned if they messed them up.
In trying to exercise some semblance of self control, we unfortunately did not fall for the dessert trap. We paid the surprisingly-not-too-wallet-emptying bill and swiftly made our exit, of course stopping for a quick photo under the flowers and twinkling lights so I had something to send my mom (she loved it).
To put the cherry on top of our elitist LA evening, as we were waiting for our Uber on the curb of Melrose (in true riches to rags style), Logan Paul walked out of a black Escalade and the paparazzi that we previously did not notice squatting in front of the valet proceeded to have a 30 second field day. After throwing him a couple heckles, we sat on the curb for another fifteen minutes, reflecting on the philosophy behind the rooftop verses downstairs binary of the whole place.
While I poke fun at the experience, I really did enjoy myself and I understand the hype. It’s definitely a great place to go to impress visitors, and although it is overpriced, I know that’s just due to the fact that you are on a rooftop in the middle of Melrose with a great view and beautiful decorations all around you. Although I don’t know if I’d make another trip “just because,” I could see myself bringing my parents for the novelty of it all.
To top it all off, we went through the whole experience without getting scolded, sassed, or stared at. And at the end of the day, that’s all I could’ve asked for.
