Tabu Grill
Find out why this Laguna Beach restaurant is far from taboo.
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In case you’re wondering – I was – “tabu” is a variant of “taboo,” though your spell checker won’t recognize it as such. The word arrives from the kingdom of Tonga, an archipelago of 171 islands south of Samoa in the Pacific Ocean. It seems an unlikely place from which to derive our English vocabulary – from what constitutes the only sovereign monarchy among the islands of the Pacific – but Captain James Cook, who arrived on the so-called Friendly Islands in 1773, didn’t think so.
He introduced the word to the English language shortly after his visit there, and ever since, though its spelling has been altered, it has referred to varying forms of social prohibition, something that one just doesn’t do.
The word does have an island-ish ring to it. I picture big-masted ships landing on exotic island shores to colonize primitive lands and peoples, setting up trading routes for things like spices and slaves. I think of now uncommon afflictions like scurvy and superstitious practices like voodoo. I imagine there were pirates, too. Tabus seem to have come from mysterious and primitive places where ritual and lore take precedence over what we would consider today to be modern knowledge and scientific know-how. Take the Nuba people of East Africa, who believed they would die upon entering the house of their king unless they bared their left shoulder, which the king would touch and thus spare them from death.
Interestingly, there isn’t much that’s taboo about Laguna Beach’s Tabu Grill, unless you count the forbidden rice, which isn’t really taboo at all, just black (well, dark purple) in color, giving it a somewhat sinister appearance. There are also exotic-looking masks hanging on the rough stone wall, which holds tiny flickering candles in what look to be rudimentarily constructed cubby holes. The lighting is extremely dim, so much so that the staff hands out portable flashlights so guests can read the menu, and the restaurant is small, consisting of fewer than 12 tables if you don’t count the seats at the grill. Though the restaurant seems to subscribe to the lesser-known definition of the word “tabu” (or “tapu” in Tongan) – the one that means “sacred” or “holy” – it doesn’t appear to take itself too seriously, mixing fine dining fare with a healthy dose of SoCal’s trademark laid-back-ness, or as our server described it, Tabu Grill is “the place where people from the Montage come to let their hair down.”
On the Monday evening we were there, nearly every table was filled. The atmosphere was lively, but not frantic, maybe as a result of the zen-ified surroundings. In the five years since Tabu Grill has been open, it has gone from local eatery to Zagat-acclaimed wunder-grill, earning a near perfect food score of 29 out of 30 for 2009 and catapulting it to the highest rated restaurant in Southern California. Managing partner Nancy Wilhelm, along with chef Kevin Jerrold-Jones, are the food brains behind the scenes, combining Polynesian and Asian influences with Western signatures like big steaks and amped up flavors. It’s chemistry that works well for them – and for us too. We left hailing Tabu Grill among the top three restaurants in OC.
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We began with Tabu-style yellowfin poke piled into a cylinder and mixed with avocado, mango, sesame, and mint and served with crispy taro chips. Perfectly tender, the yellowfin tuna wasn’t so much a protein to power through as a conduit that melted into the background, mingling with the rest of the ingredients to create an overall sensation of spicy, sweet and salty that captures a mysterious deliciousness so difficult to define. Taro chips, a departure from the ubiquitous potato chip, provided a nutty profile and a crunchy underpinning to round out the textures.
The best scallops I’ve ever had were the next starter, grilled and smothered in a tangerine beurre blanc sauce over potato purée and covered with citrusy baby greens. So fresh you could taste the ocean, the scallops were plump and seared to perfection with subtle tangerine notes cutting through the smooth, buttery sauce. It’s tough to get just the right balance between citrus and butter, but this sauce managed admirably.
Entrées began with the miso-marinated mero sea bass with mixed mushrooms, udon noodles, water chestnuts, and lemongrass-infused fish fumé. Not on the regular menu and offered as a seasonal special, it was especially delightful on what was a relatively chilly, foggy evening. The sea bass swam in warm broth loaded with a variety of tasty mushrooms and udon noodles and accented with sprigs of fresh herbs like cilantro, which added a refreshing zing to the dish. But if the sea bass was light yet satisfying, the next entrée was the opposite: rich and entirely indulgent. The Angus bone-in rib-eye with forbidden rice risotto, mixed mushrooms, asparagus, and smoked bacon in a creamy mushroom sauce was the equivalent of an entire day’s – nay, week’s – decadence allowance, or as the server put it, we “wouldn’t be needing dessert.” But it was so delicious, it was hard to resist cutting into bite after bite of grilled meat dripping with forbidden rice risotto.
Yet, we did have dessert. Two of them, in fact. Coconut-scented Tahitian vanilla bean crème brûlée with Valrhona chocolate flakes came first, a surprisingly light version of a dessert that at times tends to be on the weighty side. The coconut was so delicate as to almost disappear into the creamy texture, but present enough to add a very appealing dimension. And banana chocolate cake with Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream and rum syrup was pure heaven with a warm, moist center and melting ice cream accented by wafts of exotic rum.
It ain’t on the crystalline blue waters of Polynesia (the cliffs of Laguna Beach will suffice), but for Tabu Grill’s fantastic fare, it doesn’t really matter – a little imagination and a menu are all that’s needed.
Tabu Grill, 2892 S. Coast Hwy., Laguna Beach, (949) 494-7743; tabugrill.com. Reservations recommended; starters, $12-$18; entrées, $17-$55.
