Complete this: “The last time I set foot inside Asia de Cuba was in ________ “.

Yah, me too. Early 2000s, BTW (Before The Wife). The restaurant has been Skybar’s neighbor at the Mondrian hotel for 10 years — that’s 70 actual years in LA restaurant age.

Currently, Philip Dubose is the executive chef at Asia de Cuba West Hollywood. Previously, he helmed AdC in San Francisco. Sufficed to say, the man knows this menu. If there’s anyone you want prepping your “tunapica”, he is it. And hey! Here he is making that tunapika!

January 25th was the last “Chef’s Dinner” at Asia de Cuba and I was luckily invited to be table side, (more importantly, window side) thanks to Mondrian’s marketing team. One of motives for the event is to spread the word of the evolving, and still effervescent, Asia de Cuba. Though visitors will forever demand the calamari salad, the tunapika & the miso butterfish, Mondrian (and Chef DuBose) wants you to know the culinary powers that be in West Hollywood can still switch it up beyond catering to tourists. Witness their participation in the recent Cart for Cause. Witness Champagne & Caviar at the Skybar Hut — Leo purported snuggled and slurped.

Honestly, the specifics of the last meal at Skybar refuses to surface in my mind. I do remember we weren’t seated to one of the best view of the hills. But hear this LA: come on a weekday & wear your stretchy party panties. The food is solid, the ravioli under the turbot was revelational. (By revelational, I mean: “dangit, raviolis made from wanton wrappers get me every time!“. Seafood is the strength here. If your nanny no longer wants to babysit on weekdays and you want to jump start your mid life crisis, come for weekend brunch. You can have a sun-soaked brunch bender from 8:00am to 3:30pm at Asia de Cuba every weekend. Even better are those “special occasions” during which restaurants are known as “amateur hours”; AdC served nearly 400 guests last new years eve. The staff didn’t even wince. Valentine’s Day coming up? Afraid of that one bad meal? Leave it to Asia de Cuba and its Vday “sharing menu”.

The next special Dining with the Chef event (with wine pairing) will be mid-April (specific date TBD).

Asia de Cuba
8440 W Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(323) 848-6000
mondrianhotel.com

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