My friend recommended this new-ish small plate place called Allston Yacht Club in Echo Park. I tried to go there before for brunch but it wasn’t open despite it says so on their website. Went back another night with a few friends. With a fun and bright logo, the interior is more slick than I expected, I was however a little disappointed that the interior didn’t look like a yacht club.
All of the small plates price between $4-$9. The menu seems to be all over the map (literally) as there’re dishes from different culture.
A special of the day. Duck two ways: Duck confit and duck pate with fig. The duck confit was a little dry but the taste was good. Flavors were bold and rich.
Cheese plate with olive and Pate .
Frico – Crisps of Parmesan Cheese and sliced shallot with tomato relish. It’s so-so. The parmesan cheese crisps lack crispness.
Roast Brussels Sprouts – Olive oil, dijon and a balsamic reduction and bacon. Delicious! Bacon usually makes everything taste better.
Scorched Shishito Peppers – An izakaya stable.I found it to be a little too oily.
Pork Belly – Braised, then seared and served with an inebriated cherry salad. It sounds and look more interesting than it taste. I found the flavors to be somewhat one note.
Octopus – Dry braised and marinated in olive oil, citrus, herbs and garlic. Again it looks/sounds more interesting than the taste. It was good but not too memorable.
desserts: Bread pudding. (forgot what the 2nd one was) and chocolate mousse
Overall all the dishes we had that night had strong bold flavors that are more on the one note side and were a little rich at times. It was a good meal but not great. During the meal I was strongly reminded of Animal, one of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles. The similarity lies in the small plates, frequent use of bacon and international-theme stoner food. However I found Animal‘s food to be better and more refine in execution, though more pricey as well.
Allston Yacht Club
1320 Echo Park Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90026

Tags: small plate, Tapas, Wine Bar
Animal also costs a heckuva lot more, no? AYC runs happy hour all the time, and the owners are super nice, versus the not-so-friendly servers at Animal.. D’frent vibe for sure.
Yes it’s true that Animal is more pricey (just edited the entry with this note), and it gets so crowded all the time, though I’ve always experience good friendly service there. I wish I could make it to the happy hour at AYC, esp. the everything $5 night. But I can definitely see AYC being a fun affordable place for people who aren’t looking for refine tasting food and just want a pleasant time with pretty good food to share.