Mastro’s Ocean Club

1200 S. Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015
213-204-6842
mastrosrestaurants.com

By GINA KERNAN | Managing Director

The choices for dining in downtown Los Angeles are endless. With one-of-a kind restaurants and Michelin-starred chefs, the options are bountiful—but it’s hard to come close to the classic and upscale experience Mastro’s Ocean Club offers.

Mastro’s is known for its world-class service, highly acclaimed cuisine, and live entertainment in an elegant and energetic atmosphere. It is a go-to place for special dates and anniversaries, and now the go-to place before a Laker game or Taylor Swift concert, if you can get tickets.

The first Mastro’s opened in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1999, and the newest location, in downtown LA, lives up to the name and is ready to serve.

Located just steps from LA Live, Crypto.com Arena and Los Angeles Convention Center, it’s ideally situated in the center of it all. From outside, the music beckons you in with songs from live pianist Afina Madonna playing modern renditions of everything from Sublime to Alicia Keys on a baby grand piano. To the warm and welcoming staff, Mastro’s always delivers on the experience.

The new venue is dark and dreamy as you enter the oversized doors—a Mastro’s tradition—filled with a gallery of hanging modern glass chandeliers reminiscent of a school of underwater jelly fish and coral accents adjoining the walls.

In the center of the spacious, 350-seat dining room sits the floor-to-ceiling wine cellar with over 1,100 unique wine varieties.

I personally enjoy their martinis and, in particular, the lemon drop served over dry ice for a smoky presentation—a true drop of magic. The elderflower martini, with St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur, Hendrick’s Gin and Belvedere Citrus Vodka, is a close second. The beer selection is also plentiful, and the food is just as dreamy as the drinks—and locally sourced.

Mastro’s presents the best of all culinary worlds with sushi in addition to the classic prime-grade steakhouse options, including the New York strip, rib-eye, porterhouse steaks and American Wagyu, as well as Japanese A5 Wagyu.

For those craving more seafood options, Mastro’s also offers their classic live Maine lobster, Norwegian cold-water salmon, bigeye tuna, branzino and, my all-time favorite, the Chilean sea bass, to name a few.

They are also known for their famed seafood tower, a two-foot-tall seafood tower of chilled crab legs, shrimp, oysters as well as several sushi rolls and sashimi.

But let me not get ahead of myself, as one should never dine at Mastro’s without ordering their bread basket, a special treat, with a delectable sampling of warm pretzel bread, crostini, sourdough and focaccia, served with Mastro’s own clarified butter.

After sampling the bread basket, we dived into the savory garlic roasted bone marrow served with arugula for a rich, buttery, semi-sweet spread on a crisp crostini along with the jumbo lump crab cakes.

We couldn’t resist the most popular 22-ounce, bone-in ribeye steak, perfectly cooked by Executive Chef Marcus Andrade and his team, and the flaky and flavorful Chilean sea bass, a tender, 10-ounce bass with large thick flakes coated in breadcrumbs for a rich, melt-in-your-mouth flavor.

It wouldn’t be a night out at Mastro’s without the delightfully decadent lobster mashed potatoes, a rich creamy mashed potato with scrumptious pieces of lobster meat available in white cheddar or original. We also sampled the truffle butter sautéed wild mushrooms, which rounded out a perfect dining experience with an earthy decadence.

Don’t forget to end your night with their famous house butter cake. This signature dessert of vanilla pound cake, butter and cream cheese is topped with crystalized sugar, then dusted in raw sugar and garnished with fruit and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. It is even available to go.

This classic and sophisticated steakhouse and ocean club is a must while in the area.