RESTAURANT REVIEW: Petrossian

321 N. Robertson Blvd. | West Hollywood, CA 90048 | (310) 271-6300 | petrossian.com | Prices: $$$$

By MICHAEL AUSHENKER | Contributing Writer

Diehard foodies know that caviar—that famously high-end and expensive salt-cured roe—only comes from sturgeon. Likewise, if it’s caviar you’re craving, there’s probably only one eatery your fish-egg fix should come from: Petrossian.

Petrossian has introduced its monthly five-course menu ($125; with wine pairing, $175), a shifting list based on available seasonal ingredients.

Part boutique caviar and salmon store and part elegant restaurant, the West Hollywood location, which has existed in its present form for about seven years, is the third in a string of Petrossian outlets still family owned nearly a century after the original Petrossian opened in Paris.

Founded by Melkoum and Mouchegh Petrossian, the establishment began in 1920 after the Petrossian brothers had arrived from Armenia.

A second Petrossian restaurant opened a block south of Central Park in Manhattan, and since West Hollywood’s restaurant, Petrossian boutiques and cafes have popped up at LAX and in Las Vegas.

For the past five years, Giselle Wellman has expertly helmed the restaurant’s kitchen. At 31, Wellman is one of the youngest executive chefs in Los Angeles. Hailing from Mexico City, Wellman attended that city’s Le Cordon Bleu. She worked at a couple of restaurants in San Diego, including for Jean-Georges—Vongerichten’s French-Asian and Italian restaurants in La Jolla, and as a line cook at Del Posto.

It was at Mario Batali’s famed Manhattan restaurant, serving 300 people nightly, where Wellman felt both confident and humbled.

“There’s always more for you to learn,” she told the Palisadian-Post. “You can always be better. It really grounded me.”

Wellman moved back West to open Bouchon in Beverly Hills before arriving in West Hollywood.

Across her half-decade here, Wellman has not only seen Petrossian evolve, she has steered its evolution, even as she admits, in unabashed fashion, that she learned on the job how best to prepare, integrate and serve caviar.

Five categories of caviar are sold here, ranging from a Classic 30-gram tin ($69) to a 50-gram Special Reserve of Ossetra costing $655, but our meal involved Transmontanus, a caviar most flavorful for cooking.

We began with our Sturgeon Parfait ($16) and Dungeness Crab ($16) starters. Chef Wellman poured a corn soup with fennel and Serrano chile that, dab of crab notwithstanding, could make a tasty vegan dish.

Round two involved the delicious Petit Petrossian ($28), a small jar of caviar served with blinis (tiny pancakes) and a crème fraiche that tasted incredibly fresh. Although the radish dominated the avocado mousse and yuzu aioli-kissed King Crab Merus ($28), it was still tasty.

Entering the pasta/risotto course, our photographer Rich Schmitt preferred the tasty Caviar Fettucine ($32), with its crème fraiche and chives mixed in. However, the Squid Ink Pasta ($32) won my palate: black angel hair with poached egg, bulbous orange salmon roe and savory Santa Barbara sea urchin intertwined.

Then came the entrée.

“Caviar comes only from the sturgeon but the sturgeon itself has a bad reputation,” Wellman said. “In fact, it’s a very approachable fish.”

Chef Wellman found great use of the Sturgeon ($42), with caviar cream. Personally, I preferred Wagyu Flat Iron ($42), a scrumptious morsel of Japanese beef flanked by heirloom tomatoes, Castelvetrano olives and horseradish butter. (Also offered this month: Duck Breast and Scallops.)

The White Peach dessert ($8) entails very rare, expensive peaches, but we opted for what Chef Wellman considers her signature dessert: the espresso caviar-tinged Vanilla Panna Cotta ($8). Warning: Do not order the Palet d’Or ($8), a gold leaf-adorned chocolate mousse with caramel pearls, without a cappuccino—this was the evening’s most sublime pairing.

Although Petrossian’s myriad wines include bottles arriving from everywhere from Napa Valley to Bordeaux, we accompanied our first four courses with cocktails.

Petrossian Caviartini ($24), Beluga Noble Russian vodka and Dolin Vermouth de Chambery with a caviar-stuffed olive, proved an interesting start, but the evening’s rock star was the Fleur de Ver ($22), an airy emerald blend including Tanqueray gin and caviar powder. Other options include Mint Cucumber Lemonade ($14), Mai Tai ($14) and Gin Old Fashioned ($16).

Definitely ask for bread and butter to accompany your meal. It’s optional so you must request it – a mouth-watering, crusty, toasted baguette that when buttered adds a spectacular accent to your meal.

If there are any drawbacks for the average customer, it’s the obvious: since we are talking about caviar and fine wine, prices reflect this.

Then there are the seemingly small portions. Remarkably though, a five-course dinner—accompanied by bread, cocktails and coffee—is incredibly filling; all those small plates tally up.

While “neighborhood restaurant” might not be the most accurate moniker for classy, upscale Petrossian, “quality restaurant” nails it. What you’re paying for here is an experience, and what a grand and uncommon experience it is.