Fora - Long Beach, CA

For Kat's birthday, we hung out in Long Beach and stayed at the Maya, which was really cute and right by the water (highly recommended). I wanted to pick a nice restaurant for Kat's birthday dinner and since I don't know Long Beach that well, I did some research online and found Fora. It got good reviews and the food sounded good so we went there. First of all, finding parking can be quite difficult on 2nd Street, but we found a small lot on one of the side streets, Ravenna Drive.

I really really wanted to like Fora, but the service sucked. The waitress was soooo slow and neglected us through and through, even though I reminded her several times we were here for a birthday. The waitress said she would bring us a dessert menu at the end, but she completely forgot and just brought out the souffle that we preordered at the beginning. To make matters worse, they brought it out when the birthday girl had stepped aside for a second. You would think they would pay attention to whether the birthday girl was there or not. They didn't even have candles or do anything special to it either. Had I known it would be like this, I would have brought a cake myself. I would give them the benefit of the doubt if they were packed, but by the time we were done with dinner, the place was half empty. So I have no clue what the deal was, but they sucked big time. The food, on the other hand, was the only redeeming factor. But man, poor service can really wreck even a tasty meal. There was also a mix up at the end with the bill, which they rectified, but still.

The waitress kept forgetting to bring us bread as well. I should have known it was going to be a long night. We ordered a few appetizers, which were OK. For our entrees, we ordered the following:

Roasted Tenderloin of Beef with caramelized shallot bathed haricot vert and maytag demi-jus. The tenderloin was cooked perfectly and I liked the bits of maytag blue cheese in the sauce, although the demi-jus was a tad too salty.

Kat and I got the tenderloin and beef stroganoff to share. The beef stroganoff had filet mignon, cremini and white mushrooms with pappardelle pasta. I never really had beef stroganoff growing up and probably my only exposure to it was in my college dinning hall, so I never knew beef stroganoff could be so tasty. =)

Wendy got the Range Grown Chicken Breast with basil-garlic marinade, corn relish, yukon gold mashed potato and tobacco onion. The chicken was moist and tender.

Jeanie got the Seared Tuna with asian plum wine gastrique and black forbidden rice. Her dish was tasty as well.
Now the best part of the meal for me was the souffle. If we had known it was going to be this good, we would have ordered another one for the table. They had lots of different flavors, like lemon, Amaretto, Grand Marnier, Chambord and some other flavor combinations. It was light and airy and not overly sweet, even with the creme anglaise. Now if I can somehow come here and order the souffle to go, so as to not have to deal with the bad service, that would be great. I might have to learn how to make this at home. New Year's Resolution # 2. I have my work cut out for me in 2010.
Kat - I'm so sorry our meal was less than stellar. This is what I get for trying to pick a restaurant other than Yard House. Happy Early Birthday Katter!

Fora

5730 E 2nd St
Long Beach, CA 90803