THE BASICS:

WHAT:  A contemporary American restaurant, rustic wine bar and artisanal retail store

WHERE:  The Sunset Strip

WHEN:  Lunch & Dinner Daily, Weekend Brunch, and Daily Happy Hour

THE DISH:  

WHAT TO EAT:  The mushroom bruschetta ($14) with crimini and porcini shrooms, white wine, herbs and quail eggs on a crostini was a fresh take on the classic bruschetta. And while restaurants typically prepare mushrooms dishes with creamy sauces making them feel heavy, this light take was not the case here. If only there were more than 3 itty-bitty pieces.

WHAT TO SKIP:  Probably just THE GUILD, in general.  Maybe they’re embracing a truly LA eating regime or putting everyone on a diet, but portion sizes were NOT in our favor despite the stacked prices. We ordered a 2 cheese, 2 meat board for $28 and while the ingredients were good, we could have eaten two boards each (see pics above).  And we feel like the pictures actually make it look bigger than it was because those four slices of salami were each the size of a quarter… which comes out to $7 for just that if you do the math (see we’re smart too!).  If you’re going to give so little of each food, at least use a smaller board. Common sense people. We also tried the Game of Thrones Rack of Lamb (1/2 rack for $45 since there were only two of us) with New Zealand lamb, pomme puree, pomegranate demi and veggies and let us tell you, there was nothing over the top or large like a Game of Thrones title would lead you to believe. Unless they’re taking a lesson from the times and starving us. There were a measly 2 small bites per lamb chop and to say we left dinner HANGRY is an understatement.

WHERE TO SIT: We would recommend grabbing a seat at the beverage or charcuterie bar inside and wearing a low cut shirt to see if they’ll slip you some extra food/drink- a girls gotta eat.

WHO TO BRING/WHO YOU’LL SEE: We’re under the impression that it’s getting a somewhat sleezy Sunset Plaza crowd from what we saw – based on that we’ll leave you to decide who you want to bring – or maybe send a frenemy without you. Let’s just say, the body shop just happens to be a short distance away…Coincidence? We think not…

THE SERVICE: While everyone was overly friendly and our food came out in a timely manner, our waitress would not take a hint. We’re all about getting the full menu rundown and are happy to have a chatty sally rather than a straight up bitch but like, did you want to pull up a chair?

WHERE TO PARK:  Lucky you if you find a street meter otherwise valet it. Not worth the uber unless you really want to spike your bill boozing it up.

POTENTIALLY SOME GOOD NEWS:  Apparently they’re doing bottomless mimosas for weekend brunch ($16 / you don’t even need to get an entree).  We might just go back, sit there all day and drink them dry in an effort to feel like we got our damn money’s worth.  Who’s down?

EDDR LIFE LESSON:  Looks can be deceiving.  After insta-stalking this place, even though we hadn’t heard much hype about it, we bumped it to the top of our list.  It’s been said a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case none of those words are nice ones.

A² FINAL THOUGHT:  Let’s just say we weren’t happy having to pay a $100+ bill sans alcohol and leaving hangry. We MIGHT give it a round two if we need to be in that area and are within happy hour or brunch-time, but other than that we won’t be back.

Truth hurts (sawy),

A²

The Guild ↔ 8741 W. Sunset Blvd, LA, CA 90069 ↔ 424-279-9601