LIISA SPINK The Encounter restaurant is located at the
Los Angeles International Airport.
By Emi Kojima
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
While the atmosphere and prices at the science
fiction-themed restaurant Encounter may be out of this world, the
food is a little more down to earth.
Encounter is a sci-fi eatery serving California cuisine in a
space-age structure resembling a flying saucer with parabolic
arches overhead at the center of the Los Angeles International
Airport.
The elevator up to the restaurant plays a theme song that sounds
like the take-off music from Disneyland’s Space Mountain,
providing a sonic glimpse of what’s to come. When the doors
open, diners enter a place that looks like a cross between the
Jetsons’ space ship and Austin Powers’ shag pad. The
restaurant overlooks the airport terminal, and watching planes take
off never seemed so fantastic.
Surrounded by walls covered in Swiss cheese-like moon craters,
patrons walk on a multicolored carpet to the metallic bar, complete
with a large lava lamp, while waiting for their tables.
The restaurant’s electric-colored martinis ““ such as
the “Electric Barbarella,” a concoction of Absolut,
Triple Sec, Peach Schnapps and Orange Juice, or
“Austin’s Apples,” a basic apple martini ““
run $8. They’re on the sweet side, relatively strong and very
fruity.
The Fried Calamari ($10) appetizer is a small portion of squid
cut into rectangles and fried in a light, salty batter. A heavy
tomato and horseradish dipping-sauce arrives on the side, evoking
an idea of what an intergalactic Happy Meal might be.
RESTAURANT INFORMATION
Encounter Address: 209 World Way
Los Angeles, Calif. Hours: Monday – Sunday 11 a.m.
– 4 p.m. 5 p.m. – 10 p.m. Phone Numbers: (310)
215-5151 Price Range: Lunch $6-15 Dinner
$19-27
The New York Steak ($29) comes sliced and drowned in a thin
four-peppercorn cream sauce with a rich mushroom risotto side dish,
nicely al dente.
The Carmelized Salmon ($25), a medium-sized piece of salmon,
arrives covered in a sweet and syrupy sauce that does not mask the
flavor of the salmon fillet, and is served with fresh dill. The
asparagus on the side compliments the sauce well, and the sweet
potato purée, which arrives in the shape of a decorative
macaroon, is creamy and sweet; the combination of the sweet sauce
and puree, however, is a bit overpowering.
If nothing else, order dessert. The Mocha Java cake ($8) arrives
in an artistic, geometrical tower made of unusual cookies and
yellow, transparent candy sticks. A small slice of cake serves as
the base, piled with two paper-thin, triangle shaped cookies with
holes in them. The candy sticks poke through the cookies’
holes and unite in an upside-down “V” over the cake,
like the spidery arches of the building itself.
The cake is rich, moist and semi-sweet. A sugary strawberry and
vanilla dipping sauce, presumably for the cookies, comes on the
side, along with two real strawberries cut into geometrical pieces
for presentation.
However, there are many reasons guests may dislike Encounter.
Parking at the airport is always difficult, and the food is a mix
of old, reliable staples topped with flavor-laden sauces at high
prices. At $19 to $30 for entrees, dinner will take a toll on a
student’s budget. Still, by providing something familiar in a
novel fashion, the food manages to hit the pleasure centers of
guests’ palates.
Encounter takes diners back to the traditional science fiction
utopia, an ironically nostalgic experience reminiscent of the time
when science had the potential to solve all problems. Everything
about the restaurant suggests that it was envisioned as a throwback
to the futuristic lifestyle that children of the ’60s
imagined for today’s jet set crowd. Think about the average
$35 meal as an admission ticket to an entire simulated world
overlooking LAX.