Lamill's desserts with a thrill

deconstructed sweet potato pie with masala ice cream

I reviewed Lamill's dinner menu for the Los Feliz Ledger this month, but you'll have to click on the PDF link to read the review. The Arctic char with beech mushrooms, butter and soy is one of the best dishes I've had in quite a while, and it was fun to try the clam cakes which we usually only can get in Rhode Island.
But for me the top draw at Lamill, possibly even more than the coffee, are the desserts. It's funny, because I'm not much of a dessert person unless someone puts a homemade rhubarb pie in front of me, which unfortunately rarely happens. But Lamill's desserts dance only vaguely into sweetness, with frequent forays into salty, bitter and flavors like curry.bitter, creamy panna cotta with salty cookie crumbs and coconut ravioli

Deconstructed sweet potato pie was an almost savory cylinder served with masala-spiced ice cream and pecans and crumbs strewn around the plate, a delicious riff on a traditional pie. Coffee panna cotta is as dense as budino, without the gelatinous jiggliness that befalls most panna cotta, paired with wonderfully salty chocolate cookie crumbs and topped with a cunning coconut "ravioli." I hear the dessert lollipops are fun too, although I haven't tried them yet. But the best dessert for my money -- and I'd gladly spend $9 for it, seeing as I seldom order dessert -- is the cool, silky, passion fruit gelee dessert, wonderfully tart with litchi sorbet in an ethereal pool of white chocolate, coconut milk and basil seeds. I can't get to New York right now to try Pichet Ong's P*ong, but I have a feeling this is the next best thing.