Hours
| Friday | 5 PM–1 AM |
| Saturday | 5 PM–1 AM |
| Sunday | 5 PM–1 AM |
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | Closed |
| Wednesday | 5 PM–1 AM |
| Thursday | 5 PM–1 AM |
Address and Contact Information
Address: 1966 Hillhurst Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Phone: (323) 922-1002
Website: https://thevandell.com/
Menu Photos
Order and Reservations
Reservations: resy.com
Related Web Results
VANDELL
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Reviews
The hamachi crudo opens the meal. The fish is very good though the plate leaves you wanting a larger portion. The boston lettuce is refreshingly substantial. The mustard vinaigrette is quietly excellent. Steak frites are comforting and dependable. The chimichurri complements and the fries are everything fries should be: hot and addictive. Cocktails play their role, but the non-alcoholic milk punch is actually the drink you’ll be telling a friend about the next day. Pandan gives it a lush, almost dessert-like quality. Vandell thrives on atmosphere, buzzing crowd, decent service, a line out the door by the time you leave. It works for dates, friends, or groups.
Not because it’s expensive. It’s quite reasonably priced, esp in the area. I walked in with zero expectations. New bar, still finding its legs, right? Nope. These folks came out swinging.
First, the space. Warm oak paneling, dark marble bar, leather stools, backlit shelves lined with bottles that make you curious and want to ask questions like you actuallly understand whiskey. In the corner nook, a small vintage portrait of some weathered soul smoking a pipe watches over the room like a patron saint of good drinking and good vibes.
But something that caught me totally off guard is the deliberate sound engineering. The venue is split into four distinct spaces, and the acoustics are purposefully engineered for each one space. The private room is damped and muted so even soft conversations are clear without having to shout. You feel like you’re at a 5 person bar in a hidden alley in Tokyo. Step out to the main bar, and the energy is up but not overly intense. You basically get to choose your own volume level depending on who you brought with you.
The whole place is a gentle amber glow from candlelight and gorgeous tiered pendant lamps. It feels polished but not too precious. No hints of of pretentiousness.
Drinks
The menu is organized by vibe rather than base spirit. “Light” for easing in, “Market Fresh” for the produce-obsessed, and “Spirit Forward” for the purists.
My Highlights:
• The Winter Melon Bourbon: A total surprise. It startswhiskey-forward, but the real magic happens in the finish. There is a long, slow-building winter melon aftertaste that completely sneaks up on you. My advice? Wait 20 to 30 seconds between sips to let that flavor fully bloom. A must-try. I had to get a 2nd one.
• The Banana: Bourbon, oloroso sherry, banana, citrus, white miso, puffed rice chai. It sounds like something made to appease the nong drinkers who want to feel sophisticated, it tastes like 30 years of practice distilled into a single glass. Savory, nutty, and slightly sweet.
• The Olive Martini: This deserves its own mention. They use shio koji, yuzu kosho, smoked olive brine, and anchovy. It arrives the way a martini should: the drink in a delicate stemmed glass, with a sidecar chilling on crushed ice beside it.
Food
This isn’t “nuts and olives” bar food.
• Hamachi Crudo: Served with carrot leche de tigre, pistachios, and garlic chips. Legitimately restaurant-quality.
• Anchovy Toast: Chili lime boquerones and arugula pesto. The perfect salty bite to have in front of you while working through the spirit-forward section.
• Fries: Served with Dijonnaise. That is all they need.
The bartenders clearly know what they are doing and, more importantly, they care. Even the N/A options are considered, like the Japanese Pickleback (Suntory All-Free with citrus pickle brine) which doesn’t feel like a consolation prize.
This neighborhood doesn’t need another bar. But it needed THIS one.
Of the drinks, the more savory ones, the Martini and the Pepper were our favorites. The Mango was a bit one note and had so much foam that its mouthfeel came off soapy, and the Blood Orange tasted a bit like a slightly more complex mezcal margarita. They were okay but not great. But my husband, who loves Martinis, said he we would definitely reorder the Vandell version, and the Pepper was a truly unique cocktail which combined the grassiness of green peppers with a bit of heat of chilis. Overall, the drinks were very good, if not quite as consistently excellent as the ones we’ve had at other neighborhood spots, Mirate and Bar One. The food was really yummy though, and I would say superior to what I’ve eaten at those spots. We ordered the Steak Frites and the Burger and both were delicious.
The atmosphere is excellent, I love the vintage details, original artwork, and the warmth from the dark wood throughout. The service was good, but it seemed that they had so many people in the standing room only section that the servers for that area got a bit overwhelmed. We had very good service at the start, and then by the end waited quite some time before we could even ask for our check because our server seemed to be covering so many customers.
We waited in a line outside for about 20 minutes, when we got to the front, someone took our name down for table and led us into the bar to wait. The text we received quoted a wait time of 15 minutes, which felt unlikely but whatever. We waited a solid hour with no check in, so we decided to check with the host who gave us kind of a rude response, but forgivable given the chaos of the place. We continued waiting for another 30 minutes, when we noticed they sat the party behind us in line, with the same group size, before us. We went back up and got a very similar snarky response. We were finally sat after a total wait of about 2 hours.
During the food portion, we had multiple waiters asking us the same questions, food not getting fired, and ultimately mistakes on the receipt at the end.
That being said, the food and drinks were fantastic. I’ll probably be giving this place some time to nail down their operations and give it a revisit in a few months.
So excited for this, it will definitely be my go to for drinks/date nights.
The smoked tomato drink is my favorite, but they don’t make bad drinks. Try something new and you won’t regret it.