[dropcap size=big]W[/dropcap]hen Spice Table closed back in 2013 — its building felled by the MTA to make way for a new subway station — many mourned the loss of Bryant Ng’s excellent Californian-Singaporean-Vietnamese cooking. You can imagine the excitement, then, when he and Kim Luu-Ng, his wife, partnered with Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan to open Cassia in 2015. Next to the Santa Monica Public Library, Cassia is an airy, loud, bustling brasserie where Ng’s cooking blends Californian and Southeast Asian flavors to create dishes that are as bold and energetic as the space itself. If you were a fan of Spice Table’s grilled pig’s tail and kaya toast, you’ll be happy to find those dishes made the move across town, and you’ll find new favorites in the unabashedly messy head-on prawns slathered in deep red hot sauce, a curry made with Koda Farms’s chickpeas, a fantastic sea bass that’s grilled and scented with turmeric and dill and the Vietnamese pot-au-feu, in which Ng merges pho with the classic French stew. There’s also a vegetable dish that combines long beans with avocado, which pretty much sums up the restaurant: Cassia is about as perfect as Los Angeles cooking gets.
1314 7th St., Santa Monica
(310) 393-6699
https://www.cassiala.com
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