Destroyer

I am obsessed with Destroyer's brunch. This place is the real deal. Heavenly culinary experience like no other with an exquisitely unique menu. Just love!

Oh man, it's still so good. How do they not have at least a Bib Gourmand?
The Forbidden Orchard Berries are a classic. Icy blueberries in a creamy coconut yogurt. I usually hate coconut but there's no way not to love this.
There's Loaded Avocado Confit with creamy, charred avocado, prosciutto, burrata, and a gooey fried egg. Not their most creative dish but delicious all the same.
The Persimmon French Toast is a slab the size of your face. Beautiful persimmons line a bowl of apricot-passion fruit jam, centered around a creme fraiche you'll never get enough of.
The Smoked Fish is nordic in a nutshell. Flaky slices of gorgeous white fish under a silky, savory yogurt covered in a crunchy layer of onion granola.
This Sweet Corn Porridge is the real standout - it deserve a few awards. Sweet corn kernels are interspersed with little pearls of couscous, each coated with viscous porridge. Mix in the poached egg to add the liquid yolk, and crunch on bits of chicken skin and burnt onion. Dig deep for leaves of blanched lettuce which adds another layer of depth.

Pop by the pastry case if you want some sweets for later. The Passionfruit Tart could have used more passionfruit, but I loved the cookies. Sweet Corn is great, and Pecan Molasses Cookie too.

Destroyer's food just has some magic to it just didn't translate to Vespertine. Just stay here for mind-blowing and affordable breakfast and lunch. I'd come every day if I lived a little closer.

My friend and I came here for brunch on the Saturday of Easter weekend. I'd heard many good things about Destroyer and it definitely didn't disappoint.
The cafe's menu leans European, and they have a variety of very appealing dishes.
The ambiance here is simple, minimal and modern. The storefront is reserved for ordering, and they operate on a pay-first model. While in line, I heard that they had hot cross buns, so I ordered one in addition to my main dish. The seating is all outdoors.
There weren't a lot of vegetarian dishes to choose from, so I opted for the caramelized chickpeas, with eggs and pesto.
I enjoyed my chickpea dish, but felt that it was something I could easily have replicated at home and made something just as good (however I could say that about a lot of brunch food). My friend's sweet potato waffle looked much more appealing and I think I will try that next time.
The staff brought out the hot cross bun in a takeaway box after it was ready but I was dismayed to see that it looked nothing like the hot cross buns I'm so used to eating in Australia. I supposed that they had put their own spin on a classic hot cross bun and added nuts and whipped cream. Tastewise, it wasn't bad.
I do plan to come back here another time and try more on the menu.

My absolute favorite brunch spot in LA. Such different food options and it changes seasonally it seems as well. I always find myself feeling very healthy after the meals here too. I do wish they had indoor seating for colder months. I would be there much more if so!

We always try to get different coffee options there, they are always soooo good. I'm not even a coffee person... they do savory and sweet well so you cannot go wrong.

A more special twist to brunch! Normally when I go to brunch, I dread options that are more or less standard across a lot of brunch places - like French toast, omelettes, etc. Here, the food items are more unique while maintaining the flair of California with healthy ingredients. I went here around 11:30am weekday so parking was extremely tough even though the restaurant is not busy, but you're fighting for street parking with the nearby Apple campus.

We tried the loaded avocado confit, forbidden orchard blueberries, and sweet corn porridge. We also got the rosewater latte and chai latte.

The loaded avocado confit is fairly filling with a large half avocado, prosciutto, and an egg that is cooked just well enough to be soft but not runny. The puffed rice adds additional texture to the dish.

The forbidden orchard blueberries were sweet and fresh, served in a layer of yogurt and tapioca pearls that kind of reminds me of sago. There are also beets to give some variety to the flavor. We considered this as a nice, not too sweet, dessert.

The sweet corn porridge felt a bit more heavy with the creaminess from the butter. I liked the grilled onions and the crispy chicken skin that makes it a very savory porridge but can be likened to grits. It does have some sweetness to it, but it was predominantly savory.

The lattes we got make our food spread pretty, but they were not out of the ordinary good. At $7-8 I expected something mindblowing, but at least there is latte art and both had a nice floral taste.

This place is more a fast casual setting where you get your own water and utensils. However, it still has some dine-in elements as food is served to you and you don't need to bus your own table. Seating is primarily outdoors, but that is not an issue as the number of rainy or cold days in LA are far and few between.

The star knockoff is specifically for the lackluster weekend special coconut matcha latte and pistachio filled taiyaki. I was so disappointed in the lack of filling for the taiyaki, and they weren't even fresh! I wish I took a picture of the inside as the filling was VERY inconsistent. Out of the 6 I bought, only two had a decent amount of filling. I'm not looking for it to be stuffed, but 90% was dough (and undercooked at that). They were not crispy as taiyaki usually is if it's fresh. For about $6 PER fish, this was absolutely disappointing. I couldn't even finish it because I could see how the inside of the dough wasn't even cooked through. I liked the pistachio filling (of the little I got), but it's very rich and might not be everyone's cup of tea. Absolutely skip the taiyaki.

Onto the coconut milk (?) matcha latte, I watched the barista pour what was leftover in the glass pitcher batch and it only filled 70% of the cup that already was filled with ice. The other 20% was oat milk that further watered down the matcha taste. My friend's regular matcha latte was fine, but for a weekend only special, you should skip the coconut matcha latte.

Onto Destroyer's staples, the whitefish, the mushroom salad, and chicken schnitzel were amazing. The chicken schnitzel was a perfect amount of crunch, not too thick on the breading, and a satisfying juiciness on the inside. The whitefish was a lot heavier than I was expecting, and the granola only made the dish heavier. I think crackers or a thinner bread would've been better than rye because the rye overpowered the whitefish. It was hard to finish between two people.

The surprising favorite between me and my friend was the mushroom salad. The actual mushrooms are buried underneath the lettuce, but there's plenty of them and they're so tasty. I think they were oyster mushrooms, and it's quite the bang for your buck because of how much they give you. There's some crispy mushroom embellishments, which rounded out the salad with a nice crunch.

The staff were friendly and very on top of bringing us our order and making sure we had what we needed. It was quite busy for a bright Sunday late afternoon, but the staff were quick to clean up tables, ask how our food was, and made sure everything was in order.

The seating is all outdoors, with limited covered seating. It's in a street of a former industrial(?) area, so there's not a lot of other stores, foot traffic, or cars. It's a nice place for a casual brunch.

This place has a very trendy vibe. There's no space indoors and all the seating is outside. After you order your food, you just claim an empty table and put your number placard on it.

I started with the black sesame latte which was very frothy and had a mild sesame taste.

I got the smoked fish which is underneath all the seeds. The fish was very soft with a nice smokey taste. It also comes with bread with seeds in it. The bread is dense and has a bite to it.

Lastly, I got the pistachio taiyaki for dessert. Lots of pistachio flavor and the filling was more liquidy than I expected, but it still had a nice flavor.

Gets busy on the weekends but great brunch place to sit down and enjoy some brunch.

Food//
Tried the Citrus French Toast. Gotten it to-go and would def sit down to enjoy this next time. Love the bread, not your typical white bread but more of multigrain seed , rustic bread. The persimmon, compote and yogurt paired well with the French toast. Syrup is good too if you're more on the sweeter side. It's super moist on the inside. $22 for the French toast though is on the pricier side in my opinion.

Service//
Although I didn't get the coffee, the coffee were pretty long. My to-go order ended up took a little over 20 min. All were super nice.

Ambiance//
Great for date, friend brunch etc.

Parking was not a problem on a Sunday. The neighboring streets offered plenty, and we found a slot easily. It was getting a table for six that was challenging.

They offer a menu via a QR code or you can glance at their wall onto which they project their menu. Honestly, you can't go wrong with whatever you order. All the food is tasty.

We ordered the:

Persimmon French Toast: the bread is huge but crusty. It paired so well with the persimmons and the passion fruit & apricot jam, roasted birch leaf syrup and their homemade crème fraiche. It wasn't overly sweet.

Smoked fish: they give you two hefty slices of their Icelandic seeded rye bread and a bowl of the smoked fish. It's covered in savory onion granola but it's mixed with pickled celery root, dill and spun yogurt. It tasted so unusually good - not at all fishy, but just a hint of ocean along with some spices. The savory granola provided the much needed crunch to punctuate the experience.

Wagyu beef tartare: it's a small portion but it's potent. It has a smoked egg cream, pickled mushrooms and it's covered in their house-made potato crisps. My son wolfed it down and I was lucky enough to sneak a bite when he wasn't looking. It was heavenly.

Crispy chicken schnitzel: it sadly wasn't impressive. It's honestly just chicken katsu with shredded kale and some chili garlic oil. Charging $26 for this was a touch unreasonable. It tasted as expected but it wasn't crispy or filling. I was a bit disappointed with this. But don't get me wrong - it's one of their most popular dishes for a reason: it's reliable and the best option for the pickiest eater in your party. I ordered this having high expectations, since Jordan Kahn is known for finding ways to elevate the most pedestrian of dishes.

We had so much fun rotating plates and sharing food. Every bite (except maybe for the chicken schnitzel) was a surprise. Jordan Kahn is such a master at combining unusual ingredients and coming up with concepts never before imagined.

The cafe is industrial meets hipster, but be aware that there isn't a lot of space. As you line up to place your order, workers come out of the kitchen with dishes and they have to pass through the line. But they have shelves of house-made jams, vinegars and dog treats that you can purchase.

All in all, it's one of the best places to eat at in Culver City. Make sure to take photos of your food for the gram! Their food looks just as great as it tastes.

This place is such a gem! I went twice in a week because I wanted to try everything on the menu. I would recommend coming with multiple people and sharing dishes because everything is so rich and it might be too much to eat the whole plate yourself.

Persimmon french toast - I love persimmons so this was a treat. The fruit component of this was delicious and I would eat it everyday. The french toast itself didn't taste very persimmon like to me.

Beef Tartare- I see why everyone orders this! The chips with the tartare was such a great experience. I would get this everytime

Smoked Fish- the smoked fish was perfectly seasoned. The onion granola was a nice crunch. I'm not the biggest fan of "healthy" grainy bread but it paired well with

Sweet Corn Porridge- This was our standout. It was so umami and delicate.

Chicken Schnitzel- this was forgettable when compared to everything else. Still good though!

Delicata squash Tart- flaky and delicious. I loved the creaminess of the sheep's milk cheese as a base and you can't go wrong with caramalized delicata squash.

Overall the price to the quality of what you get is fantastic. Everything is really innovative but also delicious!

The plethora of outdoor seating gives Destroyer a super laid back LA casual feel, but the food presentation elevates every dish. No joke, each dish came out ready for its Instagram photoshoot.

While I came for the beef tartar, unfortunately it was sold out! I guess that's a testament to how good it must be! I'll come back for another try. I gotta know.

The chicken schnitzel was good. It had a nice crispy outer layer and came with a yummy kale salad. I'd get this again! I also tried the smoked fish. While I wasn't in love with the smoked fish (a bit dry for my palate) the bread it came with was fantastic!

Service is easy. Order at the counter, take a number, and grab a table. Again, casual. Parking wasn't hard. I found easy street parking surrounding the restaurant (this was on a Sunday....not sure if it would be that easy on a workday or not)