Located in the new Porsche Driving Experience in Carson where the old golf course used to be alongside of the 405 free is Restaurant 917. The name of the restaurant was inspired by the 917 Race Car, which gave Porsche its first overall win at the Le Mans race. Restaurant 917 is a very sleek and modern restaurant which emphasizes minimalism as its finest. The menu’s approach focuses on seasoning items that involve the local & fresh ingredients. What’s best if I could recommend is to have dinner early so that you’re able to watch the Porsche race track, it’s really need to see the different courses and the drivers technique.
We started off ordering some of their house cocktails, they were great, generous on the alcohol, and very flavorful. Our server also brought by some delicious pretzel bread with Porsche molded butters and some Maldon Salt on the side to place over out bread. For our started we started off with the Hamachi Crudi which was served with shaved pieces of fennel, oranges, watermelon radish, cucumbers, smoked ginger, and a blood orange vinaigrette. The Hamachi(yellowtail fish) was nice and fresh, however the items served with this dish were a bit underwhelming and lacked in flavor. The blood orange acidity was not strong enough to counter balance the other flavors.
The approach was there but the execution did not follow through. For our Entrees we decided to family style share, and since we had a few cocktails and too much bread to soak up, we went with two entrees only. We chose the Wild King Salmon which was served alongside with Broccolini, Wild Mushrooms, a Shishito Pepper Puree, as well as a Miso Glaze. This dish was cooked perfect, the flavors were not overly strong because can be a bit pungent. Broccolini cooked very well with a nice bite, and the wild mushrooms paired the dish and sauces beautifully.
The highlight of this dish was the salmon was cooked so tender. A nice seared crisp on the outside, however the inside still very flakey and moist. This was my favorite dish of the night and something I would most definitely order again. The second dish of the night we went with the Kobe NY Strip which was served with baby potatoes, cauliflower, tomato confit, pickled onions, with a port reduction. Of course we ordered this to be cooked at medium rare as how I believe all steaks should be cooked. The dish was good, potatoes cooked nicely, tomato confit bursted with juices, pickled onions brightened the steaks flavor, and the port sauce offered a nice sweet tang. The steak I believe in my opinion was searched on each side a little too much.
The inside was cooked perfect but due to the outside over searing it did make the strip a little tough. If this was cooked a bit less this dish would’ve been done very beautifully. Lastly we did order two entrees for three girls to share also so we could order two desserts and not feel entirely guilty =). We started off with the strawberry yogurt cream.
Whipped mascarpone, Rosemary-Strawberry Sauce, a Balsamic Reduction, with a Cognac Almond Ice Cream. This was beautifully made and delicious, the ice cream was homemade and delicious. They should really consider having scoops of ice cream as an option for their desserts as well.
The last dish we went with was their dulcey chocolate mousse. Served with caramel popcorn, cocoa streusels, white chocolate, a passionfruit sauce, and a salted macadamia sorbet. This was good, but very rich so I’m glad we had three girls to finish this dish. Overall this dish was nice and the flavors really complimented one another, but one to mention again is their salted macadamia sorbet. Flavors were so delicious and creamy. The only thing is their ice cream does melt a bit quick so that’s something they can fix. For being new in the industry, Restaurant 917 is doing a great job and I’m sure will be around for quite some time. I hope you give this place a chance and let me know your experience.