The Starling Diner

The Starling Diner, A Fine Fod, Family Restaurant in Long Beach, Ca

'Yelp' Review 03/18/2007

Exquisite! Long Beach, there's a new breakfast place in town. Despite the "diner" in the name, I would describe this more as a gourmet cafe. It's a higher end, nicer breakfast place than the other Belmont Heights usual suspects, and it's a little more expensive, but not by too much. In addition to delectable breakfast options, there are also scrumptious sounding salads and sandwiches for lunch. They are open Tues-Sun from 8-3 for breakfast and lunch, and then Thurs-Sat 5-9 for dinner. I took a peek at the dinner menu and look forward to trying it sometime - the entrees were all very affordable (under $20).

We started off yesterday's breakfast with a basket of freshly baked scones, served with homemade lemon curd and a marmalade butter, along with coffee, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and a bottle of sparkling wine. The scones were flaky, buttery, and delicious, and the orange juice was sweet and not too pulpy. I got a roast pork scramble, and Vince got a smoked wild salmon scramble. Each was served with a side of polenta potatoes - yum! The presentation was excellent throughout. They also have such tasty things as breakfast bruschetta, homemade granola, San Francisco broiled stuffed French toast (stuffed with mascarpone and creme fraiche), and wonderful sounding desserts, including berries and cream. Unfortunately we were too stuffed to even be able to consider dessert.

It is a very small restaurant, located in the former location of the 3rd St Cafe, nestled into the Belmont Heights neighborhood. 3rd St isn't really a major thoroughfare, so it's quiet compared to Broadway or 4th St. The decor is sort of like a country cottage, and there is definitely an emphasis on the love of gourmet cooking, as there are cooking magazines displayed throughout the restaurant for you to peruse at your leisure. Even the dishes, the coffee cups, and all the accessories on the table seem to have been chosen with great care. As our server explained, the creation of this restaurant was a labor of love. I thought it had a nice, cozy, neighborhood atmosphere. The ownership is the same as La Galette Creperie in San Clemente.

The service was outstanding. Our server made wonderful suggestions, took care of us throughout our time there, and definitely made our experience pleasant. It was a very relaxing breakfast. We didn't have to wait, but I'm sure as more people hear about this place it will get busier, so enjoy it while you can. :)

I also have to commend them for their beer selection - almost all Belgians - and a small but varied wine list as well.

At this point, it's probably 4.5 stars (subject to change on future visits), but I'll round up to 5 stars because this finally broke our string of disappointing restaurant experiences lately. I will undoubtedly come again, and I'll update this review accordingly.

--Update 3/24/07--
Back for breakfast again and had another satisfying meal, this time trying the crabcakes (wow), the smoked applewood bacon & cheddar scramble, and the breakfast bruschetta (with mascarpone, fresh berries, and honey). I realized I had forgotten to mention that the juice and water come in cute mason jars. And this time we found out that the restroom has a big whiteboard with magnetic poetry - fun!

--Update 3/25/07--
Back again for a second time this weekend, and I'd have to say late on a Sunday is probably not the best time to come. While the crowds are gone and it's nice and quiet, they were also out of a lot of things and we had real slacker service compared to the other times we've been here. Food was still great, but service was unacceptable; it's no excuse that it's Sunday and it's the end of the week and everyone wanted to get out of there. Not quite bad enough for me to lower the rating (yet), but almost.

--Update 3/30/07--
Finally made it here for dinner, and the 5 stars are intact for a great dinner at a very reasonable price. Appetizers included: ahi tuna tartare, burrata caprese with heirloom tomatoes, and roasted golden beets with goat cheese. All were outstanding. Entrees were duck (easily the best duck I've ever had in the US!), pork tenderloin (tender and fally-aparty, excellent!), and roasted turkey (the only disappointment - I like turkey dark meat, not breast meat, and it was rather dry, nowhere near as good as the other dishes, in my opinion). The duck was most expensive at about $21.95, which was still totally reasonable for the quality and quantity of the dish. Wine corkage was an extremely reasonable $10/bottle. On top of everything, we got the chocolate "bomb" dessert, which was great. A very satisfying dinner at an extremely reasonable price. Starling succeeds again!

--Update 4/22/07--
A lot of new things on the menu this weekend! How responsive - just last week Megan wrote a review requesting Eggs Benedict with lemon sauce, and this week sure enough they are on the menu. Today we tried some of the new dishes and quite enjoyed them.

You’ll Welcome the Quaint Charm of the Starling Diner
By Ellen Griley

For most people, I’d imagine, heading to one’s “happy place” involves multiple, spliced images of the tropical variety: piña coladas served inside coconut shells, a hammock tied between two palm trees, tanning without fear of UV rays and/or visible stretch marks. My happy place is more like a short film, played over and over in my head, of a dinner I once had in Louisville, Kentucky, at Ramsi’s Café On the World. I can’t remember exactly what I ordered (I think it was lentil-based) or what I drank (I’m sure it was red wine) but that’s not the point—it’s a delicious memory of a night spent laughing, sharing stories and incredible food with my best friends. That night at Ramsi’s felt like I was returning to a home I never knew I had, and the restaurant seemed to feel it, too—everything, from our handsome and attentive waiter, to our priced-for-the-neighborhood bill (around $25 per person) seemed to point to an overall sentiment: See you, soon.

Walking into the Starling Diner after it first opened a few months ago, I felt the same way—only the situation had flipped in a way, I suppose, because this time we were the home and the restaurant was the guest. Occupying the space that formerly was the 3rd Street Café, Starling is a fine dining restaurant plopped amidst a quaint neighborhood of homes and apartment buildings. To its left sits a house. The same on the right. It makes for kind of a funny picture, if you’ve never been in the neighborhood before, and yet it works just right.

Owner Joan Samson kept this notion of a neighborhood restaurant—in its most literal terms—in mind as she prepared to open the Starling. It’s her third business, after a café in San Francisco (since sold) and La Galette in San Clemente, each playing a part in an overarching concept bent on, as Samson says, “providing a place where people connect and be part of the community.” In this regard, the Starling shines: from a long table reserved for single diners looking to eat among neighbors to closely placed individual tables that all border on a singular cushioned bench that lines the wall, the restaurant encourages—if not demands—you to at least nod at (if not talk to) the people next to you, definitely a welcome notion, I feel, in these closed-off, text message-over-phone-call times.

And then there’s the food. You’ll fall for the small details: cucumber-infused water (long a day spa staple, and simply refreshing) served in mason jars, squeezed-to-order orange juice (from a huge yellow juicer) and a staple of the menu, polenta mashed potatoes. The entrees, too, whether you visit at breakfast (look for the tofu scramble, chicken apple sausage scramble, and broiled French toast stuffed with Mascarpone and créme fraiche); lunch (try the ruby red smoked wild salmon sandwich or hand-carved turkey sandwich served with mouth-coating herbed cream cheese and cranberry sauce); or dinner (the moist, fall-off-the-bone coq au vin is a must-have) are all thoughtfully constructed, filling and . . . happy. These are true happy meals, pleasing to the palate as well as the eye, and the happiness radiates through the Starling’s “weird, cool teacher” décor (small school chairs mounted on the wall, a globe on a table, pencils and paper at the ready) and out into the street, making an already great neighborhood, well, a happy place.

“A restaurant is a living organism,” says Samson. “This building really wanted to be loved. I can tell the building is happy.” It is, and we are, which means the Starling Diner—even when it sometimes disappoints with spotty service, which any joint is bound to do when it’s in its infancy—has found a home.
Welcome, neighbor. I’ll be seeing you, soon.

Voted "BEST FRENCH TOAST for 2007 by the OC WEEKLY" Read it!!
"BEST OF LONG BEACH 2007 by THE DISTRICT WEEKLY" Read it!!!
Long Beach Press Telegram "Best of California" Read it!!!