Corkbar

Happy Hour: 3.5 stars
This place is within walking distance of the Staples Center so it’s great to catch a quick bite here before your event.
It gets pretty busy for Happy Hour with a few locals here and there. Our bartender was a bit frustrating and only catered to the locals but my friend attributed it to maybe working a really long shift (he did look tired). Also, the fact that there was ONE bartender during HH probably wasn’t cool if it got too busy.
Beer on tap was ok since they don’t have too many taps. It is more of a wine bar, as you can tell. The bartender did spruce up a bit when I asked for a wine recommendation. I tried the Rioja Gran Familia red wine and it was pretty good and on HH price.
Food took a while to get out but the Yucca Fries with Truffle Oil were worth the wait. Crispy outside with a starchy interior, it was my favorite of the night. They are also not cut into too-​thick wedges, which was a plus. The aioli was the best but they really don’t give you enough, even if you don’t ignore the ketchup.
Pulled Pork Bruschetta was really tender and had the right amount of flavor.
Corkbar Burger was alright, despite having some of my favorite things in it. Something about it didn’t really impress me– not sure if it was the meat or a sloppy job of putting all the ingredients together.
3 beers, 1 wine and the food will be about $ 45 before tip. Despite the meh service, I liked the atmosphere and some of the food. A bit pricey for smaller food portions, but it is DTLA so it’s understandable.

Ambiance: excellent. Just dim enough to be flattering, but not so dim that you’re not sure who you’re eating with.
Food: really good. Not mind blowing amazing, but filling, yummy, satisfying and with some surprisingly awesome dishes. Our surprise was was the acorn squash with quinoa and roasted root veggies. Amazing!
Wine: the list is epic and the flight deal for checking in on Unilocal is great!
Service: nicole is amazing! So friendly, helpful and sweet!
All in all, a great dining experience! I’d come back for sure!

What a beautiful wine bar! I’m actually not a big fan of wine (only sometimes), but my wino friend wanted to try this place and drink his ass off. haha. So 5 of us headed here for dinner/​drinks on a Thursday night, and it was empty! And I don’t mind that. It’s a nice place to catch up with friends over beer, wine, and food — since it’s not the type of place to attract rowdy customers (even though alcohol is involved).
The place itself is set up quite nicely — glass windows and a beautiful bar with wine bottles displayed! Pretty.
I didn’t really have wine here… although I tried some sips of my friend’s cab. Had a couple beers which were good and strong. haha I tried the Damnation (I think?) and something else… guess I didn’t pay attention.
We also ordered some food to share as well. Some memorable dishes:
— gumbo: YUM, it was flavorful and spice-​y!
— black mussels: it was cooked with some andouille sausages, pineapples, and came with toast to dip in the broth. Mmmmmm that broth was tasty
— pulled pork bruschetta: that pork was delicious!
Our server was also wonderful — extremely friendly and kept checking up on us.
Although… it was a bit on the expensive side. We didn’t order exclusively from the happy hour menu, so we did get charged regular price for some items. But I ended up paying 40 dollars for 2 beers and very little food. I did not expect to pay that much for dinner! At a happy hour, no less. But whatevs, I’m a werkin woman.

Discovered Corkbar Unilocaling around for restaurants in Downtown that was «Tapas style» and even thought the reviews were a bit mixed still wanted to check it out since not everyone can be pleased you just never know. Street parking only. Went there on sun so parking wasn’t too bad. Nice and spacious. A bit dim and casual. A few tables and high table seats. It was pretty slow that day and service was a bit slow as well. I always recommend doing family style when it comes to Tapas that way you get to try a little bit of everything.
_​Crab cakes with spicy aioli. Nice presentation. Comes in 3 (about fist size). Real hot I almost burned my tongue getting overly excited to eat. Good amount of crab inside. Flavor was good. Aioli helped cool it down a bit. Great balance.
_​Yucca fries. Big thick slices. Comes with an amazing curry ketchup and spicy aioli. Same aioli as the crab cakes and not that spicy. It went real with the ketchup not so much the aioli. The yucca itself was just ok but tasted way better with the ketchup. A little starchy for me.
_​BBq pulled pork bruschetta with slaw was my fave. Comes in 3 small sizes. The bruschetta was perfectly crisp and generous portion of tender and juicy pulled pork. A little bit more slaw would have made it even better.
_​Curried Chicken Salad, not the best but still pretty good. A little bland but paired well with the grapes and currant.
_​Striped Bass with quinoa and black eye peas was my least favorite dish. Presentation was nice but taste was non existent. The fish was cooked well but flavor was extremely bland. It need salt, lemon, spices, herbs anything! And the quinoa itself was also real bland and a bit watery.
_​Braised short rib with polenta and parmesan. A popular dish but a disappointment. The rib was not the best but still tender enough. The polenta was what lost it for me. Polenta itself is great but with parmesan added made it taste real heavy and starchy. Short rib is heavy enough but to add even more heaviness to the plate was just overwhelming and after a few bites needed something citrus or a salad just to cut off all that richness.
_​BLTA sandwich? was pretty good. Comes with chicken, dried tomatoes, avocado and some aioli. Great flavors and great size. Comes with a side salad that was also quite good.
_​Bread Pudding. I cant believe people thought this bread pudding was the best. I’m sorry but you must have not had good bread pudding. Right when it came out I knew it was not going to taste good. On their site it says croissant banana bread pudding but honestly starbucks banana bread would have tasted better. And that’s the look and texture it had, only more dense, not moist at all!
I felt the appetizers and small plates were better than the actual big dishes. The wines were a bit pricey and the food was not worth the price in the end. Still glad I got to knock this off my Tapas list.

Excellent food! I would recommend family style so you can try a little bit of everything.
Brussel sprouts, striped bass quinoa, and bread pudding are awesome!
Service is slow since they only have 1 waitress for the whole place.
Julian hard ciders are great for a summer day.
Use the Unilocal/​Open Table to reserve a table if you’re in a group. Super convenient.

They changed the entire menu so all of the favorites like the veggie sandwich, mac n cheese and the cheese plate are no longer on menu. I tried the ham and cheese sandwich today which was ok but I wouldn’t order it again. I will come back and try the new lamb dish some of the other dishes.
They really need to bring back the cheese though. What is a wine bar without a cheese plate?

Meh — nothing special. Not bad not good. Went here with my friends. Real pretty place, with a nice atmosphere, and the people who work here are really nice. The food is good not great. Pricey for what you are getting. Steak salad was good, but nothing special. Tacos are on happy hour but small tacos for 2 to 3 bucks, rather go to a taco truck.
Good beer and wine at an average price. Happy hour is ok here. Two bucks off beer, but its like 7 to 8 bucks a beer, which makes it 5 to 6 bucks during HH. People come for the wine and other alcoholic drinks, but I still think its a cool place with not memorability.

–Weekday Dine LA Winter 2013 Lunch Review–
In DTLA with street (metered) or lot parking… no validation offered.
Décor: Lots of open space with an amazing wall décor by the bar going with the flow of wine. Indoor and outdoor seating available. Outdoor patio seems pretty amazing where a pit fire fireplace strategically centered… I think this place would be great for a first date; casual, yet mood lighting is amazing at night here. Ambiance has potential to be A+!
Deals:
Happy Hour: Monday-​Saturday 3pm-​7pm, includes food and drink.
Receive happy hour any time if you present any ticket stub from a downtown event or concert
Test kitchen Tuesday @ 5:30pm, new food for $ 2
Take on my orders:
Little neck clam Chowder: smoked bacon, russet potato, celery, little neck clams in a cream broth with chives and oyster cracker. Creamy and well made with bits of bacon and chunks of potatoes within the soup (3 star)
orecchiette pasta with pork cheek and ragu: this dish was suppose to be made in a form of ravioli, but was revised with orecchiette pasta since they didn’t have any ravioli available at the time. This dish was not very tasty, more soup than a pasta dish. (2 stars)
Overall, I would come back here at night since it has potential to be a cool place to hangout with a long a list of wine and great Happy Hour! As for lunch, I’ll pass and try another place next time.

Checked this place out with a few friends because we were craving wine and some good food. I am so glad we decided to pick this place!
The atmosphere is very chill and relaxing. A good place to grab a drink with a few friends and be able to have a conversion.
We ordered a variety off their cheese menu. All the cheeses were extremely delicious but my favorite was the Truffle Tremor (goat)! yum yum ^^ We also ordered the Mac & Cheese which had roasted chilies, so it gave it a little kick. The Root Beer Braised Short Ribs were really good as well. Very tender and flavorful.
As for wine, we ordered the Epiphany Gypsy, which was a blend of reds. Totally loved it! Can’t wait to go back and try their other wines! ^^

My wife and I visited the Corkbar last night and had a wonderful evening. The ambiance was delightful and the staff were incredibly friendly. We had a delicious sampling of a few of their wines and tapas/​small entrée food items during Happy Hour, and everything was very reasonably priced. My wife, being a fan of sweeter wines, tried a flight of a few of their whites. The chardonnay was delicious but her absolute favorite was the Dr Klapper riesling. They had a happy hour special on this wonderful petit syrah that I thoroughly enjoyed.
As for the food, most of the dishes are tapas style or small entrée, so it’s perfect to grab a few different items to share. The cheddar cheese gougeres are delicious and light. The sea bass and shrimp ceviche was fresh and packed with fish. Great starters and all on the happy hour menu. We also shared the grilled cheese with the braised short rib. The sandwich was amazing. The bread had a nice crunch to it, while the cheese and short rib just melted in your mouth in a wonderful symphony of flavor. They also offer some great charcuterie and cheese choices, of which we sampled some very tasty bleu, gouda and cheddar cheeses. Finally, we finished off the meal with some crème brûlée and banana bread pudding. The crème brûlée was rich and creamy and had a great crust to the top, while the bread pudding was phenomenal with a surprising spice that kicks the dish up to the next level.
We will definitely be back for more and will highly recommend this place to all of our friends.

Stop #1 on my first DTLA bar hopping experience. Also my first wine bar experience. Since we rolled so deep (party bus status), we had the entire side of Corkbar to ourselves. We arrived late but there was only one dude serving us all — props. We did some sort of wine tasting, flight.
Out of the 4 (Some Algorini White, Sonoma Pinot Noir and unknown white and a Taymayo Malbec), the Malbec was my fav. But I have a preference for merlots/​bordeaux blends which could explain why. I also know little to nothing about wine so pardon moi! The Malbec also tasted better than Library Bar’s Malbec which makes sense…
The tacos were alright not roach-​coachy enough — too healthy tasting ;) But I did like that each of the three tacos on the plate had a different flavas that progressed in heat (pico de gallo, salsa verde and then some orange looking one that I’m presuming is chipotle of some sort).
The pulled pork, however, was delicious! The tang from the pickles/​coleslaw was a welcomed addition. Their Cheddar Cheese Gougeres were also delicious but tasted exactly like a Brazilian steakhouse’s aka not too special.
As I’m venturing into wine territory, I will frequent Corkbar again for their variety & expertise (or at least our server sounded like he knew what was up! haha)

HAPPY HOUR mon-​fri 3−7pm ($ 8 special glasses of wine & ½ off or $ 2 off certain small plates and sammies)
for happy hour they had 5 wines to choose from, a white blend, a chardonnay, a pinot, a merlot, & a savignon blanc… i liked the white blend!
—veggie sandwich: YUMMY, nicely toasted bread & fresh veggies. although the salad it came w/​was a bit salty
—shrimp linguini: this was good, but not as big as i expected for a main plate
—pork bruschetta: just okay
—white bean purée: eHhh maybe i missed the truffle oil parts… you can ask for more bread!
—cheese gougeres: BLAND
—banana bread pudding: more like a banana bread than a bread pudding, but it comes out hot!
I think LA has much better happy hours to hit up, so this will probably be a one time visit
NOTE: WOOT for 50 cent per hour parking meters out in front that are only enforced ’til 8pm

Happy hour!!!
White sweet bled (wine): yum!
Veggie grilled sandwich: yummy. Unfortunately I started to eat this after it cooled down and the bread became hard :(
Hummus and crackers: delish!
Atmosphere: large wine bar with wooden tables and relaxing music. Located in down town and super chic.
Parking: plenty of free meters after 6pm!
I wanna come back!

Great convenient place right downstairs from manfriend’s new apartment so it automatically wins by default.
The food is good. Their root beer shortribs are so tender and their trout is pretty on point.
He likes the steak sandwich and we both indulged in some wine.
Definitely going to be regulars here!

I don’t know about the hefty wine prices here per glass/​bottle. The cheapest glass of wine is $ 16, where you would get almost half the price elsewhere… meh alright, «wine bar.»
But, the food here is really delicious and reasonably priced.
Luckily we were seated by the owner of Corkbar, and she explained to us that her kitchen is a «farmer’s market» kitchen, which means no fridge and ingredients are brought in every morning. How very cool.
Absolutely get the Root Beer-​braised short ribs.-http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/j_QNoKZDUAcx7­eXdb-HMNA?select=Gi5K6pkzU7mT_tPreB4gcQ
I’ve had plenty versions of braised short rib in my life (including endless servings of Korean galbi jjim). I have never tasted such soft short ribs in my life, definitely melt in your mouth-​shred easily with your fork type of food. And the cheese polenta was cheesy and definitely something to remember
$ 16 for a filet mignon (that was cooked perfectly medium-​rare)
It was definitely a bargain for a pretty tasty bite to share
I also ordered the raved banana bread pudding, which I thought was just okay. It was a tad bit drier than your typical bread pudding. But I appreciated the whole toasted hazelnuts on top, yum.
Definitely will be back for food at Corkbar. Might skip the booze, uh yeah right

This place is so convenient and whenever I’m feeling super indulgent and super lazy, I’ll order this to go and eat it in my apartment.
Things to know:
1) this place gets crowded, so come early. But you can always stand around the bar area.
2) tuesdays before 7 or 8 p, they have $ 2 chef specials
3) their menu changes seasonally, so there’s always something new to try!
Recommendations:
Cork bar burger: you can never go wrong with their burger. The bread is so good and fluffy and the meat is delicious. And, it comes with delicious fries.
Cheddar cheese grougeres: basically a cheddar cheese puff. The cheese on top is crispy and when you bite into it, it’s like biting into a cloud. So good and light and you get so many! Really good appetizer to share.
Trip-​tip salad: for awhile, I’d just eat this whenever I came. I have a weak spot for horseradish and steak and on a bed of salad? That’s my cup of tea. The horseradish is so good and the dressing is super light. It makes me feel sort of healthy when I eat it.
Banana bread pudding: I thought this was alright, but definitely worth a try. It’s so pretty when they bring it out and you get a mouthful of banana every bite.
This place is definitely a place to check out. Delicious food and a great ambience and tons of wine. You really can’t go wrong.

Not too shabby! Thanks Unilocal,for helping my bestie and me find a new place to try!
It’s sort of hidden between the nice area of downtown and the sketch area by Pico. We parked in a lot on Olympic for $ 3, and it was only a couple blocks away.
The place itself is kinda cool– small and woody, with corks actually set in the walls as decoration. We both ordered a glass of sauvignon, Five Vintners. It was nice and light, which was good because I don’t typically like wine.
We shared the short ribs with cheese polenta and the mac & cheese. The short ribs were ok, they tasted like they were overdone and dry. It could have used more sauce too, but the polenta was good. The mac & cheese was nice– nice breaded crust and a good spicy kick to it. For dessert, we got the banana bread pudding. Not sure how it’s considered a pudding, but the banana bread had a great crust and it was soft and moist inside. I think it was the best part of the meal, actually.
Our waitress was friendly and bubbly, and she checked on us often when our food first came out, but then she was nowhere to be found when wanted to order dessert, and then when we wanted the check.
All in all, it’s a cool little hole in the wall. The place was pretty busy for a Tuesday night, so I can only imagine how it must be during happy hour or on the weekends.

Came here before my Chris Brown concert last night… They have a good Happy Hour menu and Tasting menu.
I tried the tasting wine — four different wines (2 whites, 2 reds) for $ 15… pretty good. I forgot the name of the wines. But… yeah, the pinot noir was the best.
FOOD:
Got the fish tacos — seabass… SO. GOOD. It’s not on the Happy Hour menu but still… WORTH IT.
Pork Bruschetta — Yes. Get this. BBQ Pork… YES. Get this. I can’t even describe it… get it.
Cheeses — Cheese was NOT worth the money. My friend wanted to order it because he’s really suave and classy (and single, ladies!)… but those cheeses were SMALL… it was like one small line of cheese that you could snort like coke. It’s small. 3 small cheeses for $ 13. I could get a big soft delicious guoda for $ 9 and it’d be BIG. Really disappointed in the cheese size.
SERVICE:
Great bartender/​waitress. She knew her stuff. She let us sample stuff to see if we wanted it and it was good. She was really professional and good at her wines.
It was kinda busy last night but yeah, it was alright.
PARKING: Hard to find. Street or public parking. But not far from LA LIVE.
Fish Tacos made my day!

Food
–Tacos: 2 fish tacos served on one corn tortilla each, not your standard 2 corn tortillas per taco. It was just kinda slopped together and thrown on a plate. I can’t even remember the taste of the taco. Boring.
–Burger: The same kinda burger you will find at Lazy Ox. Standard disappointing burger on a brioche bun.
–Mac & Cheese: the best dish, although heavy, out of everything we ordered.
–Banana Bread Pudding: not worth the 25 minutes it takes to make. Literally, it’s a small banana bread loaf with a dollop of a whipped cream and 3 slices of bruleed banana. They need to take out the word pudding. This is more a pastry to be served with coffee at brunch. Not a way to end the night.
–Wine: you are better off getting a bottle of wine if you are with a small group, which is what we did. They didn’t have as many medium bodied wines as I would have liked.
Ambiance
I’d only come back again for the atmosphere, it’s a good place to hang out with a small group of friends and not have to worry about the time. I didn’t get the busy vibe on a Saturday evening even though most of the place was occupied. And surprisingly, it doesn’t get noisy.
Location: on the corner
Parking — street metered

Went last night to corkbar again and it did not disappoint. It’s walking distance from LA live, so if you find street parking here, go for it as it’s free after 8 pm. We wandered in around 6:30 and the place was getting filled up quickly. The server was friendly and prompt with service. Remember that not all wines are on the happy hour list, so ask them for the specials.
The best thing about this place apart from the selection of wines is the happy hour menu… not like the usual bars where you get greasy finger food; you can actually get a delicious meal here before catching a movie. Have to get the pork shoulder bruschetta (it’s one of the best things on the menu, loaded with pork, braised in bbq sauce, over a crostini… yummmm). For $ 4, you get 3 slices and it’s a steal. I ordered it twice… it was that good.
Also, order the Gougéres, freshly baked, perfect cheesiness… yummy! I did not like the banana bread pudding… wasn’t moist at all. Everything else is delicious.
Overall, it’s a perfect wine bar in downtown… cool vibe, friendly service, hip crowd and perfect location in downtown… Check it out when you are in downtown next!