Americans love comfort food. This is a solid, irrefutable fact that even the various and many health fads and concerns that pop in and out of the mass consciousness can’t do anything to overcome. Here in L.A. County, healthy eating is a huge deal (as well it should be), but still, if there’s mac and cheese on the table, your average Southern Californian is going to light up like a Christmas tree.
That’s why a restaurant like Rocky’s Food & Beverage on Sepulveda is so important. This is comfort food done LA-style. The food isn’t exactly low calorie, but the emphasis is on quality rather than the huge, heaping pile of food that you might get at diners.
The restaurant only recently opened, and we adhered to the unwritten rule of allowing them a couple of months to settle in before dropping by to sample the cuisine. We’ll never know if that made a difference, but we do know that the food is amazing right now.
The greeting is warm when arriving at the establishment. The workers wear beaming smiles while seating you, and the room’s vibe is extremely comfortable. On the day that we ate, we were presented with some complementary, house-made chips that were spectacular. Sweet potato and some other squash, we believe. But whatever, they were crisp, warm and gloriously tasty.
We opted for the wings, with the smoky barbecue sauce and a blue cheese dip. On the side, we chose the tater tots, again with blue cheese.
The wings are unbelievable. A portion consists of six pieces, which might not sound particularly generous, but each wing is enormous. Seriously, what chickens have wings this big? Surely this fowl can fly.
All joking aside, they’re also perfectly crisped, and beautifully juicy inside. The crunch with each bite is wonderfully satisfactory, and they’re absolutely filling. The smoky barbecue that coats them is just fantastic; the flavor of the meat isn’t overwhelmed at all but rather complimented but a sauce that is rich, thick and, as you might expect, smoky. What you dip the wings in is up to you — we chose the blue cheese due to personal taste, and the contrast between the marinade and the dip is magnificent. But there are plenty of chases for those who don’t like blue cheese (of which we know there are many).
The tater tots are excellent, too. It’s tough to do tater tots badly, but they can come out soggy and bland if the chef takes their eye off if the potato. No worries here: the tots are crispy and zesty, and sit perfectly next to the wings and in the blue cheese (again, there are plenty of dip alternatives).
Overall, the food is great and the prices are reasonable, leading to a lovely dining experience at Rocky’s.