Tuning Fork

I really like the ambiance of this bar, the food is decent and the beer selection is pretty solid. My only complaint would be our bartender/server’s, Cary, attitude. He honestly kind of ruined our experience when his attitude and lack of presence throughout our meal/​when asking for the bill became the main topic of conversation! It was really a damper on an otherwise nice outing.

Ok… enough with the valley gastro pubs… especially this one. Horrible service…30 minutes for a cup of soup that was overly salted?! And then the waiter argued with his tip?! That’s how you send a message…

I really wanted to love Tuning Fork. Given it’s proximity to my office and all the other great dining around, I figured it had to be a hit. Ultimately, it was just ok.
Let’s start with the wine: 2 of the wines I wanted on the menu were unavailable. The only other Pinot they had was the most expensive by the glass, which felt a little scummy to me. Luckily, they honored the price of my first wine choice which I thought was pretty generous.
Now on to the food. We had the ratatouille, the cheeseburger, and a bunch of sides. My ratatouille was $ 15 and tasted blander than cardboard. The veggies were over cooked and dry and no amount of red sauce could save it. The burger was much, much better but still nothing to write home about. There are tons of great burger joints in the valley.
All said and done, the bill was outrageous for the quality and flavor of the food. While the ambiance was nice and laid back, there isn’t much more that begs a return visit.

A friend and I went for dinner. At 6:30pm, the restaurant was pretty busy and you need to make a reservation for a good table. But we were still seated at a one sided table. We ordered the Brussel sprouts as an appetizer off the specials of the day menu. Excellent! Didn’t know Brussel sprouts could taste so good. My friend had fish and chips and enjoyed it. She said the fish taste fresh. I am vegan so I had the Arigato Portobello mushroom. The portobello makes a tasty veggie burger — with fried avocado on it. I will be back for more!

I really love this place. It’s always a great sign when you struggle to decide which of the items you’re NOT going to order. The MAJOR stand-​outs were: 1) bbq pork tacos, 2) short rib with cauliflower mashed potatoes & broccolini, 3) purple kale with bacon (even better when I added blood orange vinegar at home), 4) spinach salad add grilled salmon & 5) the warm deep chocolate brownie with salted caramel gelato. Live music was the cherry on top!

Love this place. We happened upon it our last time in town and it was memorable enough that it was one of our destination options this trip. Food is terrific. Both visits have been in the mid afternoon. It’s been quiet then, so I can’t speak to busy time ambiance. When a carnivore opts for the vegan option and LOVES it (esw salad) you know it’s a good spot. We also got the Shaggy Martin sandwich with chips. Delicious distinct fresh flavors. Maureen our server, graciously answers our questions and helped us decide what to have. She knew the ingredients of everything and her enthusiasm was well founded. Even let me sample a gingerbread stout. This place will continue to be one of our standbys

My boyfriend and I happened to come across this place for lunch after a visit to a store on the same block. Upon entering the restaurant, the comfortable, laidback vibe and clean interior seemed like a good place for a casual, but also really nice meal. Food 3.5 stars. Service 5 stars.
I ordered the grilled salmon po’ boy with truffle fries. The salmon was very moist and well-​seasoned. That combined with the remoulade and sweet onion marmalade made the sandwich really tasty. The shoestring truffle fries were a little overcooked, making them taste a bit like potato chips, but they were still good overall.
My boyfriend had the e.s.w. salad, which he really enjoyed. It doesn’t come with dressing, but the combination of asparagus sautéed with olive oil, pepper, and salt with sliced avocados and crunchy vegetables provided good flavor and crunch.
Our server, Flavio, was very pleasant and provided great service. He was quick to refill our water multiple times and made sure to answer all our questions thoroughly.

5 star service, 3 star food
There’s nothing memorable about the menu. Whatever we tried was decent but not anything we’d want to have again. Also overpriced for what you get and the lack of yum factor.

This place is damn good. Excellent quality, well balanced flavors, fair prices. The ambiance isn’t anything special but is comfortable. The staff is really nice also.
Tip: try the homemade hot sauce.

It was okay… the food took forever to arrive and once it did I didn’t like it. I was not a fan of the horseradish sauce (absolutely ruined my burger!) The appetizers, though good, come in super small portions (only 4 mac&cheese balls), so not really made to share.
However, the fries were good and I liked the ambiance, so there are my 2 stars.

Great vibe.
Great staff… Sally was amazing.
Top notch beer selection.
Food was good not amazing but I want more.
I will be back.
I almost knocked them for the loud obnoxious kid but that wasn’t their fault.

Salmon belly tacos — a special that night — were fantastic. I liked the dim lighting, although my friends had to break out the iPhone flashlights to read the menus. Gets a little loud later on in the night. Also I am 90% positive the lock on the men’s room door is broken.
Street parking: try to find a metered spot on Ventura Place first, otherwise you can go into the three residential streets just north of there.

I’ve been meaning to try this place for a while and I finally did last week. We had reservations for dinner on a Tuesday night, but it wasn’t too busy so they weren’t needed after all.
My friend and I decided to share a bunch of plates so we could try a variety of things. Apparently, Tuesday nights are great because there are certain discounts they give you on wine bottles, apps and desserts — very cool.
The reason I’m giving this review 3 stars is because the food took foreverrrr to come out and there were people that came after us and got their food before us. They brought all the food out at once instead of bringing out what was ready first.
Also, I wasn’t too impressed with their flat breads. The bread was a lot thicker than expected and it was a lot smaller too.
My favs: truffle fries and watermelon salad! I definitely want to come back and try one of their famous burgers.

So this was my first time at Tuning Fork. I loved it!
Ambience: definitely a rustic feel. Wooden tables and chairs. The large windows brought in a lot of natural light which I loved.
Staff: friendly and outgoing. Our waiter definitely had a bubbly personality and was charming.
FOOD: I got the TF Club and oh my gawwwwd was that the best club I’ve ever had. Bread was toasted perfectly and there was a perfect meat, to veggie, to cheese, to aioli ratio. Of course got the side of truffles fries because DUH. I’m very particular about my fries and these were cooked to perfection. They were pretty much shoe string fries and the taste and texture were to die for. You could definitely taste the truffle but was not overpowering. My friend got the All or Nothing Burger. I mean, you can’t go wrong with an oozing egg and bacon on your burger. Definitely a monster burger. It’s my birthday so they gave us free dessert and it was the bread pudding. Man that pudding was GOOD. Not too sweet and not too soggy.
Overall, 4 stars. The only thing preventing me from giving the full 5 is that the food took quite a while to come out and we were the first customers of the day. If I could give a 4.5, I would. I will definitely be coming back!

Little restaurant tucked away in studio city. Could easily be missed but it’s there.
AMBIANCE & ATMOSPHERE: It looked like they were going for a laid back, lounging, quiet sitting type of restaurant but it ended up just being dark and slightly awkward. It seems to be a laid back spot BUT because of how dark it is, it felt like eating inside of your closest with only your night light on. Open mic night didn’t really help the vibe because there were times where the performer was either TOO loud where I couldn’t hear a thing my friend was saying or TOO toned down that when we finally figured out our volume of conversation, the table by us can suddenly hear that awkward part in my story because. Unfortunate timing & such. They also just had too many things going on at once: A sports game was on, open mic was going, and people were just trying to dine and talk with their party. A confusing venue, really. Tuning Fork is just too small to cater to different things. So I HIGHLY suggest you stick to one thing and focus on it.
SERVICE: The waitress was really nice but the time they took to get our order was much too long for such a small restaurant. It wasn’t even that busy that evening. But it took a good 15 min before our order was taken then add another 15 – 20 min before the food even made it to our table. The only thing their timing seemed to be good for was getting our check.
FOOD: We ordered the fried mac & cheese balls, friend got a grilled cheese w/​tomato soup, and I got the Margherita flatbread. We wanted to try the fries but the lady said we had a lot of food coming our way. Their portions are small. My flatbread was bland & not worth the wait OR the price– My friend only ate half of her grilled cheese and soup. The only thing that we enjoyed was the fried mac & cheese balls. Seriously lady, we could’ve enjoyed the fries too.
Overall, it’s Studio City. It’s LA. PLENTY of other places to enjoy! You can pass up on this one. &Thank me later. Sorry Tuning Fork.
Heads Up (s):
— If you are a Unilocaler who incessantly takes pictures of what you’re about to feast on, don’t bother coming here at night. Lighting is horrible. (I’d assume way more natural lighting during lunchtime).
— If you’re coming for a date, I suggest figuring out their event before-​hand or coming before their event. Or else you’ll end up at an open mic night.
— Have an idea of what you want to order & do it first thing!

Cool small bar/​restaurant in studio city. Low lit cozy feel. The food was good but portions were on the smaller side considering the price.
Started with truffle fries (really good) and jalapeño wings also full of flavor.
For main course the jerk chicken, very small portion just FYI if you are hungry. Others had a cheeseburger and a spicy cheeseburger all in all good food

This place is great! We had reservations for 8:30, however it was crazy busy in there and just grabbed a seat at the bar around 9:15, since our table wasn’t ready. It is a small place. The vibe is really great. They have a live guy singing, who is actually really great! He sang really good songs too. The staff here is so friendly!
The food here is pretty good:
We ordered a pizza– I wasn’t to much of a fan of it. The crust was soft. It had tomatoes and spinach on top of it.
We also ordered a burger– wow it was great! Very juicy and made to perfection. It came with fries. The French fries are like string fries! They were so delicious as well.
Lastly. We had to try a dessert. We got the chocolate cake with the ice cream on top. Wow it was delicious! I would definitely come back again!

This place is good. It’s small, and cozy with nice food, wine, and beer (no liquor). My boyfriend and I come here often actually, so I’m not sure why I haven’t written a review before now, but whatever. The last time we came, I had the salmon and he had the «All or nothing» burger. Mine was good, and he loved his.
They also had a couple people playing guitar and singing which for me was no bueno. The place is to small for that, and ain’t body got time for saying «WHAT?!» all night to the person sitting right across from you. It was just to damn loud. At one point I seriously couldn’t take it anymore, and we had to go but my bf had ordered dessert, so we requested it to go which took forever. It was the chocolate cake, which I think they make to order. .hence the fact that I was deaf, with a full beard by the time it came out. Lol.
Over all, I’d say this place is a win. They’d earn an extra star if they had liquor though. Just do yourself (and your eardrums a favor) and stay away on band night.

It was a very nice lunch. I had the club and my friend had the grilled cheese… both were great. The grilled cheese looked like that one that Jon Favreau made in the movie, Chef.
I mean, food has gotten SO good, in general, the bar raised so high, that any restaurant experience is made or destroyed by factors other than the actual food… speed of service attitude of server, ambiance, ease of parking, etc.
I found a spot on the street, we were seated immediately, the food came out quickly and the server had an amazing, almost over-​the-​top attitude… all can be attributed to eating lunch at 11:20. Don’t expect all of the above at 12:30, I’m guessing.
And not for nothing, but I don’t see how anyone can call this a two dollar sign joint with a $ 20 burger and an $ 18 club sandwich on the menu.

Several recent changes have turned this 3-​star establishment into a 5-​star must-​go destination.
Beer by the bottle is gone (they used to have about a hundred choices). The space has been used to put in more beer on tap, with even more coming soon. Hurrah!
The menu now has symbols indicating the vegan and gluten-​free options. No more negotiating with the servers. Hurrah!
There are 2−3x as many vegan options as there were previously. Hurrah!
The vegan mole chili was perfect. I normally avoid vegan chili because most places put in some type of fake meat, but I couldn’t resist the word «mole». To my surprise, there was no fake meat. Hurrah!
You can now order a ½ sandwich. Hurrah!