Your girls here at Taste of Reality did the thing during our recent trip to Los Angeles … we went to Jax’s Studio City.
Simply put … everything about Jax’s felt like Jax Taylor.
While we don’t refrain from sharing our criticisms of Jax, we are capable of having an excellent time at his establishment. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
(Originally published 8/21/2024)
Location:
The bar, which is part of Rocco’s Tavern, can be found 7 miles (about a 15-minute drive) from all of the other Vanderpump Rules related locations such as Something About Her, TomTom, SUR, and The Abbey.
I’m honestly baffled by the location of Jax’s. There’s a Rocco’s tavern in West Hollywood, steps from the above mentioned establishments, which makes going out to Studio City feel very odd. But, we were happy to make the trek to try Mamaw’s beer cheese.
We really liked the Studio City neighborhood as it was quaint and quiet, but it lacked the WeHo spark.
Imani and I ended up at Jax’s twice. The first time we went, we waited 30 minutes and we hadn’t been approached by a server/bartender/host. We waited majority of the time in the busy outdoor area, then inside for a while before we decided to leave.
We went from TomTom to Jax’s. The 21-minute Lyft ride cost $22.78 plus tip. The Lyft to Hotel Ziggy from Jax’s took 15 minutes and cost $19.60 plus tip.
Yes, we spent $65 on Lyfts to NOT eat or drink at Jax’s.
For the purpose of this review (and, again, Mamaw’s Beer Cheese), we returned a couple days later.
The space:
The bar wasn’t only named after the controversial star of The Valley, it has his image splattered all over it. In addition to neon signs with his name and catchphrases from his time on Vanderpump Rules, several of the menu items were nods to Brittany Cartwright‘s estranged husband/baby daddy as well.
Katie Maloney said Jax’s was a ‘bonus room‘ at Rocco’s. She’s not wrong, but it’s more than just ‘a’ room. In addition to a small indoor space, there is a spacious indoor/outdoor space where guests can enjoy the LA temps.
It made sense how Jax was able to get Jax’s up and running so quickly, to Katie’s point. Jax didn’t open a new restaurant. A section of an existing restaurant put his name on the exterior and let him redecorate. With that said, Jax has a bar with his name on it, so that’s cool.
The menus:
It was confusing. Ordering food bar shouldn’t be hard.
There’s a folded menu book that features drinks and a handful of food items.
Additionally, there’s a large menu with a massive selection of menu choices.
From what the server said, some of the food had to be ordered in Jax’s area of the restaurant while other items were available at Rocco’s. We still didn’t really understand the explanation, we were just happy we got service … this time.
The drinks:
Imani ordered a watermelon margarita which was Casamigos Blanco, watermelon liquor, fresh lime juice, and sour mix. She described it as sweet, refreshing, but nothing special. I took a sip and it was fine. Just fine. It was not offered as a blended drink, nor was Imani asked if she wanted a sugar or salt rim.
I ordered Brittany’s Sweet Tea. Served in a rocks glass, the drink featured Bulleit Bourbon, Triple Sec, and fresh lime juice, and sweet tea. Again, there was nothing wrong with the drink, it just wasn’t interesting or unique.
Mamaw’s Beer Cheese:
In the words of Iron Chef’s Chairman, we went to Jax’s with “an empty mind and an empty stomach.” Unlike Iron Chef, it didn’t end well.
Our first course was Mamaw’s Beer Cheese. The menu description stated, “As seen on Vanderpump Rules – Served with a Warm Pretzel. Well, it delivered as promised, sort of. We saw it on Vanderpump Rules and it came with a warm piece of bread, but I wouldn’t call it a pretzel. It was more like pretzel shaped bread.
Bless their hearts. That’s all I can say. This appetizer was a disaster. In my non-expert opinion, this ‘pretzel’ wasn’t boiled in baking soda, so it didn’t have that smooth, glossy finish. While it was pretzel-shaped bread, it was not a pretzel.
The positive of the dish is literally the dish. The beer cheese is served on its very own branded cutting board. The board holds a porcelain dish of the cheese product, the pretzel-shaped bread, and a generous amount of celery.
Let’s talk about the beer cheese.
I love beer and I love cheese.
Mamaw’s beer cheese was underwhelming, to say the least. The cheese looked like it was served with an ice cream scooper. Its texture seemed more like a cheese ‘product’ rather than cheese. There was an odd gelatinous texture and an almost non-existent beer flavor.
I’m the Forrest Gump of cheese. I like soft cheese, pimento cheese, stinky cheese, goat cheese, blue cheese, hard cheese, sharp cheese, sheep cheese, cheese that smells like feet. With that said, I could go the rest of my life never having Mamaw’s beer cheese again and be ok. (I’m snacking on pub cheese as I write this, for the record.)
While I try to eat bread in moderation, I was glad to have a plentiful serving of celery. It’s odd to me that they don’t advertise the celery in the menu description for the gluten free peeps.
This was a huge disappointment.
Entrees:
Imani had ‘Jax’s Burger.’ For $16.95, guests get a “single patty char grilled and stacked with lettuce, tomato, red onion, and thousand island dressing on a toasted roll. Her burger was offered on pretzel bread or a Hawaiian roll. She opted for the Hawaiian roll since we had the pretzel shaped bread with the beer cheese.
“Messy” is how Imani described Jax’s burger, and it’s also a fitting adjective for it’s namesake. The Hawaiian roll was fresh, but significantly larger than the burger patty. Imani cut the burger in half (after waiting several minutes for silverware) and it fell apart due to the overabundance of sauce they put on it. It didn’t appeal to the eye at all. The fries were ok. They went from the freezer to the fryer to our table. Very rarely is a fry left uneaten at my table, but we left most of them.
I had ‘Jax’s Tacos.’ $14.95 promised “3 corn masa tortillas filled with marinated grilled shrimp topped with thinly sliced cabbage, drizzled with house made roasted vegetable salsa then garnished with a cilantro sprig.”
The shrimp lived up to their name, but the tacos were generously filled and I appreciated the generous char on the little guys. The veg salsa didn’t come ‘drizzled’ on the taco as described. It came on the side, along with a big blob of sour cream. The amount of sour cream and salsa was very disproportionate to the size of the tacos. It was enough condiments for three orders rather than one.
The veg salsa had a nice kick to it, but had the texture of baby food.
Final thoughts:
To answer the question posed earlier, Is Jax’s Studio City the Number One Bar In The Group? That’s a hard no.
After dining at TomTom and Schwartz & Sandy’s twice, their food, beverage, and ambience far exceeded Jax’s. I would consider going back to Jax’s (with a full belly) for a special event, and stick with draft beer … and pray the keg isn’t flat.
Do you remember on VPR when we’d see Jax tell bar patrons he didn’t want to make labor intensive drinks? He even told a customer to order beer or wine! That’s the energy that Jax’s gives off. While The Toms are teased for their pretentious approach to mixology, it’s evident there was attention and care put into their drinks. The opposite goes for Jax’s.
Our total bill came to $102.52. This felt like robbery. Keep in mind, this comes from a gal who has normalized $22 smoothies from Erewhon.Â
