Baleen Kitchen Reopens

Baleen Kitchen, located inside the Portofino Hotel and Marina in Redondo Beach, recently celebrated its “reopening event,” highlighting its renovations, a new culinary team and a new seafood-driven menu.

It’s easy to forget that Baleen Kitchen is there, because of its location at the end of the Peninsula next to the Portofino Hotel & Marina. You don’t pass it on the way to anyplace else, and some people think it’s a part of the hotel. Baleen is indeed open to everybody, and over the years I’ve had some very good meals there. The restaurant closed for a complete remodeling in January but will reopen this coming Monday, July 24th. New chef Leandro Bongarra will offer “Coastal Cuisine” and has kept a few favorites from previous menus. I for one am glad that their duck carnitas on a corn crepe REOPEN.

The new culinary team includes Chef de Cuisines Vasili Tavernakis and Paul Dinulescu. Tavernakis “values the importance of creating food from scratch as often as possible.”