Visited a restaurant Saturday night that is new to the westside, but has a well known, established namesake in West Hollywood.

We dined outside on a beautiful evening and the food was good.

The magic never surfaced.

I did not swoon.

A.O.C. is a small plates restaurant driven by seasonal ingredients, locally sourced.

The California/French/Mediterranean cuisine is developed by James Beard award-winning chef Suzanne Goin in conjunction with her business partner and master sommelier, Caroline Styne.

I really wanted to like A.O.C…as with any relationship, you can’t force chemistry.

The Lucques Group which owns A.O.C. as well as Tavern which has been transformed into A.O.C. is located on San Vicente in Brentwood.

The interior is a bit dim and confining.

Our server disappeared half way through dinner so service was uneven and Daniel forgot to order a dish which worked out fine in the end, but is still not acceptable service.

We started with a lovely focaccia bread with grilled white trumpet mushrooms, Asiago and Tallegio. Quite tasty, but overpriced at $18.

The Heirloom Tomato salad with black olives, charred scallions and Greek feta was delicious…more feta please! It was basically a tomato salad ($17).

The Grilled Local Halibut with avocado cream and succotash salsa was delectable and by far the best dish ($25).

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The Prawns over a cornbread pudding and tomato-caper salsa was unique. The prawns were baked in the wood oven and served over sunny, sweet cornbread pudding which made for an interesting pairing with the shrimp ($24).

You are encouraged to order 2-3 dishes per person since the plates are not generous.

For larger groups there is also a Roasted Chicken platter that can be ordered for the table (half $36, whole $72) as well as a Polenta platter for $36.

After experiencing a wonderful wine list at Bicyclette with reasonable pricing especially for half glasses, the wines by the 6-ounce glass were priced mostly in the teens.

Let us be clear, A.O.C. is not inexpensive.

For the price, service, level of food enjoyment and general overall ambiance go straight to Bicyclette and do not stop at A.O.C.

A.O.C. 11648 San Vincente Boulevard Brentwood, California. Open Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday 5-10pm, Friday and Saturday 5-11pm. Brunch Saturday and Sunday 10am-2:30pm. Valet and street parking. Reservations on OpenTable.com.