I Love LA: Exploring Descanso Gardens Enchanted Lights

Maple’s newly remodeled interior
(Photo courtesy of Wonho Frank Lee)

Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed their Holidays and is excited about 2019, and looking forward to a fresh new year.

The week of Christmas I had the pleasure of checking out Descanso Garden’s Holiday exhibit, Enchanted Forest. If you’ve never been, it’s a gorgeous display of lights and Holiday themed installations that Descanso Gardens puts on every Holiday season with a bunch of different light displays. I’ve lived in LA for 12 years and always wanted to go - but never been, so I was so excited to visit this season and check it out!

My favorite part of the exhibit was these insane field of tulip lights that changed colors, but there was a lot more to see than even this exhibit, many of the light exhibits were also interactive which was fun.

Before we started our tour we kicked off with a dinner at the newly renovated Maple restaurant. Located just inside the food courtyard area, you would never know that this good of a restaurant would exist inside of a botanical garden like this. The decor was clean and unassuming. We really had no idea how good our dinner was going to be! Definitely make reservations to eat here when you’re visiting!

We ordered: To start, beet salad with mache, roasted garlic ricotta, toasted hazelnuts, apple cider vinaigrette ($14), brussel sprouts which were a special, and the house made cheese tortellin ($22) then we moved on to the smoked chicken c (another special), pork loin with sweet potato and collard green gratin, apple chutney, apple cider glaze ($30), and herb broiled salmon with roasted root vegetables, goat cheese polenta, and chimichurri sauce for mains. Everything was amazing but I’d say the tortellini and my salmon were my favorites!

From top left: Pork loin, Fried Chicken with crab beignets, and grilled salmon with polenta.

Maple also just renovated, so make sure to stop by and visit next time you visit Descanso Gardens!

Full Dinner Menu by Chef Philip Mack is here: MENU

While the light installation is wrapping up for the season, Descanso Gardens is a botanical garden that’s lovely to visit year round as well, and Maple is known for their brunch! No matter the time of year, for sure you should stop by and pay them a visit. Can’t wait to go back!

x

Genevieve

Want to visit? Find them below!

Descanso Gardens and Maple Restaurant

1418 Descanso Drive
La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011