Spago (lunch) – Beverly Hills, CA

Spago (lunch) – Beverly Hills, CA

Although this is somewhat of a duplicate I thought it was deserving and different enough seeing that it was lunch this time, not dinner.  Spago is one of my favorite spots in BH that never disappoints.  On a recent trip down to the land of sun and skinny beautiful people who walk like they’re someone but aren’t, we dashed from the airport straight to lunch to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday.  Wolfgang himself even made an appearance which was warm welcomed.  It should not surprise you that the first thing we ordered was a round of tuna cones.  I really can’t be more enthusiastic about them.  I’ll spare you my thoughts…just order them!

Next we all split the House Smoked Salmon Pizza with shaved onions and dill créme fraiche and salmon pearls (aka salmon roe) – too big for one person and plenty to split amongst five as a starter.  Similar in concept to the Smoked Salmon (and Sturgeon) and Blinis but the pizza itself has more substance to it.  Not a light dish in the slightest but delicious in every bite.

For my main course I was sold on the Japanese BBQ Salmon Salad with cucumber, avocado, pickled vegetables, seaweed, butter lettuce and ponzu.  This was SUCH a good choice!  I will go back and eat this over and over if I can.

Because of the birthday celebration we had to indulge in a little dessert so the birthday girl chose the Candy Apple with honey poached fuji apples, salted pretzel puff pastry, apple cider caramel, and Tahitian vanilla ice cream…whoa…talk about the perfect ending.  This was so much better than I could have imagined it to be.  Well done Sherry Yard!  It’s not wonder she won “Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year” by the James Beard Foundation.