Spago — Restaurant in Beverly Hills

We heard great things about Spago and Wolfgang's other restaurants had satiated us in the past, so we were off to give it a try. The restaurant is very spacious with a beautiful dining room and modern exposed kitchen. We spontaneously opted for the California Tasting Menu, which is ~$200/person.

Spicy Tuna Tartare, Sesame-Miso Cone Cup: Excellent! I'll take a dozen of these, please. The conical sesame-miso crisp was wrapped tightly, with tuna inside, some bonito and tobiko on top and finished with a couple sprigs of micro greens. Spicy, savory, tender and crunchy on the outside

Puffed Beet Cracker, Goat Cheese Foam: Good! Pillowy goat cheese topped with crunchy beets

Maple Syrup Macaron, Confit Bacon, Coffee, Egg yolk Jam: Excellent! I've always thought a savory macaron would be good if done right. This was almost a mini breakfast macaron.

Crispy Sesame Ball, Dungeness Crab, Coconut, Baby Shrimp: Great! Adorable take on fried sesame balls you see at dim sum shops, except with crab and shrimp, topped with shredded coconut

"Egg" - smoked salmon mousse, Weiser Farm's potato chip espuma, salmon pearls: Great! Beautiful golden egg shell with the top evenly sliced off as if with a leveler, on a bed of sprouts and purple flowers. What is it about moussed fish that I like so much? Maybe it's the creamy nice with a tender protein.

Santa Barbara Spot Prawn in Charred Onion "Bowl" - chilled onion soup, basil oil, red amaranth: Great! I don't know how these onion bowls are prepared, but there must be some way that they de-sulfurize them to prevent guests from crying into their bowls. Cold, savory soup is very refreshing with tender prawns.

White Asparagus "Chaud Froid" - orange-saffron glaze, edible flowers, hazelnuts, shallot-citrus vinaigrette: Good! Beautifully presented single asparagus carefully adorned with flowers and hazelnuts.

Steamed Black Cod, Purple Shiso, Wasabi Tobiko - pea tendrils, snap peas, beet-ginger ponzu: Good! Tender cod with peas

Hand Made Agnolotti with Italian Summer Truffles - English peas, parmesan: Great! Pasta presented with cloche. Beneath the cloche was the sweet agnolotti with shaved truffles and parmesan

Lacquered Carpenter's Ranch Squab - Szechuan pepper "rock," soy powder "twigs," red sorrel: Great! Juicy squab with soy glaze

Grilled Japanese Akaushi Wagyu Rump Steak and Corned Beef - farmer's market wheat berries, horseradish-potato puree, sea beans: Great! Tender wagyu with seared crust with bean sauce enclosed in a circle of potato puree

Ruby Red Grapefruit Sorbet: Good! Dollop of grapefruit sorbet with some slivered almonds. Fruity desserts are the way to cool down

Chocolate Crepe Soufflé - salted caramel whipped cream: Good! An interactive way to make your own miniature chocolate crepe with chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and raspberries on the side.

The dishes were delicious and most of them had an experimental twist on the way they are usually presented, with very attractive presentation. I would be intrigued to return and try the a la...

I am not a first time customer at Spago! Until now , I didn’t get over how my surprise birthday for my daughter last Saturday turned out to be that evening for a special dinner event. I made my reservation a head of time. I told the lady at the reception that it is my daughter’s birthday who disregards the reservation plan over the phone with bias. If I knew I would be scammed like this, I could have gone to better serviced restaurants than this. We were serious about this reservation and we didn’t expect the night to be treated so casually and dismissive to the customer’s requests. I requested to sit at a nice outside patio, but she placed us in a sidewalk where people were passing by without mask while we are eating our food. The food taste delicious as expected, but it’s not hot. The waiter should be honest when labeling the meals rather than making up names onto our checks. He cannot just label a mascarpone filled pastry with raspberry sorbet dessert as an “Apple strudel”! It sounds completely ridiculous and poorly for a birthday dessert name on our check. We are charged extra for that instead of it being on the house. I leave the place hoping I didn’t and won’t get Covid-19 because of the unpleasant surrounding area. It is not worth to pay expensive for a dinner $$$$. It is a shame for the celeb restaurant named Spago. I am very upset that we have to eat in a sidewalk, near the valet, and exposed to people passing (super spreaders without masks) without being mindful and caring about the other people’s safety. It is our first time in a long time to go out. We really hoped to make that day at what I thought would be a special and worthy dining experience rather than being put aside as if we were the other customers who make their dining day there casual. I had high regards about their restaurant being high standard. I choose Spago at Beverly Hills, but it turned out to be a disaster. The other Wolfgang restaurants are wonderful, but this restaurant is such a turn down and disappointment.

Please improve your staff and service so that the next customers don’t fall for this money trap dining experience and save their health from passerby without mask. The staff could at least make the dining area there close or detoured to the passerby. That way the diners can have a more ambient, safer, and private time to relax and eat there.

I will not be returning to this restaurant...

We were traveling from Houston and chose to celebrate my daughter's birthday at Spago, for its reputation and because whomever I spoke to on the phone sold me on this unique experience. We were told Christmas Eve would be an extremely special experience where the restaurant was transformed into a "winter wonderland" with snow, trees, carolers - an over the top experience. We are always willing to spend money for top quality food and service. That is not what we received that evening. Not only did they completely forget we were celebrating a birthday, we were not waited on (didn't have plates, napkins, silverware, and even water), we had to chase down servers, our food order was wrong (ordered white truffles and the kitchen tried to pass off black summer truffles, a fraction of the price) on a cold microwaved soggy pizza. After waiting nearly two hours, our entrees were entirely wrong and while willing to eat the wrong orders because at that point we just wanted to leave, they were inedible. My husband's prime rib was definitely not prime rib - everyone who ordered the meat option looked to have a different type of meat - a version of many different cuts of sliced meat - but definitely not prime rib. My fish was overcooked, rubbery and cold. We didn't even have the chance to provide meaningful feedback to any waitstaff, because they rarely were around to check on us - unavailable. When we finally did find someone, they seemed overwhelmed and clueless - definitely not the level of service or accommodations you would expect for a fine dining experience. I've never experienced this type of dissatisfaction from such a nice establishment with a good reputation, and we frequent restaurants of this caliber. We ended up walking out during our entrees (skipped the last course because we had been there so long at this point and it was just getting worse), and that didn't even alarm the waitstaff which should tell you something. We all left hungry and feeling like we had been majorly scammed. I understand there were people missing due to Covid, but my preference would have been to warn / adjust / or cancel if you couldn't provide an acceptable level of service and food quality. Instead, you continued to charge 5 star prices for a 1 star experience - highway robbery. This set a very negative tone for our holiday and really left a bad taste...