I believe that Jose Andres is a culinary force to be reckoned with in terms of elegance, presentation, taste, and creativity. He has multiple restaurants from all over and two of them are neighbors right next to each other in Beverly Hills! Sadly, I’ve only gotten to eat at one of his restaurants so far, but believe me, I’ve bookmarked all of the others and will eventually nail them one by one. The only obstacle is the money. IT. IS. EXPENSIVE. Guarantee to expect a bill of at least EASILY 500 bucks. I mean you want to eat good too right? And if you’re going to go to this place, don’t even think about eating cheap or limiting your ordering.. It is just not worth it and too tempting to not order more.. The bill came out to be at LEAST 500-600 bucks total for two people? You will soon see the 500 bucks of food as you scroll.. 🙂 THANKS FOR TREATING ME <3 This restaurant is called The Bazaar by Jose Andres in Beverly Hills, CA.
Disclaimer: Excuse the lighting in these photos! This was a year ago and at that time, I wasn’t genius enough to use two phones (one to function as a flashlight) and this restaurant is DAAAAARRRK.
Passion Fruit Up! orange rum, passion fruit, ginger-laurel syrup, passion fruit foam – This is a fruity pink margarita with a fruit foam on top! Watch out! It’s really strong. The foam is so yummy and fun to drink! It gets on my upper lip haha
LN2 Caipirinha – brazilian cachaca, fresh lime and sugar frozen by using liquid nitrogen. This is an alcoholic drink made using liquid nitrogen and “passion” to produce a smoothie-icee lemon/lime mixture! super yummy and very entertaining to watch! I think the whole demo was like 20 minutes long?? The waiter was so funny and kept saying that he had to have passion and use his passion to make this drink!
Cotton Candy Foie Gras – I thought it was just regular cotton candy, but you put the whole thing in your mouth in one bite and you’ll get a surprise yummy chewy texture in the middle. 😉
American Caviar Cone – Secret surprise!! And they are presented on this ICE COLD rock plate. These were SOOOO delicious…. And again, so fun toe at the small cones!
Shrimp Cocktail – You put the shrimp in your mouth first, then squeeze onto the plastic tube that contains the cocktail sauce and it squirts in your mouth. Fun to eat! My most favorite thing to eat from here just cause it’s so fun!!! And very creative 🙂
Smoked Yellowtail and Crispy Rice – This was such a beautiful and delicate presentation that does not disappoint. There are light cream cheese dots underneath. Get everything in one bite!
Market Fish Ceviche and Avocado Roll – This looks like an avocado sushi roll! I think they were aiming at that.. It was so good!!!!
Jamón Serrano Fermín (dry cured ham) This is ham from Spain served with toasted thin bread and a pink spread on top. So delicious! I loved it.. If you guys love prosciutto and ham, you will love and appreciate this. Very savory and flavorful!
Gazpacho – Chilled tomato, green bell pepper, cucumber – This was their most recommended soup. But doesn’t it look kind of lonely? It actually came as an empty container and they poured the soup for us from another cute pot.
And so funny story here.. haha.. I didn’t read that it was “chilled” tomato. I thought it was going to be hot? I love cream of tomato soup and that is hot! So it came cold.. And I didn’t really like it cold..? I asked the waiter if they could just microwave it and make it warm for us. My friend literally laughed at my face! The waiter gave me a weird look and said he will see what he can do.. He comes back and says he is unable to heat this.. They do not have a microwave… My friend: “If they had a microwave here, then that would be so embarrassing.” I mean look at the food they are serving! That’s true.. hehe I felt dumb. BUT I TOOK THIS ONE TO-GO AND HEATED IT AT HOME! I was determined… It actually tasted better cold.. haha
Not Your Everyday Caprese – Cherry tomatoes, liquid mozzarella – The mozzarella cheese is actually soft and liquid form on the inside! What a surprise in my mouth!
Jicama Wraps – I don’t remember what were in these 🙁 The sauce was milky though!
“Philly Cheesesteak”* (air bread, cheddar, wagyu beef) – WHAT THEY ARE FAMOUS FOR AND WHAT EVERYONE RAVES ABOUT AND WHAT EVERYONE ALWAYS ORDERS! They are as good.. Have you guys ever tried french madeleines? It’s like lighter-than-air bread? These are lighter than air…
The inside is hollow! And melted cheese.. Can you see it? The steak was so tender.. These could be so addicting, but they are so expensive.
Eggplant Tempura – local honey, buttermilk – Very chewy and surprisingly good! Props for making me like eating eggplant! And notice that foamy dip! A DIP THAT IS FOAMY ON TOP! Wow! And I just noticed, I love their small wooden spoons that they use throughout!
Grilled Spanish Octopus – Caramelized onions, chicken escabeche, cherry tomatoes – This was such good octopus! Octopus is very hard to cook and difficult to not cook it too much where it becomes rubbery.. This was soft.. Sigh 🙂 HAPPINESS.
Stuffed Piquillo Peppers – Capriola farm goat cheese – I love these huge stuffed peppers! Lots of cheese!
Sauteed Shrimp – Garlic, tomato sofrito, guindilla pepper – Yumm 🙂
Nitro Coconut Floating Island – passion fruit and vanilla – Can you guys look closely and see the faint, light, smoky air that’s floating atop the plate around it? It really is like a floating item! Such a fun dessert to bring out and see the smoke flying about! And to eat it! And look at the bananas underneath! It’s holding the island up! WOW 🙂
Hot Chocolate Mousse – pear sorbet and salty hazelnut praline – The white part is sorbet and COLD. The chocolate mousse was actually HOT. This was the most extreme contrast in temperature stuck right next to each other for me to eat! And it worked! 🙂 Bravo.
Pan Con Chocolate – chocolate flan with caramelized bread, olive oil and brioche ice cream – One of their most recommended desserts. It looks so elegant and exquisite and feels like there is a lot going on! IT WAS DELICIOUSLY SWEET AND CREAMY AND CHOCOLATE-Y.
Chocolate Pop Rocks – These are so fun to eat!! Pop them in your mouth, chew, and they pop in your mouth! Like fireworks in my mouth!
All in all..
This is one of those restaurants that is fancy fine dining and isn’t BORING. It is so fun to eat! Everything is fun to eat! Everything is a surprise in my mouth! I love surprises! I love food that is a surprise! 🙂 Not only that but they still capture the romantic ambiance. There’s a separate dessert room/area where they walk you over to that area to eat dessert. This restaurant is the first in which they also have a small section with the dessert room where there’s like a museum display of Spanish jewels and books and assortments that are also for sale? Interesting. There are price tags and everything! So amusing!! After our meal, we literally stayed there for another 30 minutes walking around and looking at everything!
AND MY FAVORITE OF ALL.. THE BATHROOM.. IS A BEAUTIFUL BATHROOM. NEVER NEVER EAT HERE AND NOT GO TO THE BATHROOM!! Beautiful and white. The sinks are not really sinks but are rocks and the water flows off from the side. Each bathroom stall has 4-sided mirrors so you are staring at infinities of yourselves when you turn 360 WHILE YOU PEE!! I spent a good amount of time in the bathroom too.. Sorry guys.. I lost the videos and pictures of the bathroom.. 🙁
Now I am hungry and I must come back to this restaurant soon! Luckily for us.. DineLA is coming up in the month of July! July 18-31. Mark your calendars guys because if you want to try SOME of these delicious treats without putting a huge dent into your wallet, make a reservation early and come try their selected menu!!! And thank God this restaurant participates in DineLA! What is DineLA? An opportunity 3 times a year for people like us to try and taste expensive and exquisite restaurants on a reasonable budget! So that the food doesn’t seem so out-of-reach and unattainable! How nice of them!! 🙂
