Jean-Georges Beverly Hills

Jean-Georges is a restaurant inside the fancy new Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, so we weren’t exactly expecting anything cutting edge. But it’s also run by the same guy who owns ABC Kitchen/Cocina/V in NYC, so we were hopeful that at least it wouldn’t be boring. Unfortunately, it is. Having said that, the enormous, high-ceilinged room is gorgeous, and the patio is sure to be the site of many a power lunch/most expensive handbag on Earth convention.

The food tries to be more interesting than your average hotel restaurant (crab and squash blossom beignets, sea urchin crostini), but that’s not where things end up. There’s a definite focus on BH-friendly dishes like salads with champagne dressing, and an entire section of the menu devoted to “Simply Cooked” pieces of protein, with not a carb in sight. Everything we’ve eaten here has been well-executed (except for those crab beignets, which were just bland), but at these prices, we’d rather save our money so we can join that handbag convention.