BOA

Up on the Sunset strip amid bars and restaurants for the stars is BOA, a steak house where the food is great, but if you are not one of those celebrities for which this place lives, anticipate to be treated as such from the wait staff. As to be expected from a steak house, the menu is largely meat driven, but there are also some great fish options for those pescatarians out there. I was here with my family, and it was a great spot for a big crowd. As an appetizer we all shared an oyster platter. For the most part, this was great, but there were a couple of shucks in there that were just awful. It was literally like licking a dead fish. Being hypochondriacs, everyone worried for the rest of the night about whether or not we'd all be stricken with the awful afflictions one can get from eating oysters. Needless to say, no one was feeling the effects of the oysters as an aphrodisiac after that, but luckily we all survived. Looking back, I wish we had instead tried the Kobe beef corndog and the truffled nachos. Most other appetizer items were seafood dishes like prawns and Ahi tuna tartare. My sister ordered a BLT salad as a starter and that was actually quite good. Moving on to the main course, it was pretty much steaks all around. BOA is unique in that you choose the cut of steak you'd like and then you select a rub and/or sauce to pair with your it. For those who don't do well with options, you might have a little trouble here. It can be overwhelming to choose because you're out almost $40 if you don't like what you get. In our case, however, everyone was more than pleased with their plate. Four people at the table tried the Kansas City bone-in filet with various rubs (options include peppercorn, herbed butter, blackened, blue cheese, and fois gras). I myself tried the petite filet (about 5 oz.) with the herbed butter, served medium rare. It was phenomenal. Truly the best steak I've ever had. But I guess butter makes everything better, right? Since we were such a large party and most everyone was eating steak, we had the waiter bring us a spread of the six different sauces (peppercorn, cabernet, bearnaise, chimicurri, creamy horseradish, and BOA's signature J-1, with peppercorn being the most popular). Those not having steak tried the short ribs and the lobster and both were quite impressed, though the 3lbs. of lobster was a little much for my 110 lb. sister. Not to worry though, the rest of us ate it right up. For sides we ordered family style, getting the sauteed spinach, which was good, but mostly just tasted like salt, the mac and cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and my favorite, lobster mashed potatoes. We were all pretty full by the time we got to desert, but we ordered 2 anyway. We opted for the "adult s'mores" and a bananas foster. I'm not much into bananas, but everyone raved about this dish. I instead stuck to the s'mores, with charred melted mallow, a crispy slender homemade graham cracker, a dense chocolate cake, and dulce de leche ice cream, all with a subtle hint of cinnamon. BOA also has a location on Ocean in Santa Monica which offers cotton candy far better than what you'll find at any fair or Staples center event. In terms of atmosphere, BOA on Sunset is hip, but relaxed. It's a small space, but they did with it what they could. Rich dark woods are accented by natural elements like a twig woven screen and a glass insert in the floor with pebbles inside. To contrast, brightly colored lamps hang from the ceiling and cut the room in half. I will say that considering the design elements of the restaurant, the restrooms (which are in the Grafton Hotel) feel dirty and cheap with their sponge-painted orange walls and stalls. The sommelier was very friendly (which could have something to do with us ordering upward of $70 bottles of wine, 4 times), but the waiters here were uppity and inattentive. There were multiple times that we waited more than 10 minutes for our water glasses to be filled and when Griffin had his red wine glass taken off the table, our waiter never replaced it, despite our request. We had to ask 3 other people working in the restaurant before someone finally took care of it. One of the waiters I asked for the glass said "Do I look like your waiter?" instead of something more helpful like "How may I help you?" There's at least 3 or 4 waiters working at a time and there can't be more than 20 tables here, not to mention food runners, etc. so that kind of service when you are paying that price is inexcusable. The poor service continued to the valet, though at least BOA validates, so parking was only $8. I have been to the Santa Monica location and don't recall poor serivce being an issue there, though the interior design is not quite on par. Regardless of the bad service, we all still had a great time and a great meal, so I would still recommend going here for a fancy dinner, but like I mentioned before, entrees are $30-$40 each so either share or go for a really special occasion, or in my case, when someone else is paying. Thanks, Dad.

http://www.boasteak.com/balboa/