Besso: Eva Longoria's New Tex-Mex Restaurant. Any Comments?
I have seen plenty of media coverage of sexy Eva Longoria's recently-opened Tex-Mex restaurant in the Hollywood area----including views of the food, such as the tacos and goodies that she brought outside to the marauding paparazzi to distract them so that her celeb friends could sneak inside through the back entrance. She says that SoCal didn't serve the kind of Tex-Mex food that her mother made and that she was used to in Texas and thats what she wanted her place to be cooking. I know its only been open for a short time, but has anybody been there? Any comments?
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Did a half-review, more observation on Eater LA
http://la.eater.com/archives/2008/04/...First of all, no idea where everyone gets Tex-Mex. Was it People? Us Weekly? The PR pushing to those magazines has no idea what they're doing, that's for sure. There's NOTHING, I repeat, nothing tex-mex or barely even Mexican at the place. The food we found tolerable ended up being direct rip-offs from Todd English's other restaurants (skirt steak tacos, artichoke guacamole, steak with grilled romain). The paying public shouldn't be subjected to other dishes---flavorless mushy "drunken shrimp" with tequila after burn; horrible paella, if you can call it that, was more like chicken bones, overcooked shellfish and rice swimming in dishwater broth; chocolate souffle doused in ice cream (what?) and chocolate sauce (WHAT?). The churros were OK for dessert, but the sauces tasted like Red Hots melted in chocolate and Brach's caramels melted and then coagulated again. English was not in the house.
Needs a LOT of work. And the airport hangar is pretty spot on.
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Hi, Chowhounders - this is my first post, so be kind .
What prompted me to finally jump in? The truly awful meal I just at at Beso, the new hot spot restaurant in Hollywood. I thought you should all be warned. (Just got home ten minutes ago, so the experience and that taste I can't get out of my mouth are still fresh.) It's kind of a joke. $10.00 valet. Pay in advance. Host refusing to seat you until your whole party is there. The place was EMPTY! The room looks like a beautifully decorated airplane hanger - but at the end of the day, who wants to eat in an airplane hanger. The crowd - mainly hollywood tourists - t-shirts and sweats hoping to see some celebrities. A few older foodies. The service - pleasant but let's just say... untrained. I mean - the waiter didn't know the white wines from the reds. And it's a really small wine list split into whites and reds. Honestly. Couldn't explain the specials and had no idea what several of the items were on the menu. Did recommend that we order the flat bread appetizer while we were deciding. Took him up on it. Two minutes later - the complimentary one showed up. (Actually really good. But kind of didn't need to order the second one.) Truly, the flatbread was the best part. Chopped salad - blah - and the shaved artichoke salad to start. (That's the taste that won't go away - so much bargain basement truffle oil on it that I haven't been really able to taste anything since.) Entrees - paella, steak and tuna tacos. Boring, pretty good, and average. Dessert. ice cream sandwiches - tasty but uninspired. Chocolate benets - horrible! The ice cream with it tasted like dirt. Maybe if the restaurant didn't try so desperately to feel like an event it wouldn't have been so disappointing. But truly - there is no reason to set foot in this place. Oh - and as a final grace note... after you're ten dollar trip to the valet - you have to wait for your car on the other side of the street in front of the Hollywood Spa. (For the uninitiated, a fairly notorious sex club. classy to the very end.)
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re: db0004
Parking at the Spa. Certainly a "classy" touch...
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I was excited about this restaurant opening not so much because of Eva Longoria, but rather because she is collaborating with Todd English on it, and I love his restaurant Olives in Vegas. I haven't been to Beso myself, but I took a look at the citysearch reviews and there are pretty consistently terrible. Oh, well.
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