Home > Los Angeles Restaurants > Restaurant Review > Flava of fame

With their celebrity backing, pre-opening buzz, and supposedly tough-to-crack reservation books, L.A. dining hotspots Beso and Foxtail are pretty much famous for being famous. That may be good enough for Nicole Richie, Suri Cruise or “American Idol” rejects, but such affectation can be confusing in a restaurant. We took one weekend to scope out the joints with this nagging question on our minds: Is it better to eat well or eat high-profile?

Desperate housewife and basketball enthusiast Eva Longoria Parker paired up with celebrity chef Todd English to open Beso. It’s located on a shabbier stretch of Hollywood Boulevard—Wisteria Lane, it ain’t—but you wouldn’t know it from the restaurant’s swanky atmosphere. Spanish-language poetry is inscribed on the walls of the entrance, mood lighting gets moodier as the night goes on, and luxurious black quilted leather booths can hold half a dozen diners.

One of the two kitchens is open to the dining room, and with its wood-burning grill and ice chest of lobsters, it provides some distraction if your dinner companion is a bore. Unfortunately, even a display of crustaceans can’t save the menu, which seems to be caught in an identity crisis—Mexican versus Spanish versus some vague catchall of the Todd English empire. The drinks are pretty good—we recommend a honey-infused gin cocktail called Bee’s Knees—and the food isn’t bad. It’s just not worth the money. Entrees are about $30, and though Longoria-Parker’s family-recipe guacamole is a generous serving, we expect more than mediocre chip dip for a $14 tariff.

In the other corner is West Hollywood’s Foxtail, brought to us by SBE (the nightlife entertainment juggernaut behind Katsuya, Area and Hyde). The food here doesn’t fare much better—in fact, it’s worse. The roasted chicken entree is substantial and, unlike Beso’s a la carte offerings, even comes with a side of potatoes. But much like the rest of the menu—which includes handmade pasta, mussels, and croque monsieur (for dinner!)—the taste is as uninspired as Lauren Conrad’s fashion line (love ya, L.C.!). The restaurant is meant to be a throwback to the golden days of supper clubs, and while the immense walls of stained-glass windows, tiny tabletop lamps and mirrored ceilings are certainly glamorous, diner—and restaurant—cannot live by interior decorating alone.

OK, maybe we’re the ones getting needlessly worked up about the food. Fair enough. If the cuisine’s not the thing to check out at these places, what is? Both have been hyped as celebrity-worthy hangouts, but the only “celebrity” we saw at either restaurant was “Top Chef: Chicago” contestant Antonia Lofaso, who helms the kitchen at Foxtail and whose friendly smile almost makes us want to forgive her subpar menu. Almost.

Both restaurants have upstairs lounges. But at Foxtail, polishing off your steak frites doesn’t automatically grant admission past the velvet rope. The downstairs bartenders are quick to explain that the lounge and restaurant are two separate entities, with separate guest lists and separate policies. Just so you won’t feel left out, drinks at the restaurant bar are just as overpriced.

For what it’s worth, it was surprisingly easy to get tables for the exact time and weekend evening we wanted at both establishments, even though Beso’s reservationist warned us that they are “booked through June.” We understand the need to put on such airs. In Hollywood, the illusion of exclusivity can taste much better than the tortilla soup.

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