There are meals in life where you sit down, open the menu, and just know it is going to be epic. Walking into the dimly lit, eccentrically decorated tapas restaurant, Bazaar by Jose Andres in the SLS Hotel Beverly Hills, my friend and I realized this would be one of those meals. We were on a girls trip to Los Angeles for the weekend and were staying at the highly recommended, posh and hip (yes both), SLS Hotel on La Cienaga on the edge of Beverly Hills (about 5 minutes from Rodeo Drive) and West Hollywood.

The Bazaar Jose Andres ©EverydayCookingAdventures

Over the weekend we had already been to dinner and drinks at the 3 Vanderpump empire restaurants in the area, Sur, Villa Blanca and their newest Pump, so my Bravo-celebrity sightseeing was complete and now we were ready to eat a really nice dinner. Thanks to my friend, Misty, by the way for indulging my Bravo-crazed weekend! We were told by a few people that one restaurant not to be missed just happened to be in our hotel. Expecting your average, nice, but not too creative hotel meal, we figured why not, especially after a long weekend of fun. Dinner, it turned out, at The Bazaar, was not just dinner but an entire event complete with two different rooms, one for your main meal and one just for dessert.

The menu is laid out as traditional and modern Spanish tapas and you can pick and choose to your heart’s content or do as we did and ask the waitress to have the chef choose 6-8 tapas of his recommendation for us. This made the meal quite the adventure because we never knew what was coming next. We got to indulge in some more typical kinds of tapas such as three kinds of thinly sliced jamons or cured hams, tomato and olive oil spread toasts, artichoke hearts atop tapenade with lemon olive oil drizzle, and ceviche that is rolled into a sushi like appearance and wrapped in avocado but entertainingly topped with corn nuts.

We ate some more inventive tapas too such as wontons made of jicama not wonton wrappers and stuffed with smooth as silk guacamole. Also we were served modern Philly cheesesteaks made with Wagyu beef draped over mini baguettes stuffed with an oozy gooey white cheese “whiz”. The cheese whiz was actually our least favorite part of the entire meal but otherwise we had not a complaint or spot left in our stomach between us.

The most interesting course was the traditional and modern olives where you get green olives stuffed with little sardines and red pepper and then you have the modern “olive” of olive juice or essence, I’m really not sure, that is enclosed in little pop in your mouth pods. It is like eating little bubbles of olive…you’ll just have to try it to see what I’m talking about, and I highly recommend you do just that!

When we were escorted over to the dessert “room” it was decorated slightly Mad Hatter style with chandeliers that had lampshades titles off kilter and a long bar of jars and plates filled with different kinds of mini cookies, candies, cupcakes and other sweet treats.

I am in general a big fan of tasting menus and creative dining so The Bazaar was right up my alley. But, even if you usually dine out at your basic chain restaurants, eating at The Bazaar would entertain anyone and the food isn’t too “frou frou” for everyone to enjoy. They have locations right now in their two SLS Hotel locations in Beverly Hills and South Miami Beach but coming soon is the third hotel and Bazaar restaurant in Las Vegas. I hope you can find a location near you or while on vacation to experience all there is to Chef Jose Andres’ restaurant.