The Belvedere

A month ago (July 24), I had the pleasure of having my second birthday dinner at this restaurant. First and foremost, I'd like to give a shoutout to our excellent server, Mr. Sergio, and the asst. server, Mr. Jesus. And the rest of the courteous and efficient staff.July 24 coincides with the DineLA period. Belvedere's DineLA menu price was lower than most restaurants. They priced theirs at $55 while the other restaurants priced theirs at $65. But the best thing about our visit was that everything on the DineLA menu that we ordered was delicious (except for the Vanilla Sundae). Below is what we ordered:First Course:My niece had the Smoked Salmon FlatbreadI had the Ricotta RavioliSecond Course:My niece had the Lingcod Filet (it was delicious and it was served with a Wasabi potato puree)I had the Seared Ahi TunaDessert: My niece had the Cookies-and-Cream Cheesecake. I don't like Cheesecake but I loved this!I had the Vanilla-Chocolate Sundae. This is the only thing that we did not like.In addition, they served a complimentary Tiramisu for my birthday.Talking about complimentary, they had a couple of other complimentary items at the start, as follows:a) Bread & Butter- many restaurants do not serve free bread and butter anymore; andb) a Strawberry with cream and some caviar for each of us. My niece loved this.Parking: They offer valet of course. But when we drove around the block because we missed the entrance, I noticed several open metered parking. (Good for 2 hours only).Overall, we enjoyed our dinner, the service, and the atmosphere. We were seated at the patio and we had the place to ourselves. For some reason, everyone was inside. The bar, which we walked through, was very busy for a Wednesday evening.

The Peninsula is lovely and steeped in Hollywood glam. Since the Belvedere is on the fancier side my friend and I decided to take advantage of the dineLA dinner, 3 courses for $65. The ambiance is pleasant and the service was professional and attentive albeit a little cold. Between my friend and I we tried almost all options on the dineLA menu. To start we chose the Beet and Burrata Salad and Honeynut Squash Agnolotti. The Beet and Burrata had a lovely presentation with a colorful honeycomb overlay. The flavors of both were fine. The Agnolotti was light enough to be a starter and the Salad was bright and well balanced. For course 2 we opted for Duck a L'Orange and Slow Braised Bone-in Short rib. The Short rib was solid - well cooked and seasoned, and so fun to pull out that big bone. The Duck was also well cooked, but the lighter flavor was over shadowed after having some of the short rib. Finally for desert we chose the Cherry on Top and Popcorn Crème Brûlée. I love popcorn so I was very excited to try it but it fell a little flat, it ended up tasting a bit like burnt kettle corn. The Cherry on Top was a surprise and a delight. I don't think I would have ordered it if it wasn't part of the courses and I'm glad we did. It was whimsical, light, and yummy. There is street parking but also valet for $15.

Extremely disappointing. My daughter made the reservation for a special thanksgiving meal. When we arrived a few minutes before our reservation, they were not ready for us. We had to stand in a busy part of the restaurant with servers and others rushing around us, while they cleaned up a table. Once seated, the noise level of the restaurant made conversation very difficult. Another unpleasant experience was the blasts of cold air that hit us periodically when someone opened a door near us which led to outside. It wasn't clear who was our server, since someone served water, someone else brought bread and someone else gave out menus. No one introduced themselves, said welcome to the restaurant or I will be your waiter tonight. After a rather lengthy wait, someone showed up and asked us for our food orders. Wr weren't asked if we wanted drinks, but since we did, we appended those orders after the food. It I felt like the server just wanted to get our holiday meal over with as little interaction with us as possible. After all another lengthy wait, our first course of soup arrived. Or rather two soups arrived for our party of four. After several minutes, the remaining two soups arrived. MY daughter had to get someone's attention about our drinks. The drinks came out after the soup was finished. Whoever brought the drinks had no idea who had ordered what, which was a recurring theme throughout the meal. The same confusion ensued with the entrees and the desserts. The remaining food when it came was not very good. My turkey was bland and tasteless. None of the side dishes were very good. At these extremely high prices, I expect a lot better service, ambiance and food.

Unfortunately a massive disappointment and never a return visit. Wifey and I booked their Thanksgiving dinner 2024. This is not our first go-around with the Peninsula - we've stayed at their sister hotels in New York, Paris and Hong Kong - the latest meal we had was at L'Oiseau Blanc October 2023. We've also spent time at the Bar (see other review) in BH and had delightful meals and drinks. Well nothing could haven been further from Peninsula quality at this Thanksgiving event. While appetizers and bread were top quality, the meal went straight down into the basement from there. I ordered filet mignon, after seeing the literal heap of indistinguishable food, turkey on top, burying green beans and a stuffing that looked like cut up toast, masquerading as "home made." Wifey was brave and went for the turkey, only to blanch and spit out a rock hard bread crust in the pretend stuffing. Nothing was plated - instead everything was mashed together on regular stoneware - not even Peninsula china. Wifey sent the abominable meal back and asked for a replacement. They brought her an appetizer of agnolotti with desiccated white truffle. Truffles are to be kept moist - these slivers had been on the plate for hours. Everything was tasteless, completely without flavor on her plate. My filet was fine, but nothing spectacular by any means. Desserts were fine but again, nothing to write home about. They also left the table dirty and didn't use a crumber, just put the dessert right on the dirty cloth. Not appealing.We had two glasses of Nebbiolo, and I had a vodka martini to start. Total was $520, tip included. Never again. We should have stuck with Citrine or Spago - which we will do next time around.

The first time I went was for the Mother's day brunch but I went back to see if it's as nice as it was then!! And it was! The food is so amazing, the lychee rose tart is like nothing i've had before. The service is very quick too, they're also very friendly. Such a cute area for the tea, mother's day or not. Definitely a higher end place but extremely worth the money and it's nice to have a fancy outing every once in a while that's worth the price!!

Bill the manager stopped by to see if we were enjoying our brunch...ummm, YES!!! I have always enjoyed the opulence of the Peninsula Hotel. The Peninsula Hotel is upscale and cozy at the same time! I absolutely adore it! We ordered the house made almond and walnut granola, yogurt and berries, I do not remember the name of the breakfast sandwich that I ordered...what I do remember is that it was GOOD! I normally eat like a rabbit...a little all throughout the day...I inhaled the sandwich! So tasty!

Thank you Serge for the incredible service and great laughs during our dinner!The bread basket and butter was super dangerous. I loved the cheese thin crackers and warm pretzel bread. Of course I couldn't resist the butter. I ordered the onion soup and that was so filling and delicious. I love onion soup and the flavor was so good!! It can do with a bit more cheese but the broth and amount was perfect. My friend ordered the salmon and mashed potatoes which she loved. Looked like steamed spinach was under the salmon. I had a cucumber martini which was delicious and refreshing. My friend had glasses of champagne it was a celebration last night indeed. We walked over so didn't have to worry about valet but I believe they validate.

I've been dining here for over 24 years on special occasions. The place was empty on arrival and crowded as could be by 2pm but still quiet. Our waiter was Lyle and he was so nice. He's a Virgo, was highly knowledgeable and engaging. Hope he's my waiter next time.My meal was PERFECT. The branzino was perfectly butterflied and tasty. The lemon risotto was fantastic. The broccoli was nicely seasoned and tender. I'm not usually a fan of risotto or broccoli so I'm glad I didn't ask for substitutions. The champagne had everybody tipsy in no time. I honestly wouldn't have known it was a fancy bottle by just its taste though. I had the pistachio crème brûlée and it wasn't overpowered by pistachio as I figured it might be as it was all pistachio and a bit of strawberries. All in all it was a great meal and I'd order it all again anytime.

Afternoon tea on the terrace at The Belvedere was an incredible experience. We've been to The Living Room at The Peninsula multiple times in the past and loved it, but with COVID numbers rising exponentially we're not planning to return to indoor dining anytime soon. Fortunately, The Belvedere has an outdoor dining option and it is a lovely setting with overhead canopies for shade and a DJ. We came for the special collaboration with Ginza Nishikawa, and it was delightful. The ice cubes with flowers made it even more fun to drink. Some of my favorites from the tea experience were the yuzu ginger lemonade (I had the mocktail version), the cucumber mint and smoked salmon sandwiches (though honestly, all of the sandwiches were delicious), the scones that were baked to perfection accompanied by clotted cream, lemon curd, and raspberry jam, and the ube calamansi macaron, which was bursting with flavor. We were celebrating my husband's birthday, and the lucky man got a complimentary tiramisu, which was also delicious.Service was very attentive in the beginning, though it was harder to get anyone's attention after we were done. We ended up having to ask the hostess for our check after a couple bathroom visits and after waiting for what felt like an eternity just paid the bill on the way out.Pro tip: if you don't want to pay for valet, arrive a little early - there's plenty of metered street parking around the block, and on Sundays you don't have to pay :)

We ate at this restaurant the last 2 nights with my family and had the pleasure of having the server Andre both nights. The first night I did the 3 course dinner special with the beet and burrata salad and the short ribs. I highly recommend both of those dishes. The next night I had the dry aged steak which included truffle Mac and cheese. The Mac and cheese was phenomenal. Overall the service was great, the whole team is very nice, knowledgeable, and funny. Andre treated us well and made us feel comfortable. I will return here whenever I am in this area.