Wolfgang, hie thee to Palo Alto and make it schnell.

If Spago Los Angeles is a 9 on a 10 scale (surpassed in our experience by Patina, which is a true 10 on all fronts), then Spago Palo Alto is a 6.5 and that’s not acceptable at the prices. The restaurant is really lacking on all fronts: presentation, service, and food. The food was good, no doubt about it, but it wasn’t superlative the way it was in LA.

And the service… Okay, when they give us the second basket of bread (cold bread, I would like to point out—consider a bread warmer, guys), they should have just put down a second plate of butter. I should not have had to ask for a plate of butter. I certainly should not have had to ask twice. And that wasn’t the only thing we had to ask for twice that evening.

The food was good, but who cares? We won’t be going back. The Bay Area has too many great restaurants to waste time on a lesser experience.