"San Laurel is the marquee restaurant at the Conrad Los Angeles, a high-rise luxury hotel that's literally across the street from the Disney Concert Hall. Spanish superchef/humanitarian José Andrés is behind all the food options on the property and San Laurel, which sits in a half-indoor, half-outdoor space on the tenth floor, is where the big guns come out: scallops in gazpacho with uni and caviar, grilled romaine with manchego foam, and one those boozy cocktails that arrives under a dome of smoke for some reason. The food here is pleasant, but definitely says “hotel restaurant” as much as it does “José Andrés restaurant.” Aside from a sun-dried tomato tartare that took us back to the ‘90s in the best way, and a respectable Basque cheesecake, the main attraction here might be the postcard view of the sun disappearing behind the concert hall at dusk. Bring a jacket, though: the surrounding skyscrapers turn the patio into an urban wind tunnel at night and the blankets that the servers hand out don’t quite cut it." - Garrett Snyder
