#17 Boa - Hollywood

Rating: 3.75 cows

Boa has been located on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood for many years but recently moved further West on Sunset. We decided to make a visit to their new location for our continued adventure to find the best steakhouses in Los Angeles. We chose a Sunday night to attend Boa because Boa has a long standing special of ½ off wine bottles on Sunday. Given that the majority of our group are big wine drinkers we thought this was an excellent deal.

The restaurant is very nicely decorated but a large portion of the seating is outside. Most of that area is covered but on the night we decided to visit it was quite chilly outside and sitting outside proved to be too chilly for some of our guests. Fortunately, the staff at Boa were able to move us to a large table inside. The downside was that the waiter serving our table was already overwhelmed with many other tables. This obviously caused our dining experience to be a very lengthy one. Fortunately we had a few ½ bottles of wine to help keep us entertained during that time. In addition one of our guests ended up with gum stuck on her dress from gum that was stuck to the bottom of the table. This would be perhaps one of the last things we would expect to have happen at a nice restaurant.

If you aren't aware of it already, Boa is another steakhouse whose specialty is in dry aging. Their signature cut is a 40 Day Dry Aged New York Strip. However, the rest of their steak menu is made up with a decent selection of New York Strips, Rib Eyes, Filet Mignons, Kobe Beef and a Porterhouse.

Between the members of our group we selected two 21 Day Aged Rib-Eyes, two Porterhouses, a 40 Day Dry Aged New York Strip, and a Petit Filet. When the steaks started to arrive, we discovered that the Petit Filet was delivered to our table overcooked and had to be sent back. Considering how overtaxed our waiter had already been this slowed things down even more. Eventually, we all received our steaks cooked to the correct temperature and we quickly dug in. Overall we found all of the steaks to have flavor but given the high profile of Boa we expected a lot more flavor in the steaks. That isn't to say the steaks were completely flavorless but instead that we were left wanting more flavor in our steaks. The Porterhouse was given the highest rating and had the most flavor but the rest of the steaks ranked average. In addition to our steaks we selected a selection of different sides ranging from vegetables to french fries and mac and cheese. Like the steak, the sides were alright but nothing spectacular.

In the end we found Boa to be lacking in the quality that we've experienced at some of the other well known LA steakhouses; Morton's, Mastro's, CUT, etc. One of our members had eaten at Boa at the previous Sunset location over 5 years ago and had a much better experience and was very disappointed in how the quality had dropped. The only reasons we can think of for the drop in quality would be perhaps the move down the street and the expansion to two additional Boa restaurants in Santa Monica and Las Vegas was perhaps too much of a stretch for the company. Our final rating for Boa averaged to 3.75 cows putting it pretty much smack in the middle of all of the reviews we have completed at this point.

Boa Photos