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Best Restaurants 2016 - Maude - Beverly Hills

Maude
212 S Beverly Dr
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

With Mr. Plow away on a work trip, I packed my bags and flew out to the Left Coast to share a meal or two with one of my food soulmates, Le Professeur M. Much to our delight, we managed to book one of the seven tables at Maude, celebrity chef Curtis Stone's homage to his paternal grandmother.

Maude seems like a gimmick - a ten-course tasting menu designed around a single featured ingredient. Last July, that seasonal ingredient was zucchini. Full confession: it was the gimmick and not the ingredient that drew us in. By the end of the evening, though, we had been totally wowed by not only the clever concept of featuring one ingredient throughout ten courses, but also by the creativity from the kitchen, the care and attention from the servers, and the undeniable versatility and tastiness of the zucchini.

Maude is a tiny, beautiful restaurant. We enjoyed the warm energy and care of the space, as well as the vintage mismatched dishes, silverware, and glassware. And there were many highlights on the menu including chicken and poblanos stuffed inside a zucchini blossom, a creative take on ratatouille, and an incredible lamb dish with Middle Eastern spices, labne, and honeycomb.

Maude is definitely a destination restaurant - the kind of place that you save up for a splurge on a special occasion. You also have to pay up front when you make the reservation (or purchase your tickets, as is the trend these days). But Maude will definitely live up to the whimsy of its conceit; you'll be comforted and dazzled by the experience.

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