Boa Steakhouse

The third in recent chain of exceedingly clean, modern and elegantly furnished restaurants, Boa serves the spoils of surf and turf at prices guaranteed to keep the hoi polloi at bay—specifically the Santa Monica Bay, which is just across the street. The prices, of course, are indicative of the decadent items on the menu and not really that exorbitant. Consider the $14 escargot, the $16 prime steak tartare or the $36 lobster-and-caviar on the appetizer list; the $11 “classic” Caesar on the salad list; the $29 ahi tuna or $36 jumbo prawns on the seafood menu; the $36 bone-in Kansas City filet mignon or the $44 certified organic New York strip steak. This is a restaurant that supplies the kinds of flavors capable of forcing an appendix or two out of vestigial retirement. Save the biggest-ticket items for Sunday night’s “wine lovers night,” when you can offset the cost of your entrée with a half-price bottle of wine.