The Bellwether

I love tapa style restaurants with a great assortment of shareable plates. Bellwether hits a home run in this area. Tempura cauliflower, squash blossoms, the meatballs, burrata salad, everything just YUM! 4instead of 5stars simply because not the type of restaurant you can comfortably dine at for several hours. That said I'll be back, it's great, just not on a Saturday night.

The Bellwether is an interesting restaurant. It serves exceptional food at a premium price, but pairs it with a casual atmosphere. We went for a late dinner on a Friday night, and the place was packed. This is both a sign of the quality of the food and service, and a drawback because the restaurant is set up in such a way that it gets very loud. The menu is seasonal and changes regularly, though some dishes last awhile. We got scallop crudo, steak tartare, lamb sausage, and sunchoke coconut curry, and had 3 cocktails. With tip it came to right around $150. For a splurge where you want to try a well-prepared, eclectic variety of foods it's one of the best spots in the Valley. Each dish is meant to be shared, and comes in a decent enough portion that 2 people can eat heartily or 3-4 can sample widely. They also have a one hour happy hour that's small but outstanding in the quality and value. It's worth making it for a well cocktail and chicken sandwich for $5 each. Definitely give it a shot.

Favorite restaurant in the valley, probably have been 5 times. If you're making a dinner reservation, make sure that you'll be seating inside. Eating and paying for world class food e.g tuna crudo, steak tar tar, veal pasta etc, with the drum of what would constitute a busy highway in most parts of the country just isn't congruent.

Interesting restaurant that doesn't quite know what it wants to be. All of the food we had at brunch was well above average, but when a restaurant where (waiter's words) all of the dishes are meant to be shared, offers things like a burger (not easily sharable)... It creates a confusing dining experience. Same with the full English breakfast.

I suggest segmenting the menu so that it's easier to see sharable items. Other than that, the food was good.