BBQ at The Roof Garden, Peninsula Hotel (Beverly Hills)

What's a more perfect meal than a BBQ on a beautiful rooftop in LA? Roof Garden at The Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills is one of the best rooftops in town and they're having a bbq every weekend this summer. The Roof Garden shares the kitchen with The Belvedere and the hotel's Executive Chef James Overbaugh oversees all the dining operations.

The rooftop is not that big, but the circular section with the fireplace is my favorite.

Before starting with the bbq, we had some cocktails and appetizers near the fireplace:
Ahi Tuna Chop Chop with sliced avocado, crisp pineapple and roof garden-picked herbs

Chilled Cucumber Soup with spicy cucumber-melon sorbet, hearts of palm, cilantro and citrus tapioca

Your best bet for cocktail here (if you like a bit of heat) is the Speckled Jalapeno Margarita

Dinner starts with a basket anise bread (yep, anise, and it was good), zucchini, olive, and lavash. 

We shared a variety of their entrees including:

Free range chicken breast, cilantro and mint chimichurri ($24, comes with 2 sides)

I am typically wary of chicken breast since it tends to be dry and overcooked, but at least this night it was prepared well and the bold chimichurri sauce would make any protein taste that much better.


Giant Tiger shrimp, with char siu sauce ($35)

This was an interesting combination. The char siu sauce had completely seeped into the shrimp so that even the meat inside is red.

16 oz bone-in Prime Dry-aged Harvey Guss Rib Eye Steak, Jamaican Jerk style ($45)

Harvey's Guss is an old school local butcher shop, founded in 1939, and considered one of the best meat shops in town. The quality of the steak certainly shines through this simple preparation.

Swordfish fillet, orange chipotle ($34)

The grilled swordfish was cooked very well, maintaining great texture and flavor. It was meaty but still flaky. 

The entrees also come with a choice of two side dishes:
Red pepper orzo with roasted corn, cilantro and blue cheese
Brandon's barbecue pickled salad
Minted Macadamia nut cole slaw

The pickled salad had pickled and let sit for 2 weeks.

My favorite side, however, was the roasted purple Okinawa sweet potato!

Usually I like sweet potato but don't go crazy over it but these purple sweet potato were absolutely amazing, very rich and sweet.

The main attraction was probably the "Ribs on the Roof", traditional Peninsula style ($28)

made with their special rub of 24 spices, confit in pork fat, then covered in their housemade bbq glaze

Fall-off-the-bone, let's-get-our-hands-sticky ribs. You can't have a bbq without these.

Pastry chef Romain Lenoir had prepared mini ice creams and sorbets in waffle cones, with flavors such as mango, coconut, caramel, chocolate, green apple, and strawberry

See the little twitter birds he made too??

The rooftop BBQ is available on Saturdays and Sundays from 5-9pm through Labor Day.

Roof Garden at The Peninsula
9882 Santa Monica Blvd
 Beverly Hills, CA 90212
(310) 551-2888
peninsula.com/roofgarden

Disclosure: this visit was hosted