Last December, during my time in Los Angeles for our annual GT Tested Reader Survey awards, I not only checked off some restaurants on my food bucket list, but I also got to indulge in some fine dining and visit one of the city’s most iconic attractions.

On the first night the entire team met for dinner at Spago, Beverly Hills. The interior alone was gorgeous, giving a sort of interior greenhouse feel with an elevated twist.

We enjoyed starters of fresh bread and salad accompanied by a lychee-flavored cocktail with gin. For entrées we chose between a sea bass dish and a New York sirloin, the latter of which I ate. In fact, I cleared my plate. This dish consisted of perfectly cut meat and thin layers of potatoes and root vegetables all sitting atop a red sauce.

For dessert we were treated to a chocolate marmalade cake with almond ice cream. If I hadn’t been so full, I would have cleared this plate, too. While dinner alone at Spago was a treat, getting to see Wolfgang Puck himself venture around the dining room, come up to our table and shake all of our hands was a bonus.

The next day, some of my colleagues and I ventured over to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where we came across all of the handprints and footprints of celebrities in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. I was especially happy to see imprints of the Harry Potter main cast. I also came across imprints of the cast from other franchises, including The Hunger Games and Twilight.

It was also fun walking along the sidewalks adorned with Hollywood stars. It felt like a sort of scavenger hunt seeking out specific celebrities, actors and other artists, and I was surprised just how far these sidewalks stretched.

— Aoife O’Riordan, associate editor