The top 10 Italian spots in L.A. from the 101 Best Restaurants guide
If the truest stereotype about Los Angeles maintains that traffic is hellacious, the least factual trope posits that millions of Angelenos stigmatize carbohydrates. Have you noticed how many Italian restaurants thrive in this city, and how many keep opening? The hunger for pasta is relentless.
Not all tagliatelle and ravioli are made equally, though. These 10 standouts from this year¡¯s 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles guide highlight modern icons. They serve glossy strands of noodles alongside seasonally minded salads (and often timeless Caesars), meats roasted to crackly richness and balanced, rewarding desserts.
Restaurants mainly focused on pizza are another subject altogether, but I am slipping in Angelini Osteria from our 101 Hall of Fame roster. It¡¯s worth scanning the whole list for enduringly excellent dining options across the region.
Angelini Osteria
A Beverly Boulevard paragon for more than 20 years, Gino Angelini prepares sophisticated dishes ¡ª silky vitello tonnato pinged with fried capers, lamb chops over arugula, a purist¡¯s tiramisu ¡ª served in a dining room full of clatter and cheer. His polished repertoire of pastas includes an impeccable lasagna verde and, as a study of subtle textures and layered richness, agnolotti filled with braised veal shank in a Parmigiano-Reggiano sauce. Breakfast is a lesser-known strength; try the eggs in purgatory. Angelini recently opened a second location in the Palisades, but it¡¯s the long-running original that has our enduring devotion. Second location at 1038 N. Swarthmore Ave., Pacific Palisades, (424) 238-5870.
Antico Nuovo
Opened in 2019, Antico Nuovo has steadily found its footing and its audience among the crush of fine-dining Italian restaurants in Los Angeles. It might just be the best of them now. Bold or tenuous, each of the pastas stands out with such distinct personalities; they are the meal¡¯s holy center. Begin by swiping crisp, lofty hunks of focaccia through roughly pureed green chickpeas rich in garlic and olive oil, or go lighter with impeccable amberjack crudo. Whether you¡¯re nearly full after spinach and tomato cannelloni, or move on to crisp-skinned roast chicken, or share a massive tomahawk steak in Marsala jus that recalls Colby¡¯s days as Chi Spacca¡¯s founding chef, prioritize dessert. The seasonal ice creams deserve their renown, and the kitchen has lately been fashioning pistachio and chocolate cannolis that rival those I¡¯ve had in Sicily.
Bestia
Chi Spacca
Meat cookery remains the menu¡¯s nucleus. Beyond massive, ever-excellent steaks, consider the slightly more manageable pork loin: It¡¯s roasted in milk and covered, as if spring never ends, in a fine dusting of fennel pollen. Burgers (and variations on Silverton¡¯s famous grilled cheese sandwich) are available on Mondays and Tuesdays for customers who specifically reserve at Chi Spacca¡¯s chef¡¯s counter. Among several options, all of them honestly first-rate and assembled with detail, start by trying the opulent take on a smashburger fashioned from dry-aged beef.
Crossroads Kitchen
Felix
Funke
When I see Funke standing at the kitchen pass in his signature denims, I know the varied rolled and extracted pasta forms will be presented fastidiously: ridged agnolotti with the green chard filling nearly seeping through the translucent dough; tagliatelle so light and fine its texture almost tickles; and rasccatieddi di miscchieddu, an oval rarity made by hand with semolina and fava bean flours that Funke learned while filming his show ¡°The Shape of Pasta,¡± sauced in lamb rag¨´ and scattered with rustling dried chiles. Funke, per its neighborhood and clientele, is expensive, but with his presence the cooking is so on-point. I¡¯m forever glad that Shannon Swindle, one of L.A.¡¯s finest pastry chefs, has become part of Funke¡¯s inner culinary circle: Trust that whatever crostatas and pastries and ice creams feature the season¡¯s fruits will be spectacular.
Osteria Mozza
Pizzeria Bianco
Rossoblu
Eat your way across L.A.
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