Restaurant Review #220: Cafe Firenze, Moorpark - Restaurant of Top Chef's Fabio Viviani

Osso bucco

I wanted to go to Cafe Firenze even before I knew what it was--the restaurant of Chef Fabio Viviani, the #4 contestant from season five of the television show Top Chef. The glitz of Los Angeles proper doesn't generally make its way out to places like Moorpark, which is several miles over the Ventura County line, a few miles north of Thousand Oaks. I was curious--could a place out in

Restaurant Review #115: La Bottega, West LA

Insalata Ravella

I did takeout at La Bottega, so I didn't get the full restaurant experience. You can usually tell a decent amount about a restaurant without actually eating your meal there--after all, you can still see what the place looks like, time how fast they can put a meal together, interact with at least one staff member, get a feel for the pricing, and taste the food.

From my brief

Restaurant Review #91: Fritto Misto, Santa Monica

Sweet potato ravioli with wild mushrooms in a sage cream sauce

Hidden across the street from the Big Blue Bus barn at the busy but unnoticeable corner of 6th and Colorado lies Fritto Misto, a highly rated but somewhat unknown Italian cafe that I discovered by accident one day while looking for a parking space. It looked quiet and peaceful, popular but not overcrowded. Though I rarely go out for

Restaurant Review #87: Rosti, Santa Monica

I almost never eat at chain restaurants, so I'm always surprised when I walk by one and see how busy it almost always is. But then when I do eat at a place like P.F. Changs or Buca di Beppo's, I can kind of see why. All snobbery and noise level consideratiosn aside, the food is quite good.

Rosti hypes itself as an authentic Tuscan restaurant. To be fair, I haven't eaten much authentic Italian

Restaurant Review #76: Lago, Santa Monica Farmer's Market

Parma Panini: Mozarella, tomato, and proscuittoLago, an Italian restaurant located on the Promenade, has a panini stand diagonally in front of their restaurant during the Santa Monica Farmer's Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. They sell mostly panini, but also lasagne, polenta pancakes, and minestrone soup. All but one of the panini had meat, I believe. One may have been vegan, if the pesto

Restaurant Review #71: Spumoni, Santa Monica

I almost never go out for Italian, because it's so cheap and easy to do at home. In fact, probably at least half of my daily meals are either pasta or pizza (it's my secret to staying so slim). There is definitely a difference between restaurant Italian and slapped together on a weeknight Amy Italian, but there's even more of a difference between the invisible hamachi in my fridge and the

Restaurant Review #70: Trastevere, Santa Monica

Trastevere is a seemingly nice restaurant on the Promenade which is designed primarily for tourists and is not nearly as special as it pretends to be. The garlic herb dipping sauce that came with the bread was addictively good. The veggie pizza I had for my meal was fine, but nothing memorable. Unfortunately, the most salient part of the meal for me was the rude, rude,

Restaurant Review #49: Osteria Latini, Brentwood

The Dining Room

I loved the friendly hostess who didn't scold us for not making reservations or give my mom a look like "what are you doing in Brentwood?" The dining room was very inviting, full of natural light, and yes, this is the whole dining room.


Oyster mushroom and yellow lentil puree amuse bouche

Mmmm, mushrooms. Give me a sauteed mushroom and I'm a happy girl. The yellow lentil