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Los Angeles’s temperate climate breeds the ideal environment for the flavors and cooking techniques of Italy, with breezy coasts for soaking in gently cooked seafood or hillside hideaways better for satisfying pasta. While Italian immigrants and its culture have had a long history in Southern California , with some diaspora members introducing wine growing in the region, Los Angeles’s Italian imprint can be traced to places like Bay Cities Deli, Miceli’s, Barone’s, and Colombo’s Steakhouse. In more modern times, restaurants like Valentino, Peppone, and Angelini Osteria introduced more upscale Italian food with chefs at the forefront.
Today, the city’s approach to Italian food explores various regions of Italy while incorporating California ingredients. Here are the 20 best Italian restaurants to try in Los Angeles. Note: For this guide, we’re mostly omitting pizzerias or restaurants that primarily serve pizza as Eater already has a pizza map .
Looking for just pasta spots? We have you covered . Felix Trattoria There was a lot of handmade pasta in Los Angeles before Felix opened in Venice back in 2017, but a place fully committed to using just hand tools and rolling pins was fairly novel. Chef Evan Funke introduced this at his former restaurant Bucato in Culver City but mastered the entire restaurant package with Felix, earning it an Eater LA Restaurant of the Year award.
Funke and partner Janet Zuccarini have crafted a charming dinner destination, starting with a gorgeous pink chicory salad and the now-famous round of sfincione focaccia. Meander through tagliatelle al ragù bolognese, orechiette with sausage sugo, and foglie di ulivo (with rapini pesto) before sharing a tagliata di manzo, or grilled ribeye cap. Also featured in: 19 Best Restaurants in LA’s Beachy Venice Neighborhood Eater 38 Restaurants That Are Still Open for Top-Notch Takeout and Delivery in LA Divino Owner and chef Goran Milic opened this charming ode to Florence in the Italian-loving neighborhood of Brentwood back in 1996, and it’s been a hit ever since.
Milic trained over years of visiting Italy, gaining valuable advice from industry veterans. Now Divino is one of the area’s most reliable Italian restaurants, where gorgeous plates of caprese salad come before textbook pastas and tableside roast branzino. Don’t miss out on the stellar wine list, chock-full of Italian gems.
Ospi Brentwood Jackson Kalb’s follow-up to this neighborhood, El Segundo trattoria Jame, was a further development of his love affair with Italian food. Originally this space was his ode to Italian seafood called Jemma di Mare, but the chef realized most people weren’t ordering the seafood. So he swapped the name and menu to Ospi, his popular Venice restaurant with inventive California Italian pizza, pasta, and grilled mains.
Think spicy rigatoni alla vodka, linguine with colatura, and lemon tagliolini. Thin, shareable pizzas infuse some creativity like the Hapa, with potentially eyebrow-raising pepperoni with pineapple and jalapeno. The space, somewhat corporate feeling but still a fun weeknight hangout, has a little more pep in its step after the switcheroo.
Uovo The founders of Uovo, a growing chain of pasta restaurants, were so entranced by the quality of handmade pasta made in Bologna that they decided it needed to be flown in regularly from the homeland instead of made stateside. The secret, they say, comes from the egg, translated as uovo in Italian. The tight menu at Uovo features beguilingly good fresh pasta, sporting a pleasant chewy but slippery texture that adheres to creamy parmesan sauce, ragù bolognese, and all’arrabiata.
There’s also a handy tasting of a starter, three pastas, and dessert, in case one bowl of food just feels too simple. La Dolce Vita This revival of a classic Frank Sinatra hangout in Beverly Hills might’ve been the toughest table to get in 2023. Credit the tiny, but stylish dining room recalling ’70s over-the-top decor and a bustling energy that diners don’t want to leave.
The diminutive but fast-working kitchen churns out spaghetti and meatballs, veal parmesan, and mussels marinara on white tablecloths likely flecked with wine circles and tomato sauce. The chocolate tart with espresso-caramel ganache makes for an indulgent finish. Also featured in: The 17 Best Places for Pasta in Los Angeles 17 Old-School Red Sauce Italian Restaurants to Check Out in Los Angeles Sign up for our newsletter.
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Please enter a valid email and try again. Dan Tana's Come for the vibes, stay for the cocktails, and maybe share one of the best chicken parmesans in town. Dan Tana’s, which opened in 1964, has plenty of detractors for its celebrity-riddled booths and sometimes lackluster dishes.
But fans interpret the old-school food as timeless Italian American food, with numerous plates named after the West Hollywood restaurant’s famous regulars. Stick to martinis and the chicken parm, and the rest will solve itself through the restaurant’s timeless conviviality. Also featured in: 20 Classic Los Angeles Restaurants Every Angeleno Must Try 18 Restaurants to Spot Celebrities in Los Angeles Sunday Gravy Brother and sister team Sol and Ghazi Bashirian took over their father’s longtime Inglewood Italian restaurant Jino’s and turned it into a throwback destination for antipasto salads, spaghetti with meatballs, and tagliatelle alfredo in a charming neighborhood dining room.
Prices are approachable, even to the nicely curated beer and wine, which makes Sunday Gravy a true local favorite. Also featured in: The Best Affordable Restaurants in Los Angeles The 17 Best Places for Pasta in Los Angeles Angelini Osteria Gino Angelini could be credited for ushering in the latest era of Italian American cooking, the seasoned chef leaning on his upbringing in Emilia Romagna and key tenure at ’90s classic Rex Il Ristorante. In 2001, he opened Angelini Osteria, weaving in fine dining-level execution with pasta, pizza, and grilled secondi.
Alumni like Ori Menashe have gone on to inform Los Angeles’s perception of Italian food since, but Angelini Osteria remains a modern classic inside its homey Beverly Grove dining room. The lasagna verde “Nonna Elvira,” a cheesy, meaty, fried spinach-topped icon, is a must-order for first-timers. Also featured in: The 17 Best Places for Pasta in Los Angeles 20 Los Angeles Gourmet Shops for Building the Perfect Picnic Basket Mother Wolf The towering columns, high ceiling, and grand red-tinted dining room of Mother Wolf act as Evan Funke’s ode to Rome.
The menu hews pretty strictly to Roman pastas and dishes, like fried squash blossoms, blistered pizza rossa, and tonnarelli cacio e pepe. Servers don tuxedo jackets while sommeliers offer rare Italian wines by the glass, giving dinners here a celebratory atmosphere. It’s no wonder that, even after some management switches, Mother Wolf remains buzzy, worthy of frequent celebrity sightings.
Also featured in: 18 Restaurants to Spot Celebrities in Los Angeles The 15 Best Restaurants in Hollywood Antico Nuovo Chad Colby’s enduring Italian restaurant, unexpectedly located in a Larchmont-adjacent strip mall, serves what may be the city’s most polished pasta, grilled meats, and rustic Italian fare through an incisive California lens. The menu includes a robust focaccia (“pane”) section with add-ons like burrata and scallion oil, marinated anchovies, whipped ricotta and pistachio pesto, or duck liver pate, while antipasti include seasonal salads and crudo. The windowless room manages to charm well-dressed diners eager to find stellar vintages on its wine list, and every table orders its share of house-churned ice cream.
— Matthew Kang, lead editor Also featured in: The 38 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles The Best Splurge-Worthy Restaurants in Los Angeles Ètra This minimalist gem in Melrose Hill keeps Italian cooking to its barest simplicity, operating like the hip osteria that it is nestled into one of Los Angeles’s coolest neighborhoods. Chef Evan Algorri, previously of Lupa, Marea, and Bouley, turns out beautiful plates of rigatoni gricia with guanciale and onion soubise, a pork ribeye swimming in a red sauce and topped with shaved fennel, and scampi with spicy n’duja. The wine list features bottles and glasses with minimal intervention.
In a city full of Italian restaurants, it’s hard to think of a better place to impress fashionable types. Also featured in: The 14 Most Romantic Restaurants in Los Angeles Donna's Since opening in mid-2023, Donna’s has became Echo Park’s popular neighborhood Italian joint with a sprinkling of East Coast flavor. Chef Sathia Sun serves contemporary spins on the traditional veal piccata, spaghetti and meatballs with basil, and a must-eat garlic bread heaped with grated cheese.
Every detail inside is pure fun, with custom retro wallpaper, hanging lights, tiled floors, and a bar to try one of Karla Flores-Mercado’s creative Negronis and spritzes. — Mona Holmes, reporter Also featured in: 17 Old-School Red Sauce Italian Restaurants to Check Out in Los Angeles Rossoblu Steve and Dina Samson crafted an industrial masterpiece in the Fashion District, a high-ceiling space with hanging lamps, an artful mural, and a gold-painted bar. Chef Steve Samson leans on food from Bologna, like tortellini and minestra del sacco (parmesan dumplings) in brodo poured from porcelain pots tableside — plus some of the finest handmade pasta in town.
The grilled pork chop and branzino showcase the kitchen’s wood grill. Rossoblu remains a star in Los Angeles’s oft-crowded Italian restaurant scene, and as a bonus tables aren’t too difficult given the large venue. Also featured in: 13 Best Places for Happy Hour Drinks and Deals in LA The 17 Best Restaurants in Downtown Los Angeles Bestia Ori Menashe worked for years as the chef de cuisine of Angelini Osteria before opening this stunning and often cacophonous restaurant in the Arts District with his wife Genevieve Gergis.
Menashe’s approach starts with classic, familiar Italian like nduja-studded mussels, wood-fired pizza, and handmade pasta. But nearly every dish draws on the umami-packed cuisines and cooking techniques he’s tasted across LA, like lobster squid ink spaghetti with serrano or grilled prawns with salsa roja, preserved lemon, and chile de arbol. The influences are subtle, and more often than not folks won’t realize it, but in the decade since opening Bestia’s flavor-first approach has become emblematic of modern LA cuisine.
Gergis’s desserts are swoon-worthy, like the bittersweet chocolate budino tart. Also featured in: 16 Best Arts District Restaurants in Los Angeles Eater 38 Restaurants That Are Still Open for Top-Notch Takeout and Delivery in LA Union Restaurant For nearly a decade, Union Pasadena took hold of Northeast LA with its enduring Italian dishes, especially the lemony bucatini and eggplant rigatoni timballo pasta; always-solid starters include charred octopus, pork meatballs, and Pecorino-laced arugula. Chef Sandro Hernandez’s saucy half chicken serves two and served with a side of broccolini.
If takeout is required, Union’s family of four menu can fill in nicely. Whatever is needed for dinner, Union’s got it. Also featured in: The 18 Best Restaurants in Pasadena The 17 Best Places for Pasta in Los Angeles.
