Locanda del Lago

09/27/09

authentic italian

by caterina

I' ve been impressed!!! A real deal! Authentic flavors from northern Italy. I am from Italy, and I can say that the food here is amazingly good. Even better than few restaurants in Italy. Excellent promotions too. I have been also on a thurday night and had a $20 pitcher of fresh organic margarita and $8 pizza. It was awesome! I will go back for a wednesday night.....50%off selected bottles of wine. They have a fantastic wine list too!!!

Service and atmosphere was great too.

08/02/08

Oh my God best Italian food in L.A.!

by livethelifeoflove

Wow! I am a major food snob and I have eaten in top restaurats all around the world. What a shock when our casual quick bite on the promenade turned out to be the most delicous, authentic stunning Italian food we have had in L.A. The quality of food far surpssed Capo or Vincente as far as Italian food goes (which we love as well). I'm not sure if there is a new chef, but we don't remember it being anything special severa years ago. Then, we went back again and the salt encrusted chilean sea bass and langoustino appetizer were to die for! the wine list is good as well. Hope you have as great of a time as we did and that this chef gets some major recognition.

• Pros: amazing food!
• Cons: not the best location and not very romantic with all the homeless people and tourists running around

07/31/08

Unique Italian in the heart of Santa Monica

by kiercemartin

This place serves great Italian food right on the Promenade. Inside has a pretty intimate romantic feel, and for as good as it is and the location, there's hardly ever too much of a wait. It's hard to go wrong here, but they do a great job with fish, and the lobster ravioli is my personal favorite. If you sit outside, there is great people watching on the promenade, and it's a little livelier. Definitely worth checking out if you're in the area.

07/28/08

Great restaurant right on Third Street Promenade

by DoctorTodd

The location of this restaurant is great, as it is right on the Third Street Promenade, so you can walk on the Promenade before or after dinner. The atmospheric is nice and romantic, and the food is good. I have always found the service there to be fine. The waiters are usually quite helpful, and I have never noticed the service to be unusually slow.

• Pros: Great location, great atmosphere

06/12/08

Great food, great setting

by jenheidir

This pleasant Italian restaurant right on the Promenade serves up authentic and slightly rustic looking pastas, pizzas and a variety of other traditional dishes from the country. I got the penne del cliente: a pasta with chicken, broccoli and mushrooms in an arrabbiata sauce that had just the right degree of heat. The meat in the dish was moist, and it had a generous amount of veggies. My dad?s pizza was prepared traditionally Italian -- thin and very crispy. You can eat in dining room and see the chefs cook in the kitchen or on the patio and people watch.

08/14/07

Good Restaurant

by jm9999

We eat a lot of Italian food so we're picky when it comes to restaurants. This place rates pretty highly for us. The service was prompt and attentive despite being there on an extremely busy Saturday night. The food was excellent, especially the Butternut Squash Risotto with Scallops. Outstanding! Only complaint was because the restaurant was so busy we ended up sitting on wooden folding chairs that were uncomfortable. Definitely make reservations if planning to go here.

• Pros: Good food, prompt service
• Cons: Noisy and somewhat cramped

07/23/07

Great food, very poor service

by serraince

I just dined here with a friend yesterday Sunday 7/22. After walking by this restaurant several times and taking a peek at their menu we decided to give it a try. Your dining experience starts off with delicious warm bread and a very tasty trout spread with walnuts and garlic. My friend and I shared the eggplant appetizer which was really good. I had the spaghetti bolognese as my entree, which was absolutely delicious! The quality of the food is really great, however, the service is quite dissapointing. The staff is EXTREMELY slow and no where to be found. If you are willing to take your time and enjoy a long meal then I would recommend this restaurant.

• Pros: Great menu
• Cons: The wait staff is very slow and no where to be found.

07/18/07

Bad waiter

by cutejayme

I do thing that it takes little to make people dinner happy, especially when the food is good. But unfortunatelly that sould alway be something wrong, like our server. I'am sorry, but iwould never comeback.

06/21/07

Ok, A Little Slow

by laddy2

No one was in the restaurant during the lunch hour (8 other diners?) but it took almost 35 minutes to get served lunch. I ate in 6 minutes. Nice location and European ambience.

• Pros: Location; Ambience
• Cons: Slowish Service

05/01/07

Great dinner experience, excellent for lunch, too

by janebanks

I have been to lunch and dinner at Locanda del Lago several times, the most recent being about a week ago when my husband and I took my parents out for a nice dinner, and it was wonderful. Terrific service, where they really make you feel welcome and are happy to see you come back. They give you a delicious dip with the bread when you sit down, and the food is pretty different from the standard stuff you find at a lot of Italian restaurants. Their menu says they specialize in food from the Lake Como area in Italy, and there is definitely a lot of great fish. There is one dish that they bone and serve at the table. I really LOVED the veal Milanese, and it's enough for almost three people, which is great because many Italian restaurants give you such small portions. We really enjoyed the gnocchi, too, and if you have room, try the calamari to start, because it's delicious, especially the dipping sauces. Their desserts are BEAUTIFUL, with all kinds of great choices besides the usual tiramisu, including great sorbets. Many of the waiters are Italian, and they're really charming, and they go out of their way to make you feel comfortable. It's a great place to feel part of the "scene" on the Promenade but private and special at the same time. One other thing I really recommend when you go there for lunch is the appetizer bar, or buffet, which has a bunch of great dishes that change every so often. It's a great place, lots of fun, great food and really nice service.

• Pros: Great before or after a movie, convenient valet parking right outside
• Cons: None that I can think of, except make reservations early on weekends so you can get one