La Bottega Marino

10/14/09

Beware of Delivery

by Anonymous1443 at Citysearch

This is LA people. We have a tons of delivery options; great food, good service, reasonable prices. Before you waste your money, read this review. As someone that orders take out far more than they should, I can honestly say I've never thrown out a menu promptly upon first delivery. First, make sure you call the proper outlet. Apparently the West LA restaurant does not extend to La Cienega?? This is considered Larchmont territory ie. expect your food to take longer. An hour and a half in my case. Also, expect them to call and make adjustments to your order as they seemed to be out of everything. Finally, the menu does not list it, but there IS a delivery fee of $5.00 if you're outside of their normal area. Understandable, but didn't THEY redirected a West Hollywood resident to Larchmont?? So?? Regardless, a tuna salad and fried circle of mozzarella cost $30.00. Good luck on this one and don't say no one warned you.

• Pros: At least the food was edible
• Cons: Too many to keep the menu

03/09/09

Italy on larchmont

by CSMobileUser at Citysearch

I have eaten and lived in the italian restaurant capital of the US--New York...finally an LA trattoria owned and operated by real italians...great food ,reasonable prices and the quaint ambience of larchmont makes this eatery a perfect date spot

01/28/09

salads and lattes + a cute bus boy= La Bottega..

by coughEqueen at Citysearch

I love Larchmont Village, specially during the Christmas season of 08', when i saw a cutie bus boy outside La Bottega Restaurant. I went and sat outside with the romantic candles and ordered a nice fresh crunchy chicken salad. I'm a salad lover and let me tell you that their salads are not bad at all. But the latte that the cute friendly bus boy prepared for me was even better than the one at Starbucks across the street.

07/30/08

Yummy food, cozy ambiance, friendly service

by doll83 at Citysearch

I had breakfast at this cozy Italian eatery on a sunny Saturday morning . Larchmont Blvd was already busy, filled with families and Farmers Market shoppers. The breakfast menu featured assorted Italian specialties, like polenta pancake, eggs on a saffron risotto pancake, parma prosciutto and homemade ciabatta, various omelets and also international dishes like French toast, Belgian waffles, huevos rancheros and breakfast burritos. I went for French toast strewed with powder sugar and fresh fruits (Bananas and Strawberries) alongside. The wheat toast was very fluffy and tender, lightly fried and bathed in egg wash. My friend settled for the polenta Pancake with fried eggs. The service was friendly, refilling our glasses every now and then and reassuring if everything was fine. This is a tiny eatery, looking modest from the outside but affording fine cuisine.

• Pros: Food, ambience, service, kid friendly, prices
• Cons: Restroom is located in the restaurant's kitchen

Classic Italian deli and mini-chain for taking out or noshing in.

by Kim Cooper at Citysearch

This tiny Larchmont Italian outpost is well-suited for tasty takeout or casual dining. The menu includes starters such as caprese salad of fresh buffalo mozzarella rounds and tomatoes. Homemade artichoke ravioli, chicken piccata emboldened by lemon-zinged green sauce, and three-mushroom pizza--with shiitake, porcini and button fungi--are hearty entrees. The desserts include a popular tiramisu and an apple tart.

03/22/08

pretty good food - but don't expect them to like you

by ryandobs at Citysearch

So about a month ago my wife and I walked down to Bottega - we'd never been before and wanted to try a breakfast place that's close by. The front door was open and we walked in; but before we'd made it 2 steps in, a man shouted at us from the back "We're not open yet!" .... not "Oh sorry, we're not quite open just yet." Or, "The kitchen hasn't opened yet, but if you want to sit for a few minutes and wait, we'll be happy to serve you"... more of a "get-out" vibe. But whatever, I try not to judge too quickly.

<p>

SO today we went back. We were seated and immediatly realized that the table next to us was having a fight with the manager. Something about how long everything took - he was less than gracious and offered to comp their Orange Juices. WOW - that's customer service. After those people left, the manager was talking to the waitress about them right in the middle of the restaurant; we heard everything. And then a man walked in and said, "Hi can you seat 6?" to which the manager replied, "Does it look like I can seat 6? No."

<p>

Ok - summary: Our food was pretty good. Our waitress was fine - not rude, but not making any special effort. So if you just want to eat - Bottega is great! However, if you want to give your money to a place that gives a cr@p... this isn't the restaurant for you.

• Pros: Larchmont - that's a plus all by itself
• Cons: They don't like their customers

07/01/07

unique, fun, reasonably priced, perfect portions, delicious!

by uglygirl88 at Citysearch

I am frankly shocked by a couple of the reviews of La Bottega-- it seems some have no concept of casual dining (which is what La Bottega does better than any other) or any sense of how a restaurant actually works for that matter! every time i have eaten there (which is many many many times) it feels like I'm diving headfirst into my eclectic neighborhood hangout where it is not uncommon to see at any given table/time locals, young business types, immigrated Italians who fancy the authenticity, teens in need of a fast sugar rush (LA Bottega hands down has the best cookies in the city, ask for the "florentine" or "nutella" cookies, or a piece of their Belgian chocolate Mousse cake... it's absolutely crazy.) hop in and try a delicious cappuccino or espresso, or their soft, fresh-baked daily bread and marinated tomatoes! (By the way one reviewer mentioned they didnt get bread that was SUPPOSED to be brought out upon arriving-- I have worked in restaurants and know that many placed wait to bring bread out until after customer has ordered incase the CUSTOMER WANTS HIS OWN APPETIZER. Bottega is this way, if you want bread ask and you shall receive, but many regulars there do not care for it because the portion sizes are so big to begin with! Some of my favorites at La Bottega are the Linguine Bottega, Gnocci, all soups are good (you can share them because the bowls are enormous)... the sandwiches are all great especially the one with cured filet minion. As far as service I am always met with cordial care and respect! If you visit the restaurant you should really get to know the staff, they are from all over the place it seems! One review mentioned that she was ignored while the owner chatted, without appreciating the fact the owner sincerely LOVES to talk with customers at the drop of a hat! Remeber that these are human beings long before and long after they?ll be a restaurateur! What's the point in becoming irate over food!? Bottom line, check La Bottega out!!

06/19/07

We thought we were being punk'd!!!

by unclebri at Citysearch

Hands down- my worst experience in a restaurant to date. My boyfriend and I stopped in for a quick lunch and began the experience by seating ourselves, then retrieving our own menus 5 minutes later after still not being acknowledged. There were only two tables in the restaurant, yet we still had to leave our table to walk over to the server and place our order. Ten minutes later he had the busboy drop off waters without asking if we wanted anything else to drink. Another 5 minutes went by (we'd been there now a total of 20), and we finally had to ask the owner for the bread that each table is supposed to receive immediately upon being seated. After another 15 or 20 minutes, the kitchen placed our food in the window and rang the bell, which we heard from across the restaurant. My boyfriend and I watched in complete disbelief as for the next 6 minutes, the owner stood right next to our food chatting with the manager and some woman who ordered take-out, and our server stood in the corner counting his money. Eventually we had to ask them to bring us our food. The server never came by our table after that, and when we asked for a box and the check, he walked away from us and went back to counting his money. We asked a second time, and he brought us the check. We asked a third time for our box, and he took my food and gave it to the kitchen to wrap up. When they rang the bell and set my box in the window, we eventually had to go get it ourselves. To sum up our experience at La Bottega Marino we seriously began looking around the room for cameras thinking we must be on MTV's Boiling Points. The food wasn't bad but it was nowhere near good enough to compensate for the careless wait staff and snobby managers. Please take our advice and stay clear.

• Pros: decent food
• Cons: careless managers and horrible, slow service

09/19/06

Avoid lunch and weekends.

by dinnerguy47 at Citysearch

La Bottega Marino was an excellent choice for a quick bite to eat before the spring of this year. At that time busboy service was removed from the dinner schedule and the once timely service screeched to a halt. The familiar service staff gone and replaced with rude servers had many of us looking for an alternative for our lunchtime and evening meals.

Seeing a recent reinstatement of busboy service, my friends and I ventured to Bottega again. The busboy service returned, it still has not remedied the underlying problems from in the spring. The service has remained slow and the food that was once a favorite is now deemed at best inconsistent. The exception of one or two servers and a weekday evening manager/host has not elevated this establishment to the level that it was before this spring.

I would not recommend Bottega for lunch or a Friday or Saturday night meal. The service is measurably slower than during the week and you would be fortunate to get back to work or to an evening event on time.

If you want good customer service introduce yourself to the manager/host Bryan. I ordered takeout from Bottega twice a week for many months and he distinguished my voice when I called in and greeted me by name when I came to pick it up. As a party of four that still dine at Bottega every Sunday night we know that Bryan will make sure that we are well taken care of.

If you want delivery ask about the delivery charges. Take out is more affordable with some areas now being $7.

• Pros: A neighborhood hangout that has friendly patrons that you recognize each time you visit.
• Cons: Slow service.

05/26/06

Slow unless you're a B-list star

by oliveirt at Citysearch

Once we went and it was fine - good food, good service, etc. Then once we went and it was not so fine. It took almost an hour to get our food, and we watched as an actor from "Sex and the City" arrived 20 minutes after we were seated, ordered, ate his food, paid, and left, before we finally got ours. And that was about 10 minutes after he had left already. They weren't even apologetic about it. They had a bit of an attitude. Dude - this place ain't Mr. Chow's and this guy ain't A-list. Not that that should be acceptable under those circumstances, but this was just ridiculous.