Ugo - An Italian Cafe

06/17/09

terrible food

by winey1 at Citysearch

I've been here a few times...not by choice..and EVERY single time I've been here the pasta dishes have come out cold. Was there last night, same thing. The service is slow which I guess explains the temperature of the food. Not only that but my date ordered the Rigatoni Bolognese and it was completely tasteless. I like pasta al dente but some of the noodles were just plain hard. I had the chopped salad which was ok. It's not very expensive .. the only redeeming quality.. but really not a good place. So many other places in culver city on the same street. NEVER again

• Pros: house wine was pretty good
• Cons: cold tasteless food, bad service

05/01/09

Skip It

by Hothouseflower at Citysearch

I ordered a filet mignon and it tasted like liver, salted to the nines. It was inedible. The vegetable medley was cooked in a hurry, it seems, with carrots so hard no fork would penetrate, broccoli overdone and asparagus spears not peeled. When the waitress came over to see if all was OK, I told her about the steak, said I would eat the vegetables. She said she would "take care of it." When the bill

came, she had taken off the filet, but charged $7.50 for the vegetables (my husband called this "cheesy"). The dessert was excellent, but that will not compel me to come back. And let me add that the music and noise was deafening. Skip it.

• Pros: Great desserts
• Cons: Overly salted food, badly cooked vegetables

04/12/09

Great Social Spot

by LizzieBinLA at Citysearch

Highly recommend Ugo as a spot for a casual night out where you want more than the typical bar scene. Sit and chat with friends and other customers as you choose different wine to taste. We kept asking the bartender which were the best to try, the staff was so knowledgeable and really went out of their way to make sure we were happy. Go hungry! Ugo has THE BEST CHEESE PIZZA in LA. Their quatro fromage pizza has a sweet soft crust, the perfect amount of cheese and best of all is drizzled with a white truffle infused honey. A-MA-ZING.

• Pros: Best Cheese Pizza in LA, Helpful and friendly staff
• Cons: Noisy

01/22/09

wouldnt go back

by Poeticalmath at Citysearch

This place took forever to seat us, and we waited so long to be seen that we just left and went next door to gyenari's. I recommend you go there......... the service is way better!

10/11/08

Great food!

by lady_s at Citysearch

Ugo is fantastic. I've been twice in the past week. The first time, I had the salmon with pesto; it was delicious! My boyfriend had a chicken dish that was tasty, (although I preferred my fish.) We both had wine with the meal. His Pinot Grigio was delightful as was my red. We shared gelato for dessert.

The second time, I went with a couple of friends. I had the sea bass in a creamy leek sauce. AMAZING. One of my friends had the (meat) lasagna, which was spectacular, and the other person had the rigatoni, which was good, but not great. (The sauce was pretty tasty, though.)

We split the chocolate mousse cake for dessert which was phenomenal. Dark chocolate and a little bitter with the sweet. Perfect.

One thing I noticed- they love asparagus there! It's not a problem for me, (I like asparagus), but for many, many of their entrees, that is their side.

• Pros: great food, reasonable prices
• Cons: it can get pretty busy, and while they have heat lamps... it's still chilly

08/07/08

Great place!

by anne90034 at Citysearch

I love Ugo! I've been a few times recently, the food is always delicious and it's easy to park in the lot on cardiff (2hr free). Both their pastas and salads are excellent, and the gelatos are amazing! I would recommend it to anyone!

07/30/08

Worst meal I've had in years

by HulaGirlK at Citysearch

My husband and I decided to try this after seeing how lovely the location was. Well, that's about all that was nice. First of all, only 3 white wines were available by the glass. When we ordered our preferred wine, we were told it was sold out. Whatever. The wine we ended up with was far from impressive, and not worth what we were charged. The bread was dry and bland. (How do you mess up bread?) My veal piccata had goopy bits of breading on it and was topped with tons of nearly-raw garlic that was nothing short of overpowering. (I've dined at Italian places in Lincoln, Nebraska that had better veal than this place.) My husband's spaghetti bolognese was so watery and bland, he had to add tons of salt and red pepper flakes to give it any flavor -- and that was after the 5 minutes it took to flag down someone to bring us the pepper flakes! Save your money and go elsewhere -- Orso, Brunello Trattoria, Locanda Veneta... Heck, even Olive Garden!

• Pros: Comfortable patio area
• Cons: food

07/06/08

Nice location, bad food

by ajp16 at Citysearch

After many times passing Ugo by to eat at nearby restaurants, my wife and I decided to give in and try the reasonably priced Ugo. The crowd there always seems happy, but from our experience I can't imagine why. I am not a snooty restaurateur, but I feel confident in my cooking and tasting skills (I have cooked fabulously for small parties and for events over sixty people), and so this recommendation is not born of ignorance.

We ordered a spinach salad with strawberries and walnuts that was swimming in a bland dressing with unripe/sour strawberries. We then tried the mozzarella-squash blossom pizzetta. The crust was RAW at the center, the squash blossoms were chopped so small they were unrecognizable, and the slices dripped liquid when you attempted to pick them up. Finally I tried the pesto pasta with clams. The dish was oily, there was no hint of basil in the pesto, and the clams were very old and foul tasting. As we walked away from the restaurant, the after-taste of the bad clams kept getting fouler.

Outside the terrible food, our waitress was congenial but absent most of the time... the entire hour we spent there, our water was refilled once and we had to search out our waitress to get the bill. To top it off, I observed another customer attempting to send back her steak and having to convince the server that it was not cooked properly. No matter how fickle the customer, one should never have to argue with the wait staff about the quality of the food.

In short, the food was inexpensive but lousy, and the wait staff inattentive. Maybe it was a bad night, but we will never go back. You are much better off eating at the other restaurants nearby.

• Pros: Nice location and friendly hostess
• Cons: Terrible food and inattentive service

06/27/08

great ambiance, quick and friendly service, great food

by Greekwino at Citysearch

My boyfriend and I had dinner on a friday night at Ugo. We usually go to the wine bar next door, but passed on Ugo because of the mixed reviews. Well, I must say that we were passing up a great restaurant experience. The location is wonderful! Tons of people watching in downtown Culver City.

Our server was polite and on top of her job. She recommended a fantastic Sauv Blanc to go with my pasta, which was fantastic; I had the linguini with shrimp. The shrimp was fresh and flavorful- not fishy at all. My boyfriend had the salmon, which was cooked perfectly with fresh and delicious vegetables. Our dinner arrived at our table in no time at all. I recommend Ugo to anyone who likes light Italian cuisine. Oh, and to the reviewer who thought the portion sizes were too small...Ugo's portion sizes are healthy. Any more food and I would have been stuffed.

• Pros: Great outdoor seating, wide food selection, free parking, decent price

06/23/08

so-so food, bad service, overpriced

by druissa at Citysearch

The portions of pasta were small and overpriced. Our waiter was nice enough, but the rest of the staff seemed intent on clearing our plates before we were finished, trying to turn the table over. I had the rigatoni pesto and added chicken. They forgot the chicken, and I reminded them. When the dish came back they had just thrown the chicken on top, without bothering to mix it in. I felt like I was eating at a cafeteria. What's more, fumes from the sewer were wafting over our outside table. The food was bland at best, and a couple hours later we had stomach aches, not sure why. I say avoid this place. But the gelato is great! Go for dessert, and INSIST they recycle those plastic dishes they put ice cream in. They just throw them out! and you can easily recycle those. Makes no sense at all. What a load of garbage they make.