Terroni
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Phone: (323) 954-0300
05/14/2008 Posted by cmwrites
We just moved from NYC eager to find great, casual, cool restaurants to call our own. Terroni wins with us: 1. No reservations. We don't like to plan. 2. It's family friendly. Our 2 y/o loves to eat out. You can order a kid's portion of pasta but I prefer not to. Sometimes kids portions are overcooked. 3. Great wine list 4. Friendly staff. Servers are not always the best, but nice about it. Also, Francesca, an owner's wife, served us many times & is wonderful. But... while we ate at Terroni *at least* once-a-week for a long time, we're starting to find some of the "rules" reviewed here a bit bothersome. We *get* the concept of a chef standing by his food. My husband is a vegetarian, so we're used to hearing "no changes." That's OK. My issue with Terroni? Consistency. I've had great meals, but I've also had overcooked/under-seasoned pasta, greasy pizza & un/underdressed salads/apps. So, when I asked our server for cheese for my under-flavored pasta w/shrimp and she said: no, the chef doesn’t recommend it because it’s supposed to be healthy, I had enough. I assume I'd really broken the no cheese with fish rule, but, get it right! Then, give a girl some cheese! Snobbery could be excused with near perfection, but we've had issues. Recently our pizza special with fontina, zucchini & mint came sans mint– key to the dish. It was fixed, but we dreaded calling attention to it after cheese-gate! And one server shared with us that a customer of hers was served Spaghetti Limón sans lemon. Err? Not perfect. Order the Bufalina or Marinara for a great crispy crust pizza. I love the Bolognese pasta, rigatoni w/ mozzarella & cherry tomatoes, Spaghetti Limón, & shrimp/asparagus/mint pasta. For me, specials are hit/miss; but, I can’t stop thinking about the fried rice cones and wild boar lasagna. P.S.-We heard about a new list of things that can be changed. We couldn't look at it, but FYI, one of them is NOT the nearly identical pizza served at Pizzeria Mozza sans meat. Argh.
Pros: atmosphere, wine list, family friendly, valet, mostly great food
Cons: inconsistency and a bit of snobbery that can make even regulars grow tired
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