02/25/09

Wonderful Evening

by frmlasmitty

Beautiful place. We ate on the patio. It is romatically lit and comfortable. The food is extrordinary! I had the lobster tortelini and it was so delicious and tasty I ordered an additional one to go. Exceptional service, from host to waiter to bus boy. Very well priced, our whole meal was $70. I highly recommend and will be back soon.

• Pros: Food, Service, Ambiance
• Cons: Valet is a bit pricey considering your car is 10 feet from the back door

11/05/08

Best Italian food!

by wingwaves

This is a fantastic Italian restaurant, a oasis and paradise of excellent service, beautiful warm people, a real treat for your pallet and for your eyes.

Very romantic gives you the feeling of being in some enchanted place in Italy!

A great place for business, romantic dates and parties.

I love specially the "Shrimp Margarita", a secret recipe that the owner brought from "Santa Margarita"

he says; "My favorite place in the world".

• Pros: Thumbs up in ambiance and food
• Cons: none

06/26/08

One of my all-time favorite places in LA

by spambanana7

We have been enjoying Pane e Vino for several years now, and I can't believe I have never written a review of the place! This place is family in the truest sense. The hostess, Natalee, has been there for years, and she always remembers us and the table we like. The owner is there every night, along with bartenders and servers that we have also been seeing for years. You don't find that kind of warmth and loyalty in many places, especially in LA.

The food is always dependable (pizza margherita for the kids) and sometimes spectacular (shrimp with honey, curry, and brandy; the Linguine & shellfish cooked w/a pizza crust over the top). Really good place to find something for everyone from picky eaters (they always make a little pasta with just butter and parmesan cheese for my son) to more grown-up fare ( Seabass & ribeye steak).

Admittedly, the garden gets packed sometimes; it's a bistro, not a velvet-rope kind of place . Don't look for a quiet table for 2 in the garden at 8:00 on a Saturday night though; it doesn't exist. But what you will get is an energetic, bustling spot that is great for people watching (we've seen Halle Berry, Craig Ferguson, Cheri Oteri, Billy D Williams). If that is not your thing, the dining room inside is quieter. Or, we usually have the patio to ourselves when we go at 5:00 or 6:00 on a weeknight.

This is a place you stumble onto and it's full of guests that have been coming here for years. We've actually made a few friends simply from being at Pane e Vino. We've met couples that married here, seen families grow, careers develop; that kind of atmosphere can't be forced, it just happens.

Pane e Vino is a warm and welcoming place, not a cold and calculated fine-dining experience. I highly reccommend Pane e Vino to anyone who is looking for a break from the LA "scene."

• Pros: atmosphere, staff, garden

06/18/08

not the service we expect for upper-price italiens

by xenawill1

We did a reservation for 6 people and a stroller(!), and as we like to come there several times before we did it a couple of days before, as the space outside is limited. The lady offered us a table in the gangway, with no space for any stroller and very uncomfortable because of gangways on both sides, even the restaurant was complete empty. The lady, who is seating the people, was not very happy about that we did not like to sit there, and it seem to be too much for her to organize an other table for us. The rest of the evening she was always waiting for us to go, it seems they like just guests who finish within 30 minutes!

As the prices are in upper class region we also expect upper class service. But this is not what you can expect here.

01/03/08

Great place for a date

by ohmygodshoes08

I went here on a first date and it was a great experience. The prices are a bit expensive for Italian, but the food does not disappoint. You must try the pasta with dandelion greens and sage. It's so good I find it hard to try something new each time I go back. The bartender makes the best mojitos I've ever had. Make reservations because it's usually pretty full.

• Cons: parking, limited patio seating

12/04/07

great food/embarassing service

by monkeyboy8

i'll preface my story of the experience by saying that the management and other members of the staff at pane e vino were excellent and more than compensated us to make up for the bad service, but man what a difference one bad waitress can make. in addition, this was some of the best italian food i've ever had!

when we arrived the waitress came over to our table to ask if we wanted something to drink before we'd even had a chance to check out the wine menu. we politely informed her that we needed a chance to look at the menu, but that we'd be interested in ordering something soon. it was a good 20-30 minutes before she bothered to come back over and check on us. when she did, we had to tell her we were ready to order our appetizers and dinner as well as our wine. who wouldn't be at that point? our wine came out quickly, but the food took awhile. i am used to that in nicer restaurants so didn't really think much of it. but once our food came, the waitress literally stopped checking on us. meanwhile, a large table not too far from us received royal treatment from this very same waitress the entire evening. pretty obvious she paid more attention to them and all but forgot about us since it wasn't going to be as big of a tab for her, so good service to the smaller table was clearly not a priority for her. when she finally showed up, i ordered a second glass of wine. a good 20 minutes later, she came back over and said, "oh, i forgot", so i cancelled the order. she again vanished to go take care of the big table and ignore us. for dessert, we had to order from the busboy who promptly put in our order despite our waitress telling us after we'd placed it with him, he couldn't do it. how embarassing for her when it showed up at that moment. mgmt apologized for her and comp'd some items on our tab, which was very generous---but, be forewarned, if you're not part of a large party in this restaurant, there's a chance you're going to get extraordinarily bad service. too bad.

10/15/07

Excellent food, service and atmospher.

by srsw

My husband and I sat on the lovely patio Saturday and enjoyed the most amazing food. First we had an appetizer that was shrimp, sauteed in curry brandy and maple, it was served with grilled polenta. We had to use our bread to soak up the left over sauce it was so good. Then came the Piedmontes Steak ( I probably spelled that wrong) it was carved and served tableside. More food than we could consume, but could not stop eating. It was tender, and cooked perfectly. The side dishes were amazing too. Tuscan beans, fresh vegetables, not overcooked, and red potatoes with onions. They even suggested a fabulous wine to go with our meal. It too was perfect. For dessert we shared a flourless belgium chocolate cake. To die for... We also saw some local Actors, that seemed to be quite at home. It was a difinite go back to place.... I do suggest reservations. We were lucky to get a table without one, but waited about 40 mins. because we wanted the patio. Not to pricy either. Worth every pennie

07/27/07

Nice place with simple but excellent food. The Patio is great as well as the booths inside.

by sylvanhills

I have been here 3 times and everytime the food and service is good. If your looking for good Italian food and some nice Barolo, Brunello or some obscure wine, this is the place. The service is fine and the prices are great considering what good Italian cost these days. The half chicken is great to share, the squid ink risotto was tasty. The desserts are a big size, so maybe share. These is a great place to relax, enjoy and have some great food. Ciao

• Pros: price, portion size, patio dining
• Cons: servers can be a bit overwelmed at time.

03/26/07

Great Food, Great Patio, Super Cool Owner(Rod Dyer)

by ziaeshanzada

Great Steak, excellent rivioli, great pizza, delicious sea food and fried calamari (forget about, too good).

People who think Olive Garden is Italian, please don't go here. Because Pan e Vino serves REAL Italian food. Rod Dyer(owner) is a geat guy too and very nice hospitable host. Out of towners, you may see some of your favourite Hollywood movie relaxing in the patio area.Go there.

p.s. Great terimisu.

• Pros: Food, Ambience, Service, management
• Cons: ummmmmmmm?

02/25/07

Great Service, Great Food

by jrollins

I kept hearing about this place from coworkers and finally decided to try it out. The Outdoor Patio is gorgeous, but we are non-smokers so chose to sit indoors (i'm allergic to smoke). I was sort of dissapointed until our server came around. I can't remember her name unfortunatley, it was a foreign name. She was young and beautiful, energetic, and had a very bright and REAL smile. Not like those fake smiles you get at so many restraunts in LA. She made our meal fun and fabulous, was pretty knowledgeable about wines and very knowledgable about the food. She reccomended us an appetizer, and it was so amazing that we asked her choose out the rest of our meal for us and everything she got for us was delicious. She made us feel like we were the only table in the whole restraunt (and it was a pretty busy night). The busboys were good too, refilling our waters and bringing us more bread. The food was great, came out in a very well timed manner, and the owner was even there so that we could thank him personally for our fantastic evening. We are definatley coming back and requesting our favorite server.

• Pros: Service, food, energy
• Cons: smoking patio