La Bella Cucina - Anyone know this place?

Has anyone ever been here? It's on Figueroa between 9th/Olympic.

Any comments will be appreciated.

[torta basilica]

Update Please - taking 2 17 year olds to John Mayer tonight. Do we need reservations? What time would you get there for a 8:15 concert? Can you park and leave car there, or better to park at Olympic Blvd. parking structure & walk there & on to the concert?

[torta basilica]

Well, we went. In their defense, there was the John Mayer concert (which was incredible!!) and a Kings game at Staples and it was very busy. However, they should know enough to be prepared. We were seated fairly quickly and the menu board with no descriptions brought after a bit of a wait. Then we waited... and waited... and I admit because we had just an hour to eat and get to the concert, were a little stressed. I asked for the wine list - full bar, but only house wine. Period. Our poor waiter had the entire front section - I believe there were only 2 waiters for the entire restaurant. I had the Caprese salad - my mistake to order anything with tomatoes in December. The Fungi/Roasted Onion soup was ok - it wasn't all that hot, but not as great as I had hoped for. With two teens, they ordered Minestrone, which actually looked good & was pronounced very good, and a Caesar that looked good. Other teen had the spaghetti Pollo, which was a mushy mess. I'm sure they're better things to order, but think of this as a fast (but slow) food Italian. The bread was hot & good, but no olive oil, butter - we had to request. The bathroom was FILTHY. Our waiter tried his best and the bus boys were friendly - they comped me a glass of wine for our wait, but I don't think it was any longer than anyone else's. In spite of all this, I'd go back to try some more adventurous things... maybe... if not pressed for time before a concert.

[Local]

Wow- TB, - deja vu...i had nearly the identical experience with both service and food with my SO, before seeing the Eagles at Staples a year ago. We even had made a reservation, arrived with almost no one there, thinking we were silly to make the res. Wait for drinks -15 minutes; food at least 45...ridiculous and our food was mediocre at best. Wouldn't chance going back and if I'd read your post I would have shared this...(before, btw also heading to Nokia - grrreaattt concert!!!) imho this place falls short of being Bella...more like Purgatorio...

[ptextrem]

yes, i have. I just moved to downtown La. I was trying all the places local to my market lofts. so i stumbled appon it next to LA LIVE and STaples center. I went in it was nice and modern. Staff greeted me and showed me to my table. I started off with a glass of white wine. Nice soft sweet but not to sharp. I was brought fresh baked bread. and olive oil and vinger provided. tasty.... Then i order the Tricolore salad. Amazing gorgonzola cheese.... hmmmm nice ridicchio, and nice portions of salad.. lite dressing no really Heavy dressing to kill the salad. Then for dinner i had the Speciale Pizza.. It was amazing. I have eaten my fare share of Pizza and this was good. It remided me of NY style pizza. I dont know what it was but I had a feeling it was the cheese. I think it was Grande. Very strechy cheese, perfect not too much sauce. artichoke, olives, and the most perfect sundried tomatoes i have tasted in a while.

Overall i gave the place my final score:
1-5 Scale ( 5 best, 1 poor)

Service: 4
Menu:4
Taste:5
Presentation:3
Price: 4 (moderate not to expensive but not cheap and under a heat lamp)

Notes: I will probably try again on SAT, I really want to try the Linguine vongole

Over all a great place i would go back to again!

Peter ( New Market Loft Resident)

[Neta]

The linguine vongole is very good. When I used to work downtown, it was one of our destination places because we could walk to it. The penne arrabiata was another favorite. Good spice. For the prices, it's worth the trek.

I like their pizza. If you like Middle Eastern, you might try next door at the Figueroa Hotel. Not bad.

I work 2 blocks away so I have eaten there a few times for lunch, but I would not recommend it. It's just average.

Thanks for the info. We're going to the Shrine at 8:00 Friday night, any other recommendations in the area without going into the heart of downtown?

Zita is better (and pricier) than Bella Cucina. It's still ont he edge of downtown, about a block from Bella Cucina. The service can also be excrutiatingly slow, but I really like the rigatoni ai tre funghi.

Link: http://www.zitala.com