CAPO - Santa Ana

I would say it’s one of the best Italian restaurants in Santa Monica, but it does have some issues. It’s really small and intimate on the inside, you feel like you are eating in someone’s house. It reminds me of a few restaurants that I ate in when I was in Italy last so it had a very authentic feel to me. I am also half Italian so I feel I know good and bad Italian food. The issue we had is that a lot of the items are overpriced. For example steak tartare is $48 and a simple grilled Branzino is $85. For these prices we all felt the food wasn’t special enough to justify the prices. They don’t have a parking lot but metered street parking is easy to find or your other best option would be their valet for $15. Our server was very polite and all of our items came out very quickly. They were a bit slow on the drink refills, but aside from that everything else was very fast. I started off with the Filet Mignon Tartare and it was very good, although it didn’t have any spice to it so wish it had some mustard or horseradish to it because it felt a little dry to me. Also expensive for $48 which I don’t understand, but I did enjoy it. For my entree I chose the Bucatini with Lamb Ragu and it was fantastic. The portion was a bit small but it had really great and deep flavors. After I finished with the Chocolate Soufflé and it was A+. I truly loved it and would highly recommend ordering it. Overall a nice dinner in a beautiful location although it is overpriced. I would recommend but the price points are really strange.

This is a tough critique to write because the management staff were very courteous, and worked me in to an otherwise busy Wednesday night. Still, wait for service was long and I was extremely disappointed with the pasta, which was average at best, but came highly recommended. Not only was it, “just OK”, but it came with an undisclosed price tag of approximately $250. I had read the reviews and was prepared to pay $150 pp. Here’s the thing: they told us their portions were very large [not true] so we decided to split that pasta. For 1 truffle pasta, 2 glasses of wine, and 1 dessert, including tax and tip, our total was $450! You can get bigger servings, with more truffle, for half the cost, and still enjoy a legit Italian restaurant experience, at Locanda Positano. Chocolate lava cake, cream ice cream, was very good. Wine was as well. Good thing or I would have rated two stars.

Food was phenomenal! Our waiter Rob made the evening! Best birthday dinner!

This is, was I told, the best Italian in town. So we went. Very much focused on wood fire grilled meat and seafood. It was simply amazing. Every taste subtly comes alive in the pallate. Winner was Vitello Costellato. The wine list is expansive and expensive. This is not a cheap eat but worth it.

A nook and cranny in Santa Monica along the shoreline close enough to feel the sea mist and hear the waves crashing about the sand. A bewilderment of fire glazes the meat to a melting pot, melt in your mouth sensation warming guests hearts in the tiny room all the while accentuating the priceless artwork draped around the walls and windowsills. It’s more or less a hole-in-the-wall as far as restaurants go. Make no mistake about it though; the ratatouille had me in tears when I left. I could taste every aspect of the seasoning and it made me daydream about what they could be {thyme, oregano, fresh basil, marjoram, Himalayan salt, fresh ground pepper, so on and so forth} The people were decked out in fancy attire. The conversations elevated the mood into an invigorating atmosphere in close-quarters-is the menu item recommended, does it trouble you to serve two helpings of the dish, can the cuisine be prepared at a certain temperature with precise attention to crisping the edges? At the end of the day eye-catching silhouettes created a mesmerizing realm to find elements of the menu that jumped off the page to land in perfectly rationed fine dinnerware. A prime example of that was the crab cake. It was so crunchy on the perimeter yet buttery, soft, sweet, and zesty within each bite. It was a picture perfect segway and transition for the pasta. I ate every morsel as fast as possible and left abruptly as the dessert was being served. I wanted to make sure I tipped and excused myself for two reasons. I negotiated my way into a bar stool to accompany the patrons with a meal without a prior reservation. Also, I was so pleasantly satisfied with the meal that was outlined in the aforementioned menu. Furthermore, I had run a small tab, because I did not order any of the gem quality wines to taste. Rather, I had ginger soda and I desired to exit as whimsically as I had entered with the contingent notion that I would allow enough time for the scheduled party to take my place. All-in-all this Italian wrinkle in time gave me goosebumps.